LGBT rights NGO wants to talk safety with Warsaw mayor

The appeal comes days after 29-year-old Omar Mateen shot down 50 people at a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The deadliest shooting in US history triggered numerous homophobic comments by Polish internet users targeting homosexuals.

“The problem of homo-, bi- and transphobia is not just confined to the United States,” members of the organization wrote in their letter to the mayor. “LGBT people in Poland are also confronted with hatred on a daily basis.”

Activists with the Campaign against Homophobia sought to address their safety concerns with Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz after she paid her respects to the victims of the Orlando massacre and asserted on her blog that “Warsaw is open to a diversity policy and European practices it entails.”

Members of the LGBT community see the mayor’s gestures as a token of solidarity and wish to hold talks over growing hate speech and recent attacks targeting prominent gay rights organisations in the Polish capital.

This year, unknown perpetrators carried out repeated acts of vandalism against the headquarters of the Warsaw-based Campaign against Homophobia and Lambda.

“Attacks against LGBT organisations in Warsaw and homophobic hate that swept through the Internet after the Orlando tragedy together make Warsaw’s LGBT community feel threatened – [a phenomenon] which you yourself have referred to in a blog entry,” KPH wrote.

“We are convinced that with joint efforts we will be able to create a capital that is safe and friendly to all its citizens, including LGBT people”.

Warsaw Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz has for years consistently rejected requests to support the annual Equality Parade with her patronage. (aba)

Source: TVN24, Wawalove