A Polish court on Tuesday acquitted three activists who had been accused of desecration and offending religious feelings for producing and distributing images of a revered Roman Catholic icon altered to include the LGBT rainbow. The posters, which they distributed in the city of Plock 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 the hostility of Poland's influential Catholic Church toward LGBT people. The court in the city of Plock did not see evidence of a crime and found that the activists were not motivated by a desire to offend anyone's religious feelings, but rather wanted to defend those facing discrimination, according to Polish media. The case was seen in Poland as a freedom of speech test under a deeply conservative government that has been pushing back against secularization and liberal views. Abortion has been another flashpoint in the country after the recent introduction of a near-total ban on it. One defendant, Elzbieta Podlesna, said when the trial opened in January that the 2019 action in Plock was spurred by an installation at the city's St. Dominic's Church that associated LGBT people with crime and sins. She and the other two activists — Anna Prus and Joanna Gzyra-Iskandar — faced up to two years of prison if found guilty. An LGBT rights group, Love Does Not Exclude, welcomed the ruling as a "breakthrough." "This is a triumph for the LGBT+ resistance movement in the most homophobic country of the European Union," it said. Tap link in bio to continue on @EDGEmedianetwork ?️‍??? (?: Getty)

A Polish court on Tuesday acquitted three activists who had been accused of desecration and offending religious feelings for producing and distributing images of a revered Roman Catholic icon altered to include the LGBT rainbow. The posters, which they distributed in the city of Plock 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 the hostility of Poland's influential Catholic Church toward LGBT people. The court in the city of Plock did not see evidence of a crime and found that the activists were not motivated by a desire to offend anyone's religious feelings, but rather wanted to defend those facing discrimination, according to Polish media. The case was seen in Poland as a freedom of speech test under a deeply conservative government that has been pushing back against secularization and liberal views. Abortion has been another flashpoint in the country after the recent introduction of a near-total ban on it. One defendant, Elzbieta Podlesna, said when the trial opened in January that the 2019 action in Plock was spurred by an installation at the city's St. Dominic's Church that associated LGBT people with crime and sins. She and the other two activists — Anna Prus and Joanna Gzyra-Iskandar — faced up to two years of prison if found guilty. An LGBT rights group, Love Does Not Exclude, welcomed the ruling as a "breakthrough." "This is a triumph for the LGBT+ resistance movement in the most homophobic country of the European Union," it said. Tap link in bio to continue on @EDGEmedianetwork ?️‍??? (?: Getty)