3 charged in Poland for hanging gay flags off public statues

Three people accused of hanging LGBT rainbow flags off statues in Warsaw have been arrested and charged.

Polish police charged them with desecrating monuments and offending religious feelings.

Activists protesting against the anti-LGBT policies of President Andrzej Duda hung the flags off statues of Jesus Christ, the astronomer Copernicus and the Warsaw mermaid.

They also dressed them in pink face masks bearing the anarcho-queer symbol.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki denounced the activists, saying the statues symbolise values that are important to millions of Poles.

However, activists who were part of the demonstrations said they were protesting against the homophobic ideology of governing officials.

Prosecutors must now decide whether to bring the case to court.

In Poland, the crime of offending religious feelings is punishable by a fine or up to two years in prison.

What has Duda said about LGBT rights?

President Duda, an ally of the ruling nationalist Law and Justice Party (PiS), is being sworn in for his second term in office on Thursday.

He was re-elected on 13 July, narrowly beating challenger Rafal Trzaskowski. It was Poland's slimmest presidential election victory since the end of communism in 1989.

During his campaign earlier this year, he proposed incorporating a ban on same-sex marriage and adoption into Poland's constitution.

Mr Duda and his government have also frequently used inflammatory, homophobic language against the LGBT community.

During the presidential campaign, for example, Mr Duda said the LGBT movement is "more destructive" than communism.

He also accused the community of trying to "force" LGBT rights on the nation.

Poland does not currently recognise same-sex unions - whether those are marriages or civil unions. Same-sex couples are also legally banned from adopting children.

Last month, the EU said it would deny funding to six Polish towns that declared themselves "LGBT-free zones". Helena Dalli, the EU's commissioner for equality, tweeted: "EU values and fundamental rights must be respected by Member States and state authorities."

Separately, Poland also announced last month that it was withdrawing from a European treaty aimed at preventing violence against women.

Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said the treaty, known as the Istanbul Convention, was "harmful" because it required schools to teach children about gender.

The EU really needs to put their foot down on this one and withdraw all funding from Poland till they get their **** together.

Indeed, then again, if they let the emerging dictatorship in Hungary go with a free pass i'm not overly hopeful Poland is going to have any attention paid to it.

Only seems mildly vindictive by the authorities there. I'm fairly sure there being more serious criminals out there than a couple of flag drapers..


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53673411

The EU really needs to put their foot down on this one and withdraw all funding from Poland till they get their **** together.

Democracy strikes again!
These fools have overwhelming support from their foolish voters, statistically the oldest, with the lowest education in the country, and more often than other living outside towns.



Probably they should, but it will reinforce the Siege mentality, the ruling party heavily relies on.


I'm personally ashamed of my country. It was once the vanguarde of Europe, one of the first working multicultural societies (if not the first and only in modern Europe), only a few know one of the elder modern works on civil toleration, and the first treaty for atheism come from there. And it has fallen so low to persecute people for something like this.

Next to the Polish tax system, this is probably the main reason why 130 thousand people run away from the country every year, and the number keeps increasing.

A resident of Poland has written an interesting article that might help shed some light on these issues in Poland.

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-current-Polish-government-persecuting-homosexuals/answer/Lidia-Fedorska?__filter__=all&__nsrc__=1&__sncid__=6958277775&__snid3__=10572222472

Her name is Lidia Fedorska.

Often, you cannot rely on outlets like the BBC for a complete unbiased picture of events particularly where these events are politically charged in sexuality or gender. They do not tell you the entire story. They sell you a very biased, incomplete story that serves a specific narrative.

You mean like this article you just posted? Given that it is clearly biased as well..

A resident of Poland has written an interesting article that might help shed some light on these issues in Poland.

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-current-Polish-government-persecuting-homosexuals/answer/Lidia-Fedorska?__filter__=all&__nsrc__=1&__sncid__=6958277775&__snid3__=10572222472

Her name is Lidia Fedorska.

Often, you cannot rely on outlets like the BBC for a complete unbiased picture of events particularly where these events are politically charged in sexuality or gender. They do not tell you the entire story. They sell you a very biased, incomplete story that serves a specific narrative.

You mean like this article you just posted? Given that it is clearly biased as well..

I can actually confirm this article is the most accurate description of what's happening so far.

My point was, accuracy aside, it is still eo ipso biased - there being no such thing as unbiased.

Not relevant in this discussion.

And knowing what's happening in the country, probably better than any of you, I can tell it's just as objective as human can be.

Err it's pretty relevent given the post was an attack on supposed bias
You'll forgive me for doubting that claim.

My post was not an attack on bias. That was just the one word in my comment that you chose to make your entire focus whilst conveniently ignoring all the other matters that I raised.

The BBC claimed that the individuals to whom you referred in this thread were arrested for hanging flags when they were actually arrested for attacking and physically assaulting an anti abortion activist....all caught on video*!!!! which clearly shows that the BBC was lying in its article.... You conveniently ignored all of this and went off on your own tangent, focusing on the philosophies of bias, which proves and/or disproves nothing.

These people, not very much unlike their counterparts and comrades in Western Europe, the BLM, Antifa and other extremist marxist, communist, feminist, anarchist groups, are prone to authoritarian tactics that often manifest themselves in the form of violence, which many times has since the inception of these draconian ideologies gone so far murder, terrorism and genocide against all those who disagree with them. They impose their ways on others in society by force and anyone that dares oppose them is punished by them. What the police did here is a perfectly justified response to their violence.

*Video of the assault for which these people were arrested...not for their sexuality and not for hanging flags as the BBC claimed.

Convenient because it had nothing to do with the point i was making. I have not claimed the BBC is impartial, merely that it is rather amusing you attack a source for being biased and then proceed to give an equally, if not more, biased source from quora of all places.

I feel obliged to iterate the point that i am hardly siding with either the government or the protesters/criminals (delete as you will) merely making the point that as a general rule of thumb the BBC can be trusted infinitely more than a stranger on quora or, heaven forbid, a government commissar.

The BBC lied in their article. Their bias rendered their article invalid. Bias is therefore relevant to their article.
The article that I linked was not biased. It merely exposed the lie that the BBC had made in this story. This is perfectly reasonable. Nothing stated in the article that I linked was invalid. Bias is therefore not relevant to my Quora article.



Clearly your trust in the BBC was misplaced as it led you to buy into a lie.