Andrzej Sebastian Duda (born 16 May 1972) is a Polish lawyer and politician who has served as president of Poland since 6 August 2015. Before becoming president, Andrzej Duda was a member of Polish Lower House (Sejm) from 2011 to 2014 and the European Parliament from 2014 to 2015.
Update: Polish court frees LGBTQ+ activists
On Tuesday March 9, a court in Poland acquitted three LGBTQ+ activists who were arrested for ‘offending religious beliefs’. Elzbieta Podlesna, Anna Prus and Joanna Gzyra-Iskandar were first detained by police in 2019 after attending a peaceful protest against the Catholic Church’s treatment of LGBTQ+ people.
It was there that the women held up posters of the Virgin Mary with an LGBTQ+ rainbow halo, which led to them being put on trial for desecration and offending religious sentiment.The activists could have faced two years imprisonment if found guilty, however, the court ruled to drop the charges against them on the basis of freedom of speech.
The decision was praised by local LGBTQ+ advocacy group, Love Does Not Exclude, which referred to.
