Thousands rally for gay rights in Poland
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-06-12 09:40

More than 2,000 people defied a ban on a gay-rights rally in Poland's capital, taking to the streets of Warsaw on Saturday against the orders of the city's conservative mayor.

Gays, lesbians and their supporters carrying banners with slogans including "A gay is not a pedophile" and "Law and justice for all" rallied near parliament and marched to the Palace of Culture, a Stalinist landmark. It was the second year Warsaw's mayor, Lech Kaczynski. had banned the gathering.

Gay rights supporter wears a multicolor flag during a gay parade in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, June 11, 2005. More than 2,000 gay-rights supporters took to the streets of Warsaw Saturday in defiance of the city's conservative mayor, who banned the gathering for a second straight year. Gays, lesbians and their supporters carrying banners with slogans including 'A gay is not a pedophile' and 'Law and justice for all' rallied near parliament and marched to the Stalinist landmark Palace of Culture. [AP]

Police detained more than 10 right-wing opponents of the gathering, which they said drew about 2,500 people, but made no attempt to break up the event.

Organizers said they wanted to highlight the problems facing homosexuals in this predominantly Roman Catholic country and to press for the legal right of assembly.

"Homosexuals in Poland are still treated as deviants, pedophiles," said Paulina Pilch, a 31-year-old lawyer among those demonstrating. "Such demonstrations are needed so people get to know us better and get used to us."

Politicians from liberal Polish parties and lawmakers from several other European nations also came to show support.

"Mayor Kaczynski, democracy also means freedom of assembly and expression for gays and lesbians," Claudia Roth, a leader of Germany's left-leaning Greens party, told the crowd.

Some 200 opponents of the rally, including young supporters of the nationalist Polish Families League, threw eggs and stones at marchers and shouted anti-gay slogans.

Maciej Kalinowski, a 20-year old medical student, said he was against open proclamations of homosexuality.

"Let them do it in the privacy of their home," Kalinowski said.

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