Gov't official says no laws discriminating LGBTI people in Poland
Polish government commissioner for demographic policy, Barbara Socha, on Thursday said she "has not heard anything about a law discriminating LGBTI persons in Poland," and underlined that "reports and data show their organisations receive huge sums of money."
The European Parliament on Wednesday passed a resolution condemning the discrimination of and hate speech targeting LGBTI people. MEPs condemned so-called areas 'free from LGBTI ideology' established since the beginning of 2019 by dozens of municipalities, counties and regions in the southeast of Poland, and hate speech against LGBTI persons in other member countries, namely, Estonia, Spain, Great Britain, Hungary and Romania.
The European Parliament condemned the situation in which in Poland "these local governments have issued non-binding resolutions pledging to refrain from taking any action to encourage tolerance of LGBTI people and saying they would not provide financial assistance to NGOs working to promote equal rights. The European Parliament urges Polish authorities to condemn these acts and to revoke all resolutions attacking LGBTI rights."
In addition, MEPs called on the European Commission to monitor how all EU funding is used, to remind all interested sides of the non-discrimination principle, and that such funds must not be used for discriminatory purposes.
Finally, MEPs highlighted that, "although legal measures against discrimination are in place in the majority of member states, they are not sufficiently implemented, leaving LGBTI people vulnerable to hate crimes, hate speech and discrimination."
