Poland’s president says ‘LGBT ideology’ worse than communism during pride month
Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, claimed that “LGBT ideology” was “more destructive” than communism during a campaign event on Saturday.
Duda, who is backed by the conservative-nationalist Law and Justice party, said during a campaign event in Brzeg, he agreed with another politician from the ruling camp who said that LGBT “is not people, it’s an ideology”.
“The generation of my parents did not fight for forty years to kick the communist ideology out of schools . . . in order for us to now accept that another ideology should arrive, that is even more destructive for people,” Duda said, describing the LGBT rights movement as “neo-Bolshevism”.
The central European country is currently heading towards a close contested presidential election, between Andrezej Duda and the liberal mayor of Warsaw, Rafal Trzaskowski, who has been supportive of LGBT rights.
According to Time, gay and lesbian Poles and liberal Poles say government officials are adopting a language of dehumanization. They believe Duda and others are targeting homosexuals to seek support from the powerful Catholic church ahead of the election.
Poland does not legally recognise same-sex partnerships. Smaller towns and traditional families still hold a more conservative approach towards LGBT related topics, some calling it “a product of foreign values inimical to Polish traditions”.
However, in recent years, attitudes towards LGBT rights have begun to shift. According to FT, one of the survey conducted last year found that 56% of respondents were in favour of civil partnerships, with 41% supporting same-sex marriage.
In today’s Poland, the church is supporting government moves to discriminate against gay people, wind back sex education and outlaw abortion: