A driver previously found guilty of defamation for driving a van with slogans linking homosexuality to paedophilia during a Polish city’s pride parade has had his sentence overturned on appeal. The judge in the case ruled that the messages displayed on his van are true.
The incident in question took place in 2019, on the day of the first ever LGBT Equality Parade in Gorzów Wielkopolski, a city of 120,000 in western Poland.
Just before the march began, a van appeared covered in slogans such as “Homosexuals much more often molest children”, “Stop the rainbow plague”, and “The LGBT lobby wants to teach 4-year-olds masturbation, 6-year-olds sexual consent, and 9-year-olds their first sexual experience and orgasm”.
Such vans (of the type pictured above), which belong to the conservative NGO Fundacja Pro, have become a common and controversial sight in Polish cities.
The head of a conservative group that drives vans with anti-LGBT slogans around Polish cities has been convicted of criminal defamation.
A deputy justice minister condemned the ruling as a “scandalous repression against opponents of LGBT ideology” https://t.co/c6VkloCGQ8
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 23, 2023
The foundation that organised the LGBT parade reported the van’s driver to prosecutors. However, they refused to press charges, so the head of the foundation, Monika Drubkowska, filed a private civil case against the driver.
The case dragged on for three years, with the driver’s lawyers providing what they claimed was scientific research showing the links between homosexuality and paedophilia, reports the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
However, in April this year, the district court in Gorzów Wielkopolski rejected their arguments and ordered the driver to pay a 6,000 zloty (€1,336) fine and 3,000 zloty (€668) compensation for defamation.
In his justification, the judge, Krzysztof Rawo, emphasised that, after the dehumanisation of social groups, “it is only a small step to violence”. He pointed to the examples of 1930s Germany, the Balkans in the 1990s, and Russia’s recent propaganda against Ukrainians.
Poland remains the EU's worst country for LGBT people, according to the annual Rainbow Europe ranking https://t.co/j83yAOtrcT
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) May 11, 2023
But the driver took up the right to appeal that ruling, and obtained legal support from Ordo Iuris, a prominent ultraconservative group. Now, another judge, Roman Makowski, has accepted that appeal and overturned the verdict against the driver.
The justification for the new ruling has not yet been published, but both Drubkowska’s lawyer, Jerzy Wierchowicz, and Ordo Iuris have confirmed that the judge acquitted the driver because he found the slogans on the van to be true.
“The court recognised as proven the truthfulness of the slogans [such as] ‘homosexuals much more often molest children’,” announced Ordo Iuris. It added that the judge had also found “the slogan ‘stop the rainbow plague’ [to be] within the framework of freedom of speech”.
Sąd II instancji uznał za udowodnioną prawdziwość haseł: „homoseksualiści wielokrotnie częściej molestują dzieci", „czego lobby LGBT chce uczyć dzieci 4-latki masturbacji, 6-latki wyrażania zgody na seks, 9-latki pierwszych doświadczeń seksualnych i orgazmu",
— Paweł Szafraniec (@Szafraniec_P) July 5, 2023
Wierchowicz told broadcaster TOK FM that the verdict was “surprising, shameful and shocking…Saying that these slogans are based on the truth is outrageous, scandalous and has nothing to do with reality. There is no data allowing such statements to be made.”
“This is typical hate speech, speech that polarises society and arouses hatred for the LGBT community, which is, after all, a social group like any other,” added the lawyer. “The fact that they are in the minority does not mean that they can be discriminated against.”
Wierchowicz indicated that he and his client are now likely to seek the final form of appeal, known as cassation. Paweł Szafraniec of Ordo Iuris, however, praised the second-instance court for “focusing on the facts without paying attention to political correctness”.
A Polish court rejected a lawsuit against a prominent public campaign that links LGBT people to paedophilia, with the judge arguing that it had an "informative", "educational" purpose https://t.co/LjLqMg4hey
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) February 20, 2020
In 2020, a court in Wrocław made a similar ruling, dismissing a lawsuit against Fundacja Pro’s anti-LGBT banners after the judge deemed that they served an “informative”, “educational” purpose and helped raise awareness of paedophilia.
In May this year, a group of LGBT activists were found guilty for their role in an attack on one of Fundacja Pro’s vans, sentenced to community service and ordered to pay compensation.
However, other rulings have gone against the foundation. Earlier this year, its president, Mariusz Dzierżawski, was found guilty of criminal defamation for his “hate speech against homosexuals”.
Three LGBT activists have been found guilty over an attack on a van displaying anti-LGBT slogans.
The detention of one of them, known as Margot, in 2020 prompted mass protests by supporters https://t.co/dDMDYv95r3
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) May 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.
