by Rex Wockner
International News
Poland:
Sixty-five percent of Poles support the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, which would commit Poland to the European Union's gay-friendly Charter of Fundamental Rights.
And only 19 percent believed President Lech Kaczynski's March 17 televised warning that adopting the treaty could force Poland to recognize or legalize same-sex marriages, a poll for the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper has found.
The treaty became a hotter topic in Poland after Kaczynski came under fire for using a photo and video clip from New York City gay activist Brendan Fay's 2003 Canadian wedding during the nationally broadcast speech in which he issued the gay-marriage warning.
Fay filed a complaint with Poland's New York consul general, Krzysztof Kasprzyk, who called Kaczynski's use of the photo and video "pitiful."
On March 29, a Polish television network flew Fay and his husband, Thomas Moulton, to Warsaw for an interview.
The Polish gay group Campaign Against Homophobia accused Kaczynski of "ignorance and overt homophobia."
"[I]n light of Lech Kaczynski's decision to ban the [gay] Equality Parade twice [when he was] mayor of Warsaw, we worry that the president is consciously capitalizing on the fears of a certain part of Polish society towards lesbians and gays," the group said.
