<p>"The goal of the activists... was to show support to LGBT individuals, to fight for their equal rights," Judge Agnieszka Warchol said.</p><p>She added that the court had received many letters from practicing Catholics, and even clergy, that said the rainbow halo images did not mock the religious icon.</p><p>The women had faced up to two years in prison under article 196 of Poland's criminal code, which prohibits offending religious sentiment.</p><p>Poland's influential Catholic church and the governing nationalists oppose gay rights, which the rainbow flag symbolises.</p><p>One of the defendants, Podlesna, described the church as "a formidable force in Poland" and told AFP she was crossing her fingers that the institution would change.</p><p>"Everything now depends on what form that force will take: will it encourage diversity, solidarity and empathy?" she said.</p><p>"Or will it be destructive, politicised and centred around money, as is the case now?" she added.</p><p>A group of LGBT activists gathered outside the courthouse holding a banner that said "The Rainbow Doesn't Offend", a slogan that was also circulated on social media by supporters and opposition politicians.</p><p>The prosecution said it planned to appeal the verdict.</p><p>The case dates back to April 2019, when the posters and stickers at issue appeared on rubbish bins and portable toilets near a church in Plock.</p><p>They showed a likeness of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, a revered icon of the Virgin Mary located in the devout Catholic country's Jasna Gora monastery.</p><p>Earlier that week, the leader of the governing PiS party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, had denounced LGBT rights as a "threat" and called on Poles to respect the Catholic Church regardless of personal beliefs.</p><p>Describing the defendants as "brave", Amnesty Poland took to Twitter on Tuesday to "call on authorities to refrain from targeting and harassing any other peaceful activists".</p><p>The NGO Love Does Not Exclude, which fights for LGBT rights in Poland, hailed the acquittal as a "breakthrough".</p><p>"It's a big win on the part of the LGBT+ resistance movement and the leftists fighting for equal rights in Poland, the most homophobic country in the European Union," the NGO said on Instagram.</p><p>© 2021 AFP</p>
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