“LGBT-free zones” are being established throughout Poland as the country’s ruling party declared LGBT people a national threat to the country.
Jarosław Kaczyński, the ruling Law and Justice Party’s leader, called the LGBT community an imported “threat to Polish identity, to our nation, to its existence and, thus, to the Polish state.”
Conservative magazine Gazeta Polska is distributing LGBT-free zone stickers, which are rainbow stickers with a black “X,” to its readers in its next issue, due to hit newsstands sometime this week.
The magazine’s editor in chief, Tomasz Sakiewicz, told Polish TV station Republika that the stickers are in “opposition to the forceful imposition of LGBT ideology.”
The government-supported anti-gay movement echoes “Jewish-free zones” during World War II.
The Independent reported that queer activists have counted an estimated 30 “LGBT-free zone” declarations in various cities and provinces throughout the country’s conservative southeast region.
Hate crimes have noticeably increased, but by how much is unclear, said activists. Poland has been criticized for not keeping reliable records on hate crimes against LGBT people.
“We’ve witnessed a huge, ultra-conservative backlash since the beginning of this year, with the entire government propaganda machine targeting the LGBT community here in Poland, and scapegoating us as the public enemy,” said Hubert Sobecki, co-president of the Warsaw-based LGBT+ organization Love Does Not Exclude. “But this is certainly something new and seems to be crossing the line of hate speech.”
Vyacheslav Melnyk, director of Campaign Against Homophobia, believes the message is more than hate speech.
“The message that it sends is pretty much straightforward,” Melnyk told The Independent. “There is no place for LGBT people in our community.”
U.S. Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher denounced the anti-LGBT sticker in a tweet.
“I am disappointed and concerned that some groups use stickers to promote hatred and intolerance,” she wrote. “We respect freedom of speech, but we must stand together on the side of values such as diversity and tolerance.”
The anti-gay campaign comes as fall elections near. The hateful rhetoric from the Law and Justice Party is similar to its anti-immigrant campaign during the previous election.
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