Poland’s LGBTQ+ Community Has Hope for the Future

The worldwide discussion around LGBTQ+ rights is polarizing. While some places have taken steps backward, many others have made many good steps towards equality and equity. Poland is one such place to have begun baby steps towards better lives for everyone.

Although Poland is rather conservative and has strong ties in religion-based bigotry, last month’s votes saw Poland’s conservative party, the PiS, lose its majority. This resulted in more major cities, such as Warsaw, displaying more positivity towards the LGBTQ+ community.

It is no secret or surprise that public demonization of a marginalized group leads to lower mental health and higher suicide rates for said marginalized group. This is the reality that many LGBTQ+ Poles face on a daily basis. They are treated as outsiders in their own home, somewhere that should be safe.

The rulings and laws made by the PiS directly contradict EU’s protections for human rights, something that the European Commission has demanded Poland fix. Unfortunately, Poland completely ignored the EU and continued making discriminatory laws and areas regarding the safety and lives of LGBTQ+ people.

Poland’s Human Rights Ombudsman, Marcin Wiącek, says of the epidemic of “LGBT-free zones” that sprung up in 2019, “The wording contained in these resolutions leads to stigmatization and creates an atmosphere of exclusion of LGBT people from local communities … even humiliation … and also has real legal effects, especially in the area of the possibility of absorbing EU funds.”

Poland currently exists in something of a limbo. Although they were one of the first countries to decriminalize homosexuality, having done so in 1932, there are many “LGBT-free zones”—areas where it is made clear that anyone who is not cisgender or straight is not welcome. There has been a strong fight against these zones, and even now, due to last month’s election, it is not clear where Poland will go from here.