Krzysztof Smiszek, who is also a gay activist, said that the move would include the amendment of the provisions of the Criminal Code, prohibiting the so-called hate speech about categories such as gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age or disability. "It's a pretty simple legislative procedure. Work has been launched, also at my request, in the Ministry of Justice. By the end of February, such regulations should be drafted and left the Ministry of Justice after inter-ministerial consultations," said the justice head. Smiszek pointed out that such regulations apply in most European Union countries. These are the same laws that govern "hate speech" because of race and ethnicity. It will be the same penalty compartment, he added.
However, the populist Konfederacja (Confederation) political alliance questioned the planned speech restrictions, which were included in the coalition agreement between the three globalist political alliances that were combined to govern Poland. "What is hate speech? The tradition of the Polish language does not know such a term. In practice, this means nothing more than criminal prosecution for expressing views that are inconsistent with a specific ideology that is close to the new coalition,” warned Sejm member Konrad Berkowicz, who happened to be from the Konfederacja party. "This is obvious censorship, an obvious attack on freedom of speech and obvious, creeping totalitarianism." (Related: Americans repeatedly warned not to mislabel transgenders – but most transgenders actually WANT to CONFUSE people about their gender, especially "binaries.")
Mainstream media has proliferated how it is hard for the LGBTQIA community to thrive in Poland. According to the annual Rainbow Europe index released in May 2023 by ILGA-Europe, a Brussels-based NGO, Poland remains the worst country in the European Union for LGBT people. They have held this title since 2020.
Poland remains the EU's worst country for LGBT people, according to the annual Rainbow Europe ranking https://t.co/j83yAOtrcT
— Notes from Poland ?? (@notesfrompoland) May 11, 2023
Members of the said "rainbow community" were hopeful that last year's parliamentary elections could end the rule of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party. PiS has established what it calls "LGBTQ-free zones" across the country.
"During these difficult eight years, we were humiliated, discriminated against, used in a political game and indicated as a public enemy," said Grzegorz Garboli?ski, an LGBT activist affiliated with the New Left (Nowa Lewica) party that is part of the broader Left (Lewica) alliance that stood in the elections. "[These] last [few] years, we were in a permanent state of tension, getting bad news from different parts of Poland," Anna Wrzeszczynska, the head of communications for the LGBT advocacy group Campaign Against Homophobia (KPH) said. "So, we were really excited and happy after [the election] because we felt that, finally, something is possible, that change is possible."
However, three opposition groups set to form a new coalition government. The Left, which has the most ambitious program for LGBT rights, did worse than expected, winning only 8.6 percent of the vote and 26 seats in parliament. The center-right Third Way, which is moderately conservative on social issues, exceeded expectations, with 14.4 percent and 65 seats. The dominant group in the new government is the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), with 30.7 percent and 157 seats. It has pledged to improve LGBT rights, including introducing same-sex civil partnerships and a simpler gender-recognition process, but its disappointing record in office between 2007 and 2015 makes activists doubt it.
Now, the coalition agreement signed between the three groups after the elections is being carried on through the Criminal Code amendment to be finalized next month. They also pledged to restore the rule of law, annul the near-total abortion ban, depoliticize public media and dichotomize the church and state.
Polish government to fast-track same-sex marriage
As Polish Prime Minister Donald Franciszek Tusk was busy installing his executive cabinet with hard-left radicals, his government may be poised to fast-track the legalization of same-sex marriage following a legal diktat from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
The ECHR issued their verdict back in December, declaring that current Polish statutes, which recognize marriage as between a man and a woman, violate the "right to respect for private and family life" outlined under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights in a six-to-one decision. While the ruling stressed that it could not force any nation-state to legislate for or against same-sex partnerships, it did minimize the Polish state's "traditional concept of marriage as a union of a man and a woman" that was given as one of the reasons not to recognize homosexual unions by the past PiS government.
Back in 2010, ECHR was already accused of meddling in the affairs of sovereign nations around LGBT issues when it strongarmed the Italian government into recognizing same-sex partnerships with the similarly worded Oliari v. Italy case.
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