West Hollywood wasn't the only proud place this weekend. Gay pride fever swept across Europe, where countless queers came out to show their gay faces.

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While the European Commission folds to Poland's anti-gay ways, the British Embassy in Warsaw plans on fighting the good fight. Ambassador Ric Todd told the press that he and his colleagues plan supporting equality in any way they can:

The UK remains committed to promoting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people overseas.

This small gesture is a symbol of the British Embassy’s commitment to equality and acceptance for all.

This weekend’s Pride March will be a celebration of diversity in Poland, Europe and beyond. I particularly hope participants traveling from the UK will enjoy the festivities.

The embassy in Riga raised the rainbow flag during last week's contentious gay pride march.

That move - and Todd's - are part of a larger movement by the British government, which this year sent out hundreds of LGBT Toolkits: packets with information on gay rights the world over and reiterate that "the UK will lobby and will engage the support of other governments, especially EU members”.

Human Rights Watch puts more pressure on Turkey this morning.

The non-profit last month demanded that the nation cease-and-desist its anti-gay ways. Apparently the Turkish government didn't meet HRW's expectations, because they've today released a 123-page report highlighting human rights abuses against the homos.

In addition to compiling a startling collection of violence - like trans people being raped by cops - HRW's urging the European Union to withhold Turkey's membership until they've cleaned up their act.

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The European Commission didn't even put up a fight!

Fearing opposition from conservative member states, such as Germany, the legislative body scrapped plans to draw up gay inclusive employment discrimination laws. A representative from the group's employment arm remarked:

…We need to be realistic, and we have signals from some member states that they would not support such a horizontal directive and this, of course, is a problem because we need unanimity in council to get the proposal through.

Gay rights have been a big obstacle for European unity. For example, Poland's Senate recently passed its European Union charter sans gay rights, a staple of Union membership.

The Commission will now focus its energies on passing legislation to protect people with disabilities. Hopefully no one will object to that one.

Lech Kaczynski needs a new photo editor.

The Polish president comes under gay fire this morning after using an American couple's wedding video during an anti-gay tirade.

Speaking to his nation, Kaczynski used Brendan Fey and his husband, Tom, to illustrate the dangers of the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights, which includes gay rights. Kaczynski claims that the Charter will lead to an homo infiltration of his Catholic nation.

While Fey's certainly offended by the political implications of the video's use, he's also struck by the irony of the situation: "Tom and I, we are both Catholic, in fact we met at church at Sunday mass."

Uh-oh, Lech, the gays are closer than you think!

Poland
ain't alone! Latvia came out today to protest the European Court of Human Rights' ruling this week that single gays should be able to adopt babies. Two Latvian politicos describes the law as "completely unjustified and unacceptable". The dominant political parties say it refuses to compare gay people with "families". How quaint…

The Polish government continues its anti-gay ways. Officials announced that they will disregard yesterday's historic European Court of Human Rights ruling and will continue denying gay people the right to adopt.

Via UK Gay News:

If a similar judgment dealt with Poland we would still not agree to adoption by homosexuals”, said deputy speaker of the Polish Parliament, Stefan Niesiolowski, a member of the ruling Citizen’s Platform (PO).

“The Court can go on and make a ruling,” he continued. “[But] it still won’t be enforced in Poland. We will defend ourselves because it’s unthinkable that homosexuals would adopt children.”

It's unthinkable that Poland considers it's above EU mandates! Aren't there laws against that? If not, there should be!

A gay bar fight became a legal battle over in England. Brit Andrew Hill reportedly assaulted Sylvia Klos and called her a "Polish cow". We're not sure "Polish" counts as a race, but the British courts seem to:

A web designer who called a security officer a "Polish cow" and told her to "get back to her own country" has been tagged.

[Hill] hit Sylvia Klos on the side of her chest at the Flying Handbag, the pub where she was working in Blackpool.

Hill, 43, of South Meadow Street, Preston, admitted a racially aggravated assault on the Polish woman.

Blackpool Magistrates Court was told how Hill had been loud and aggressive in the gay-friendly pub, and had been asked to leave by Miss Klos.

Hill then made his racist remark and, as another security officer went to help her, he struck Miss Klos.
…
Hill was given a two-month jail term suspended for 12 months. He will be tagged for three months and was also told to pay his victim £150 compensation and £80 court costs.

That could buy a whole lot of beef.

There may be a new day rising in Poland.

Anti-gay Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski acknowledged a crushing defeat in this weekend's election, thus opening the political way for the more evolved Donald Tusk (pictured).

Speaking after the win, Tusk said,

We went into this election in order to make everyone, without exception, feel good in their country, in their home. I thank everyone who, in an impartial way, has helped restore hope among Poles.

Speaking of restoring hope, Tusk vowed to bring Poland in line with European Union standards and practices, thus bringing Kaczynski's exclusionary policies to an end.

Europe's human rights court rejected Poland's appeal over their 2005 Warsaw Pride ban:

Euro MP Michael Cashman has welcomed the decision of the European Court of Human Rights to uphold its previous verdict against the Polish Government and the ban by the Warsaw city authorities of the city’s Gay Pride in 2005.

The ban came while Lech Kaczynski was mayor of Warsaw. Later that year, he was elected President of Poland.

“This ruling can now be added to a growing list of actions being undertaken by the European institutions to defend the fundamental freedoms of not just Polish LGBT individuals, but of all European individuals,” Mr. Cashman, president of the Parliament’s gay and lesbian rights ‘Intergroup’, said this afternoon.

Take that, Kaczynski!

Poland's virulently homophobic president and prime minister, identical twins Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, have been feuding with former president Lech Walesa for years. This well-known animosity all started as a joke, says Walesa's son:

Despite the passage of time, Jaroslaw Walesa remains coy when it comes to the details of his father's joke that so enraged the Kaczynskis. It is widely known, however, to be a politically incorrect story of two brothers who arrive at a party - one with his wife and one with his "husband".

For Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who has suggested gay people should not be allowed to be teachers but is unmarried and lives with his cat and his mother, the "joke" proved unfunny enough to fuel a lifelong animosity against Poland's political icon.

For Lech Walesa's son, the story is proof only of one thing.

"It shows the Kaczynskis have no sense of humour," he said.

Must have hit too close to home: Jaroslaw's long been rumored to be a closet case.

Oregonian gays aren't the only ones getting organized.

As their parliamentary election rapidly approaching, Polish queens have compiled a list of political enemies.

Marek Ryszard and his allies have cataloged Poland's biggest meanings, including deputy minister Roman Giertych, who hopes to infuse his homophobic leanings into the nation's school systems.

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Homos the world over came together this weekend to celebrate the first annual Global Gay Solidarity Day.

American activist Michael Petrelis tells us that America, Canada, Mexico and Poland all saw activists come together to commemorate lost comrades and form a symbolic phalanx against homo-haters.

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