The head of a conservative foundation that has become known for driving vans with anti-LGBT images and slogans around Polish cities has been convicted of criminal defamation.
A judge found that Mariusz Dzierżawski was responsible for “hate speech against homosexuals”. However, a deputy justice minister in Poland’s national-conservative government has condemned the ruling as a “scandalous” case of “repression against opponents of LGBT ideology”.
Dzierżawski’s organisation, Foundation Pro – Right To Life (Fundacja Pro – Prawo Do Życia), has mounted a long-running campaign it calls “Stop Paedophilia”, in which it claims that the “LGBT lobby” wants to use sex education lessons in schools to “sexualise” children.
The campaign is promoted by vans, posters and other materials showing crossed-out rainbow flags alongside various slogans claiming links between the LGBT community and sexual abuse of children.
Although activists and some local authorities have sought to stop such displays, they have been hindered by the fact that Poland’s hate crime laws do not explicitly cover sexual orientation or gender identity. In 2020, one judge rejected a case against Fundacja Pro, arguing that its material was “informative and educational”.
The vans broadcasting slogans linking LGBT to paedophilia have become a common sight in Polish cities.
This year, a court dismissed a lawsuit against them, saying they have an “informative”, “educational” purpose and help raise awareness of paedophilia https://t.co/LjLqMg4hey
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 26, 2020
However, yesterday the district court in Gdańsk issued what lawyers described as a “historic verdict” in a case brought against Dzierżawski by Tolerado, an LGBT rights NGO.
The judge, Małgorzata Uszacka, found Dzierżawski guilty of criminally defaming LGBT people. In her ruling – which can still be appealed – she sentenced him to one year of community service and ordered him to pay a 15,000 zloty (€3,200) donation to charity and to publish an apology on his website to those he has defamed.
“The aim of the campaign was to identify homosexual people with paedophilia and to arouse resentment towards them,” said the judge, quoted by Gazeta Wyborcza. “This should be considered hate speech against homosexuals.”
A court has punished the driver of one of the vans that broadcast anti-LGBT slogans in the streets of Polish cities.
Activists and local officials hope the ruling shows there is a legal way to stop the vans, which display signs linking LGBT to paedophilia https://t.co/4EF8lCRZFo
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) December 10, 2020
Uszacka also found that messages broadcast from speakers on the vans were “defamatory and could cause anxiety among guardians of minors”. Moreover, she noted that Dzierżawski has “not proved in court that the content presented on the vans was true”.
Tolerado hailed the ruling as groundbreaking, noting that the judge’s finding that Fundacja Pro’s anti-LGBT slogans constitute hate speech “is an important novelty in the jurisprudence”.
“A line of jurisprudence is being forged that is slowly and consistently changing the awareness of the courts and, in a broader context, society – and sooner or later will lead to key legal changes and a full-scale stop to systemic hate speech against our communities,” said the organisation.
Poland’s education minister has publicly retracted remarks in which he linked “LGBT ideology” to Nazism and said “these people are not equal to normal people”
It comes after he was sued by an activist, whom the minister also apologised to in his statement https://t.co/BKHyTjrVLg
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 28, 2022
Dzierżawski, however, condemned the ruling, saying that it “resembles the mechanisms of totalitarian times”. He argued that all claims made by his organisation are “based on publicly available scientific research and media publications…We didn’t make this up”.
“The allegedly defamatory content that our foundation disseminates in Poland is nothing more than the truth about the social and medical consequences of homosexual practices and the plans of the LGBT lobby towards Polish children”, he added, quoted by Catholic news service PCh24.
The court’s ruling was also criticised by a deputy justice minister, Marcin Romanowski. “A scandalous verdict…for campaigning against the LGBT lobby,” he tweeted. “The [judicial] caste treats the courts as a political and repressive tool against opponents of LGBT ideology.”
Poland’s national-conservative government has led a long-running campaign against what it calls “LGBT ideology”, resulting in Poland being ranked for the last three years as the worst country in the EU for LGBT people.
Skandaliczny wyrok z Gdańska: szef fundacji Pro Prawo Do Życia skazany na rok ograniczenia wolności, wpłatę 15 tys. zł na fundację Ochojskiej i przeprosiny za kampanię przeciw lobby LGBT. Kasta traktuje sądy jak narzędzie polityczno-represyjne wobec przeciwników 🏳️🌈 ideologii.
— Marcin Romanowski (@MarRomanowski) March 22, 2023
Main image credit: Cezary Aszkielowicz / Agencja Wyborcza.pl
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
