As mayor of Warsaw, President Kaczynski opposed the right of lesbian and gay people to basic freedoms and equal respect. As president, he will determine whether Poland protects rights or chips away at them. Europe is waiting for the answer. |
Equality and respect for all are central to Europe's democratic tradition. Bans on gay pride marches and thinly veiled calls for censorship send a message that minority rights are at the mercy of the majority. They violate Poland's European and international obligations. |
Fifty-two lives, 52 reputations and 52 human beings are being damaged. This is what is brutal about this. |
Human rights are not a popularity contest. |
Human rights are not a popularity contest. Letting this march proceed is an international obligation. If prejudice is allowed to trump the rights that all citizens should enjoy, then everyone's freedoms are ultimately endangered. |
I talked to somebody about that yesterday, |
I was glad to see [the report] talked about issues of discrimination. |
I would like to know what's changed in the United States' position in the past four years. It's clearly not an issue of pedophilia. It's an issue of homophobia. |
I wouldn't be doing my job as a coach here, ... if I said,'I don't think we could.' I think we have enough talent to win the ballgame if breaks go our way. Now if breaks go their way, they have plenty of talent to make sure we don't win the ballgame. |
I'll be nostalgic when they form the A, |
if I said, ‘I don’t think we could.’ I think we have enough talent to win the ballgame if breaks go our way. Now if breaks go their way, they have plenty of talent to make sure we don’t win the ballgame. |
If we pull off an upset, ... I might hang around the field a little while. |
Iran kills gay people. They have no business trying to export that kind of attitude to the floor of the U.N. |
Lobbying is the next step. I would say that the four [organizations] who organized the letter [to Rice] will be monitoring this very closely.... We want them to change their votes. We're going to put our efforts into embarrassing them.... [These countries] stand up and say gay people don't exist. Then they arrest them. There need to be gay people in the U.N. to say we do exist. |
Mayor Luzhkov is giving prejudice a veto over the rights to peaceful expression and assembly. The freedom to speak out and demonstrate publicly is not just a reflection of diversity. It is essential to democracy. |