A Polish court on Thursday ordered a weekly news magazine to temporarily halt the distribution of anti-LGBT stickers with its current edition.
The stickers, which accompanied the edition of the Gazeta Polska weekly that came out Wednesday, sparked condemnation from the opposition, gay rights activists and even the US ambassador.
They feature a large black X over an LGBT+ rainbow motif, with the caption "This is an LGBT-free zone".
"We will demand an apology," lawyer Michal Wawrykiewicz told AFP.
LGBT+ rights have become a hot-button issue in the staunchly Catholic EU country ahead of an October general election after Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the powerful leader of the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party, dubbed them a "threat" and put the issue high on his party's campaign agenda.
Kaczynski echoes strong and repeated declarations by Poland's Roman Catholic Church against gay rights.
Poland's EMPIK bookstores and British-owned BP petrol stations said they would not be selling Wednesday's edition of Gazeta Polska containing the stickers.
The caption echoes developments at local government level where communities, mostly allied with the PiS, have adopted resolutions declaring themselves "free of LGBT ideology" in the wake of Kaczynski's comments.
"Over the last few months we've witnessed a festival of homophobic hate," Cecylia Jakubczak, an activist with the Warsaw-based Campaign Against Homophobia rights group, told AFP on Wednesday.
"Words of contempt are coming from governing politicians and representatives of the Church and media outlets allied with them like Gazeta Polska," she added, calling the stickers "scandalous" and "dehumanising".
The sticker campaign follows weekend violence that marred the first gay pride parade in the eastern Polish city of Bialystok where football hooligans, some with far-right sympathies, attacked marchers and police.
A Polish court on Thursday ordered a weekly news magazine to temporarily halt the distribution of anti-LGBT stickers with its current edition.
The stickers, which accompanied the edition of the Gazeta Polska weekly that came out Wednesday, sparked condemnation from the opposition, gay rights activists and even the US ambassador.
They feature a large black X over an LGBT+ rainbow motif, with the caption “This is an LGBT-free zone”.
“We will demand an apology,” lawyer Michal Wawrykiewicz told AFP.
LGBT+ rights have become a hot-button issue in the staunchly Catholic EU country ahead of an October general election after Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the powerful leader of the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party, dubbed them a “threat” and put the issue high on his party’s campaign agenda.
Kaczynski echoes strong and repeated declarations by Poland’s Roman Catholic Church against gay rights.
Poland’s EMPIK bookstores and British-owned BP petrol stations said they would not be selling Wednesday’s edition of Gazeta Polska containing the stickers.
The caption echoes developments at local government level where communities, mostly allied with the PiS, have adopted resolutions declaring themselves “free of LGBT ideology” in the wake of Kaczynski’s comments.
“Over the last few months we’ve witnessed a festival of homophobic hate,” Cecylia Jakubczak, an activist with the Warsaw-based Campaign Against Homophobia rights group, told AFP on Wednesday.
“Words of contempt are coming from governing politicians and representatives of the Church and media outlets allied with them like Gazeta Polska,” she added, calling the stickers “scandalous” and “dehumanising”.
The sticker campaign follows weekend violence that marred the first gay pride parade in the eastern Polish city of Bialystok where football hooligans, some with far-right sympathies, attacked marchers and police.
