GAY COUPLE MET BY POLISH MEDIA FRENZY

Gay Americans Brendan Fay and Tom Moulton were met by a media frenzy when they arrived at Warsaw airport on Sunday for a three-day visit.

The couple, who were married in Canada, hit the international headlines when their wedding images were used without permission in Polish President Lech Kaczynski’s recent televised prime-time address.

The broadcast aimed to scare the Polish people against supporting the EU Lisbon Treaty (which prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation).

The trip is sponsored by TVN Television.

Their first day in Poland was an opportunity to meet with Polish gay rights leaders Tomasz Szypula and Greg Czarnecki from the Campaign Against Homophobia (Kampania Przeciw Homofobii – KPH) as well as other members of the LGBT community.

Fay and Moulton said they were eager to get to know about the situation and issues of LGBT people in the East European nation.

The Polish activists showed the couple from New York some major sites in the city such as the former Jewish Ghetto and the Old Town and attended a Catholic Mass in the afternoon.

Later they had dinner together with one of Poland’s most prominent gay couples Tomasz Raczek, film critic, and Marcin Szczygielski, writer.

“For us this is a journey of friendship and solidarity. It’s a most unexpected opportunity to share our story and hear the stories of the courageous lesbian and gay community in Poland”, said Fay and Moulton.

In a statement, KPH said: “We are very honoured to have Fay and Moulton here in order to start a public dialogue on domestic partnerships.

“We are happy that in fact the couple has received a lot of expressions of support from Poles both within the country and abroad.”