The ‘LGBT free’ zones in Poland have caused huge amounts of distress and trauma to the community and have angered the the keyholders of the EU.
Despite it being obvious that the zones are a terrible idea, the southern region of Malapolska voted on Thursday NOT to revoke the ‘LGBT free’ zone resolution despite receiving a warning letter saying it could lose more than €2.5 billion of EU funds unless it reversed the declaration made in 2019 by mid-September this year.
It’s really quite astounding that the homophobia is so ingrained in the regional government that they would make the whole area poorer rather than be accepting of the queer community. Poland is a predominantly Catholic country under conservative nationalist rule so it stands to reason that the bigotry stems from religious zealots once again. In each and every nation that persecutes the LGBTQ+ community, it comes straight from religion.
Robert Biedron, a left-wing member of the European Parliament and Poland’s most high-profile openly gay politician had this to say: “Once again, the hatred and anger of PiS turned out to be more important than the good of citizens, and they will suffer the most from this decision.”
Oddly enough, Poland’s government denies having laws that discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation.