To the Editor:

Mayor Lech Kaczynski's refusal to give a legal permit to the organizers of the Equality Parade - and his attendant comments on gays - shows his profound ignorance and prejudice. But his "lashing out" at police for protecting the marchers from violent neo-Nazis skinheads and religious nuts shows him to be completely unsuited for being the mayor of aEuropean capital city. I can only imagine how he's regarded by, say, the mayors of Paris and Berlin, both of whom are openly gay, and the citizens of their cities. Here in the U.S., the mayors of most American cities have marched at the head of gay pride parades for years.

The gay citizens of Poland have legitimate reasons for organizing and bringing their case for equality to the public. If they need a symbol for the repression and gross misconceptions they struggle against, they need look no further than the mayor himself.

Rick Fiala
Public Affairs
University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia
USA