Anti-gay rhetoric stirs fear
POLAND’S Catholic Church has increased the anti-gay rhetoric that has become the nationalist ruling party’s dominant theme in recent weeks ahead of the October election, drawing a rebuke from liberal politicians who compared an archbishop’s remarks to incitement to genocide.
In a sermon marking the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw uprising by Polish resistance fighters against Nazi occupation on Thursday at St Mary’s Basilica, the archbishop of Krakow, Marek Jedraszewski, described Poland as under siege from a “rainbow plague” of gay rights campaigners he compared to Poland’s former communist rulers.
“Our land is no longer affected by the red plague, which does not mean that there is no new one that wants to control our souls, hearts and minds,” he said. “Not Marxist, Bolshevik, but born of the same spirit, neo-marxist. Not red, but rainbow,” he was quoted as saying by TVN24 broadcaster.
Robert Biedron, a gay politician from the progressive Wiosna party, denounced the sermon. | Reuters ANA