US Embassy in Poland posts video pushing back on LGBT hate

The U.S. Embassy in Poland posted a video on Wednesday condemning LGBT hate and using the hashtag #WordsMatter.

As Pride Month rounds out its last day, the embassy published a video of people reading hateful comments that were left under the embassy’s social media posts.

According to the BBC, some of the comments include claiming that LGBT community members have been “brainwashed.” 

“Words matter. And on the other side, there are real people, real emotions, and real life. It’s time to end hate – we all deserve respect and human treatment,” tweeted Bix Aliu, the chargé d’affaires at the embassy.

The video follows controversial comments that Polish government officials have made in regards to LGBT rights.

On Monday, Polish Education Minister Przemyslaw Czarnek said in an interview with conservative news outlet Sieci that Poland should copy a Hungary law that would make any school materials that are thought to be promoting homosexuality banned from schools, according to Reuters.

“This law states that school lessons touching on questions of sexuality must not promote gender reassignment or homosexuality,” Czarnek reportedly said, according to Reuters. “We should copy these regulations on Polish soil in their entirety!”

Additionally, he questioned whether people attending a march supporting LGBT rights earlier this month were “normal” and said the march was an “insult to public morality,” Reuters reported.

He reportedly clarified that his statements were about whether people’s behaviors were normal and not referring to the participants.

In March, Reuters reported that Poland had announced plans to ban same-sax couples from being able to adopt children, even as single parents. 

Deputy Justice Minister Michal Wojcik said the ban was “about a child’s safety, about its wellbeing,” though activists for LGBT rights and others have pushed back against this assertion.