GDANSK, Poland (Reuters) – Thousands of Poles demonstrated on Saturday against homophobia in the port city of Gdansk, which has been mobilizing every year for the past seven years behind the slogan “We have the power”.
Waving the rainbow flags of the LGBTQ+ community and the blue, pink and white transgender flag, protesters marched through the northern city holding signs that read: “We make love, not war” and “Jesus would walk with us”.
According to a police spokeswoman, around 7,500 people took part in the parade.
“It’s very difficult to be queer in Poland, so it’s good to find a place where you can be yourself,” said Sabina Joeck, 24.
Gay rights are a controversial issue in Poland, where the Catholic religion is in the majority and where nationalists in power have made the fight against what they call “LGBTQ+ ideology” a key theme in these electoral campaigns. last years.
Religious conservatives fiercely oppose what they call an ideology aimed at destroying the traditional family, while more liberal Poles speak of discrimination.
A handful of demonstrators opposed to the march held up a rosary and a banner hostile to the LGBTQ+ “lobby”, which they say seeks to sexualize children – an idea rejected by human rights groups.
“I’m not against homosexuals, they’re just ordinary people like us,” said one protester, Margaret. “But I don’t want them to reach our children.”
For Nikodem Mrozek, a 40-year-old mathematician who has taken part in the annual march since its inception, the attitude towards LGBTQ+ people in Poland tends to improve, even if some politicians continue to demonize them.
“The society and the mentality (of the people) is improving, but the political situation is getting worse,” he said before the march.
(Report Isabella Ronca and Hedy Beloucif Gdansk; French version Elizabeth Pineau)