International Briefs: March 1

by Rex Wockner

Polish president disparages gays

Speaking at a National Forum On Europe meeting in Ireland on Feb. 20, Polish President Lech Kaczynski warned that if homosexuality “were to be promoted on a grand scale, the human race would disappear.”
“Imagine what grand changes would occur in mores if the traditional links between men and women were set aside, he said.
Reports said others in attendance gasped at the remarks.
Kaczynski, who banned the gay pride parade in 2004 and 2005 when he was mayor of Warsaw, said he’d do it again if he were mayor today.
“This is a tendency, an orientation that has always existed, I don’t know why,” he said. “I do not intend to combat it, to force them into therapy. But at the same time, I don’t think it’s appropriate that they should promote their sexual orientation.”
Openly gay Irish Senator David Norris called Kaczynski’s comments “ignorant, unsophisticated … a disgrace” and representative of “his very limited intelligence.”
Dublin Mayor Vincent Jackson said Kaczynski’s “beliefs are of a bygone age.”

Malta OKs transsexual marriage

Malta’s Civil Court ordered the Public Registry to issue marriage banns (an announcement of a proposed marriage) for a post-operative transsexual woman, The Times of Malta reported Feb. 16.
Justice Gino Camilleri said a union between the woman and her male partner would not violate the nation’s Marriage Act.
He also told the registry to change the woman’s gender designation in other official documents.

French court nixes lesbian adoption

France’s top appeals court refused Feb. 20 to let a lesbian adopt her partner’s biological child.
The court said such an adoption is possible only within a marriage. Same-sex couples are not allowed to marry in France, although they can enter civil unions.
Adoption outside of a marriage requires the biological parent or parents to relinquish their parental authority, the court said.