Discussion of All Things Political

WARSAW, Jun 16, 2011 (IPS) - About 5,000 people attended the Equality Parade in Polish capital Warsaw this weekend. Among them, the country’s first transgender rights activists, who in the last couple of years have made great strides in gaining recognition for the country’s transgender community.

Organisers of the Warsaw Equality Parade were keen to stress that the event was not really a gay pride. Rather, it was a march of all those who feel marginalised in Polish society – from sexual minorities to old people and people with disabilities. Moreover, it was not meant to be a celebration necessarily, but more a statement of how diverse this society is.

"This is not a gay pride, because we don’t really have something to celebrate," explained Szymon Niemiec, one of the main organisers and initiator of the Equality Parade in Poland. "Instead, we are trying to show Polish people the diversity of our society, that yes, there are gays in Poland, there are drag queens and there are queers."

Putting the emphasis on recognition and acceptance of all marginalised social categories - rather than on pride - may be a more digestible message for a Polish society where over 90 percent of the population is affiliated with a conservative Catholic Church and where mainstream politicians often promote homophobic messages.MORE

AlJazeeraEnglish — April 10, 2010 — Poland has declared a week of national mourning following the death of its president and many of its political and military leaders in a plane crash in Russia.

In one of the country's worst days since the second world war, 97 people were killed when their plane went down in heavy fog.

The group had been travelling to western Russia for a memorial service marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, in which Russian forces killed more than 20,000 Polish prisoners of war.

Church leaders and some of the families of those who had died in the massacre were also on board.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister has promised a swift investigation into the incident and it leading the probe himself.

Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull reports from Warsaw. (Apr 11, 2010)

Lech Kaczynski, the Polish president, will be buried alongside his wife on Saturday at the end of an official week of mourning.

Russian investigators have said there was nothing technically wrong with the plane that crashed killing the president and 95 others on its way to a memorial service in Smolensk.

Some have suggested that the pilots may have been pressured by people aboard the plane to land quickly so as not to miss the ceremony they were due to attend, which had previously been denied.

Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull reports from Warsaw.