For the second consecutive year Warsaw authorities have refused to provide consent for the Equality Parade, meaning a peaceful demonstration of gays and lesbians, which was supposed to take place in Warsaw. Warsaw is buzzing with discussion about the legitimacy of this decision. The organizers announce that the demonstration will be held anyhow, as an expression of civil disobedience towards the authorities’ discriminating decision.

The Equality Parade, planned for June 11th was supposed to be one of the main events of the Equality Days organized by the Equality Foundation, meaning the organizations ILGCN Polska, Lambda Warszawa and the Campaign against Homophobia. The city’s authorities twice refused to grant gays and lesbians the right to assembly. First, they did not grant permission for the Parade under the pretext that their application did not include a plan for changes in the organization of traffic, and when both circles decided to alternatively organize a series of rallies, the authorities used the pretence of safety considerations to ban 6 of those 8 rallies. It’s difficult to recognize these decisions as objective considering that the personal disinclination of the city’s president, Lech Kaczynski, towards the Equality Parade is commonly recognized. The president announced as early as mid-May that he will not grant permission for the Parade, because he will not allow for the promotion of gay culture.

The following organizations expressed their protest against this decision, i.e.: Amnesty International, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, the Polish Union of Jewish Students, the Government’s Plenipotentiary for the Equal Treatment of Men and Women, leftist political groups, the students of the Sociology and Philosophy Department of Warsaw University. The Ombudsman approached the President of Warsaw with an inquiry concerning the legal basis of such a decision. The Helsinki Committee issued a statement (www.hfhrpol.waw.pl/en/), in which it called upon the President of the State capital to respect the law and allow for the peaceful demonstration, and announced that it will perform a thorough monitoring of the course of the events.

The Equality Foundation’s website contains the following statement: “(…) we cannot persuade anyone to break the law (unfortunately everyone can see the quality of our legal regulations). And we are not attempting to do so. However, as private parties we wish for all citizens, who identify themselves with the concept of democracy and freedom, to use their rights to manifest their views. As citizens we have the right to gather on Saturday 11.06.2005 at 12 p.m. before the Sejm building at Wiejska Street, and to express our opinions on the lack of respect for us and the basic human and civil rights in Poland. We have the right to march from the Sejm to the Palace of Culture and Science and hold a legal rally.”