Participants holding placards supporting the LGBT+ community during Krakow Equality March, attended by over 5,000 people. (Alex Bona/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty) Poland has been ordered to pay compensation to a woman whose children were taken away because she is queer, Europe’s leading human rights court has ruled. Judges for the European Court of Human Rights
Poland
Far-right extremists clash with riot police at a Pride parade in Lublin, eastern Poland, in 2019. (Wojtek Radwanski/AFP/Getty) A leaked letter has revealed Poland’s plans to replace the Istanbul Convention on violence against women with an international treaty banning abortion and same-sex marriage. It’s understood that the Polish justice ministry is preparing an alternative treaty
Poland could clash with the European Union over its new funding rulebook (Omar Marques/Getty) A new clause in EU funding rules could see Poland facing further financial restrictions if it continues attacking LGBT+ rights, an official has confirmed. After years of negotiations, the EU has agreed on a structural funds rulebook which lays out the
Member of the European Parliament Jozsef Szajer gives a speech to launch the campaign of the right-wing Fidesz ruling party ahead of the European Parliament elections on April 5, 2019 in Budapest. (PETER KOHALMI/AFP via Getty) The organiser behind a so-called “daddy orgy” in Brussels, Belgium, attended by an anti-LGBT+ Hungarian lawmaker has filed a
The French retail giant Carrefour has withdrawn its new advertising campaign from the website of the Polish state TV channel after it broadcast messages of homophobic hate. Telewizja Polska (TVP) reportedly gives disproportionate airtime to Poland’s ruling party PiS, which uses the channel to support the government’s anti-LGBT+ narrative. The broadcaster is notorious for its
The Palace of Culture is illuminated with rainbow colours in a gesture of solidarity with the LGBT community in Warsaw (Maciej Luczniewski/NurPhoto via Getty) Cities in Poland have illuminated buildings in rainbow colours in a powerful display of solidarity with the country’s embattled LGBT+ community. Parts of Poland have become harsh and unwelcoming places for
EU commissioner for equality Helena Dalli being presented with thousands of petitions against Poland’s LGBT-free zones (Twitter/@helenadalli) More than 340,000 people have signed a petition demanding the EU fight back against the rising homophobic hate in Poland’s “LGBT-free” zones. The petition was launched by the global equality movement All Out and delivered to EU commissioner
The red area shows the municipalities in Poland that have signed the ‘LGBT-free’ pledge. (Atlas of Hate) In a narrow vote, councillors in Kraśnik, in eastern Poland, voted Tuesday (22 September) to keep their municipality an “LGBT-free zone” in an open challenge to the scores of European Union pressure to undo such patches of open
A call for institutionalised conversion therapy in Poland has been roundly condemned by therapeutic and psychological experts in the country. Earlier this month, the Polish Episcopal Conference of Catholic bishops said that it was “necessary to create [conversion therapy] clinics… to help people regain their sexual health and natural sexual orientation”. The call for a
A Polish bishop dismissed fears that the Catholic church wants to force LGBT+ people into conversion therapy (Artur Widak/NurPhoto/ Getty) A Polish bishop has insisted it’s a “misconception” that the church wants to force LGBT+ people into conversion therapy, despite calling for the creation of conversion therapy clinics just days earlier. After a three-day Polish
Viktor Orbán speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the WWI Trianon-memorial (Attila Kisbenedeck/AFP/Getty) Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has used an event commemorating the end of WWI as an opportunity to launch yet another barb at LGBT+ people. The far-right leader made the comments at a national event to inaugurate a monument commemorating the Treaty
Margaret Atwood (Leonardo Cendamo/Getty), Luca Guadagnino (Frazer Harrison/Getty), Judith Butler (Agentur Gmbh/Getty) Margaret Atwood, Ed Harris, Judith Butler and Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino are among more than 70 cultural figures who have condemned rising anti-LGBT+ sentiment in Poland in a powerful open letter. Poland’s LGBT+ community has been targeted by a
Police officers remove LGBT+ activists from blocking the road to a police vehicle transporting detained queer-rights activist Margo in Warsaw, Poland. (JANEK SKARZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images) A blanket of blue-uniformed police officers swept over the LGBT+ protesters, many crouched on the floor, in Warsaw, Poland, Friday (August 7) as hundreds packed the streets to demonstrate
Poland’s staunchly anti-LGBT+ President Andrzej Duda has vowed to ban same-sex couples from adopting children. Duda, who has expressed his opposition to LGBT+ rights on numerous occasions in recent weeks, made the comments at a campaign rally in southern Poland today (July 4). Speaking at the campaign event, Duda said he will put forward an
A woman holds a sign that says: “The traditional family is in danger, come together to defend it!” during a protest against homosexuality in Bucharest, May 20, 2017. The senate in Romania has passed a bill that, if signed by the president, will make it illegal to discuss gender identity in every school and university
Polish model Michał Demski took his own life after struggling with a lifetime of homophobia (Twitter/@harrysenigma) “I ask myself: what is this country in which one must die to be happy?” This heartbreaking question has been playing in Katarzyna Koch’s mind ever since her son, Michał, took his own life – and it’s one he
The government in Poland has used taxpayer funds to pay for anti-LGBT+ articles that compare queer rights to Soviet Russia and communism. The country’s justice ministry paid for two articles in Polish weekly magazine Do Rzeczy titled “In Defence of Christians” and “Catholics Pilloried”, The Irish Times reports. “The Soviets were also marching under the
The annual Rainbow Map ranking has named Poland, Russia, Turkey and Azerbaijan as some of the worst countries to be LGBT+ in Europe, while the UK continues to slide down the rankings. Since 2009, LGBT+ organisation ILGA-Europe has compiled an annual Rainbow Map ranking of the 49 countries in Europe based on each country’s commitment