Hundreds of Poles march through Warsaw supporting traditional family values

Hundreds of Poles marched through Warsaw in support of traditional family values, a day after thousands turned out for the capital's annual gay pride parade.

Photo: Hundreds of Poles march through Warsaw supporting traditional family values

About 800 people, many pushing strollers carrying small children, marched through downtown to promote family-friendly policies such as tax deductions for parents, and to oppose abortion and gay rights.

Marchers toted banners reading: "Stop abortion" and "Man and Woman Family," while others carried red-and-white Polish flags.

Education Minister Roman Giertych, who leads the ultraconservative League of Polish Families, a junior partner in Poland's governing coalition, told the PAP news agency he was marching to support family values and to protest Saturday's gay pride march.

"I think that one has to oppose what happened here yesterday," Giertych said, referring to the march of 5,000 gay rights supporters. "Revolting pederasts came here from many countries and tried to impose their propaganda on us."

March organizer Maciej Koper told PAP, however, that it was not "aimed against homosexuals" but rather "to promote Christian values. We are opposing discrimination against families with numerous children."

Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski's socially conservative government has made defending traditional family values a cornerstone of its platform in this deeply Roman Catholic country of 38 million.

On Wednesday, Giertych called for a ban on "the propagation of homosexuality" in Poland's schools, a plan that he argues would protect traditional family values.