PRIDE & PREJUDICE: Trying Hard to Score Political Points in Poland. . .United States Ambassador Brzezinski sends a Message “America embraces equality"

Brzezinski told The Associated Press that his embassy “has heard disturbing reports of an organized campaign targeting Poland’s LGBTQI+ community with hate, lies, and slander in an attempt to divide Polish society. These attempts to sow divisions only strengthen the hand of those who seek to weaken democracy.. . .We hope these reports are not true. We hope disagreement does not devolve into discrimination or worse," Brzezinski said. 

"Words matter. Hate masquerading as morality can play no productive role in our societies.”

• As Polish President Andrzej Duda campaigned for reelection in 2020, he called the promotion of LGBTQ+ rights an “ideology” more destructive than communism. The education minister, who oversees schools, was appointed to that job after saying LGBTQ+ members are not equal to “normal people."
• Last summer, the ruling party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, mocked transgender people, saying “we must protect ourselves from madness.”
• And this spring, Poland’s commissioner for children’s rights ordered an inspection of schools that were ranked as the most LGBT-friendly in the country, saying he wanted to make sure principals were checking their employees against a pedophile registry.

US ambassador marches in Warsaw Pride parade, sending message to NATO ally 

The United States ambassador in Poland has joined the yearly Pride parade in Warsaw

By VANESSA GERA - Associated Press

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The United States ambassador held a U.S. flag high as he marched in the yearly Pride parade in Warsaw on Saturday, a clear message of Washington's opposition to discrimination in a country where LGBTQ+ people are facing an uphill struggle.
“America embraces equality,” Ambassador Mark Brzezinski said, as he marched with more than 30 other members of the U.S. Embassy and alongsides representatives from Canada, Austria and other Western countries in the Equality Parade.

In recent years Western governments have been alarmed by a conservative government in Warsaw that depicts gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people as threats to the nation and its children.