Foreign Affairs
Polish Government Might Prosecute People Who Fly LGBT White Eagle Flag For Desecrating A National Symbol
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After an LGBT Pride parade in Warsaw, a Polish government official said it might start prosecuting anyone who flies a rainbow-colored Polish flag.
Anyone who flies a rainbow-colored White Eagle flag — or any other national symbol — will be notified to prosecutors for insulting and desecrating a national symbol, the Minister for Internal Affairs Joachim Brudziński tweeted on Sunday. The White Eagle is Poland’s national coat of arms.
Brudziński was responding to a Twitter user who noticed that Polish police did not react to a “desecrated” White Eagle flag, which had the rainbow colors added to it, the colors of LGBT Pride, during a Pride parade.
“The policemen reacted and, in this case, charges will be pressed for contempt and desecration of the national symbols. That’s the Polish police is so trusted among Polish people,” Brudziński wrote, although no one has been prosecuted so far.
Gay marriage is constitutionally illegal in Poland and flags and symbols are protected against insult or profanity.
“Whoever publicly insults, destroys, damages or removes an emblem, banner, standard, flag, ensign or other symbol of the State shall be subject to a fine, the penalty of restriction of liberty or the penalty of deprivation of liberty for up to one year,” Polish law states.
The LGBT-themed Polish flag holders wouldn’t be the first prosecuted for desecrating the flag. A drunken German man was arrested in May 2016 for throwing the Polish flag to the ground, stomping on it, and breaking the flag pole, Inside Poland reported. He was fined 1,500 złoty (about 403 U.S. dollars).
The drunk German got off relatively light compared to a Polish TV station — which received a fine of almost half a million złoty (about 134,643 U.S. dollars) for airing a Polish flag covered in dog excrement in 2013, Radio Poland reported.
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