Marchers wave an Israeli flag in Warsaw's Pride Parade, June 8, 2019. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — The organized Jewish community participated for the first time in the Warsaw Pride Parade.
Some 100 members of the community took part in the parade on the streets of the capital, surrounded by 47,000 other participants.
The Jewish delegation was organized by Emil Jezowski, a member of the city’s Jewish community. He said it was important that the community support “the fight against hatred that spilled over non-heteronormative people in Poland in recent months.”
Gay couples’ right to marriage and adoption was a topic of discussion in Poland before the recent European Parliament elections. The country’s ruling Law and Justice Party is against granting gay couples in Poland those rights.
The mayor of Warsaw, Rafal Trzaskowski, attended this year’s parade for the first time. Trzaskowski is associated with the opposition Platforma Obywatelska party.
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Participants in Warsaw’s Pride Parade, June 8, 2019. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
In the parade’s Jewish contingent, the Israeli flag, Jewish Pride flags, and a rainbow chuppah, or wedding canopy, all made appearances.
According to Jezowski, the parade was attended by people “of varying degrees of religious observance.” There also were many sympathizers and friends of the Jewish-LGBT community.
“I am glad that the response was so big and the atmosphere was family-like,” Jezowski told JTA.
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