The Life and Family Foundation and Ordo Iuris Institute Center for International Law have announced plans to appeal the cases of three LGBT activists who were acquitted of insulting religious feelings to the Polish Supreme Court.
Last week, the District Court in the city of Płock maintained a verdict which acquitted three LGBT activists who had been accused of putting up several stickers and posters depicting the Black Madonna of Częstochowa with a rainbow halo in April 2019.
The three activists claimed that their actions were a response to an installation depicting the Holy Sepulcher at the city’s church of St. Dominik, which suggested LGBT activities were a sin for Christians.
In March 2021, the court acquitted the women and declared that their actions did not fulfill the criteria of a prohibited act and held that the LGBT rainbow symbol cannot be considered insulting. Moreover, the court stated that the protest of the accused was meant to support non-heteronormative people in their fight for equality.
The regional court supported the verdict of the district court, agreeing that the activists’ actions were a response to allegedly homophobic content in the church installation. It also agreed that the rainbow aureole’s placement was not an insult to religious beliefs.
The second court declared that every group, including the LGBT community, had a right to present its convictions and fight for its rights under the condition that the content they display will not be insulting or demeaning and their actions would not incite hatred or intolerance.
“The court sided with blasphemy. It proved that in Poland, one can profane the most sacred symbols, and they need only to properly explain doing so. In this sense, it is encouragement for breaking the law,” Paweł Lisicki, the editor-in-chief of Do Rzeczy weekly, wrote while evaluating the Płock court’s verdict.
