LGBT ideology-free zone


An "LGBT ideology-free zone" also referred to as "LGBT free zone" refers to some regions of Poland which have declared themselves unwelcoming of an alleged "LGBT ideology.", some 100 municipalities, encompassing about a third of the country, declared themselves "LGBT-free zones".
While unenforceable and primarily symbolic, activists say the declarations represent an attempt to stigmatise LGBT people.
On 18 December 2019, the European Parliament voted in favour of condemning the more than 80 such zones in Poland. In July 2020, the Provincial Administrative Courts in Gliwice and Radom ruled that the "LGBT ideology free zones" established by the local authorities in Istebna and Klwów gminas respectively are null and void, stressing that they violate the constitution and are discriminatory against members of the LGBT community living in those counties.
From July 2020, the European Union started denying funding from the Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund to municipalities that adopted "LGBT-free" declarations or who are otherwise in violation of Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which the country had signed upon its accession to the EU.

Background

In February 2019, Warsaw's liberal mayor Rafał Trzaskowski signed a declaration supporting LGBTQ rights, and announced his intention to follow World Health Organization guidelines and integrate LGBT issues into the Warsaw school system sex education curricula. Law and Justice politicians objected to the program saying it would sexualize children. PiS party leader Jarosław Kaczyński responded to the declaration, calling LGBT rights "an import" that threatens Poland.
According to The Daily Telegraph, the declaration "enraged and galvanized" conservative politicians and conservative media in Poland, the "LGBT-free zone" declarations emerging as a reaction to the Warsaw declaration. The British newspaper further argues that the conservative establishment is fearful of a liberal transition that may erode the Catholic Church's power in Poland like the transition around the Irish Church. Decreasing Church attendance, rising secularization, and sexual abuse scandals have put pressure on the conservative position.
In May 2019, Polish police arrested civil-rights activist Elżbieta Podleśna for putting up posters of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa with the halo painted rainbow colours 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 led PiS leader Kaczyński to speak heatedly of the Polish nation and children as being under attack by deviant foreign ideas, which led conservative voters to rally around PiS. According to feminist scholar Agnieszka Graff, "The attack on LGBT was triggered by the Declaration, but that was just a welcome excuse", as PiS sought to woo the rural-traditional demographic and needed a scapegoat to replace migrants.
In August 2019, the Archbishop of Kraków Marek Jędraszewski said "LGBT ideology" were like a "rainbow plague" in a sermon commemorating the Warsaw uprising. Not long after, a drag queen simulated Jędraszewski's murder on stage, stirring controversy.
, being openly gay in Poland's small towns and rural areas " increasing physical and mental fortitude" due to the efforts of Polish authorities and the Catholic Church, according to The Daily Telegraph. Public perceptions, however, have been becoming more tolerant of gay people. In 2001, 41 percent of Poles surveyed stated that "being gay wasn’t normal and shouldn’t be tolerated" whereas 24 percent said so in 2017. 5 percent said "being gay was normal" in 2001 while 16 percent said so in 2017.

Declarations

"LGBT-free zone motions" refer to resolutions passed by some of Polish gminas, powiats, and voivodeships who declared their attachment to conservative values in reaction to the Warsaw declaration. While unenforceable, activists say the declared zones represent attempts to exclude the LGBT community and called the declarations "a statement saying that a specific kind of people is not welcome there."
There are two documents which were accepted by the municipalities as their declarations: The "Local Government Chart of Family Rights" and The "Resolution against LGBT ideology". Both of these documents were labelled in media as "declarations of LGBT-free zones", but neither of them actually contain a statement of exclusion of LGBT people form any teritory, activities or rights. The "Chart of Family Rights" focuses on family values in social policies and doesn't mention LGBT at all in any context. It does however define marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman. The "Resolution against LGBT ideology" declares opposition to an "ideology of the LGBT movement" and condemns "political corectness". The interactive map of Poland marking all municipalities which accepted one of these resolutions with links to their original texts is available online.
, around 30 different local governments accepted such resolutions, including four voivodeships in the south-east of the country: Lesser Poland, Podkarpackie, Świętokrzyskie, and Lublin. The four Voivodeships form the "historically conservative" part of Poland.
Powiats adopting such measures include: Białystok County, Jarosław County, Lesko County, Lubaczów County, Mielec County, Puławy County, Ryki County, Świdnik County, Tarnów County, and Zamość County.

Law and Justice party

In the run-up to the 2019 Polish parliamentary election the party has focused on countering "LGBT ideology". In 2019 rebuked the Warsaw mayor's pro-LGBTQ declaration as "an attack on the family and children" and stated that LGBTQ was an "imported" ideology.
After Archbishop Jędraszewski made his speech calling "LGBT ideology" a "rainbow plague", the Minister of National Defence Mariusz Błaszczak applauded the statement.

Stickers

The conservative 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 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-Free Zone".
In July Polish media chain Empik, the country's largest, refused to stock Gazeta Polska after it issued the stickers. In August 2019, a show organized by the Gazeta Polska Community of America scheduled for October 24 in Carnegie Hall in New York was cancelled after complaints of anti-LGBT ties led to artists pulling out of the show.

Demonstrations

In Rzeszów, after LGBT activists submitted a request to hold a pride march, PiS councillors drafted a resolution to make Rzeszów an "LGBT-free zone" as well as outlaw the event itself. Some 29 requests for counter-demonstrations reached city hall, which led mayor Tadeusz Ferenc, of the opposition Democratic Left Alliance, to ban the march due to security concerns. When the ban was then overturned by a court ruling, PiS councillors put forward a resolution outlawing "LGBT ideology", which was defeated by two votes.
Following the violent events in the first Białystok equality march and the Gazeta Polska stickers a demonstration for tolerance was held in Gdańsk on 23 July 2019, with the slogan "zone free of zones". In Szczecin a demonstration under the slogan of "hate-free zone" took place, and in Łódź left-wing politicians handed out "hate-free zone" stickers.

Reactions

Support for declarations

Bożena Bieryło, a PiS councilwoman in Białystok County, said the legislation in Białystok county 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.

Criticism of declarations

In July 2019, Polish Ombudsman Adam Bodnar stated that "the government is increasing homophobic sentiments" with remarks "on the margins of hate speech". Bodnar said he is preparing an appeal to the administrative court against the declarations, as according to Bodnar they are not only political but also have a normative character that affects the lives of people in the declared region.
In July 2019, Warsaw city Councillor Marek Szolc and the released a legal opinion stating that LGBT-free zone declarations stigmatize and exclude people, reminding of article 32 of the Constitution of Poland which guarantees equality and lack of discrimination.
In August 2019, multiple LGBT community members stated that they feel unsafe in Poland. The Razem party stated: "Remember how the right of the so-called no-go zones? Thanks to the same right, we have our own no-go zones."
Liberal politicians and media and human rights activists have compared the declarations to Nazi-era declarations of areas being judenfrei. Left-leaning Italian newspaper la Repubblica called it "a concept that evokes the term 'Judenfrei'". Campaign Against Homophobia director Slava Melnyk compared the declarations to "1933, when there were also free zones from a specific group of people." Warsaw's deputy president Paweł Rabiej tweeted, "The German fascists created zones free of Jews. Apartheid, of blacks.", German-occupied Poland, 1939. Nazi banner proclaiming city is judenfrei. This image was tweeted by a representative of Robert Biedroń's party in response to the LGBT-free zones.
On the 18th of December 2019, the European Parliament voted in favour of condemning the more than 80 LGBT-free zones in Poland. Parliament demanded that "Polish authorities to condemn these acts and to revoke all resolutions attacking LGBT rights". According to the EU Parliament the zones are part of "a broader context of attacks against the LGBT community in Poland, which include growing hate speech by public and elected officials and public media, as well as attacks and bans on Pride marches and actions such as 'Rainbow Fridays'.".
Based upon numerous complaints that “some local governments have adopted discriminatory declarations and resolutions targeting LGBT people”, the European Commission wrote to the governors of five Voivodeships - Lublin, Łódź, Małopolska, Podkarpackie, and Świętokrzyskie - on 2 June 2020, instructing them to investigate local resolutions proclaiming LGBT-free zones or a "Charter of Family Rights", and whether such resolutions constituted discriminatory actions towards LGBT-identifying people or not.
The letter can be seen as an extension of the 2019 vote in European Parliament condemning the zones, as it notes that failure by Poland to adhere to common values of the European Union of “respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights,
including the rights of persons belonging to minorities”, as stated in Article 2 of the 2012 European Union Treaty could result in the loss of EU funds granted to the Republic of Poland in the future, such as European Structural and Investment.
In July 2020, the European Commissioner for Justice and Equality Helena Dalli announced that six Polish cities which adopted the "LGBT-free zones" would not be granted EU funds related to financing projects within the EU twinning project framework as a direct consequence of their discriminatory policies directed against members of the LGBT community. The decision met with criticism from the Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro, however, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen defended the decision adding that "“Our treaties ensure that every person in Europe is free to be who they are, live where they like, love who they want, and aim as high as they want."

Rainbow facemasks

During the COVID-19 pandemic within April 2020, many within the LGBT community, couples and several activists began handing out rainbow facemasks and other P.P.E. - as a direct protest of the "LGBT-free zoning", within certain local government areas of Poland.

International agreements

In February 2020, the French commune of Saint-Jean-de-Braye decided to suspend the partnership with the Polish city of Tuchów as a result of the controversial anti-LGBT resolution passed by the Tuchów authorities.
In February 2020, the French commune of Nogent-sur-Oise suspended its partnership with the Polish city of Kraśnik as a reaction to the passing of an anti-LGBT resolution by the city authorities.
In February 2020, the French region of Centre-Val de Loire suspended its partnership with the Lesser Poland Voivodeship as a response to the establishment of an "LGBT-free zone" resolution by the voivodeship's authorities.
In July 2020, the Dutch city of Nieuwegein as well as French city of Douai ended their twin city agreements with the Polish city of Puławy due to a "gay free zone" proclamation made in the latter.