The president of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, used a video from the civil wedding of an American couple in Canada, Brendan Fay and Tom Moulton, to illustrate his contention that gays 'challenge the moral order of Poland.' The speech was broadcast on national television on March 19 and has created an international uproar.
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Scott Long. Photo by Bob Roehr
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Gay advocates spoke out during a March 24 news conference hosted by Human Rights Watch in New York City. Attorney Normal Siegel called the incident 'an opportunity to advance the civil rights agenda of legal recognition for same-sex couples, including same-sex marriage.'
'This is a universal issue, it can't be isolated just to Poland, it percolates in every nation in this world.' He called on public officials in the US and around the world Europe to confront this issue of equality.
Kaczynski's outburst is no one-time affair, he has impressive credentials as a homophobe. As mayor of Warsaw he sought to prevent gay pride marches in that city in 2004 and 2005. He refused to meet with parade organizers and said, 'I am not willing to meet perverts.' He is allied with archconservative and xenophobic groups within the country.
Last month, at the end of a three-day visit to Ireland, Kaczynski said the promotion of homosexuality would lead to the destruction of the human race. It drew scorn from across the political spectrum in Ireland.
This latest incident is part of a personal campaign against adoption of broader human rights obligations by the Polish legislature, as they had pledged in joining the European Union.
Complicating the picture are rumors that his identical twin brother, Jaroslaw, is gay. The never-married Jaroslaw, 58, lives with his mother. Those charges, and reports from secret police files, have aired widely in the Polish media.
The 'terrible twins' exercised a conservative grip over Poland. Jaroslaw was a party leader and Prime Minister of Poland for nearly a year and a half, until suffering a defeat in parliamentary election last November.
Brendan Fay said he was outraged by use of his wedding video, 'a very sacred moment for us as a couple … to foster hate, intolerance, and fear.'
The pair and their attorney will be meeting with Poland's Consul General on Tuesday evening to discuss the matter and present a letter to be delivered to president Kaczynski. They also are investigating whether they have any legal recourse over unauthorized use of that video.
Human Rights Watch LGBT program director Scott Long acknowledged that 'George Bush and his lot use the specter of same-sex marriage in the same kind of way' as Lech Kaczynski. But there also are some important differences.
'They usually don't talk about specific couple, they do it in a kind of wonderful abstract way where one day they can introduce a constitutional amendment, and the next day they can go off to the christening of Mary Cheney's baby.'
'Here they took a particular couple and held them up and said, here is the danger to western civilization. My friend Brendan is not a danger to western civilization. And his loving relationship with Tom is not a danger to Europe.'
Daniel Domagala, with the Polish group Campaign Against Homophobia, said that most Poles do not support the homophobia of their president. That is particularly true of the younger generation. But the Catholic Church and an old guard who grew up under Communist rule remain socially conservative.
Long acknowledged that 'the level of homophobia from elected officials in the administration has gone down substantially' since members of the conservative coalition suffered losses in elections last November. But while the new prime minister has made promises with regard to discrimination and human rights, he has not yet acted.
