Petrelis Files

Polish President Injects Married
US Gay Activist into EU Legal Battle(Brendan Fay, on the left, marrying his
partner Tom, on the right.)

The longtime gay American activist of many righteous causes and previous media attention, Brendan Fay, originally from Ireland, is making international news today because his gay wedding is of concern to the president of Poland.

This is the first alert I received on Brendan's latest campaign via the Gays Without Borders group on Yahoo from Lukazd Palucki, a young Polish gay blogger and advocate:

Yesterday Polish president Lech Kaczynski sent a video to Polish TV where he said that he will NOT support "Lisbon Treaty" (this document will change rules in UE). He said that this "Lisbon Treaty" will push Poland to "gay marriages".

1. This treaty (unfortunately) won't change anything with gay civil partnership law.

2. Few months ago Lech Kaczynski said that this treaty is his great success (now he change his mind because his twin brother's party is in opposition).

But this is not the end. Kaczynski used in this video photo of two gays during civil marriage ceremony. It was ceremony in Canada, Toronto. (This is not even connected with Europe). Today all Polish media wrote that one of this gays (citizen of USA) is very angry that Kaczynski use this video without his permission.

Part of this video, and commentary from the American gay (in English) is here.

The second thing I received today related to Brendan and the trouble and attention his gay wedding is attracting by head of a European country, came from a reporter in the U.S., who I quickly put in touch with Brendan:

My name is Marcin Poznan and I am a reporter at the "Polish Daily News" which is a Polish-language newspaper published in New York.

Recently, pictures Mr. Fay's marriage in Toronto were used without his knowledge to illustrate anti-gay statements in Polish president's public address. In my opinion this is an outrageous act by Polish authorities.

I know that Mr. Fay is planning to submit an official protest at Polish consulate in New York. I am hoping you will be able to put me in touch with him. We will gladly interview him and publish the content of his written protest.

I am looking forward to your help.

And the day closes, after doing a Google news search for stories on Brendan, with a story from Warsaw on the Agence France-Presse wire.

The AFP headline alone, Gay Spouse Outraged by Polish President's Use of Wedding Video, did much to advance global gay equality, by using the term gay spouse in such a matter-of-fact manner and without quotation marks.

From the AFP:

A gay man from the United States on Tuesday voiced outrage against Poland's President Lech Kaczynski for publicly using a video of his marriage to bash the EU's proposed charter of rights.

"Of course I am outraged that the president and his party would use images of Tom and I, of a very sacred moment for us as a couple," Brendan Fay told Poland's commercial Radio Zet broadcaster.

Kaczynski used a prime-time televised address Monday to argue the EU's proposed Charter of Fundamental Rights, linked to the bloc's crucial reforming Lisbon Treaty, could allow homosexual marriage in Poland, a devoutly Catholic country.

A video of the couple's marriage in Toronto, Canada was broadcast nationwide to illustrate Kaczynski's presidential address. Fey and his spouse were not identified by name in the broadcast.

"It is very sad for me when leaders of a nation such as the president of Poland urge people not to support the Lisbon Treaty because of the possibility of recognising equally same sex couples and our families," Fay told Radio Zet. [...]

Poland's liberal Prime Minister Donald Tusk also slammed the president's address Tuesday.

"To scare Poles by saying that homosexuals and Germans pose a threat to the EU is stupid, indecent, contrary to our fundamental interests and very damaging to Poland's image abroad," Tusk said. [...]

I don't think the president of Poland could have found a better gay advocate to do battle with than Brendan, and I'm grateful Brendan is such a fierce fighter for solidarity with Polish gays and lesbians, full equality and democracy for all.
Click here to watch the Polish president inject a loving gay wedding ceremony into his misguided and hateful campaign of discrimination.