“Rainbow rags and crescents” will replace crosses in schools, warns Polish children’s right commissioner

Poland’s commissioner for children’s rights – who is likely to soon be replaced by a more liberal incoming government – has warned that LGBT rainbow “rags” and the crescent, a symbol of Islam, will replace Christian crosses in Polish schools. That would leave children being “brought up without values ​and unable to fight evil”.

His remarks have been criticised by a number of commentators and opposition politicians, who have pledged to appoint a different commissioner.

Mikołaj Pawlak was appointed as children’s rights commission in 2018 by the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party’s majority in parliament.

He has since then been outspoken on conservative issues, including announcing earlier this year an inspection of schools that were ranked as the most LGBT-friendly in the country. He said this was needed to ensure that “children are protected from criminals”.

In a new column this week for Niedziela, a Catholic magazine, Pawlak warned that children need to be protected from the “pseudo-rainbow masqueraders preaching false and deceptive ideas of freedom…that a true free and joyful life is a life of debauchery, without any boundaries, without values ​​and rules”.

“When, above the school blackboard, pseudo-rainbow colourful rags – or in some urban districts, crescents – become common instead of the cross, we will live in a world ruled by generations brought up without values ​​and principles, knowing no boundaries and unable to fight evil,” continued Pawlak.

“We have brought upon ourselves a hurricane that will turn our previously calm waters into a dangerous moral storm,” he concluded. “That is why today we must ourselves, in our own homes, make sure that our children know the boundaries of good and evil. Their safe future depends on it.”

Christian crosses hang in many Polish schools, often above blackboards. That has been an issue of controversy, with many arguing that there religious symbols should not be displayed in public institutions.

Among those to call for the removal of crosses from schools is opposition leader Donald Tusk, who is now likely to be prime minister in a new government formed from three opposition groups that together won a majority at last month’s elections. They are set to come to power this month or in December.

Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO) group as well as one of its coalition partners, The Left (Lewica), have also pledged to strengthen LGBT rights, for example by introducing the right to legally recognised same-sex civil partnerships.

Pawlak’s own term as children’s rights commissioner will end next month and in response to his column, two KO politicians – Barbara Nowacka and Dorota Łoboda – made clear that they will seek to replace him with a different candidate.

“The day when this man stops discrediting this office will…[come] soon!” tweeted Nowacka. “His place [will be] taken by a competent person who accepts and respects every child, cares for their rights and responds to violence,” added Łoboda.

Błażej Kmieciak, an academic who was appointed by Pawlak in 2020 to head a state commission on sex abuse against children, also criticised Pawlak’s comments.

“I don’t know if crosses will disappear from schools [but] I do know that our Crucified Master would NEVER call a rainbow flag that is important to someone a ‘colored rag’,” tweeted Kmieciak, who stepped down from the commission this year. “He [Jesus] united, not divided…Protect us, Lord, from contempt.”

Pawlak’s comments also came just after an annual event known as Rainbow Friday was held in many Polish schools last week. On that day, pupils wear rainbow-coloured clothing to show solidarity with their LBGT peers.

Under the current PiS government, the event has faced criticism from the authorities, including the education minister, Przemysław Czarnek, and some government-appointed provincial school superintendents.

One of those superintendents, Małgorzata Bielang, has this week ordered school principals in Gdańsk whose institutions held Rainbow Friday events to provide information regarding how they were organised.

A deputy mayor of the city, which is ruled by the opposition, described Bielang’s decision as an “aggressive” attempt at “intimidation” and “interference in schools’ activities”.

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Main image credit: Maciek Skowronek / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Daniel Tilles

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.