NYC man protest Polish president for anti-gay marriage speech

By RYAN LUCAS

Associated Press Writer

March 19, 2008

WARSAW, Poland

A gay New York man has filed a complaint against the Polish president for using images of him and his partner in a national speech condemning homosexual marriage.

A brief video clip of Brendan Fay's wedding with his partner Tom Moulton was woven into President Lech Kaczynski's televised address to the nation Monday night.

Fay said that Polish immigrants and reporters began calling him on Tuesday, asking how he felt about having his image used in the address.

"My initial reaction was one of surprise and shock really," said Fay, a longtime gay activist who is a co-founder of the All Inclusive St. Patrick's Day Parade in Queens.

The video, along with a photo of the couple's marriage certificate, was shown as the president warned against the dangers of adopting the EU's new treaty and its Charter of Fundamental Rights, which Kaczynski says could open the door to same-sex marriage in Poland.

It was not immediately clear how the images were obtained.

Fay said he submitted his complaint to the Polish consulate in New York on Tuesday.

"Our images clearly were being used in a campaign by the president of Poland against lesbian and gay persons, and fostering intolerance and fear among the people of Poland," he said in a telephone interview from New York Wednesday morning.

"I started getting translations of the phrase the president used as the image appeared... My reaction was just really... I thought, oh my God, what an insult... Tom and I are just a couple, like any other couple around the world."

Fay, a documentary filmmaker who was born in Ireland but is now a New York resident, said he submitted his complaint to the Polish consulate in New York on Tuesday.

Moulton, a pediatric oncologist, said EU countries that permit same-sex marriage haven't suffered from it.

"It has not brought down their economy, it hasn't destroyed any of the heterosexual marriages... it hasn't brought down the families. If anything, it has strengthened the families," Moulton said.

In his letter to consul Krzysztof Kasprzyk, Fay wrote that the couple is "frustrated to hear that images from such a joyous day are used to spread intolerance." The couple was married in Canada.

He later added that the couple "would never have agreed to permit our photographs as part of a homophobic campaign."

There is little support for same-sex marriage in Poland, a deeply Catholic country which joined the European Union in 2004. The Polish constitution states that marriage is only between a man and a woman.

As mayor of Warsaw, Kaczynski refused to grant parade permits for gay rights marches, while his twin brother, former prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has said "it's not in the interest of any society to increase the number of homosexuals."