Activist arrested in Poland for offending poster of Virgin Mary in rainbow halo





Demonstrators on Monday (May 6) gathered outside the Archbishop of Wrocław's residence in protest again the detention of a woman who posted images near a church in central Poland of the Virgin Mary with her halo painted to resemble the rainbow flag.

Police searched home of a man who dressed monument to Lech Kaczyński. Opposition outraged Civic Platform... czytaj dalej » Protesters held posters of the image in solidarity with Elżbieta Podleśna, who was arrested earlier on Monday, and who could face up to two years in prison if she is charged with offending religious beliefs.

The case highlights the divisions within devoutly Catholic Poland ahead of European and national parliamentary elections in which the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) party hopes to make LGBT rights a battleground with the more liberal opposition.

The posters, which appeared last month in the city of Płock, have outraged many Catholics and have been strongly condemned by Poland's religious conservatives, including Poland's Interior Minister Joachim Brudziński who said people should not be allowed to offend Catholics if they aren't allowed to offend people of other faiths.

Rights group Amnesty International, which said Podleśna had recently completed an advocacy tour with it to Belgium and the Netherlands raising concerns about the rule of law in Poland, said she should not have been arrested.

Over half of Poles think homosexuality is not normal but can be tolerated, while a quarter believe it should not be tolerated at all, according to a poll carried out in late 2017 by CBOS.

Gay marriage is illegal in Poland and homosexual partnerships are not legally recognised.