LGBT-ideologiefreie Zone

Map of Poland, with the four (as of July 2019) Voivodeships whose regional assemblies declared that they are LGBT-free zones marked in pink. The declarations signal exclusion of the LGBT community. In addition (not marked) over 25 municipalities made municipal level resolutions.

An LGBT-free zone (Vorlage:Lang-pl) is an act by a Polish municipality, or Voivodeship sejmik declaring their respective regions as free of LGBT "ideology". While symbolic, activists say the declared zones represent an attempt to exclude members of the LGBT community. As of July 2019, 31 different LGBT-free zone declarations have been made in Poland, including four Voivodeships in the south-east of the country: Lesser Poland, Podkarpackie, Świętokrzyskie, and Lublin.

Background

August 2019 protest in support of archbishop Marek Jędraszewski statements on LGBT. Sign reads: "away ([down]) with leftist totalitarian ideology", precz (throw away) is also on the crossed-out gay pride flag

In February 2019, Warsaw's liberal mayor Rafał Trzaskowski's signed a declaration supporting LGBTQ rights and announced his intention to follow World Health Organization guidelines and integrate LGBT issues into the Warsaw school sex education curricula. The declaration "enraged and galvanized" conservative politicians and conservative media in Poland, according to The Daily Telegraph. The LGBT-free zone declarations are considered to be a reaction to the Warsaw declaration.

The conservative establishment is fearful of a liberal transition that may erode the power of the Catholic Church in Poland in a manner similar to the transition around the Irish Church. Decreasing Church attendance, rising secularization, and priest pedophilia scandals have put pressure on the conservative position.

In May 2019, Polish police arrested a feminist activist for putting up posters of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa with the halo painted rainbow colors for the charge of offending religious sentiment, which is illegal in Poland. Also in May, two weeks prior to the 2019 European Parliament election, a documentary on child sex abuse in the Church, was released online. The documentary was expected to hurt the Church-aligned PiS electorally, which lead to PiS leader Kaczynski to speak heatedly of the Polish nation and children as being under attack by deviant foreign ideas, which led voters to rally around PiS. According to Agnieszka Graff, "The attack on LGBT was triggered by the [Warsaw] Declaration, but that was just a welcome excuse", as PiS sought woo the rural-traditional demographic and needed a scapegoat to replace migrants.

As of 2019, being openly gay in Poland's small towns and rural areas "[takes] increasing physical and mental fortitude" due to the efforts of Polish authorities and the Catholic Church. Public perceptions, however, have been changing. In 2001 41 percent of Poles surveyed stated gayness should "not be tolerated", whereas in 2017 24 percent expressed this opinion and 55 percent said gays should be tolerated.

Declarations

Synagogue in Bydgoszcz, Poland, 1939. Nazi banner proclaiming city is Judenfrei (free of Jews). This image was tweeted by a representative of Robert Biedroń's party in response to the LGBT-free zones.

LGBT-free zone motions are made by Polish municipalities, and Voivodeship sejmiks who declare the regions under their control as free of LGBT "ideology". While symbolic, activists say the declared zones represent attempts to exclude the LGBT community.

The LGBT-free zone declarations have been compared to the Nazi-era declarations of areas being Judenfrei (free of Jews).

As of July 2019, 31 different LGBT-free zones have been declared in Poland, including four Voivodeships in the south-east of the country: Lesser Poland, Podkarpackie, Świętokrzyskie, and Lublin.

Law and Justice party

Ahead of the 2015 Polish parliamentary election, the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party took an anti-migrant stance. With migration slowing significantly, in the run-up to the 2019 Polish parliamentary election the party has focused on countering Western "LGBT ideology". PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski infamously labelled migrants as "parasites and protozoa" in 2015, while in 2019 he rebuked Warsaw mayor's pro-LGBTQ declaration as "an attack on the family and children" and stated that LGBTQ was an "imported" ideology.

In August 2019, after Archbishop of Kraków Marek Jędraszewski said LGBT people were like a "rainbow plague" in a sermon commemorating the Warsaw uprising, the Polish minister for aid justified the comments saying LGBT was an "ideology".

Bozena Bierylo, a PiS councilwoman in Białystok, said the legislation in Białystok was required due to LGBT "provocations" and "demands" for sex education instruction.

The national PiS party has encouraged the local declarations, with a PiS official handing out medals in Lublin to local politicians who supported the declarations. Further whipping up tensions, Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro ordered an investigation of Ikea after it fired an employee who expressed homophobic sentiments.

Stickers

LGBT-free zone stickers distributed by the Gazeta Polska newspaper

The Gazeta Polska newspaper issued "LGBT-free zone" stickers to readers. The Polish opposition and diplomats, including US ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher, condemned the stickers. Gazeta editor in chief Tomasz Sakiewicz replied to the criticism with: "what is happening is the best evidence that LGBT is a totalitarian ideology".

The Warsaw district court ordered that distribution of the stickers should halt pending the resolution of a court case. However Gazeta's editor dismissed the ruling saying it was "fake news" and censorship, and that the paper would continue distributing the stickers. Gazeta continued distribution of the stickers, but modified the decal to read "LGBT Ideology-Free Zone".

Pride marches

Datei:02019 0471 Equality March 2019 in Częstochowa cropped.jpg

Price marcher in Częstochowa holding the Rainbow Madonna, a depiction of Black Madonna of Częstochowa with the halo replace by rainbow colors. In May 2019, a feminist activist was arrested for the charge of offending religious sentiment in relation to distribution of such posters.

Nationalists counter-protesting June 2019 Rzeszów pride parade

June 2019 Rzeszów pride parade

In Kielce which lies within a LGBT-free zone, near where Nazis murdered minorities including gays and Jews and where the killing continued after the war in the 1946 Kielce pogrom, activists held the first LGBT+ parade in the city in July 2019.

In Rzeszow, after LGBT activists submitted a request to march in the city, PiS councilors drafted a resolution to make Rzeszow a LGBT-free zone as well as outlaw the event itself. Some 29 requests four counter-demonstrations reached city hall, which led mayor Tadeusz Ferenc, of the opposition Democratic Left Alliance, to ban the march due to security concerns. The ban was then overturned by a court ruling, however the PiS councilors pushed forward with their resolution outlawing "LGBT ideology", which was defeated by two votes.

On 20 July 2019, the first pride parade ever was held in Białystok, a PiS stronghold, that was declared a LGBT-free zone. Two weeks before the march Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda delivered a proclamation to all churches in Podlaskie Voivodeship and Białystok stating that pride marches were "blasphemy against God". Wojda also asserted that the march was "foreign" and thanked those who "defend Christian values". The few hundred marchers were violently attacked by a mob of thousands of religious and conservative protesters. Firecrackers were tossed at the marchers, homophobic slogans were chanted, and the marchers were pelted with rocks and bottles. Dozens of marchers were injured. Amnesty International criticized the police response, saying they had failed to protect marchers and "failed to respond to instances of violence". However, similar to the manner in which the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville shocked Americans, the violence in Białystok raised public concern in Poland over anti-LGBT propaganda. Thousands took to the streets in Warsaw to protest the violence in Białystok.

On 10 August 2019, thousands marched in the city of Plock in solidarity with LGBT rights. The marchers were protected by police in full body armor.

Reactions

According to human rights commissioner Adam Bodnar, "the government is increasing homophobic sentiments" with remarks "on the margins of hate speech".

In August 2019, multiple LGBT community members have stated that they feel unsafe in Poland. The All Out organization launched a campaign to counter the attacks, some 10,000 people signing a petition shortly after the campaign launch.

The Razem party stated: "Remember how the right [were scared] of the so-called [Muslim] no-go zones? Thanks to the same right, we have our own no-go zones. Disgusting".