Poland has abolished its very last ‘LGBT-free’ zone after funding was withheld from areas which had the discriminatory policy.
In 2020, more than 100 municipalities – about a third of Poland – had been declared as ‘LGBT-free zones’.
That changed this week, when officials in Łańcut voted to repeal the legislation, which was introduced by Law and Justice, an anti-LGBTQ+ party known by its Polish acronym PiS.
Figures last year from the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association’s (ILGA-Europe) Rainbow map listed Poland as the 42nd friendliest place for the LGBTQ+ community.
Poland’s right-wing populist president Andrzej Duda said in 2020 that ‘LGBT are not people; they are an ideology,’ one worse than communism.
But funding cuts from the European Commission from areas with the ‘LGBT-free’ zones seem 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 life of a specific group of citizens’.
A survey in 2024 found that 67% of Polish respondents supported same-sex marriage, so levels of support in the country are growing.
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This may be due to the legal action 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 use materials that feature gay people.
The EU said the laws are restrictive, discriminatory and infringe on human rights.
Trans rights are becoming 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.
One of the best places to be openly trans in 2024 is Iceland, which scored 30 out of 32, up from 26 last year.
Russia – where among the anti-LGBTQ+ laws in 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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