Friday, October 06, 2006

Polish Ministry will ‘‘not support cooperation of homosexuals organisations"

The Polish Ministry has rejected a youth proposal from Polish LGBT organisation Campaign Against Homophobia with the words ‘‘the Ministry does not support actions that aim to propagate homosexual behaviour and such attitude among young people.’’

This decision violates article 13 of the Amsterdam treaty, which explicitly forbids the discrimination of sexual minorities in the European Union.

The homophobic rejection comes in relation to a European Union (EU) scheme, which the Polish LGBT group had applied.

The European Youth programme is run by the European Commission and designed to facilitate cooperation across Europe between youth aged 18-25.

The youth programme is designed to be equally opened for all, but this Polish example shows this is certainly not the case.

The Polish campaign against homophobia had applied for the European Voluntary Service (EVS) which gives a young person the chance to spend up to 12 months in another country working as a volunteer.

Decisions are made by national agencies which are in every member state of the EU. This means that decisions are made locally, they should however be in accordance with the general programme guidelines.

The Polish National Agency rejected the campaign against homophobia application stating: ‘‘the campaign is against the policy of raising children and youth, which is implemented by the Ministry. The policy of Ministry does not support actions that aim to propagate homosexual behaviour and such attitude among young people.’’

The policy of the Polish ministry ‘‘is not to support cooperation of homosexuals organisations."

Homophobia in Poland will no doubt surprise few, yet this is the first time the Ministry has openly declared its homophobia, stating that they refuse in principle to support LGBT organisations.

This overt homophobia contradicts Poland's supposed ‘official’ attitude against homosexuals. Prime-Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski on a trip to Brussels told the European Commission: "(Do) not to believe in the myth of Poland as an anti-Semitic, homophobic and xenophobic country… People with such preferences have full rights in Poland, there is no tradition in Poland of persecuting such people."
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