POLAND: Thousands Attend Fifteenth Annual Warsaw Pride Festival

Via the Associated Press:

Thousands of activists have marched in scorching weather in Warsaw's 15th yearly "Equality Parade," confirming a growing public support for gay rights.The participants chanted in support of same sex marriage and the right for same-sex couples to adopt children. Carrying a huge rainbow-colored flag, they marched from the Parliament building, through the downtown Savior Square, where a giant rainbow stands. The artwork has been repeatedly burnt by right-wing groups and is to be moved next year to another location. Small groups of gay rights opponents chanted hostile rhymes, but there was no violence.

More from Gay Star News:

The participants carried placards with political messages. They said: ‘We too are family’, ‘Marriage for everyone with the right to adoption', and ‘Yes to the right [for] gender reconciliation’. Poland has no legal rights for same-sex couples, though the issue has been debated in the Parliament of Poland; the country is predominately Catholic. Małgorzata Fuszara, the Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Rights, headed the parade. She said of the march: ‘This is a march in the interest of us all, the whole of Poland, so that our society becomes one where people are open, free and show solidarity. To make it strong and diverse.’ Polish celebrities and MPs also attended the parade in support of its message for equality: including Poland’s first openly gay mayor, Robert Biedroń.

Poland enacted a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in 1992. Gays are protected from employment discrimination and serve openly in the military.

RELATED: Above is the Palace Of Culture, the tallest building in Poland.

WARSAW: EuroPride Held For First Time In Eastern Europe

The 17th annual EuroPride took place in Warsaw, Poland today, the first time the traveling event has been staged in Eastern Europe. Approximately 2000 Polish riot police were on hand to protect marchers from far-right and Catholic extremists.

The parade, part of the EuroPride gay rights festival, is meant to give a boost to the fledgling gay rights movement in Poland. Gay rights were strongly repressed during the communist era, and gays and lesbians have struggled since communism fell 20 years ago for acceptance in a society still strongly influenced by the church. "We feel like they are 20 years behind the Netherlands," said Ad Bakker, a 39-year-old from Holland who traveled to Warsaw to show solidarity with Polish friends. "But the atmosphere is good and we hope that EuroPride will help." A Polish friend of his, Sebastian Blaszczyk, 36, said the situation in Poland "gets better and better every year," but the country still has far to go in accepting gays. An initial police estimate put the number of participants at 8,000.

Catholic groups opposing homosexuality distributed pamphlets to parade goers with an image of Jesus Christ saying: "I have not come to condemn but to redeem." They also held prayer vigils at local churches "in the intention of redeeming parade participants." The decision to hold Europride in Warsaw sparked controversy in deeply-Catholic Poland -- where gays have long complained of intolerance, and openly homophobic remarks by politicians are far from rare. "We started lobbying already in 2005 against all odds and amid a very unfriendly atmosphere towards gay rights in our country," said Adam Biskupiak of the Equality Foundation, the Polish group which is organising the rally.

Police arrested eight men for pelting the crowd with rocks and eggs. Unfortunately, among those attacked were my longtime friends Jerry and Martin, the latter of whom took a rock to the head. Jerry reports that Bibles were also thrown at them. Unswayed by the hatred, our heroes bought a hat to cover Martin's gash and continued on to Warsaw's bear dance party. Below, Martin displays his blood and egg-flecked shirt.

RELATED: Europride 2011 will be held in Rome.

Lech Walesa: Madonna Is Committing A Satanic Provocation Against Poland

Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Polish president Lech Walesa plans to join a protest against Madonna's August concert in Warsaw, saying that she had dishonored his religion by posing as the Black Madonna of Czestochowa on the cover of a Polish magazine three years ago. Walesa is especially angry because the concert falls on a Catholic holiday important to Poles. From the Christianist news outlet LifeSiteNews.com:

"It's a satanic provocation" Walesa said at a press conference. Pointing to the icon of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa that he has been carrying pinned to his lapel for decades, Walesa said: "I carry this portrait on my chest, so it is understandable, that I am not glad about this concert taking place on the day of Her feast." "I am a man of faith and I would ask for such events not to happen on the day of such an important feast of my religion," Walesa said. He added that he would be willing to meet with the pop star to discuss a change of dates for the concert. "I have nothing against her personally, even though she has committed many provocations," Walesa observed. Krzysztof Zagozda of the Catholic group Unum Principum also shared his opinion about the 50-year-old singer's concert date: "It offends our religious faith. Besides that, Madonna's performances are anti-Christian."

Still pissing off Catholics after all these years! Protesters are planning a prayer crusade for the two weeks leading up to the show, presumably to ask the mythical Madonna to smite this earthly pretender.