An LGBT Pride march in Warsaw on Saturday drew tens of thousands participants.
The Polish government has in recent years been relatively hostile to LGBT rights and has made opposition to ‘LGBT ideology’ a platform position in previous election campaigns. The governing Law and Justice Party (PiS) has opposed same-sex marriage and the adoption of children by gay couples, saying this posed a threat to traditional Polish values and was harmful for children. It is also difficult for transgender people to formalise their transitions.
Parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held in Poland later this year.
The march was attended by the mayor of Warsaw, Rafal Trzaskowski, the US Ambassador to Poland, Mark Brzezinski, and the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo.
Trzaskowski, who had run for President in 2020 and had narrowly failed to win, said to the crowd: ‘We want to show that today diversity, minority rights means Europe that is open, Europe that is tolerant.’ He also said that the LGBT community would always be safe in Poland.
Hidalgo also expressed solidarity with the crowd, and was quoted as saying: ‘We will not let ourselves be influenced by those who want to extinguish women’s rights, minority rights, LGBT rights, and today, I want to say to you that in Paris just as in Warsaw, we are also totally in solidarity and engaged with you for the rights of transgender people.’