A draft ban on gatherings of LGBT people in the Sejm. Czarzasty: I listened to the most disgusting speech

“I listened to the most disgusting speech in the Seym for two years, as I sit here,” said Deputy Speaker of the Seym Włodzimierz Czarzasty after the speech of Krzysztof Kasprzak, a representative of the Legislative Initiative Committee. On Thursday evening, the first reading of the citizens’ draft amendments to the law on assemblies, which prohibits equality marches, began in the Sejm. Deputy Marshal Czarzasty, during the debate on the project, hung out a rainbow flag.

At the Thursday session of the Sejm, the reading of the civic draft amendments to the Law on Assemblies began. This project – by the Kai Godek Foundation – assumes that the purpose of the assembly cannot be, inter alia, to question marriage as a union between a woman and a man, promoting the extension of marriage to persons of the same sex, promoting legal solutions aimed at privileging such relationships, promoting the adoption of children by such relationships, promoting a different orientation than heterosexual, promoting gender as an entity independent of biological conditions, and promoting the sexual activity of minors.

The rationale for the draft was presented in the Sejm by the representative of the Legislative Initiative Committee, Krzysztof Kasprzak. His speech was repeatedly interrupted by opposition MPs who loudly protested against some of his statements. In the last seconds of the statutory time he had to speak, the opposition counted the seconds aloud.

After the time of Kasprzak’s speech, Włodzimierz Czarzasty (Left), the chairman of the session, deputy speaker of the Sejm, cut off his microphone. Then, Grzegorz Braun, a member of the Confederation, approached Czarzasty, demanding that the deputy marshal allow Kasprzak to continue his justification. Braun pointed out that the representative of the Legislative Initiative Committee could not use his time to the full because he was jammed. The deputy also accused Czarzasty of failing to fulfill his duties as the deputy speaker chairing the deliberations.

Czarzasty, however, did not succumb to Braun’s persuasion. Democracy comes at a high price. I would like to tell you that I listened to the most disgusting speech in the Seym for the last two years, when I sit in it – replied the deputy marshal.

At the same time, Czarzasty hung a small flag in the colors of the rainbow above the rostrum – above which the chairman of the session is sitting. The cast-off rainbow flag was removed during the debate, when Deputy Marshal Ryszard Terlecki (PiS) chaired the meeting.

When Kasprzak was answering the questions asked during the debate Left MPs stood with their backs to the Sejm rostrum.

At the intersection of Wiejska and Matejki streets in Warsaw, the demonstrators who protested against the civic project to amend the Law on Assemblies.