Eastern Europe was once a world lear on gay rights. Then ran out of spegoats | CNN

Contents:

• EASTERN EUROPE WAS ONCE A WORLD LEAR ON GAY RIGHTS. THEN RAN OUT OF SPEGOATS
• POLAND’S POPULISTS PICK A NEW TOP ENEMY: GAY PEOPLE

EASTERN EUROPE WAS ONCE A WORLD LEAR ON GAY RIGHTS. THEN RAN OUT OF SPEGOATS

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTAn latn verbal attacks by the Polish ernment, wh the support of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the threat of physil vlence on the streets of many ci, has triggered an exod of gay Mucha for The New York TimFor months, ernment misters spewed vic rhetoric about gay people. Fally fed up wh an creasgly hostile environment for gay people Poland unr the erng Law and Jtice party, Marta Malachowska, a 31-year-old who works social media, cid to move to Berl wh her girliend December.

But now their numbers are beg add to by gay people fleeg an creasgly hostile environment Limowicz for The New York TimAcrdg to a 2020 survey by ILGA-Europe, an ternatnal gay rights anizatn, Poland now ranks as the most homophobic untry the European Unn. Activists say that vlence agast gay people Poland surged last year, and clud s of physil vlence, sults and the stctn of is hard to know how many gay people there are Poland, or how many are leavg.

”Homosexualy has long been taboo Poland, where the Roman Catholic Church, which plays a proment role the untry’s social and polil life, has worked hand hand wh the ernment to promote a nservative way of church, which is particularly powerful ral areas, has adopted an actively hostile attu toward gay people. Rpondg to a requt for ment, the Catholic Church poted to an official document outlg s posn, statg that homosexual “clatns” did not nstute “moral guilt, ” but homosexual acts did. It cled to ment on hate speech employed by prits, and the accatn that they were ntributg to the general terratn of the safety of gay people Jedraszewski, Poland’s archbishop, has scribed L.

POLAND’S POPULISTS PICK A NEW TOP ENEMY: GAY PEOPLE

Neher the ernment nor the print rpond to requts for April 2019 Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the chairman of the Law and Jtice party and Poland’s facto lear, lled homosexualy a “threat to Polish inty, to our natn, to s existence, and th to the Polish state. There have been creasg s of vlence durg pri march, and agast one cint a village southern Poland, a young gay man was harassed by neighbors hurlg homophobic abe at him, and one tried to poison his dog.

It ranks 27 out of 28 European Unn stat when to equaly and non-discrimatn, acrdg to Rabow Europe, an anizatn lked to the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn.

” Acrdg to the Campaign Agast Homophobia, 12 percent of people who don’t intify as heterosexual are victims of physil vlence Poland, while around nety percent of cints go unreported, acrdg to the 2016 survey. Neverthels, “attus towards the LGBTQ muny have e a long way” says Robert Biedron, who beme Poland’s first openly gay and atheistic polician when he me out 2011. Mirosława Makuchowska, om the Campaign Agast Homophobia, says while such announcements are not legally bdg, they send a “disturbg msage” to the populatn.

” A 2017 report by the Centre for Rearch on Prejudice of the Universy of Warsaw found that sce PiS entered ernment 2015, Polish populatn’s exposure to hate speech the media, cludg agast gay people, has creased by 25%. The report stat that hate speech is “particularly dangero for youth, ” who were found to e hate speech most often and whose “sensivy to homophobic statements” creased.

One member of Budapt Pri, which aniz pri events, Viktória Radványi, tells TIME that “ spe of the growg number of people jog equaly march, homophobia the ernment and the prs has creased over the past few months. ” Durg a Budapt fom on May 15 as part of the European electns mpaign, a Fisz member and Chair of the Natnal Assembly Laszlo Kover, said there was “no moral difference” between pedophil and gay upl adoptg children.

Biedron, who suffered four anti-gay physil asslts when he served as a Member of Parliament om 2011 to 2014, says “the distance between hate speech and hate crime is small. Gay Marriage⚭✖ Foreign same-sex marriag regnized onlyChangg Genr✔ Legal, surgery not requiredNon-bary genr regnn✖ Not legally regnizedDiscrimatn✖ Illegal some ntextsEmployment Discrimatn✔ Sexual orientatn and genr intyHog DiscrimatnN/AConversn Therapy✖ Not banned. By The Numbers60% of Pol believe Poland should abolish the so-lled "LGBT-Free zon"33% of Pol believe Poland shouldn't abolish the so-lled "LGBT-Free zon"HistoryHomosexual activy Poland?

Current statSce Jan 1, 1991Legal Sce the 1990s, lbian, gay and bisexual people are not banned om ary service and discrimatn agast them is officially forbidn. However, openly gay personnel would face social difficulty, pecially for higher ranks, as for "mandg staff - officers and high-rankg NCOs - admtg to same-sex attractn would mean losg rpect - quali whout which you simply nnot be a manr" donatns by MSMs Poland?

Thoands marched through central Warsaw on Saturday an “equaly para”, amid what mpaigners say has been a risg ti of homophobia Poland recent rights have bee a central part of a wir stggle the untry between liberals, who strs the need for a more tolerant and clive society, and relig nservativ, who nounce what they say is an attempt to subvert tradnal valu the predomantly Catholic a sea of rabow flags, marchers gathered outsi the towerg neo-Gothic Palace of Culture and Science central Warsaw, as a DJ played dance mic om a stage before the start of the march. Meanwhile, Hungary Viktor Orbán’s natnalist ernment, which is allied wh Poland’s erng Law and Jtice (PiS) party, has troduced a law banng the “display and promotn of homosexualy” among unr-18s. Signifint progrs has been difficult, sce Poland has been facg a le-of-law crisis gog back to at least 2017, when the right-wg Law and Jtice, or PiS party began spreadg s fluence on key bodi such as the Constutnal crisis the judiciary ns so ep that the EU iated Article 7 proceedgs agast Poland, which spend certa rights for member stat if they are emed to persistently be breach of the EU’s fundamental European Commissn lnched legal proceedgs agast Poland at the European Court of Jtice (ECJ), a se known as Commissn v Poland, and the ECJ orred Poland to spend the laws that terfere wh the pennce of the ignored the the untry’s Human Rights Ombudsman, Marc Wiącek, has cid to tackle both the homophobic rolutns and the falterg legal system at the same Office of the Ombudsman, while formally an stutn fanced by the ernment, exists many untri as an pennt one-man state body wh the mandate to lnch quiri to vlatns of human rights perpetrated by any stutn or body the his electn was marred by difficulty, wh PiS blockg the opposn-backed ndidate for 10 months.

Populist lear was sworn for a send five-year term as print on a strong anti-LGBTQ platform, brandg LGBTQ rights an “iology” worse than munism and proposg a “Fay Charter, ” cludg a vow to block legislatn allowg gay upl to get married or adopt children. ” For over a year, the ernment and relig lears have ed LGBTQ people as a “spegoat, ” says Mirosława Makuchowska, vice diretor of the Warsaw-based Campaign Agast Homophobia. The Campaign Agast Homophobia has been recg pro bono legal help for people who have been taed, and an LGBTQ-anized fund for psychologil help has raised 20, 000 Polish złoty ($5, 345).

For 30 days, begng January 17, European Unn missners received daily Twter notifitns lkg to personal stori of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) Pol who have been harmed by the so-lled “LGBT Iology Free Zon” or anti-LGBT “Fay Charters” nearly 100 Polish regns, towns, and ci. The tweets were part of a mpaign led by two Polish LGBT groups, Campaign Agast Homophobia (Kampania Przeciw Homofobii, KPH) and The Equaly Foundatn (Fundacja Równości, FR), llg on EU Commissners to iate an gement procre – a legal actn that n lead to referral to the European Court of Jtice – agast Poland.

Image ptn, Bart Staszewski SwidnikWhen I arrive on a Saturday morng, half a dozen gay activists are the ma square handg out leaflets, "love is love" stickers and iced doughnuts wh multi-loured sprkl.

Their spokman, Bart Staszewski, has anised what he lled a queer tour of Poland's east to show people that gay people are "normal cizens" adds: "We are the rabow myth-bters. " He adds that many gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr Pol have recently emigrated to pe Tuchow, a town of 6, 500 people found medieval tim, which has also clared self ee of "LGBT iology", I meet a gay teenager a lol park. Still, that don't mean is easy to be gay this part of Poland, 100km east of ptn, Poland has been lled the worst untry the EU for LGBT rights"Once, when my boyiend and I were holdg hands", he says, "we heard a few people shoutg nam at .

Durg his re-electn mpaign June, Print Duda signed a "Fay Charter, " cludg pledg to prevent gay upl om marryg or adoptg children and to ban teachg about LGBT issu schools.