Fermoy Breaks Its Twinning With The Polish Anti-LGBTQ City Nowa Deba

After much anticipation, the town of Fermoy in Ireland has made a definitive choice regarding their twinning partnership with a Polish town that had previously voiced opposition to the LGBTQ+ community.

Fermoy was in a partnership with Nowa Deba before the latter signed a motion in 2019 committing the town to defend their tradition, culture, and religion against “aggressive, deceptive and harmful LGBT ideology”.

During the year, French city Saint-Jean-de-Braye did the same with a Polish town after it declared itself an “LGBTQ-free zone” by signing the discriminatory motion.

Fermoy town councillors, therefore, questioned whether they should suspend their twinning with Poland too.

The six local councillors met to discuss the issue and to agree on the principles and values they wanted their city to be associated with before voting.

Their decision was final. They unanimously approved the end of the twinning.

This decision was not an easy one to make, given that the two cities have maintained a friendly relationship, sometimes organizing exchange visits and sometimes cultural events, for 14 years now.

But a twinning is also a sharing of common values, and the Polish city has chosen to support discrimination against the LGBTQ community, which is not the case in Fermoy.

“We terminated because we felt that their local authority had discriminated against the LGBT community,” Councillor Noel McCarthy said.

“We have nothing against the twinning committee of Nowa Deba or the mayor, for that matter, we just feel that we couldn’t be associated with a town that does not change their stance on their LGBT+ community.”

Through its councilors, Fermoy now proudly asserts its own values by opposing discrimination and supporting LGBTQ people.