In 2019 municipalities and provinces in Poland began declaring themselves “LGBTI-ideology-free zones,” with the encouragement of the governing Law and Justice Party (PiS). Municipal leaders have claimed they were promoting family values, but the move coincided with widespread bans on LGBTI-led events. Over 100 zones in Poland have now adopted “LGBTI free zones” or “family rights” resolutions mostly in rural areas in the country’s south and east. By denying the existence of LGBTI people in Poland, authorities are determined to strip away fundamental human rights.
The IUF, its European organization EFFAT and the IUF LGBTI Workers & Allies’ Committee are deeply concerned about these resolutions which undermine the rights of LGBTI people and encourage homophobia, transphobia and biphobia.
To show our solidarity with workers and citizens of Poland and around the world struggling for equality and an end to all forms of anti-LGBTI discrimination, we have sent a joint letter to Mateusz Morawiecki, the Prime Minister of Poland and to Jarosław Kaczyński, the President of PiS. The letter calls on the government of Poland to revoke all resolutions attacking LGBTI rights and put an end to the discrimination and possible aggression against LGBTI people that those resolutions will inevitably provoke. Please find here the full content of this letter.
