MEP Fights Bigotry in Warsaw

From an article on 365gay.com:

”About 2,000 gays and their supporters marched through central Warsaw on Saturday in the first legally sanctioned Pride parade in the Polish capital. The marchers were guarded by almost as many police with more than a thousand skinheads and ultra-nationalists lining the route throwing eggs and bottles. The heavy police cordon prevented the mob from rushing the marchers and police reported few arrests. At the head of the parade in a show of solidarity with Polish LGBT leaders was Claudia Roth, the leader of Germany’s Green Party.

The city earlier this month gave its official approval for the parade. In 2004 and 2003 then Warsaw mayor Lech Kaczynski refused to grant permission for a gay pride parade in the capital. (story) Nevertheless, more than 2,500 people ignored the order and marched anyway. (story) Kaczynski is now president of Poland. Gay rights groups say they’ve suffered even more of a setback since the election victory last fall of his conservative Law and Justice party which regularly denounces homosexuality. A new coalition formed last month has also raised concerns because it includes a right-wing party, League of Polish Families. Wojciech Wierzejski, a leading member of the LPF, in a letter to Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro and Interior Minister Ludwik Dorn called for a criminal investigation into the ’illegal sources of financing’ of Polish gay groups. Gays are under attack in most former Soviet states. Last month police broke up a Pride march in Moscow. (story)”

One of those who marched in support of gay rights in Warsaw yesterday was the Swedish MEP Christofer Fjellner, whom you can see on the picture above. He is a member of the Moderate Party and the man I voted for in the latest election to the European Parliament. By travelling to Poland and join the demonised demonstrators, Mr Fjellner has shown that his libertarian ideal has not been smothered by the many homophobes in the conservative parliamentarian group EPP-ED. With more people like him, it will be easier for many liberal and conservative gays and lesbians to vote for parties of the political right.