Poland's Walesa: no apology for controversial gay comments

Warsaw (dpa) - Former Polish president and labour union leader Lech Walesa has refused to apologize for controversial comments about the proper place for homosexuals in society, the PAP news agency reported Monday.

"I only said they should have the status appropriate for them based on their percentage (of the population)," he said.

His comments from Friday have caused a nationwide furore. In them, he told television broadcaster TVN 24 that: "They have to know that they are in the minority and have to satisfy themselves with small things and not reach for the summits."

The Nobel peace prize winner also said homosexual legislators should sit in the last row, "and even behind a wall" and urged against gay and lesbian demonstrations in city centres.

"I don‘t want this minority, with whom I don‘t agree, to go on the street and confuse my children and grandchildren."

He did not deviate from those lines on Monday, also discounting recent surveys that show 75 per cent of Poles backing civil union laws for homosexual couples.

"We cannot allow models that rule out the birth of children. That is not the model that our lord God has picked for us."

Walesa‘s comments have been widely criticized, even by members of his own family.

"I had to bang my head when I heard what my father had to say about homosexuals," said Jaroslaw Walesa, a member of the European Parliament, speaking to radio broadcaster RMF.

He said he planned to make clear to his father that "we live in a different world today." dpa czy ncs npr Author: Eva Krafczyk