Polish LGBT activists protest at Warsaw church against Catholic archbishop

By Alicja Ptak

WARSAW, March 1 (Reuters) - Several dozen activists protested in front of a Warsaw church guarded by police on Sunday as a Catholic archbishop, criticized for his anti-LGBT language, celebrated mass.

Last year, in a sermon, Archbishop Marek Jedraszewski said Poland was under siege from a "rainbow plague" of gay rights campaigners who he compared to Poland's former Communist rulers.

The church in Poland's capital, full of worshippers, was surrounded by police in armored cars, while protesters carried banners reading: "I do not tolerate intolerance", "Rainbow plague welcomes you" and "Archbishop Jedraszewski should resign".

"We are protesting against archbishop Jedraszewski," said filmmaker Bartosz Staszewski, 29. "We are not a rainbow plague, as he has said. We are the citizens of this country and we want to look him in the face."

Unlike nearly all western European countries, which have legalized same-sex marriage and the adoption of children by same-sex couples in recent years, the former Communist countries of the EU's east have mostly held back on expanding gay rights. Read more via Openly