Poland has abolished its very last ‘LGBT-free’ zone after funding was withheld from areas which had the discriminatory policy.
In 2020, greater than 100 municipalities – a few third of Poland – had been declared as ‘LGBT-free zones’.
That modified this week, when officials in Łańcut voted to repeal the laws, which was introduced by Law and Justice, an anti-LGBTQ+ party known by its Polish acronym PiS.
Figures last yr from the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association’s (ILGA-Europe) Rainbow map listed Poland because the forty second friendliest place for the LGBTQ+ community.
Poland’s right-wing populist president Andrzej Duda said in 2020 that ‘LGBT usually are not people; they’re an ideology,’ one worse than communism.
But funding cuts from the European Commission from areas with the ‘LGBT-free’ zones appear to have spurred change quickly – Łańcut is the last zone to be abolished, meaning all of Poland is LGBT-friendly.
The Supreme Administrative Court of Poland also said the zones were in violation of the ‘dignity, honour, good name and closely related private lifetime of a particular group of residents’.
A survey in 2024 found that 67% of Polish respondents supported same-sex marriage, so levels of support within the country are growing.
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This will likely be attributable to the legal motion launched by the European Union against Hungary and Poland for anti-LGBTQ discrimination in 2021.
They cited the LGBT-free zones in Poland and schools in Hungary, which were ordered not to make use of materials that feature gay people.
The EU said the laws are restrictive, discriminatory and infringe on human rights.
Trans rights have gotten increasingly ‘polarised’ in Europe and Central Asia, a map has shown.
Campaign group TGEU’s annual Trans Rights Map ranks the legal situation for trans people in 54 countries.
Among the finest places to be openly trans in 2024 is Iceland, which scored 30 out of 32, up from 26 last yr.
Russia – where among the many anti-LGBTQ+ laws within the books is a ‘gay propaganda’ policy – was bottom of the pile, falling from five in 2023 to zero.
The UK, meanwhile, was rated 15.25 out of 32, up from 14.25.
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