Poland: Police regional council to maintain “LGBT-free zone” despite risking loss of EU funding

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A regional council in predominantly Catholic Poland has voted to remain an “LGBT-free zone,” risking a loss of funding from the European Union, Reuters reports. The southern Malopolska region has received a letter from the EU warning it could lose more than €2.5 billion in funds unless it revokes its 2019 “LGBT-free zone” declaration by mid-September.

Since the ruling national-conservative PiS (Law and Justice) party took power in Poland, more than 100 local authorities have declared their areas to be free of what they call “LGBT ideology.”

“LGBT-free zones” prohibit the promotion of homosexuality and non-heterosexual identities, particularly in schools, Reuters reports. Supporters of the zones say they are protecting family and Christian values: free-zone supporter and Magazine editor Tomasz Sakiewicz told the BBC that he believes people should be allowed to have relations with whom they want, but that he is against the “aggressive ideology promoting homosexuality” that he says has been imported from the US and Western Europe and poses a threat to the traditional Polish family.

The apparent trend in Polish local municipalities declaring themselves “LGBT-free zones” has put them at odds with the European Commission, which says the zones may be a violation of anti-discrimination EU laws, Reuters reports.

In her state of the European Union address last September, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “LGBTI-free zones are humanity-free zones and have no place in our union.”

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