A local authority in Poland has launched a legal action to make itself “free from LGBT ideology” again, after a resolution to that effect was invalided earlier this year by a court, which found the measure to be discriminatory.
“We do not want a minority telling us how to live,” says the head of the local administration, who hails from Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party. However, he also argues that the resolution does not discriminate against anyone. Tarnów county, a district in southern Poland with a population of almost 200,000, was among dozens of local authorities that adopted anti-LGBT resolutions in 2019 amid a campaign by the national-conservative PiS and parts of the Catholic church against what they call “LGBT ideology”. A handful of those resolutions have since been withdrawn due to the threat of losing European funds. Others have been invalidated by court rulings made in response to cases brought by Poland’s former commission for human rights, Adam Bodnar.