HARD COPY: By 2020 about a third of the country had established “LGBT-free” zones, which were set-up to eliminate any “propaganda” that promoted queer identities and lifestyles. Two years ago, the far-right Law and Justice Party, responsible for having initiated these policies, was defeated in national Polish elections. Ever since, their anti-LGBTQ+ legislation has been getting erased slowly but surely. This was the last of such zones to be eliminated in Poland, a development largely motivated by the pressure the European Union had applied to the country in recent years through withheld funding. Jaroslaw Kaczynski is hugely responsible for having helped the Law and Justice Party capitalize from homophobia when it came into power in 2015. He had claimed that queers and their allies “threaten our identity, threaten our nation, threaten the Polish state.” While such fearmongering and scapegoating sure does sound familiar, it’s heartening to see an example in which this type of influential and oppressive nationalist rhetoric is kept in check.
Last remaining LGBT-free zone in Poland has been revoked
