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Poland Demolishes Gay Awareness Campaign
by Jon ben Asher
365Gay.com Newscenter
European Bureau Chief
Posted: May 27, 2003 11:14 a.m. ET
(Warsaw, Poland) A campaign to promote acceptance of gays and lesbians has been pulled after complaints by the Roman Catholic Church.
The campaign featured posters and billboards in Polish cities and was inspired by a 24 year old photographer.
Karolina Bregula returned to Poland after spending three years in Sweden and said she was astonished at the plight of Polish gays.
With a grant from the governments of Sweden and Denmark, Bregula created the campaign using pictures of gay couples in affectionate poses. "Let them see us," was the campaign's slogan. Some of the posters showed couples holding hands. In others couples looked affectionately into each others' eyes.
The billboards began going up in Polish cities last month and were to remain in place for 90 days.
This week, they were torn down or painted over by officials after complaints from the Catholic Church.
Polish gays had expected that with the fall of Communism the country's attitudes towards gays would become more liberal. But Robert Biedron, chair of the Campaign Against Homophobia in Warsaw said the Catholic church has opposed all attempts at reform.
Although the European Union opposes discrimination of gays and lesbians there is no uniform policy on gay relationships.
Even though the billboards were up for only a few weeks, Biedron says the campaign has had a positive effect. "For the first time, homosexuals were shown as ordinary people, not as pedophiles from a railway station or freaks from a gay parade," said Biedron.
There are an estimated 2 million gays in the Poland.
©365Gay.com® 2003