Queer in Poland: When can the LGBTQ+ community expect equal rights?

Poland has the worst LGBTQ+ rights record in the European Union.  ILGA-Europe, an LGBTQ+ advocacy network, connecting more than 700 organisations, placed Poland near the bottom of its 2023 Rainbow Europe Index - it came in 42nd place out of 49 European countries and microstates for its recognition of gender and sexual equality.

The country's new liberal government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk has promised to address the policies affecting LGBTQ+ people, but activists fear that significant legislative changes will take time because Tusk's government agenda is so full.

Under the previous ultra-conservative government, the spread of disinformation and hate speech against the LGBTQ+ community resulted in what activists describe as top-down polarisation.

"You can say whatever you want about the LGBTI community and you won't get punished. If you say the exact same words, something hateful against religious minorities, ethnic minorities and national minorities, then it will be a crime," Anna Mazurczak, a lawyer at the Polish Society of Antidiscrimination Law, told Euronews.

"What the government agreed on, actually, was that we should definitely amend the Criminal Code in order to make homophobic, transphobic hate speech a crime. And they prepared a bill, that we know for sure, but they are still processing it," Mazurczak added.

Poland also has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. Facilitating terminations is illegal in Poland, help can only be provided if the pregnant person's life is in danger or they can prove that the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest.

The current laws governing LGBTQ+ rights and abortion were introduced by Poland's Constitutional Tribunal under the previous Law and Justice (PiS)