Thousands celebrate Warsaw's first legal pride march

More than five thousand people marched on May 19 in the first legally sanctioned lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) pride parade in the Polish capital. The marchers carried rainbow flags and some held banners reading "Stop Homophobia." The parade wound its way through central Warsaw under a heavy police presence, but most bystanders cheered and waved back at marchers. The ultra-nationalist Catholic Youth Movement and the militant far-right All-Polish Youth staged a small counter demonstration nearby. Protesters carried signs reading "Homo Go Home." Both groups had called on Warsaw Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz Walz to ban the parade. The day before the march she told Polish radio that she had no grounds for rejecting a parade permit application. Last year, the state prosecutor's office issued a letter to prosecutors in the municipalities of Legnica, Wroclaw, Walbryzch, Opole and Jelenia Gora ordering in sweeping terms investigations into the conduct of "homosexuals" on unspecified allegations of "pedophilia." Earlier this week, Education Minister Roman Giertych unveiled draft legislation that would make it a criminal offense to "promote homosexual propaganda" in schools. If passed, the measure would essentially censor all discussion of homosexuality in schools and other academic institutions. LGBT organizations would be barred from schools and "teachers who reveal their homosexuality will be fired from work." Giertych's draft bill, however, does not say exactly what would constitute promoting homosexuality. Giertych defined it as "every action that is dependent on the public presentation of a certain belief with the intention of convincing others to that viewpoint." But critics say it is so vague it could lead to witch hunts.