Lech Walesa Despised For Gay Rights Comments
 

You cannot speak out on this matter in public. Its just unreal what is happening.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...03-03-07-09-36

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Lech Walesa, the Polish democracy icon and Nobel peace prize winner, has sparked outrage in Poland by saying that gays have no right to a prominent role in politics and that as a minority they need to "adjust to smaller things."

Some commentators are now suggesting that Walesa, the leading figure in Poland's successful democracy struggle against communism, has irreparably harmed his legacy.

Walesa said in a television interview on Friday that he believes gays have no right to sit on the front benches in Parliament and, if represented at all, should sit in the back, "and even behind a wall."

"They have to know that they are a minority and must adjust to smaller things. And not rise to the greatest heights, the greatest hours, the greatest provocations, spoiling things for the others and taking (what they want) from the majority," he told the private broadcaster TVN during a discussion of gay rights. "I don't agree to this and I will never agree to it."

"A minority should not impose itself on the majority," Walesa said.

The words have enraged many.

"From a human point of view his language was appalling. It was the statement of a troglodyte," said Jerzy Wenderlich, a deputy speaker of Parliament with the Democratic Left Alliance.

In some ways the uproar says as much about Poland today as it does about Walesa.

Walesa, Poland's first democratic-era president, is a deeply conservative Roman Catholic and a father of eight. But, the democracy he helped create in 1989 from the turmoil of strikes and other protests has had a profound social transformation in recent years.

Poland is a traditionally conservative and Catholic society that long suppressed discussions of gay rights. The topic was essentially taboo under communism, and in the early years of democracy. The Polish church, which has a strong role in political life, still holds that homosexuality is deviant, while gays and lesbians say they face discrimination and even violence.

However, much has changed. A watershed moment came in 2011 when a new progressive and anti-clerical party - Palikot's Movement - entered Parliament for the first time. Taking seats for the party were Anna Grodzka, a transsexual, and Robert Biedron, who is openly gay. These were all historic firsts.

The two have been in the public eye while lawmakers have debated a civil partnership law. Though lawmakers have recently struck down proposals, the discussions continue. A new campaign was just launched to fight taboos.

Some predicted the consequences for Walesa could be serious.

A national committee devoted to fighting hate speech and other crimes filed a complaint with prosecutors on Sunday in Gdansk, Walesa's home city, accusing him of promoting "propaganda of hate against a sexual minority."

Walesa is no longer active in Polish political life, though he is often interviewed and asked his opinion on current affairs. Much of his time is spent giving lectures internationally on his role in fighting communism and on issues of peace and democracy.

"Now nobody in their right mind will invite Lech Walesa as a moral authority, knowing what he said," Wenderlich said.

Monika Olejnik, a leading television journalist, said Walesa "disgraced the Nobel prize."

Some, however, said they were not surprised by Walesa's words.

"I am surprised that only now we are noticing that Walesa is not in control of what he says and that he has views that are far from being politically correct," said Adam Bielan, a conservative Polish member of the European Parliament.

Re: Lech Walesa Despised For Gay Rights Comments
 

Instead of preaching the Gospel with patience and love... we've made martyrs out of them. :(

Re: Lech Walesa Despised For Gay Rights Comments
 

THEY are the martyrs? LOL. If anyone speaks openly against "gay" where I work they are fired. Before its over true disciples of Christ will be behind the prison bars if they dare tell someone "gay" is a sin.

Most everyone I know treats them patience and love.

Re: Lech Walesa Despised For Gay Rights Comments
 

It sad when the powers that be try to silence truth.

Re: Lech Walesa Despised For Gay Rights Comments
 

They should sit behind a wall?

Re: Lech Walesa Despised For Gay Rights Comments
 

Mixing religious convictions with civil laws for heathens will result in dead religious people (influentially) and dead law breakers.

Neither one of those end results are positive in my mind.

Let sinners be sinners, let the church be the church, and let government govern without ever treading on the rights of either to thrive.

Re: Lech Walesa Despised For Gay Rights Comments
 

I don't think this has anything to do with religion at all it has to do with common sense.

Why on Earth is there a special place in parliament for sexual orientations?

"Gay" is not a race, ethnicity, culture, state, territory, political party, or interest group, it is a sexual orientation. There should not be special consideration given to "gay" politicians, and the fact that this is being overlooked shows how morally depraved our world is.

This is far deeper then religion, this has to do with an agenda. An anti-family, anti-children, anti-parenting, anti-morality agenda. If you are too blind to see this you need to have your eyes checked, we've been screaming about this for years and people are just now waking up now that they're giving middle school children pamphlets about the "joys" of safe sodomy and how its okay for them to explore sexuality in American public schools, and yet some people STILL can't see that there's an agenda behind all this "tolerance" mess.

When they start locking up preachers in America you will cry, you will moan, you will be depressed, some of you will actually go along with it by that time, but you will not be able to say there weren't people here in America just like there were in Europe over the years that warned that this was coming down the road.

Re: Lech Walesa Despised For Gay Rights Comments
 

There is absolutely nothing sensible about suggesting that any heathen should sit behind a wall in order to participate in a heathen government whose God-ordained role is to rule over heathens and Christians alike in a fair and just manner.

Re: Lech Walesa Despised For Gay Rights Comments
 

It will be a good day for American Christians when our government is no longer interested in politicizing our faith and courting our votes.

I want our rights as Christians to always be protected as they are now. But when the day comes when that is not the case here in America, you will see a CHRISTIAN REVIVAL worthy of comparison to the Book of Acts!


We want Book of Acts experiences, but we don't want what the Christians in the Book of Acts actually experienced.

I personally don't want to see my friends and loved ones used as human torches-- but whenever the Church is persecuted, God is exalted and the Church multiplies.