Thousands of people protested in Poland against the arrest of an LGBT activist. At a demonstration in Warsaw on Friday evening, police arrested about 50 people. Dozens of demonstrators had tried to prevent the police from arresting the activist. They blocked the police car carrying the arrested woman, and according to police reports, some even jumped onto the vehicle.
As the Polish police announced on Twitter, the 48 people arrested are accused of offenses including insulting police officers and damaging a police car. The following day, several thousand people again took to the streets with rainbow flags and umbrellas.
Previously, a court had ordered the arrested activist to be held in pretrial detention for two months. She is accused of damaging a delivery van in Warsaw in June, which bore homophobic slogans. She is also alleged to have pushed the van's owner, a volunteer for an anti-abortion foundation. In court documents, the activist is officially listed as a man named Michał Sz., but she identifies as a woman named Margot.
The Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, criticized the arrest and demanded the immediate release of the detained activist. The order sends a "frosty signal for freedom of expression and the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people," she wrote on Twitter.
The detainee belongs to an activist group called Stop the Nonsense. The group is suspected of having draped several monuments in Warsaw with LGBT flags and anarchist symbols, including a statue of Jesus. A few days ago, charges were filed against three alleged perpetrators for desecrating monuments and offending religious feelings.
The protests on Saturday were directed against "violence and systemic homophobia," according to the organizers. "Empathy, solidarity, action!" read one banner. Some demonstrators chanted slogans against the police.
A protest also took place in the Polish city of Lublin, southeast of Warsaw. Activists marched through the city center with rainbow flags and balloons and gathered in front of the public prosecutor's office. Lublin has declared itself an "LGBT-free zone."
Homophobia is widespread in Poland. President Andrzej Duda, who was re-elected in July, also campaigned on this issue with verbal attacks against proponents of a supposed "LGBT ideology."
