Apr 17, 2007News: Demo Set To Support Polish Gays at London Embassy
By vanrozenheim
(London, UK) – Human Rights campaigners will be staging a demonstration next month outside the Polish Embassy in London to express their growing concern about the plight of the LGBT community in Poland. The demonstration will be staged on the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) - Thursday May 17, at a time to be arranged.
It is hoped the demonstration, led by the British Youth Council (BYC), will lend support to LGBT people in Poland and raise awareness of the country’s openly hostile attitude towards to the gay community.
“LGBT rights are a non-negotiable element of human rights,” said Jo Field, BYC’s Head of Policy and Public Affairs.
“The UK government has a responsibility to ensure human rights are upheld, not only in the UK but also within other countries in the European Union.”
Since joining the European Union in 2004, Poland has displayed openly hostile attitudes to gay and lesbian people.
These include banning of events, homophobic language use by some high profile politicians and discriminatory comments by some right wing politicians and representatives of the Catholic Church.
The Polish government is also proposing legislation which will ban discussions on homosexuality in schools and educational institutions, with teachers who disobey facing the sack, fines or imprisonment.
“We are very grateful to the British Youth Council for taking a lead on this issue and illustrating that LGBT rights both here and abroad should be the concern of all who are concerned by Human Rights,” commented IDAHO UK coordinator Derek Leonard.
“On IDAHO day we offer our support to the LGBT community in Poland and urge that the European Community adopt severe sanctions to elected individuals that oppose EU principles on equality and non discrimination, and that homophobic legislation is immediately withdrawn”.
