Displaying items by tag: poland

In May 2019, nearly 100 Polish cities signed a resolution going against the LGBTQ community by identifying themselves as “LGBTQ-free zones.”

A year later, the European Union sanctioned six of them by depriving them of grants.

Things then sped up in December 2020 with the announcement of a plan for LGBTQ rights across Europe.

And a few days ago, the European Parliament passed a symbolic resolution making the entire European Union an “LGBTQ freedom zone” in response to Poland, which had announced hours earlier its plan to further restrict the rights of same-sex couples in its country.

We now know a little more about the plan in favor of LGBTQ rights that the European Commission wants to put in place.

Fermoy in Ireland has finally made its decision regarding the future of its twinning with a Polish town that had taken a stand against LGBTQ people.

Last year, the fashion in Poland was for “LGBTQ-free zones”.

Each of the 100 Polish municipalities that joined this hate movement passed an anti-LGBTQ resolution and carefully placed an “LGBTQ-Free Zone” sign at the entrance of their cities.

Since then, the European Union (EU) has been hitting in their wallet.

Six of these municipalities have been sanctioned for their anti-LGBTQ stance thanks to the work of Helena Dalli, the European Commissioner for Equality, who has been instrumental in the EU’s decision-making.

Dalli had affirmed that “EU values and fundamental rights must be respected by member states and public authorities.”

When I covered these unprecedented EU sanctions, I wondered whether they would continue and whether other sanctions would emerge.

Well, today, here’s the beginning of an answer.

The European Union will sanction a few towns in Poland following their anti-LGBTQ views.

The Polish presidential election sees two candidates with opposing views on LGBTQ rights.

The French town of Saint-Jean-de-Braye located in the Centre-Val de Loire region had been twinned with the town of Tuchow in south-eastern Poland for 25 years.

The French municipality recently broke this twinning because of their disagreement over the LGBTQ community.