Two gatherings of several hundred people opposed and favorable to homosexual rights faced each other on Sunday near the University of Warsaw, separated by the police.
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" Down with deviations " chanted in particular the anti-LGBT demonstrators, who claim to be victims of " aggression ". One of the speakers, an anti-abortion activist, Kaja Godek, announced the launch of a popular initiative to obtain a law banning gay pride marches, to “ stop gay propaganda ”.
Opposite, waving rainbow or anarchist flags, supporters of LGBT rights also held banners such as " We are the people ", the slogan of the demonstrations during the fall of communism in the late 1980s, or even “ Orientation is not a choice, homophobia is a choice ”. During the election campaign ahead of the July presidential poll, the ruling conservatives in deeply Catholic Poland, widely used anti-LGBT rhetoric, provoking protests from international institutions.
Conservative President Andrzej Duda, who was re-elected, then compared “ LGBT ideology ” to “ neo-Bolshevism ”. Since the beginning of the month, demonstrations have multiplied as a sign of solidarity with the LGBT community as well as against police brutality, after the arrest of an activist in Warsaw and the arrest of about fifty protesters who tried to fight there. oppose.