Since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, more than 2.4 million refugees have fled across the border to Poland. In order to get to Lublin, the closest major Polish city to the northern border, refugees often have to travel through some of Poland’s so-called “LGBT-free zones”. These zones began popping up across the country in 2019, with almost 100 municipalities declaring themselves unwelcoming of “LGBT ideology”. “One of the trans women we were helping asked me: ‘Are we going to be going through those ‘LGBT-free zones’, and what does that mean?” explains Filip Kijowski, 28, co-founder of the LGBT+ library Biblioteka Azyl, based in Lublin. He and curator Waldemar Tatarczuk, 57, have been working flat-out to assist LGBT+ refugees in finding community, safety and healthcare after leaving Ukraine.