Poland to consider outright ban on LGBT+ Pride marches

Citizens initiative comes after anti-LGBT+ rhetoric from government figures

Protesters march in Warsaw, Poland, against the tightening of abortion laws on 29 October, 2020. (Getty Images)

Poland will consider a bill banning LGBT+ Pride parades, after a proposed law was submitted to parliament on Monday with the required number of signatures.

The “Stop LGBT” proposal, which seeks to outlaw public gatherings of the LGBT+ community that “promote” non-heterosexual “sexual orientations”, amassed more than 200,000 signatories, twice the number needed for it to be reviewed by politicians.

Led by the lobby group Life and Family Foundation, the initiative advocates for “the constitutional principle of family protection” while railing against what it deems to be the “homopropaganda” of Pride marches.

On its website, the campaign also accuses these gatherings of promoting “exhibitionism, public scandal, profanation, provocations, insults of Catholic symbols, clergy and lay faithful, ridicule of the emblem, flag and other national symbols”.

The petition comes amid a rise in hate and violence against Poland’s LGBT+ community in recent years,  under the Catholic country’s right-wing Law and Justice Party (PiS) government.

Roughly 100 municipalities in Poland have described themselves as “LGBT-free zones” since 2019, according to Campaign Against Homophobia (KPH), a Polish human rights organisation.

In a speech in September, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, condemned these zones for being “humanity-free" areas. 

Physical attacks on the LGBT+ community in Poland have also taken place, with far-right groups recently throwing stones and battles at people gathered for a Pride march in the city Bialystok. 

Poland’s president Andrzej Duda, who was narrowly reelected in July, is among leading politicians who have publicly spoken out against LGBT+ people. 

During a divisive election campaign earlier this year, Mr Duda said in June that “LGBT ideology” was “more destructive than communist indoctrination”.

PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski also heightened this anti-LGBT+ rhetoric in August by describing gay pride marches as a “travelling theatre”, adding that they should be “unmasked and discarded”.

Despite these previous homophobic attacks, a Pis spokesperson told Radio Zet on Tuesday that the new proposed law was not a good idea. 

Speaking about the proposal, Radosław Fogiel, the party’s deputy spokesperson, said: “I cannot imagine how a law would be formulated that would not break the constitution."

“It's not the best idea,” he added.