White nationalists wipe feet on Pride flag at festival in Poland
Far-right nationalists gathered to celebrate Poland's Independence Day, despite a court ban on the event
White nationalists in Poland invited guests at a festival booth to wipe their feet on a Pride flag, in the latest example of the country’s backward slide on LGBTQ rights.
The incident took place on Nov. 11, during Poland’s far-right Independence Day gathering in Warsaw, Storyful reports.
The event was banned by a court order due to past instances of violence, but that was challenged by Poland’s nationalistic and anti-LGBTQ Law and Justice government.
Footage from the event, which featured an estimated 100,000 people, captured attendees at a booth for All-Poland Youth wiping their feet on a Pride flag.
The far-right nationalist group streamed the display of hate on Facebook, showing attendees repeatedly treading and deliberately wiping their feet on the flag while perusing merchandise at All-Poland’s booth.
Earlier this year, the European Union launched legal action against Poland due to the country’s worsening attitudes towards LGBTQ people.
Dozens of regions and municipalities have introduced so-called “LGBT-free zones,” declaring that LGBTQ people are not welcome within their boundaries and considering LGBTQ rights to be a form of “propaganda” that runs counter to the right-wing government’s attempts to promote family structure and increase birth rates.
Related: EU declared “LGBTIQ freedom zone” to counter Poland’s “LGBT-free” cities
A few of those regions have since repealed the “LGBT-free” zones, after the European Commission threatened to pull up to $150 million in funding.
The resolutions had largely been symbolic ammunition for Poland’s culture war. Led by anti-LGBTQ populist Viktor Orban and his right-wing Law and Justice party, the country does not legally recognize transgender people or same-sex relationships, or allow same-sex couples to adopt children.
Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro had called the EU’s pressure “an attack on Poland and local governments, saying it “amounted to blackmail.”
Related: Joe Biden criticizes ‘LGBT-free zones’ in Poland
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, has repeatedly spoken out against the rising levels of anti-LGBTQ intolerance in some EU member states.
“Europe will never allow parts of our society to be stigmatised: be it because of whom they love, because of their age, their ethnicity, their political opinions, or their religious beliefs,” she said earlier this month.
Von der Leyen previously slammed Poland’s “LGBT-free zones,” calling them “humanity-free zones” and saying they have “no place in our Union.”
“I will not rest when it comes to building a union of equality,” von der Leyen said at the time. “A Union where you can be who you are and love who you want — without fear of recrimination or discrimination.
“Because being yourself is not your ideology,” she added. “It’s your identity. And no one can ever take it away.”
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