‘Unbreakable’ rainbow monument erected in Poland after extremists repeatedly destroy original
You'll have to try harder than that, bigots.
By Will Stroude
An ‘unbreakable’ LGBT rainbow monument lit up Poland this weekend (June 10) after the original structure was repeatedly destroyed by anti-gay extremists.
Multicoloured light was projected through water to create a special ‘rainbow fountain’ in Zbawiciela Square, Warsaw ahead of the city’s Pride parade.
The installation, which shone for four hours in front of an enraptured crowd of LGBT+ people and allies, stood on the site of an old rainbow structure that had been burnt down by homophobes.
The original monument, consisting of articial flowers, stood as a symbol of peace when it was first opened in 2012 but had to be removed just three years later after being repeatedly vandalised.
The rainbow hologram project was organised by local LGBT+ rights groups, who described the monument as an “unbreakable symbol of love, peace, LGBT rights & equality.”
While homosexuality has been legal in Poland since 1932, persecution of LGBT+ remains widespread in the socially-conservative, Catholic-majority country.
Marriage equality also remains a distant dream for LGBT+ Poles: Same-sex marriage was banned under the country’s constitution in 1997, and progress is unlikely to be made ubnder the country’s current conservative government.