Gay rights in Poland
Encyclopedia
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in Poland may face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT
residents. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity are legal in Poland, but same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex couples. However, homosexuality was never illegal under Polish law. This was formally codified in 1932, when an equal age of consent
for homosexuals and heterosexuals was set at 15. Poland is one of few countries where homosexuals are allowed to donate blood however there are incidents of discrimination of gay blood donors.
There was never any anti-homosexual law under a free Polish government
(excluding homosexual prostitution 1932–1969). During the Partitions of Poland
(1795–1918) laws prohibiting homosexuality were imposed by the occupying powers. Homosexuality
was recognized by law in 1932 with the introduction of a new penal code. The age of consent
was set to 15, equal to that of heterosexual partners. Homosexual prostitution was legalized in 1969. Gay people are not banned from military service. Homosexuality was deleted from the list of diseases in 1991. Many left-wing political parties (SLD, UP
, SDPL, RACJA PL and others) support the gay rights movement and are in favor of appropriate changes in legislation. Individual voices of support can also be heard from the liberal right in the Civic Platform
(Platforma Obywatelska, currently in power) and Law and Justice
(Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, opposition). They include the president of the European Parliament
, Jerzy Buzek
from PO, Janusz Palikot
, MP
, Lublin, and Michał Kamiński, MEP
, PiS. However, both PO and PiS (82% of the seats in the Parliament), are generally against any new LGBT legislation, and it is unlikely that this will change before the next parliamentary elections scheduled for 2011. In October 2011, Poland elected its first openly gay member of parliament Robert Biedroń
, as well as its first transsexual MP, Anna Grodzka
. Grodzka is currently the only transgender
MP in the world.
proposed civil union
s for same-sex couples, calling for "registered partnerships", similar to the French PACS
. On 3 December 2004, the Senate
(the upper chamber of the Polish Parliament
) adopted the Civil Unions project. The legislation had not passed both houses of the Parliament prior to the 2005 parliamentary election
and will almost certainly not be revived by the conservative parties which emerged as the majority following the election.
In 2004, Warsaw
's Municipal Transport Authority
decision to allow cohabiting partners of gay and lesbian employees to travel free on the city's public transport system was the first case of recognition of same-sex couples in Poland. In 2007, a decision of Chorzów
’s City Center of Social Assistance recognized homosexual relationships. The decision declined to concede social assistance to one partner, recognizing that according to law, persons living in a common relationship in the same household are a family, so that the partner is obligated to care for the first one.
On 23 February 2007, the verdict of the Appeal Court in Białystok has recognized same-sex cohabitation (File I ACa 590/06). "The concept of cohabitation (konkubinat) must be understood as stable, actual personal-property bond of two persons. There is a sex meaningless in the recalled aspect. There are no grounds for applying different principles at accounting for the homosexual cohabitation than the ones which are applicable in relation to the heterosexual cohabitation", the court said. On 6 December 2007, it was confirmed by Judgement of The Supreme Court of Warsaw (IV CSK 301/2007and IV CSK 326/2007).
At the end of 2010, the Court in Złotów decided, that the communal apartment after a dead woman to be her partner. The municipality appealed the verdict, the District Court in Poznań
, however, rejected the appeal. Thus, the decision of the Court in Złotów became final. "The court found that these women actually remained in a stable partnership. Any other interpretation would lead to discrimination based on sexual orientation," said president of the District Court in Złotów, Adam Jutrzenka-Trzebiatowski. In support of the judge relied, inter alia, European Convention on Human Rights - for the first time in Poland. This is a precedent and courageous decision after the European Court of Human Rights
ruled in case Kozak v. Poland that homosexuals have the right to inherit from their partners. Another similar case about the right to housing of a deceased male partner is pending in the Court in Warsaw
. However, in this case the District Court refused to tenancy law of partner of the deceased tenant. He did so, although the earlier (2010), the Court in Strasbourg has ruled that it is discrimination. This case will go to a higher court.
The major opposition to introducing same-sex marriages or civil unions comes from the Roman Catholic Church, which is quite active politically and holds a considerable degree of influence in the state, significantly more than in most Western Catholic countries. The nation is 95% Roman Catholic, with 40.4% practicing every week.
guarantees equality in accordance with law and prohibits discrimination based on "any reason", which also arguably covers sexual orientation
, although this has not been tested in the courts. The proposal to include a prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in the constitution in 1995 was rejected, after strong Catholic Church objections.
In 2007, an anti-discrimination law was under preparation by the Ministry of Labour that would prohibit discrimination on different grounds, including sexual orientation, not only in work and employment, but also in social security and social protection, health care, and education, although the provision of and access to goods and services would only be subject to a prohibition of discrimination on grounds of race or ethnic origin.
On 1 January 2011, a new law on equal treatment has entered into force.
revealed that Poles overwhelmingly oppose gay marriage and the adoption of children by gay couples. 79% of Poles opposed gay marriage, with only 16% in favor. Meanwhile, 93% of Poles opposed the adoption of children by gay couples, with only 5% taking a favourable view. Most Poles also oppose gay parades. A 2008 study revealed that 66% of Poles believe that gay people should not have the right to organize public demonstrations, with 27% taking the opposite view. According to the same study, 69% of Poles believe that gay people should not have the right to be openly gay, with 25% of Poles disagreeing. Meanwhile, Poles are evenly split on the question of sodomy laws. 37% of Poles believe that gay people should have the right to engage in sexual activity, with 37% believing they should not.
and Lambda Warszawa
. Gay media include several weekly or monthly magazines as well as numerous web portals focused on a broad range of issues, from queer studies to gay dating.
An opinion poll conducted in late 2006 at the request of the European Commission indicated Polish public opinion was generally opposed to same-sex marriage and to adoption by gay couples. The Eurobarometer 66 poll found that 74% and 89% of Poles respectively were opposed to same-sex marriage and adoption by gay couples. Of the EU member states surveyed, only Latvia and Greece had higher levels of opposition. According to one gay magazine, Poland is one of the 10 "anti-gay countries in the world", ranking at number eight (despite the fact that homosexuality is criminalised in over 70 countries around the world, while not in Poland). A poll in July 2009 showed that 87% of Poles were against gay adoption.
A poll from 23 December 2009 for Newsweek Poland reported another shift towards more positive attitudes. Sixty percent of respondents stated that they would have no objections to having an openly gay minister or a head of the government. Further, 9% indicated that they "did not know".
In 2004 and 2005, Warsaw
together with other Polish cities, including Kraków
, blocked gay pride parade
s, citing various reasons including the likelihood of counter-demonstrations, or interference with religious or national holidays, or the lack of a permit. Despite this, about 2,500 people marched on 11 June 2005. Ten people were arrested but were released soon afterwards. The parade was condemned by then-Mayor of Warsaw Lech Kaczyński
, who said that allowing an official gay pride event in Warsaw would promote a "homosexual lifestyle".
In the second half of the last decade, several Polish celebrities came out as gay, a decision that is widely regarded as helping increase the acceptance of homosexuality in society. These people include actor Jacek Poniedziałek, TV personality Michał Piróg and film critic Tomasz Raczek. The latter has been in a 15-year-long relationship with a writer, Marcin Szczygielski, and the couple received a prestigious award, "Couple of the Year", from the mainstream women's magazine Gala in 2008.
Lech Kaczyński, the last president, harboured views and opinions which repeatedly caused tension between Poland and gay rights activists in Western Europe. On 17 March 2008 Kaczyński delivered a presidential address to the nation on public television, in which he described gay marriage as an institution contrary to "the widely accepted moral order in Poland" and the moral beliefs of the majority of the population. The address featured a wedding photograph of an Irish gay rights activist, Brendan Fay, and his husband, Tom Moulton, which Kaczyński had not sought permission to use. The presidential address outraged left-wing political parties and gay rights activists, who subsequently invited the couple to Poland and demanded apologies from the president, which he did not issue. Fay and Moulton took part in a televised conference of the Democratic Left Alliance in the Polish Sejm and were interviewed in a live talk-show on the nationwide channel TVN
.
Lech's twin brother, Jarosław Kaczyński, who is the leader of Law and Justice and a former prime minister of Poland, has been less harsh in his descriptions of homosexuality. In one interview he stated that he had always been "in favour of tolerance" and that "the issue of intolerance towards gay people had never been a Polish problem". He said he did not recall gays being persecuted in the Polish People's Republic more severely than other minority groups and acknowledged that many eminent Polish celebrities and public figures of that era were widely known to be homosexual. Jarosław Kaczyński also remarked that there are a lot of gay clubs in Poland and that there is a substantial amount of gay press and literature. In another interview abroad, he invited the interviewer to Warsaw to visit one of the many gay clubs in the capital. He also confirmed that there are some homosexuals in his own party, but said they would rather not open their private lives to the public. This was also confirmed by the Member of the European Parliament from PiS, Tadeusz Cymański
.
In March 2007 Roman Giertych
proposed a bill that would ban homosexual people from the teaching profession and would also allow sacking those teachers who promote the "culture of homosexual lifestyle". At that time Giertych was a deputy prime minister and a minister of education from a small right-wing and ultra-Catholic party, the League of Polish Families
, a coalition partner in the Law and Justice government. The proposition gained a lot of negative attention in the Polish and Western media and was widely condemned by the European Commission
, by Human Rights Watch
as well as by the Union of Polish Teachers, who organized a march through Warsaw (attended by 10,000 people) condemning the ministry's policy. The bill was not voted on, and the government soon failed, leading to new parliamentary elections in which the League of Polish Families won no parliamentary seats. Giertych retired from politics and returned to his work as an attorney.
, who had originally said that their fellow countrymen left Poland to escape "increasing persecution
", later corrected their stance, saying that "questions of morals" are of secondary importance and the main reasons are economic. According to other sources, Biedroń, the president of the Polish Campaign Against Homophobia, said that most of the Polish gays emigrated to the UK not for economic reasons but because of being persecuted in Poland.
In a 2009 interview for Gazeta Wyborcza
, former Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz
stated that his opinion about homosexual people changed when he met a Polish gay émigré in London. The man stated that he "fled from Poland because he was gay and would not have freedom in his country". Marcinkiewicz concluded that he wouldn't want anyone to flee from Poland.
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
residents. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity are legal in Poland, but same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex couples. However, homosexuality was never illegal under Polish law. This was formally codified in 1932, when an equal age of consent
Age of consent
While the phrase age of consent typically does not appear in legal statutes, when used in relation to sexual activity, the age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. The European Union calls it the legal age for sexual...
for homosexuals and heterosexuals was set at 15. Poland is one of few countries where homosexuals are allowed to donate blood however there are incidents of discrimination of gay blood donors.
There was never any anti-homosexual law under a free Polish government
Politics of Poland
The politics of Poland take place in the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government of a multi-party system and the President is the head of state....
(excluding homosexual prostitution 1932–1969). During the Partitions of Poland
Partitions of Poland
The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...
(1795–1918) laws prohibiting homosexuality were imposed by the occupying powers. Homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
was recognized by law in 1932 with the introduction of a new penal code. The age of consent
Age of consent
While the phrase age of consent typically does not appear in legal statutes, when used in relation to sexual activity, the age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. The European Union calls it the legal age for sexual...
was set to 15, equal to that of heterosexual partners. Homosexual prostitution was legalized in 1969. Gay people are not banned from military service. Homosexuality was deleted from the list of diseases in 1991. Many left-wing political parties (SLD, UP
Labour Union (Poland)
The Labour Union is a social-democratic political party in Poland. It is a member of the Party of European Socialists and Socialist International....
, SDPL, RACJA PL and others) support the gay rights movement and are in favor of appropriate changes in legislation. Individual voices of support can also be heard from the liberal right in the Civic Platform
Civic Platform
Civic Platform , abbreviated to PO, is a centre-right, liberal conservative political party in Poland. It has been the major coalition partner in Poland's government since the 2007 general election, with party leader Donald Tusk as Prime Minister of Poland and Bronisław Komorowski as President...
(Platforma Obywatelska, currently in power) and Law and Justice
Law and Justice
Law and Justice , abbreviated to PiS, is a right-wing, conservative political party in Poland. With 147 seats in the Sejm and 38 in the Senate, it is the second-largest party in the Polish parliament....
(Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, opposition). They include the president of the European Parliament
President of the European Parliament
The President of the European Parliament presides over the debates and activities of the European Parliament. He or she also represents the Parliament within the EU and internationally. The President's signature is required for enacting most EU laws and the EU budget.Presidents serve...
, Jerzy Buzek
Jerzy Buzek
Jerzy Karol Buzek is a Polish engineer, academic lecturer and politician who was the ninth post-Cold War Prime Minister of Poland from 1997 to 2001...
from PO, Janusz Palikot
Janusz Palikot
Janusz Marian Palikot is a Polish politician, activist and businessman best known for waving around a pistol and a dildo at a press conference. Palikot studied philosophy and became wealthy as a businessman who dealt with crates and distilled beverages...
, MP
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
, Lublin, and Michał Kamiński, MEP
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
, PiS. However, both PO and PiS (82% of the seats in the Parliament), are generally against any new LGBT legislation, and it is unlikely that this will change before the next parliamentary elections scheduled for 2011. In October 2011, Poland elected its first openly gay member of parliament Robert Biedroń
Robert Biedron
Robert Biedroń is a Polish LGBT activist and politician. He was previously a member of Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland party and the Democratic Left Alliance. Currently, he is a member of Palikot's Movement...
, as well as its first transsexual MP, Anna Grodzka
Anna Grodzka
Anna Grodzka is a Polish politician. Grodzka was elected to the Sejm in the 2011 Polish parliamentary elections as a candidate for the liberal Palikot's Movement. She is the first ever transsexual MP in European history....
. Grodzka is currently the only transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
MP in the world.
Recognition of same-sex relationships
There is no legal recognition of same-sex couples. Article 18 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland (1997) defines "marriage" as a union of a man and a woman and places it under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland. In late 2003, Polish Senator Maria SzyszkowskaMaria Szyszkowska
Maria Szyszkowska is a Polish academic, writer and former Senator. Szyszkowska was a member of the SLD and chaired that Party's Ethics Committee...
proposed civil union
Civil union
A civil union, also referred to as a civil partnership, is a legally recognized form of partnership similar to marriage. Beginning with Denmark in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in many developed countries in order to provide same-sex couples rights,...
s for same-sex couples, calling for "registered partnerships", similar to the French PACS
Pacte civil de solidarité
In France, a pacte civil de solidarité commonly known as a PACS /paks/ , is a form of civil union between two adults for organising their joint life. It brings rights and responsibilities, but less so than marriage...
. On 3 December 2004, the Senate
Senate of Poland
The Senate is the upper house of the Polish parliament, the lower house being the 'Sejm'. The history of the Polish Senate is rich in tradition and stretches back over 500 years, it was one of the first constituent bodies of a bicameral parliament in Europe and existed without hiatus until the...
(the upper chamber of the Polish Parliament
Polish parliament
Polish parliament is an expression referring to the historical Polish parliaments. It implies chaos and general disorder, and that no real decision can be reached during sessions...
) adopted the Civil Unions project. The legislation had not passed both houses of the Parliament prior to the 2005 parliamentary election
Polish parliamentary election, 2005
Parliamentary elections for both houses of the Parliament of Poland were held on September 25, 2005. Thirty million voters were eligible to vote for all 460 members of the lower house, the Assembly of the Republic of Poland , and all 100 members of the upper house, the Senate of the Republic of...
and will almost certainly not be revived by the conservative parties which emerged as the majority following the election.
In 2004, Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
's Municipal Transport Authority
Zarzad Transportu Miejskiego
Zarząd Transportu Miejskiego is the local authority controlled body managing all means of public transport in Warsaw...
decision to allow cohabiting partners of gay and lesbian employees to travel free on the city's public transport system was the first case of recognition of same-sex couples in Poland. In 2007, a decision of Chorzów
Chorzów
Chorzów is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. Chorzów is one of the central districts of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union - a metropolis with a population of 2 million...
’s City Center of Social Assistance recognized homosexual relationships. The decision declined to concede social assistance to one partner, recognizing that according to law, persons living in a common relationship in the same household are a family, so that the partner is obligated to care for the first one.
On 23 February 2007, the verdict of the Appeal Court in Białystok has recognized same-sex cohabitation (File I ACa 590/06). "The concept of cohabitation (konkubinat) must be understood as stable, actual personal-property bond of two persons. There is a sex meaningless in the recalled aspect. There are no grounds for applying different principles at accounting for the homosexual cohabitation than the ones which are applicable in relation to the heterosexual cohabitation", the court said. On 6 December 2007, it was confirmed by Judgement of The Supreme Court of Warsaw (IV CSK 301/2007and IV CSK 326/2007).
At the end of 2010, the Court in Złotów decided, that the communal apartment after a dead woman to be her partner. The municipality appealed the verdict, the District Court in Poznań
Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
, however, rejected the appeal. Thus, the decision of the Court in Złotów became final. "The court found that these women actually remained in a stable partnership. Any other interpretation would lead to discrimination based on sexual orientation," said president of the District Court in Złotów, Adam Jutrzenka-Trzebiatowski. In support of the judge relied, inter alia, European Convention on Human Rights - for the first time in Poland. This is a precedent and courageous decision after the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
ruled in case Kozak v. Poland that homosexuals have the right to inherit from their partners. Another similar case about the right to housing of a deceased male partner is pending in the Court in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
. However, in this case the District Court refused to tenancy law of partner of the deceased tenant. He did so, although the earlier (2010), the Court in Strasbourg has ruled that it is discrimination. This case will go to a higher court.
The major opposition to introducing same-sex marriages or civil unions comes from the Roman Catholic Church, which is quite active politically and holds a considerable degree of influence in the state, significantly more than in most Western Catholic countries. The nation is 95% Roman Catholic, with 40.4% practicing every week.
Discrimination protections
Anti-discrimination laws were added to the Labour Code in 2003. The Polish ConstitutionConstitution of Poland
The current Constitution of Poland was adopted on 2 April 1997. Formally known as the Constitution of the Republic of Poland , it replaced the temporary amendments put into place in 1992 designed to reverse the effects of Communism, establishing the nation as "a democratic state ruled by law and...
guarantees equality in accordance with law and prohibits discrimination based on "any reason", which also arguably covers sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
, although this has not been tested in the courts. The proposal to include a prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in the constitution in 1995 was rejected, after strong Catholic Church objections.
In 2007, an anti-discrimination law was under preparation by the Ministry of Labour that would prohibit discrimination on different grounds, including sexual orientation, not only in work and employment, but also in social security and social protection, health care, and education, although the provision of and access to goods and services would only be subject to a prohibition of discrimination on grounds of race or ethnic origin.
On 1 January 2011, a new law on equal treatment has entered into force.
Social attitudes and public opinion
A 2011 study revealed that 54% of Poles believe that gay people should have the right to enter the registered partnership. A 2010 study published in the newspaper RzeczpospolitaRzeczpospolita (newspaper)
Rzeczpospolita is a Polish national daily newspaper, with a circulation around of 160,000. Issued every day except Sunday. Rzeczpospolita was printed in broadsheet format, then switched to compact at October 16, 2007...
revealed that Poles overwhelmingly oppose gay marriage and the adoption of children by gay couples. 79% of Poles opposed gay marriage, with only 16% in favor. Meanwhile, 93% of Poles opposed the adoption of children by gay couples, with only 5% taking a favourable view. Most Poles also oppose gay parades. A 2008 study revealed that 66% of Poles believe that gay people should not have the right to organize public demonstrations, with 27% taking the opposite view. According to the same study, 69% of Poles believe that gay people should not have the right to be openly gay, with 25% of Poles disagreeing. Meanwhile, Poles are evenly split on the question of sodomy laws. 37% of Poles believe that gay people should have the right to engage in sexual activity, with 37% believing they should not.
Living conditions
A survey from 2005 found 89% of the population stating that they considered homosexuality an "unnatural" activity. Additionally, only half believed homosexuality should be tolerated. Acceptance for LGBT people in Polish society increased in the 1990s and early 2000s, mainly amongst younger people and those living in larger cities. There exists a gay scene with clubs all around the country, although again most of them are located in the large urban areas. There are also a number of gay rights organizations, the two biggest ones being Campaign Against HomophobiaCampaign Against Homophobia
Campaign Against Homophobia is a Polish LGBT organisation, which aims to promote legal and social equality for people outside the heteronorm. It was founded in Warsaw in September 2001 and since it has grown to the biggest NGO of this kind in Poland...
and Lambda Warszawa
Lambda Warszawa
Lambda Warszawa Association is the oldest running Polish LGBT organisation.Lambda Warszawa is a public interest organisation founded in October 1997 by activists of Rainbow Centre , which worked from 1995 until 1997...
. Gay media include several weekly or monthly magazines as well as numerous web portals focused on a broad range of issues, from queer studies to gay dating.
An opinion poll conducted in late 2006 at the request of the European Commission indicated Polish public opinion was generally opposed to same-sex marriage and to adoption by gay couples. The Eurobarometer 66 poll found that 74% and 89% of Poles respectively were opposed to same-sex marriage and adoption by gay couples. Of the EU member states surveyed, only Latvia and Greece had higher levels of opposition. According to one gay magazine, Poland is one of the 10 "anti-gay countries in the world", ranking at number eight (despite the fact that homosexuality is criminalised in over 70 countries around the world, while not in Poland). A poll in July 2009 showed that 87% of Poles were against gay adoption.
A poll from 23 December 2009 for Newsweek Poland reported another shift towards more positive attitudes. Sixty percent of respondents stated that they would have no objections to having an openly gay minister or a head of the government. Further, 9% indicated that they "did not know".
In 2004 and 2005, Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
together with other Polish cities, including Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, blocked gay pride parade
Gay pride parade
Pride parades for the LGBT community are events celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender culture. The events also at times serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage...
s, citing various reasons including the likelihood of counter-demonstrations, or interference with religious or national holidays, or the lack of a permit. Despite this, about 2,500 people marched on 11 June 2005. Ten people were arrested but were released soon afterwards. The parade was condemned by then-Mayor of Warsaw Lech Kaczyński
Lech Kaczynski
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński was Polish lawyer and politician who served as the President of Poland from 2005 until 2010 and as Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 22 December 2005. Before he became a president, he was also a member of the party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość...
, who said that allowing an official gay pride event in Warsaw would promote a "homosexual lifestyle".
In the second half of the last decade, several Polish celebrities came out as gay, a decision that is widely regarded as helping increase the acceptance of homosexuality in society. These people include actor Jacek Poniedziałek, TV personality Michał Piróg and film critic Tomasz Raczek. The latter has been in a 15-year-long relationship with a writer, Marcin Szczygielski, and the couple received a prestigious award, "Couple of the Year", from the mainstream women's magazine Gala in 2008.
Attitude of politicians
The parties on the left of the political scene generally approve of the postulates of the gay rights movement and would vote in favour of the new LGBT legislation. Only one of those parties, the Democratic Left Alliance, has MPs in the current parliament and they account for 12% of the Polish Sejm. The other parties, including the Civic Platform which is currently in power, are generally against any changes in legislation; however, some of the more liberal politicians in those parties are described as gay-friendly, among them an MP for Lublin, Janusz Palikot.Lech Kaczyński, the last president, harboured views and opinions which repeatedly caused tension between Poland and gay rights activists in Western Europe. On 17 March 2008 Kaczyński delivered a presidential address to the nation on public television, in which he described gay marriage as an institution contrary to "the widely accepted moral order in Poland" and the moral beliefs of the majority of the population. The address featured a wedding photograph of an Irish gay rights activist, Brendan Fay, and his husband, Tom Moulton, which Kaczyński had not sought permission to use. The presidential address outraged left-wing political parties and gay rights activists, who subsequently invited the couple to Poland and demanded apologies from the president, which he did not issue. Fay and Moulton took part in a televised conference of the Democratic Left Alliance in the Polish Sejm and were interviewed in a live talk-show on the nationwide channel TVN
TVN (Poland)
TVN is a major Polish commercial television network. The broadcaster was co-founded by Polish businessmen Mariusz Walter and Jan Wejchert. The network launched on October 3, 1997. TVN belongs to the TVN S.A...
.
Lech's twin brother, Jarosław Kaczyński, who is the leader of Law and Justice and a former prime minister of Poland, has been less harsh in his descriptions of homosexuality. In one interview he stated that he had always been "in favour of tolerance" and that "the issue of intolerance towards gay people had never been a Polish problem". He said he did not recall gays being persecuted in the Polish People's Republic more severely than other minority groups and acknowledged that many eminent Polish celebrities and public figures of that era were widely known to be homosexual. Jarosław Kaczyński also remarked that there are a lot of gay clubs in Poland and that there is a substantial amount of gay press and literature. In another interview abroad, he invited the interviewer to Warsaw to visit one of the many gay clubs in the capital. He also confirmed that there are some homosexuals in his own party, but said they would rather not open their private lives to the public. This was also confirmed by the Member of the European Parliament from PiS, Tadeusz Cymański
Tadeusz Cymanski
Tadeusz Cymański is a Polish conservative politician. He is anti-left and anti-liberal politician. He was elected to Sejm on 25 September 2005 getting 23518 votes in 25 Gdańsk district, candidating from Prawo i Sprawiedliwość list....
.
In March 2007 Roman Giertych
Roman Giertych
Roman Jacek Giertych is a Polish politician; he was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education until August 2007. He was a member of the Sejm from 2001 until October 2007, and chairman of the League of Polish Families party.- Biography :Roman Giertych comes from a prominent family of Polish...
proposed a bill that would ban homosexual people from the teaching profession and would also allow sacking those teachers who promote the "culture of homosexual lifestyle". At that time Giertych was a deputy prime minister and a minister of education from a small right-wing and ultra-Catholic party, the League of Polish Families
League of Polish Families
The League of Polish Families is a right-wing political party in Poland. It was represented in the Polish parliament, forming part of the cabinet of Jarosław Kaczyński, until the latter dissolved in September 2007....
, a coalition partner in the Law and Justice government. The proposition gained a lot of negative attention in the Polish and Western media and was widely condemned by the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
, by Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
as well as by the Union of Polish Teachers, who organized a march through Warsaw (attended by 10,000 people) condemning the ministry's policy. The bill was not voted on, and the government soon failed, leading to new parliamentary elections in which the League of Polish Families won no parliamentary seats. Giertych retired from politics and returned to his work as an attorney.
Emigration of LGBT persons from Poland
Polish gay rights groups claim that, following Poland's entry into the European Union, thousands of Polish gays have emigrated to Britain, Ireland, Germany, France, Canada, Australia and the United States. Some Polish gay activists, such as Robert BiedrońRobert Biedron
Robert Biedroń is a Polish LGBT activist and politician. He was previously a member of Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland party and the Democratic Left Alliance. Currently, he is a member of Palikot's Movement...
, who had originally said that their fellow countrymen left Poland to escape "increasing persecution
Persecution
Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group. The most common forms are religious persecution, ethnic persecution, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these terms. The inflicting of suffering, harassment, isolation,...
", later corrected their stance, saying that "questions of morals" are of secondary importance and the main reasons are economic. According to other sources, Biedroń, the president of the Polish Campaign Against Homophobia, said that most of the Polish gays emigrated to the UK not for economic reasons but because of being persecuted in Poland.
In a 2009 interview for Gazeta Wyborcza
Gazeta Wyborcza
Gazeta Wyborcza is a leading Polish newspaper. It covers the gamut of political, international and general news. Like all the Polish newspapers, it is printed on compact-sized paper, and is published by the multimedia corporation Agora SA...
, former Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is a Polish conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of Poland from October 31, 2005 to July 14, 2006...
stated that his opinion about homosexual people changed when he met a Polish gay émigré in London. The man stated that he "fled from Poland because he was gay and would not have freedom in his country". Marcinkiewicz concluded that he wouldn't want anyone to flee from Poland.
Summary table
| Homosexuality never penalised and legal since 1932 |  |
| Equal age of consent since 1932 | |
| Anti-discrimination laws in employment since 2003 | |
| Anti-discrimination laws in the provision of goods and services |  |
| Anti-discrimination laws in all other areas (incl. indirect discrimination, hate speech) bill 2011 | |
| Same-sex marriage(s) | |
| Recognition of same-sex couples bill 2011 | |
| Adoption by same-sex couples | |
| Gays allowed to serve in the military | |
| Right to change legal gender | |
| Access to IVF for lesbians | |
| MSM Men who have sex with men Men who have sex with men are male persons who engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex, regardless of how they identify themselves; many men choose not to accept sexual identities of homosexual or bisexual... allowed to donate blood since 2005 |
|
See also
- Bączkowski and Others v. PolandBaczkowski and Others v. PolandBączkowski and Others v Poland was a European Court of Human Rights case which ruled unanimously that the banning of an LGBT pride parade in Warsaw, locally known as the Parada Równości , in 2005 was in violation of Articles 11, 13 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights...
- Recognition of same-sex unions in Poland
- Human rights in PolandHuman rights in PolandHuman rights in Poland are guaranteed by the second chapter of the Constitution of Poland. Poland is part to all important international agreements relevant to human rights. Death Penalty is abolished for all crimes and Poland has ratified the International Criminal Court agreement...
- Politics of PolandPolitics of PolandThe politics of Poland take place in the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government of a multi-party system and the President is the head of state....
- Religion in PolandReligion in PolandMost residents of Poland adhere to the Christian faith, with 89.8% belonging to the Roman Catholic Church. Catholicism plays an important role in the lives of many Poles and the Roman Catholic Church in Poland enjoys social prestige and political influence. The Church is widely respected by its...
- LGBT rights in EuropeLGBT rights in EuropeLesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender rights are widely diverse in Europe per country. Seven out of the ten countries that have legalised same-sex marriage are situated in Europe; a further fourteen European countries have legalised civil unions or other forms of recognition for same-sex couples...
External links
- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights in Poland and Latvia, Amnesty International, 15 November 2006
- Situation of bisexual and homosexual persons in Poland. 2005 and 2006 report. – Campaign Against Homophobia, ISBN 978-83-924950-2-4, Warsaw 2007