A gay New York
couple whose wedding images were used by the Polish
president in a national speech to warn against same-sex
marriage said Monday they came to Warsaw,
Poland, hoping to start a dialogue on tolerance.
A brief video
clip of Brendan Fay's wedding with his partner, Tom
Moulton, was woven into President Lech Kaczynski's March 19
televised address.
The video, along
with a photo of the couple's marriage certificate, was
shown as the president warned against the dangers of
adopting the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights, which
Kaczynski says could open the door to same-sex
marriage in Poland.
''We come here in
the hopes of opening a dialogue between a community
which may not have had much voice, and that this dialogue
will make Poland an even better place,'' Moulton said
after meeting with a left-wing opposition lawmaker in
Poland's parliament.
Fay, a
documentary filmmaker and gay rights activist who was born
in Ireland but now lives in New York, and Moulton, a
pediatric oncologist, said they prepared a letter for
Kaczynski with a request for a meeting.
''Perhaps he'd
like to meet the couple whose images he used, and we could
sit down and begin this important dialogue,'' said Fay, who
held Moulton's hand throughout the news conference.
Kaczynski's
office said last week the president was unlikely to meet
with the couple.
After learning of
the president's speech, Fay and Moulton submitted an
informal complaint to the Polish consulate in New York.
On Monday, Fay
said ''the misuse of the images from such a day of joy,
that they were used in a way to promote fear and intolerance
gave us cause for anger and frustration.''
There is little
support for same-sex marriage in Poland, a deeply Roman
Catholic country that joined the EU in 2004. The Polish
constitution states that marriage is only between a
man and a woman. (Ryan Lucas, AP)
