Mar 19, 2008 9:52 am US/Eastern
NYC Man Protests Polish Pres. For Anti-Gay Speech
WARSAW, Poland (AP) ―
A gay New York man has filed a complaint against the Polish president for using images of him and his partner in a national speech condemning homosexual marriage.
The images related to the wedding of Brendan Fay to Tom Moulton were woven into President Lech Kaczynski's televised address to the nation Monday night.
Fay said that Polish immigrants and reporters began calling him on Tuesday, asking how he felt about having his image used in the address.
"My inital reaction was one of surprise and shock really," said Fay, a longtime gay activist who is a co-founder of the All Inclusive St. Patrick's Day Parade in Queens.
The images—including a marriage certificate identifying the couple—were shown as the president warned against the dangers of adopting the EU's new treaty and its Charter of Fundamental Rights, which Kaczynski says could open the door to same-sex marriage in Poland.
Fay said he submitted his complaint to the Polish consulate in New York on Tuesday.
"Our images clearly were being used in a campaign by the president of Poland against lesbian and gay persons, and fostering intolerance and fear among the people of Poland," he said on Wednesday morning.
In his letter to consul Krzysztof Kasprzyk, Fay wrote that the couple is "frustrated to hear that images from such a joyous day are used to spread intolerance."
He later added that the couple "would never have agreed to permit our photographs as part of a homophobic campaign."
There is little support for same-sex marriage in Poland, a deeply Catholic country which joined the European Union in 2004. The Polish constitution states that marriage is only between a man and a woman.
As mayor of Warsaw, Kaczynski refused to grant parade permits for gay rights marches, while his twin brother, former prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has said "it's not in the interest of any society to increase the number of homosexuals."
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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