foreign countries folks, please keep the polish LGBT community in your thoughts
tomorrow evening (28.10.2021 r.) the first sejm (polish parliament) reading of "Stop LGBT" legislative bill is going to take place. the bill objective is to ban all gatherings in support of LGBT people or LGBT rights
the bill would infringe on constitutional right to public assemblies and right to free speech and make any debates on LGBT rights or discrimination it faces (which the bill justification suggest that "the homosexual community" does not experience) virtually impossible.
currently, despite being a member state of the EU, Poland does not recognize same-sex partnerships and offers minimal legal protection to the LGBT minority (~2 milion citizens), while some cities and regions declare themselves as LGBT free zones
the justification of the bill includes (but is not limited to): "protection of marriage as traditional union between men and women", LGBT causes being supported by multinational corporations (it uses a picture of a rainbow IKEA bag as justification), comparing gay men to paedophiles, saying that the heterosexuals are the majority, protection of children and protection of religious catholic feelings
a similar law currently functions in Russia, where any public discussion on LGBT rights or any public display of affection of same-sex couples is prohibited and punished by jail to not "demoralize the children"
the Supreme Court unsuprisingly did not have any objections to the project
the project is a public initiative that raised over 130 000 signatures. the project promotional site uses stock footage of pride parades held in different countries (such as germany, the netherlands or the uk) in order to mislead the public to what pride marches actually look like in poland. the woman behind the project is named Kaja Godek, who just last year helped to pass a bill which made all abortions due to critical defects of the fetus illegal, practicaly banning all abortion in Poland. the bill caused the biggest protests in history of modern Poland since the fall of the communist state. due to that, it is possible that the Stop LGBT legislation bill will be treated seriously, or at least cause some major polarization in society
please, keep us in mind and if things turn sour don't hesitate to call your local polish ambassy or notify your local LGBT organization
(also while we're at it it is worth looking into what is happening at polish-belarusian border and how the migrants there are dying. i believe the lgbt bill being discussed now is a tactic to distract the public from human rights violation of this so-called civilized country)
