PLOCK, Poland (AP) – Three human rights activists were tried in Poland on Wednesday for allegedly desecrating and offending religious sentiment by adding the rainbow symbol of the LGBT rights movement to posters of a revered Roman Catholic icon and displaying it publicly the modified image, including junk. trash cans and mobile toilets.
Activists have said they created posters that used the rainbow to replace the halos of the icon of the Black Madonna and the baby Jesus to protest what they saw as the hostility of the influential Polish Catholic Church towards people. LGBT.
One of the defendants, Elzbieta Podlesna, told the court on Wednesday that her 2019 action in Plock was prompted by a facility in the city’s St. Dominic’s Church that associated LGBT people with crimes and negative behaviors.
All three do not refuse to put up posters on the walls and other places in the church, but do not admit to putting stickers with the image in the trash cans and toilets. They deny the faults.
Polish media identified the other defendants as Anna Prus and Joanna Gzyra-Iskandar.
Activists could face up to two years in prison if convicted on charges of offending religious sentiment and desecrating Poland’s most revered icon, Our Lady of Czestochowa, popularly known as the Black Virgin of Czestochowa.
The original icon has been in the Jasna Gora Monastery in the city of Czestochowa since the 14th century.
A group of supporters with rainbow flags and banners saying “The rainbow offers no offense” gathered in front of the court. No verdict was expected on Wednesday.
Podlesna was arrested in a police raid early in the morning in 2019. She was detained for several hours and questioned about the icon posters that were placed around Plock. A court later said the arrest was unnecessary and ordered him to pay $ 2,000 in damages.
The case has highlighted the clash over social issues in predominantly Catholic Poland. The country’s right-wing government supports laws against insulting beliefs and religious symbols. LGBT rights advocates say the laws are used to stifle human rights and freedom of speech.