Five years ago, Dehnel reached the conclusion that Poland was “not a safe place for LGBT people.” The PiS government was constantly stirring up animosity toward LGBT communities. Polish President Andrzej Duda, who remains in office until mid-2025, claimed that “LGBT is an ideology, not people.” Almost a third of Polish cities and municipalities were declared “LGBT-free zones.” “It was discrimination, persecution of our community, state-organized agitation,” Jacek Dehnel said, explaining why he and his husband, writer Piotr Tarczynski, decided to make their home in the German capital, Berlin.