Gay pride parade crowd defies conservative times in Poland

WARSAW, Poland — The capitals of this nation and Romania hosted festive gay pride parades that attracted thousands of people Saturday, as emboldened participants vowed to keep pushing for the eventual freedom to marry the person of their choice.

A partylike atmosphere prevailed at the parade in Warsaw as people waved rainbow flags and danced. Some had signs or T-shirts with messages of tolerance or sass, including one of Russian President Vladimir Putin holding a rainbow.

The celebratory mood could not be conquered even though same-sex marriage has no real chance of being legalized under Poland’s current conservative government.

“The worse the political atmosphere, the better the atmosphere at the parade,” observed Michal Niepielski, 55, a radio technician from Krakow.

Niepielski judged Saturday’s turnout to be bigger than for last year’s parade. He attended the event with his partner of 14 years, Wojtek Piatkowski, who called the high spirits a “backlash” against the Polish government. The couple wore matching rainbow suspenders and bow ties.

In the Romanian capital of Bucharest, the rights of samesex couples also took center stage during a gay pride parade that came days after a major ruling in a marriage case.

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg ruled Tuesday that two men — one Romanian, the other American — are entitled to the same residency rights as other married couples in the European

Union.

While the ruling doesn’t oblige individual EU member countries to legalize same-sex marriages, it could presage rulings in other pending cases that LGBT rights advocates would consider favorable.

Romania, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Latvia are the EU countries that don’t legally recognize same-sex couples.

A small group of counterprotesters showed up in Warsaw, but police kept them away from the parade. Romanians who consider homosexuality to be a threat to society rallied in Bucharest before Saturday’s gay pride parade.

New Right movement leader Tudor Ionescu said the parade was “a disgrace, a slap on the cheek of a Christian capital.”

Participants in the opposition rally called for a referendum to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Janek Skarzynski / Getty Images Participants of a gay pride parade walk through the streets of Warsaw, Poland.