French European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune told a magazine to be published Wednesday that he is gay and plans to visit a so-called LGBT-free zone in Poland to support local activists. Beaune told French magazine Tetu in an interview that he would travel to Poland at the start of next year to “support one of the associations defending abortion rights”, adding that “this will not prevent me from also holding talks with my Polish counterpart”. Poland’s abortion rights, adopted in 1993 as part of a church-state compromise after the collapse of communism, are among the most restrictive in Europe. Beaune had previously called “LGBT-ideology free zones” set up by several local councils in Poland “an absolute scandal”. He acknowledged in the interview that the Polish government was not directly responsible for the local bans, “but members of the ruling party encourage and implement them”.