WARSAW (Reuters) – Members of Poland’s opposition formed a rainbow on Thursday in their attire when President Andrzej Duda swore in solidarity with the LGBT network after being accused of conducting a crusade marked by homophobic rhetoric.
Duda, a best friend of the ruling nationalist law and justice (PiS) party, argued before the July vote that other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people “are not other people, it is an ideology.”His comments were condemned through opposition and members of the foreign community.
Parliamentarians, from Poland’s “left,” wore rainbow masks and rainbow-style garb, sitting in rows, while Duda was sworn in on Thursday in parliament’s confined space, the Sejm. They also posed inside and outside parliament with rainbows and white and red Polish flags.
“We wanted to remind President Andrzej Duda that … in the constitution, there is a guarantee of equality for all,” said left-wing MP Anna Maria Zukowska.
“We don’t need a similar scenario in his next term, like his campaign, when the president dehumanized other LGBT people by denying them the right to be other people.”
PiS argued that LGBT rights are from an invasive foreign ideology that undermines Polish values and the classical family.
In his swearing speech, Duda reiterated his commitment to “make the circle of relatives the soul of societyArray …as our ultimate valuable possession.”
A PiS spokesperson may not be contacted for comment.
Some Polish cities have been informed that they will lose EU investment after declaring themselves “free from LGBT ideology.”
(Report through Joanna Plucinska; Edited through Janet Lawrence)
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