Lublin: Homophobic attack Pride parade in Poland

With rainbow flags and posters with inscriptions such as "Jesus taught us love" and "Homophobia threatens Polish families", around 400 participants of the second Pride parade in Lublin roamed the streets. "We are normal, you are abnormal," it echoed. The verbal violence also included assaults: homophobic counter-demonstrators threw the parade of bottles and eggs. The police intervened and used tear gas and water cannons. Several people were arrested.

It was preceded by a dispute over the demonstration for more acceptance of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people (LGBT). Only at the beginning of the week had a court overturned a ban imposed by Lublin's mayor Krzysztof Zuk on the event. Zuk had raised safety concerns. Already in July hooligans had attacked the participants of a Gay Pride parade in Bialystok with stones, Böllern and bottles.

Ruling party is "free from the LGBT ideology"

Dealing with the LGBT community is a controversial topic in the traditionally Catholic country before the parliamentary election on 13 October. In July, a court banned the national-conservative Gazeta Polska magazine from distributing homophobic stickers saying "This is an LGBT-free zone."

Local representatives of the governing party Law and Justice (PiS) regularly refer to themselves as "free from the LGTB ideology". PiS boss Jaroslaw Kaczynski has in the past referred to gay rights as a "threat" to the traditional Polish family.

The Church also plays a central role in Poland in the fight against homosexual rights. The Polish Archbishop Marek Jedraszewski described the LGTB movement in August as a "new plague" after the end of the "red plague" of communism. Protesters in Warsaw and Krakow then demanded his resignation.