Pressure Mounts On Pride March
The International Lesbian & Gay Association is urging the European Union to intervene in a decision by the mayor of Warsaw to ban gay Pride celebrations for the second year in a row.
The pride parade was to have taken place this weekend.
Last month, in announcing the ban Mayor Lech Kaczynski said that he is "for tolerance, but am against propagating gay orientation."
Kaczynski said the celebration would detract from plans to unveil a monument the same day to Gen Stefan Rowecki, a leader of Poland's anti-Nazi underground army during World War II.
"Organizing a gay parade on that day is a joke," Kaczynski told the Polish news agency PAP.
Last year, Kaczynski banned Pride, saying he feared clashes between gay rights groups and opponents who planned a counter-demonstration.
In a petition to EU countries the ILGA says: “In the name of the values of democratic Europe, we make an urgent appeal to you: See to it that the 'Warszawa Parade for Equal Rights' can take place and that the basic rights of free opinion, speech and assembly won't be violated.”
The ILGA has been joined by British gay rights group OutRage in demanding international pressure on Poland.
In a statement Wednesday OutRage urged the British government to call for a review of Poland’s membership of the EU, "unless it can give specific guarantees and commitments to bring gay human rights in line with EU standards."
“When countries apply for membership of the EU, they are expected to commit to a comprehensive human rights package as a precondition," said OutRage spokesperson Brett Lock.
"If one country is allowed to trample on the rights of its LGBT citizens in such a visible and fundamental way, it sets a bad precedent,” said Lock.
“Other EU countries with strong conservative and right-wing religious lobbies could use the fact that Poland has been not been censured for violating the civil rights of its lesbian and gay communities to pressure for similar exemptions. These exemptions may not be limited to Pride parades, but could ultimately include employment rights, partnership rights and legal protection from harassment and hate-crimes,” Lock warned.
Last month the mayor of Bucharest also attempted to ban Pride celebrations. He reluctantly agreed to issue a permit for the parade after Romania President Traian Basescu held an emergency meeting with him.
Basescu who is trying to bring Romania into the EU said that he was concerned that banning the gay event would jeopardize the country's chances.