A Polish court acquitted three activists accused of desecrating and offending religious sentiments for producing and distributing images of a venerated Roman Catholic icon, altered to include the LGBTQ + rainbow.
The posters, which were distributed in the city of Płock in 2019, used rainbows as halos in an image of the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus. Their aim was to protest what they considered to be the hostility of Poland’s influential Catholic church towards LGBTQ + people.
Płock’s court saw no evidence of a crime and concluded that the activists were not motivated by the desire to offend anyone’s religious feelings, but rather to defend those who face discrimination, according to Polish media.
The case was seen in Poland as a test of freedom of expression under a deeply conservative government that has struggled against secularization and liberal views. Abortion has been another critical point in the country after the recent introduction of an almost total ban.
A defendant, Elżbieta Podleśna, said when the trial started in January that the 2019 action in Płock was spurred on by an installation in the city’s Santo Domingo church that associated LGBTQ + people with crimes and sins.
She and the other two activists – Anna Prus and Joanna Gzyra-Iskandar – face up to two years in prison if found guilty.
An LGBTQ + rights group, Love Does Not Exclude, took the decision as a “breakthrough”.
“This is a triumph for the LGBTQ + resistance movement in the most homophobic country in the European Union,” he said.
The image involved a modification of Poland’s most revered icon, the Mother of God of Częstochowa, popularly known as the Black Madonna of Częstochowa. The original is housed in the Jasna Góra monastery in Częstochowa, Poland’s most sacred Catholic site since the 14th century.
Podleśna told the news portal Onet that the desecration clause in the penal code “leaves an open door to use it against people who think a little differently”.
“I still wonder how the rainbow – a symbol of diversity and tolerance – offends these feelings. I cannot understand, especially since I am a believer, ”said Podleśna to Onet.
Podleśna was arrested in a morning police raid on her apartment in 2019, held for several hours and interrogated because of the posters. A court later said the detention was unnecessary and ordered her to pay around £ 1,500.
Because of all the attention the changed icon has received, it is now a well-known image in Poland, sometimes seen in street protests.