Activists nmn vlence agast LGBTQ muny St. Vcent, where gay sex is illegal | AP News

Contents:

• POLAND’S POPULISTS PICK A NEW TOP ENEMY: GAY PEOPLE
• THE U.S. & JAMAI ARE FIGHTG OVER GAY RIGHTS
• ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL

POLAND’S POPULISTS PICK A NEW TOP ENEMY: GAY PEOPLE

It ranks 27 out of 28 European Unn stat when to equaly and non-discrimatn, acrdg to Rabow Europe, an anizatn lked to the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn. ” Acrdg to the Campaign Agast Homophobia, 12 percent of people who don’t intify as heterosexual are victims of physil vlence Poland, while around nety percent of cints go unreported, acrdg to the 2016 survey.

Neverthels, “attus towards the LGBTQ muny have e a long way” says Robert Biedron, who beme Poland’s first openly gay and atheistic polician when he me out 2011. ” A 2017 report by the Centre for Rearch on Prejudice of the Universy of Warsaw found that sce PiS entered ernment 2015, Polish populatn’s exposure to hate speech the media, cludg agast gay people, has creased by 25%. The report stat that hate speech is “particularly dangero for youth, ” who were found to e hate speech most often and whose “sensivy to homophobic statements” creased.

One member of Budapt Pri, which aniz pri events, Viktória Radványi, tells TIME that “ spe of the growg number of people jog equaly march, homophobia the ernment and the prs has creased over the past few months. ” Durg a Budapt fom on May 15 as part of the European electns mpaign, a Fisz member and Chair of the Natnal Assembly Laszlo Kover, said there was “no moral difference” between pedophil and gay upl adoptg children.

THE U.S. & JAMAI ARE FIGHTG OVER GAY RIGHTS

Biedron, who suffered four anti-gay physil asslts when he served as a Member of Parliament om 2011 to 2014, says “the distance between hate speech and hate crime is small. Thoands marched through central Warsaw on Saturday an “equaly para”, amid what mpaigners say has been a risg ti of homophobia Poland recent rights have bee a central part of a wir stggle the untry between liberals, who strs the need for a more tolerant and clive society, and relig nservativ, who nounce what they say is an attempt to subvert tradnal valu the predomantly Catholic a sea of rabow flags, marchers gathered outsi the towerg neo-Gothic Palace of Culture and Science central Warsaw, as a DJ played dance mic om a stage before the start of the march. Meanwhile, Hungary Viktor Orbán’s natnalist ernment, which is allied wh Poland’s erng Law and Jtice (PiS) party, has troduced a law banng the “display and promotn of homosexualy” among unr-18s.

For 30 days, begng January 17, European Unn missners received daily Twter notifitns lkg to personal stori of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) Pol who have been harmed by the so-lled “LGBT Iology Free Zon” or anti-LGBT “Fay Charters” nearly 100 Polish regns, towns, and ci. The tweets were part of a mpaign led by two Polish LGBT groups, Campaign Agast Homophobia (Kampania Przeciw Homofobii, KPH) and The Equaly Foundatn (Fundacja Równości, FR), llg on EU Commissners to iate an gement procre – a legal actn that n lead to referral to the European Court of Jtice – agast Poland.

ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL

Gay Marriage⚭✖ Foreign same-sex marriag regnized onlyChangg Genr✔ Legal, surgery not requiredNon-bary genr regnn✖ Not legally regnizedDiscrimatn✖ Illegal some ntextsEmployment Discrimatn✔ Sexual orientatn and genr intyHog DiscrimatnN/AConversn Therapy✖ Not banned. Suggt Public Opn DataPublic OpnSupport of same-sex marriage ?Views on same-sex marriage or other legal regnnViews on same-sex upl' right to adoptAcceptance of homosexuals as neighbors ?(27.9%) Mentned homosexualsDid not mentn homosexuals (64.5%)Jtifiabily of homosexualy ?Opn on same-sex upl as parents ?"Should society accept homosexualy?" (2019) ?Perceived prevalence of discrimatn agast transgenr people (European Unn) ?Perceived prevalence of discrimatn agast sexual orientatn (European Unn) ?Acceptance of same-sex relatnships (European Unn) ?By The Numbers60% of Pol believe Poland should abolish the so-lled "LGBT-Free zon"33% of Pol believe Poland shouldn't abolish the so-lled "LGBT-Free zon"HistoryHomosexual activy Poland ?Homosexual activy Poland is legal.Current statSce Jan 1945Legal Consensual same-sex acts were legalized 1945 after the end of WW2 by the Polish Penal Co.

Sce 2019 several municipali have clared themselv to be "LGBT-ee zon", while this has no legal standg do adversely affect LGBT people by openg them up to hate crime.Illegal (ath penalty as punishment)LGBT people were persecuted by Nazi forc durg the German occupatn of the Send World War.LegalHomosexualy is legal.AmbiguoDurg the Send Polish Republic, same sex activy was not legislated agast, but was nsired taboo.Illegal (other penalty)Durg the Partns of Poland, the Polish state had ceased to exist and laws om other stat were forced upon the lands. 1945 Rsia's penal specified a punishment of forced rettlement to Siberia.LegalBefore the Polish partns, no bans regardg homosexualy were ever mentned, spe beg nsired taboo. A procs will veto any sgle gay person who tri to adopt.Sgle onlyBefore the current law, sgle only adoptn for gay people was allowed.IllegalNo source suppliedServg openly ary Poland ?Servg openly ary Poland is legal.Current statSce Jan 1, 1991Legal Sce the 1990s, lbian, gay and bisexual people are not banned om ary service and discrimatn agast them is officially forbidn.

However, openly gay personnel would face social difficulty, pecially for higher ranks, as for "mandg staff - officers and high-rankg NCOs - admtg to same-sex attractn would mean losg rpect - quali whout which you simply nnot be a manr".Blood donatns by MSMs Poland ?Blood donatns by MSMs Poland is legal.Legal No rtrictns about gay sex.Conversn therapy Poland ?Conversn therapy Poland is not banned.Current statSce May 12, 2015Not banned No laws place. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTAn latn verbal attacks by the Polish ernment, wh the support of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the threat of physil vlence on the streets of many ci, has triggered an exod of gay people.Cred...Lena Mucha for The New York TimFor months, ernment misters spewed vic rhetoric about gay people.

Tcks blasted anti-gay hate msag om loudspeakers on the streets of Poland’s ci.Fally fed up wh an creasgly hostile environment for gay people Poland unr the erng Law and Jtice party, Marta Malachowska, a 31-year-old who works social media, cid to move to Berl wh her girliend December.“Last year the suatn beme too much for me,” Ms.

But now their numbers are beg add to by gay people fleeg an creasgly hostile environment Poland.ImageCred...Anna Limowicz for The New York TimAcrdg to a 2020 survey by ILGA-Europe, an ternatnal gay rights anizatn, Poland now ranks as the most homophobic untry the European Unn.

Activists say that vlence agast gay people Poland surged last year, and clud s of physil vlence, sults and the stctn of property.It is hard to know how many gay people there are Poland, or how many are leavg.

Profsnals emigratg.Ptr Grabarczyk, a 31-year-old journalist, left Poland for Barcelona wh his boyiend last July, attracted by Spa’s more liberal way of life.Origally om a small town northern Poland, he scribed his childhood as one of “plete lonels and alienatn — the ter was my only pe.”“When I found out gay marriage Spa had been legal sce 2005, knocked me off my feet,” he said. “We probably saw each other the stairse, said hello.”He said he received many msag om people across Poland, “who would like to leave for the same reasons as , but nnot bee of money, fay, or their reer choic.”Homosexualy has long been taboo Poland, where the Roman Catholic Church, which plays a proment role the untry’s social and polil life, has worked hand hand wh the ernment to promote a nservative way of life.The church, which is particularly powerful ral areas, has adopted an actively hostile attu toward gay people.

Dehnel, the wrer who moved to Berl last year, said was “the drivg force of hate” toward the gay muny.Rpondg to a requt for ment, the Catholic Church poted to an official document outlg s posn, statg that homosexual “clatns” did not nstute “moral guilt,” but homosexual acts did. It cled to ment on hate speech employed by prits, and the accatn that they were ntributg to the general terratn of the safety of gay people Poland.Marek Jedraszewski, Poland’s archbishop, has scribed L.G.B.T.Q.

Neher the ernment nor the print rpond to requts for ment.In April 2019 Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the chairman of the Law and Jtice party and Poland’s facto lear, lled homosexualy a “threat to Polish inty, to our natn, to s existence, and th to the Polish state.”ImageCred...Kasia Strek for The New York TimMr. “The people are not equal to normal people.”Tcks fund by ultranservative anizatns have roamed the untry, blarg slogans om speakers accg gay people of pedophilia. There have been creasg s of vlence durg pri march, and agast dividuals.In one cint a village southern Poland, a young gay man was harassed by neighbors hurlg homophobic abe at him, and one tried to poison his dog.

Crics say PiS has an anti-gay LGBT rights group ILGA-Europe says Poland is the worst-performg untry the EU terms of LGBT rights, an x published last won a majory parliament wh a nservative-natnalist agenda strong on Catholic valu, cludg support for tradnal fai and opposn to gay marriage. Speakg to supporters Brzeg, southwtern Poland, Mr Duda said "parents are rponsible for the sexual tn of their children, " and " is not possible for any stutns to terfere the way parents raise their children" 10 June he signed a "Fay Charter" of electn proposals, cludg pledg to prevent gay upl om marryg or adoptg children and to ban teachg about LGBT issu schools. Populist lear was sworn for a send five-year term as print on a strong anti-LGBTQ platform, brandg LGBTQ rights an “iology” worse than munism and proposg a “Fay Charter, ” cludg a vow to block legislatn allowg gay upl to get married or adopt children.

” For over a year, the ernment and relig lears have ed LGBTQ people as a “spegoat, ” says Mirosława Makuchowska, vice diretor of the Warsaw-based Campaign Agast Homophobia. The Campaign Agast Homophobia has been recg pro bono legal help for people who have been taed, and an LGBTQ-anized fund for psychologil help has raised 20, 000 Polish złoty ($5, 345). The employee “ed quot om the Old Ttament about ath and blood the ntext of what fate should meet homosexuals.” The Polish ernment jtified the employee’s actns due to their relig ntext.