Last year nearly 100 municipalities throughout a third of Poland implemented “pro-family” resolutions “against LGBT propaganda” creating what rights groups describe as hostile spaces for anyone who is not heterosexual or committed to the so-called “natural family”. They have professed themselves free of LGBTQ+ “ideology”, pledging to refrain from promoting tolerance of gay people.
The 11th of July 2019 saw Poland’s first ever LGBTQ+ rights march, and whilst this march was accompanied by rainbow-draped activists and upbeat 80s pop-music, the music could barely be heard as it was drowned out by the jeers and heckles of bystanders. Nevertheless, the march continued despite passing people with banners that compared the people of the LGBTQ+ community to paedophiles, and Catholics who were praying in silent protest ; how is such intolerance and discrimination so prevalent in a so called “modern” country?
Perhaps it is because of the words and actions of Polish president Andrzej Duda and other government members. Duda has called the promotion of LGBTQ+ rights an “ideology” more destructive than communism, in a campaign speech. On 10 June he signed a "Family Charter" of election proposals, including pledges to prevent gay couples from marrying or adopting children and to ban teaching about LGBT issues in schools.
When Warsaw’s mayor advocated integrating sex education and LGBTQ+ issues into school curriculums, government member Jarosław Kaczyński said this was “an attack on the family” and “an attack on children”. He called “LGBT ideology” an imported “threat to Polish identity, to our nation, to its existence and thus to the Polish state”.
These scenes reflect a growing tension in the country – between a burgeoning rights movement and a conservative backlash.
Written by Zahra Peermohamed
Media by Ben Hyland
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