‘Badges’ Issued to the Two Married Gays by Polish Parliament Being Auctioned on ebay

‘Badges’ Issued to the Two Married Gays by Polish Parliament Being Auctioned on ebay

POLAND

‘Badges’ Issued to the Two Married Gays by Polish Parliament Being Auctioned on ebay



■ Ryszard Kalisz MP (left), the Commissioner of Justice and Human Rights Commision of the Polish Parliment, greets Brendan Fay (centre) and Thomas Moulton
photo: PAP/Paweł Supernak, courtesy KPH

WARSAW, April 3, 2008 – The visitor ‘badges’ issued to the gay married couple Brendan Fay and Dr. Thomas Moulton for their visit to the Polish Parliament on March 31 are being auctioned on ebay in two separate ‘lots’, with the money raised going to Polish “good causes”.

Dr. Moulton, a paediatrician and an oncologist, has asked that the money raised from the auction of his badge be given to the Kraków-based Fundacja Mam Marzenie (“Make a Wish Foundation”), and specifically for 18-year-old Justyna, a cancer-sufferer.

Money raised by the auction of Mr. Fay’s badge will go to the 2nd Polish LGBTQ ‘Summit’ scheduled to be held in September 2008.

The auction has been organised by the Polish daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, which maintains a fully ‘diverse’ editorial policy.

Each of the two ‘lots’ come with the original ‘badge’ and are accompanied by a personal signed inscription. In addition, there is a Gazeta Wyborcza photographic print of the two Americans.

At the time of writing, bids are already around 175 zł (40 UK pounds, 50 euros, 80 US dollars). The auction ends on Monday April 7 at 15:00 GMT (17:00 local time in the Central Europe zone, 16:00 in UK and 11:00 New York).

[For the Brendan Fay ‘lot’, click HERE, and for Dr. Thomas Moulton, HERE. Note that the ebay pages are in Polish only. If you are bidding, then 10 zł is about £2.25, 2.88 euros or $4.50US. UK Gay News managed to log into our ebay.co.uk account on the two Polish pages above (the link is ‘wyloguj się’ on the very top line) - and it all seemed to work, with the bid accepted. If you are bidding, remember to use the ‘comma’ rather than the ‘decimal point’ to separate the full zł from the cents!]

During their visit to Parliament, the couple met with Ryszard Kalisz MP, the head of Justice and Human Right Commission

Fay and Moulton, who were legally married in Canada, hit the headlines last month when footage of their wedding was used by the President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, in a prime-time televised ‘rant’ on gay marriage.

Use of the footage was not authorised by the couple, who said that they were offended that video of a happy day was used to condemn same-sex marriage.

The visit to Poland was sponsored by TVN's popular chat show Teraz My! (Us Now!) and has been widely reported by the international media.

Speaking from London, Scott Long, the New York-based director, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch, congratulated KPH for “their great work” in the matter.

“I am at a conference in London with Roman Wieruszewski, longtime human rights activist, former Polish member of the UN Human Rights Committee, an author of the Yogyakarta Principles – and he said elatedly that the publicity around Brendan and Tom has done more to move discussion of LGBT rights in Poland, and society in general, than he had thought possible in 20 years,” Mr. Long said in a statement.

Brendan Fay and Thomas Moulton returned to New York after their 4-day visit to Poland yesterday (April 2). The visit sparked much local media attention, and to LGBT issues in general in Poland.



■ The “badge” issued to Brendan Fay (note misspelling of last name) by the Polish Parliament and the handwritten inscription to the “readers of Gazeta”