“There is no room, nor will there ever be any room for homosexual activism within the school system in Poland on my watch.”
By Gudrun Schultz
WARSAW, Poland, May 17, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Poland Education Minister Roman Giertych called for a ban on the “propagation of homosexuality” in schools on Wednesday, saying the proposal would protect traditional family values.
Any promotion of “homosexuality, pornography or other phenomena violating moral norms” would be prohibited in schools under Giertych’s proposed amendments to the education law.
Giertych is head of the League of Polish Families and Deputy Prime Minister for Poland. He defended the proposals against accusations of discrimination, the Associated Press reported, saying the amendments would “not discriminate against anyone.”
“It is only to protect youth from the propagation of views that threaten marriage, threaten family, and threaten the duties of school, which are to prepare one to fulfill family duties and the duties of a citizen,” he said.Polish officials were directly targeted by a resolution passed last month in the European Parliament that condemned the government for “inciting discrimination and hatred based on sexual orientation” with policies opposing homosexuality.
Giertych has taken a strong stand in the Polish government’s opposition to homosexuality and abortion and has criticized the increasing promotion of homosexuality in European culture. At an informal meeting of European education ministers held in Heidelberg, Germany, in March, Giertych told reporters that Europe’s acceptance of homosexual propaganda was the result of “unwise political correctness,” saying also, “[homosexual propaganda must also be limited so children will have the correct view of the family.”
In June 2006 Giertych officially dismissed the Director of Polish In-Service Teachers, Miroslaw Sielatycki, for publishing a manual on human rights education for youth that endorsed homosexuality. The Education Minister has said in the past that “there is no room, nor will there ever be any room for homosexual activism within the school system in Poland on my watch.”
Polish officials, including Giertych, warned the European Union that Poland would not agree to regulations established in the European Parliament in support of abortion, homosexual rights and same-sex marriage during the World Congress of Families IV held in Warsaw May 11-13.
The Education Minister said he anticipates enough parliamentary support to ensure the changes to the education law take place, saying the government backs the proposal to keep homosexual propaganda out of the schools.
In related news, Poland’s governing party introduced a draft law Tuesday encouraging local officials to change street names and remove monuments that glorify communist era rulers, the Associated Press reported. The law would “help us close the chapter on communism, the inglorious past that we went through after World War II,” said Marek Kuchcinski, parliament leader of Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s Law and Justice party.