A Polish member of the European Parliament said Monday (14 September) that “LGBT-free zones” do not exist in Poland and are just a “joke told by left-wing activists”. As countless lawmakers tore into Polish president Andrzej Duda during a debate on the country’s current state of LGBT+ rights and the rule of law, PiS MEP Patryk Jaki said there are no “so-called LGBT-free zones” and claimed left-wing activists “sent you pictures, and you fell for it,” tvn.24 reported. In contrast, German MEP Terry Reintke emphatically lambasted Poland and its leaders for singling out the LGBT+ community, following a relentless wave of vitriol that has spurred a surge in hate crime as well as police crackdowns on activists. A member of the European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights, Reintke said: “We are not an ideology. We are human beings.