U.S. President Donald Trump is facing criticism for sending a message of toughen to these having a ogle to discriminate against LGBT other folks and other minorities by internet hosting his Polish counterpart at the White Condominium days sooner than he faces a tricky re-election fight
By
VANESSA GERA Associated Press
June 23, 2020, 1: 13 PM
3 min read
WARSAW, Poland —
U.S. President Donald Trump is being accused of sending a message of toughen to these having a ogle to discriminate against LGBT other folks and other minorities by internet hosting his Polish counterpart at the White Condominium days sooner than he faces a tricky re-election fight.
Trump is scheduled to meet Andrzej Duda on Wednesday, handiest four days sooner than Duda competes for a 2nd five year time duration. The talk over with, launched final week after Trump said he plans to come to a decision out hundreds of U.S. troops from Germany, is anticipated to consist of discussions on defense and economic disorders.
It’s believed that a couple of of the American troops would be transferred to Poland, a NATO member on the alliance’s eastern flank. Poland is one amongst Europe’s most enthusiastically authentic-American international locations and the talk over with could moreover give Duda a boost as he seeks re-election.
Duda has made LGBT rights an argument all the map by means of the campaign, vowing to guard Polish households from what he calls “LGBT ideology.” He recently known as the LGBT rights movement an ideology more unhealthy than communism.
Public tv in Poland, which is managed by the populist Regulation and Justice ruling glean collectively that backs Duda, has been pushing a an analogous message about the LGBT rights movement, which many conservatives in mostly Catholic Poland ogle as a foreign import and a risk to their custom.
Regulation and Justice embraced the same messages sooner than parliamentary elections that it won final year, while a variety of municipalities in Poland delight in declared themselves “LGBT free.”
Public tv has moreover been the usage of anti-Semitic tropes in a assortment of stories supposed to undermine Duda’s vital presidential rival, Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski.
“We’re concerned that the White Condominium talk over with is sending a signal of political toughen for a candidate whose campaign has engaged in homophobic and antisemitic rhetoric,” said Zselyke Csaky, research director for Europe and Eurasia at Freedom Condominium. a U.S.-primarily based totally organization. “The scapegoating of minority groups is a unhealthy technique and delight in to be condemned, no longer supported by the president of the United States.”
An LGBT Washington-primarily based totally rights physique of workers, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, moreover said it condemns Duda’s talk over with so shut to Sunday’s election.
It said Duda’s utilize of anti-LGBT rhetoric is “vile, manipulative and unhealthy,” and that Trump used to be exhibiting he is “no buddy” to the ecstatic rights physique of workers.
U.S. Congressman Eliot Engel, a Democrat who’s the chairman of the Condominium International Affairs Committee, known as the U.S. president’s invitation to Duda an example of Trump’s “infatuation with leaders who delight in demonstrated autocratic traits.”
“President Duda and his glean collectively promote horrifying homophobic and anti-LGBTQ stereotypes and policies that urge counter to the human rights and values that The united states can delight in to level-headed strive to uphold,” Eliot said in a assertion final week.
Duda is the front-runner in a field of 11 candidates, but his toughen has been falling just currently as the coronavirus pandemic has hit Poland’s economic system.
Polls predict he will derive about 40% of the votes, below a 50% threshold for outright victory. That could trigger a runoff on July 12, which is likely to pit him against Trzaskowski, who has been gaining in recognition. Polls indicate them tied for toughen in a 2nd spherical.
