By Zuzanna Romanowicz, student at the Faculty of Journalism, Media and Book Studies at the University of Warsaw
Zones free of LGBTQ+. Attacks on parades. Banned rainbow flags. That was the reality of the LGBTQ+ community under the government of the Law and Justice (PiS) party and President Andrzej Duda in Poland. It came as no surprise that when the more leftist and central parties in the Polish parliament united to try to win the 2023 election, minorities, including the LGBTQ+ community, hoped for a campaign and government that finally included their voices. While it can’t be denied that Poland under the new government has made positive moves, such as removing “LGBT Ideology Free Zones”, the community wants more protection.
“The 2023 elections brought an explosion of hope for a positive, more progressive future. People were tired of the stuffy, insular, and nationalistic policies and discourse,” says Hubert Sobecki from Miłość Nie Wyklucza (Love Doesn’t Discriminate), a non-governmental organisation that works to bring marriage equality to same-sex couples in Poland.
With a new government in power, the community wanted two pieces of legislation to protect their rights. The first was protection from hate speech and hate crimes, which would provide safety from potential hate campaigns that have been present in the past. Secondly, they wanted legal protection for same-sex couples and for possible adoptions of children by them. Since there was no political support for the changes, they were ready to settle for civil unions, a partnership in which two people would have some privileges of a married couple.
“We saw that this was a gateway for those unions to finally exist, […] they were within reach, so maybe this is just a personal perspective, but I’ve never in my life had such a feeling that LGBTQ+ rights, even if not exactly equal, because we’re not talking about marriage equality, but that they were within reach,” says Rafał Dembe, director of Warsaw’s Pride Parade.
Some people in the community, however, were not as optimistic. When the new prime minister previously occupied the same seat there were no conversations on more rights for LGBTQ+ people.
“Many people expected this would be fulfilled. I didn’t expect it actually,” says Charlie, a member of Together Party, one of the left-wing parties in Poland. They add that they somewhat felt like it actually wouldn’t happen, adding that Tusk, current prime minister, had a chance to introduce it before, when he was in parliament, but never did.
“We need to clearly say that we haven’t gained any rights and that these declarations and symbolism are important, but it’s about rights, not this symbolism. I think there’s some frustration in the community,” adds Dembe, referring to the new parliament’s plan to place civil unions as one of its top priorities for the first 100 days in office.
One of the community’s biggest disappointments is how slow progress has been. Until this year, Poland was at the bottom of the rankings for EU countries on the Rainbow Map, which ranks countries on their legal and policy practices for LGBTI people. Although Romania has now slipped behind Poland, it is still towards the bottom of the list.
Political differences between the parliament and presidency have made changes difficult to pass.
A bill to expand anti-hate speech crimes to include sexual orientation, sex and gender, was proposed by the government and approved by parliament in March. However, the president has not signed it into law and has instead sent it to the Constitutional Tribunal for review to consider if it violates the constitutional right to free speech.
As for civil unions, securing support and agreement from enough parties to get it passed has been an issue. The government presented a bill in October, but it has not yet reached parliament, and it has been watered down.
Recently, Poland’s equality minister, Katarzyna Kotula submitted a new private member’s bill regarding civil unions, hoping, as has happened in the past, that it will be faster and prone to fewer obstacles than the passing of a regular bill.
With divisions hampering efforts to strengthen LGBTQ+ rights, the stakes were high in the May 2025 presidential election. In Poland, the president can veto parliament’s demands. That means a LGBTQ+ community seeking more protections and changes to the laws would need a president whose views align with parliament’s. True leftist candidates had no chance of winning, and the options for the second round of elections, which involves only two candidates, were limited. Poles were left to choose between Warsaw’s Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, supported by Civic Coalition, or Karol Nawrocki, a civil candidate with support from PiS. While Nawrocki was strictly right-wing and never tried to appease the left, Trzaskowski had a different approach. Often called “Rainbow Rafał,” instead of trying to strengthen his support on the left, he tried to reach the right, especially after the far-right electorate lost their candidates in the first round.
“Trzaskowski seemed reluctant to define himself as a progressive, which was very disappointing for people who expected him to be the younger, more candid face of the coalition. His declarations of support were lukewarm and lacked the authenticity of heartfelt leadership,” says Sobecki.
“Well, I think this is certain political naivety, because he said that he [Trzaskowski] neither supports adoption by same-sex couples, nor did he declare support for marriage. Just like the coalition, he only declared support for civil unions. And I don’t quite understand, […] I feel that the right-wing narrative about Rainbow Rafał, as well as the narrative of people supporting him about how pro-LGBT he supposedly is, in my opinion is simply made up,” adds Charlie when asked who they think the LGBTQ+ community saw as their preferred president.
What’s truly unusual in Polish political narrative is that, besides a rainbow flag passed around during the presidential debate between candidates, there was really no conversation about the LGBTQ+ community during the presidential election: no typical “anti-rainbow ideology” propaganda coming from the right, but also no new promises from the left. When asked about civil unions, candidates answered reluctantly and didn’t focus on those matters in their campaigns.
When asked about the possible reason behind this silence on LGBTQ+ people in elections, Charlie suggests that the current cost of living crisis played a role. “I think this is simply a matter of people also living worse day to day, in everyday life prices are rising […] and I feel also that because of the fact that now for some people life is simply poor, people also focus more on having a roof over their head than on being able to get married.”
Polish politics is known for being right-leaning and that notion is continuing despite more young people declaring themselves as leftist or centre-leftist. New voters were expected to counter anti-right energy with more open-minded stands, yet, what came as shocking to many, is that a large number of young voters, mainly male, chose far-right candidates with conservative views.
“You could say that politicians can afford not to care about LGBTQ+ issues because Polish people, despite being increasingly supportive, don’t care about them enough,” Sobecki describes.
The presidential result, in which Nawrocki won, has left the LGBTQ+ community worried. He can veto any LGBTQ+-connected demands made by the parliament.
“I simply think that Nawrocki is actually a more radical politician than Andrzej Duda and that we really don’t quite know what to expect,” speculates Dembe when asked how he foresees the new president.
“We will not have any positive legislative change in the next five years. We can, however, expect more hostile and hateful rhetoric with the president tolerating and maybe joining new political hate campaigns run by future, right-wing governments. He will not help to make our lives easier, and he can definitely make them more difficult,” summarises Sobecki.
For a community hoping for change, the possibility of rising hateful rhetoric and hostility in politics, the public and the media, is bringing even more uncertainty for the future.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Media Diversity Institute. Any question or comment should be addressed to [email protected]
