Poland has officially abolished its last remaining “LGBT-free” zone in the country in a win for queer rights, six years after the policy was first introduced.
The zones were initially introduced by the former right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) government. In 2019, around 100 local municipalities in Poland stated that their constituency was LGBT-free zone, around a third of Poland.
In 2020, the European Parliament passed a resolution that strongly condemned the concept of LGBT-free zones. It called on Poland to firmly condemn LGBT discrimination and to revoke resolutions attacking LGBT rights, and instructed the European Commission to ensure that European funds are not being used for discriminatory purposes.
In October 2023, the majority of voters in Poland’s general election supported opposition parties that promised to reverse democratic backsliding. Two months after, Poland's parliament voted in favour of Donald Tusk becoming prime minister, putting an end to eight years of right-wing rule and repairing the relationships with allies, including the European Union.
The new Poland government approved bill to add sexual orientation, gender, age and disability to the categories covered by Poland’s hate crime laws. The justice ministry told that, under the proposed legislation, cases of public insult motivated by bias against the protected groups or of incitement to hatred against those groups can be punishable by up to three years in prison.
Recently, they also presented a bill to introduce legally recognised partnerships for same-sex couples.
Well done Poland!!!
