Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Polish woman fined for verbally abusing gay neighbor
08.07.2009 4:00pm EDT
(Poland) A Polish woman has been ordered by a judge to cease from calling her neighbor, Ryszard Giersz, gay slurs and was ordered to pay him the equivalent of more than $5,000.
Regarded as groundbreaking by Polish activists, the case was the first time a gay man or woman has so openly fought for their rights in a Polish court according to Robert Biedron from the Polish rights group Campaign Against Homophobia.The woman, Anna S., 44, would call Giersz “pedal,” a Polish insult meaning “fag” or “queer” in English, and would repeatedly verbally harass the young man and his partner.
Giersz, 25, would receive threats from other people in town when walking with his partner, and would sometimes have tomatoes or rocks thrown at him. Talking with reporters after the trial, Giersz said he may use the money he was awarded to move to a different location.
“I’m a normal person and I just want to live with my partner in peace,” he said. “The last six months have completely knocked us out.”
Read the full BBC News story here.
Wake up!!!!! Your not alllowed to speak to your fellow human beings in this manner. you should be fined and i hope they keep fining you!!!
Throwing things at people is wrong. That said, why waste perfectly good tomatoes?
Our constitution protects freedom of speech. Is that line crossed when it includes physical violence, or when it hurts someones feelings? Can I sue my neighbor for calling me “Fag”, or do I have to wait until he hits me over the head with a shovel? Give me some input please
Morgan: Your Jarek sounds just like my Polish dad!
This is more proof that wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age.
A 44-year old woman, you’d think, would have been beyond teenage name calling.
Hopefully that’s a lot of money in Poland and will make others think twice about calling people derogatory names.
Not all Polish people are bad. One of my friends is a nice gay-friendly straight guy Jarek from Krakow, Poland (the movie Schindler’s List was film in Krakow and I was shown sites in Krakow that were in the movie) whom I met here at the ocean resort town of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware where he was working at the front desk in my hotel. He was a non-Jewish guy living in the old Jewish part of Krakow right next to the Jewish museum. Not bigotted toward anyone. And there are Jewish restaurants nearby. And not far away a few gay bars. He says that most of the people in his area tended to keep to themselves and don’t go out of their way to talk to you usually but were basically OK people. I found out if I needed something, someone would try to help even if they couldn’t speak much English. Fortunately I was able to speak a certain amount of phrase book Polish to help myself out.
ok so now poland is ahead of america in the rights department……………..