LGBT-free zones were municipalities and regions of Poland that had declared themselves unwelcoming of LGBTQ rights, in order to ban equality marches and other LGBTQ events. By June 2020, some 100 municipalities , as well as five voivodeships, encompassing a third of the country, had adopted resolutions characterised as "LGBT-free zones". On 6 February 2024, Warsaw's Voivodeship Administrative Court repealed the last document "against LGBT ideology" in Poland. By 24 April 2025, all anti-LGBTQ resolutions and all Local Government Family Rights Charters have been withdrawn or invalidated by court order.
Most of the adopted resolutions were lobbied for by Ordo Iuris, a Catholic and ultra-conservative organisation. While unenforceable and primarily symbolic, the declarations represent an attempt to stigmatise LGBTQ people. The Economist considered the zones "a legally meaningless gimmick with the practical effect of declaring open season on gay people". In a December 2020 report, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights stated: "Far from being merely words on paper, these declarations and charters directly impact the lives of LGBTI people in Poland." Supporters argued that the zones defended traditional family values, while opponents argued that the zones undermined the LGBTQ rights in Poland.
On 18 December 2019, the European Parliament voted, 463 to 107, to condemn the more than 80 such zones in Poland. In September 2021, four of the voivodeships withdrew the measures, after the European Union (EU) threatened to withhold funding. Poland's Human Rights Ombudsman challenged several LGBTQ-free zone resolutions. In July 2020, the voivodeship administrative courts in Gliwice and Radom ruled that the "LGBTQ ideology free zones" established by the local authorities in the gminas of Istebna and Klwów were null and void, stressing that they violated the constitution and were discriminatory against members of the LGBTQ community living in those counties. In August and September 2020, the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Lublin and Voivodeship Administrative Court in Kielce respectively issued similar judgements on LGBTQ-free zones. Following appeal of the decisions, the Supreme Administrative Court of Poland agreed with the decisions of the four aforementioned courts in June 2022.
From July 2020, the EU denied funding from the Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund to municipalities that adopted "LGBTQ-free" declarations, being in violation of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Poland is the only member state to have an opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which it had signed upon its accession to the EU in 2004. In addition, several European sister cities froze their partnerships with the Polish municipalities in question. Due to their violation of EU law, including Article 7 of the EU Treaty, these zones were considered part of the Polish rule-of-law crisis.
Background
In February 2019, Warsaw's liberal mayor Rafał Trzaskowski signed a declaration supporting LGBTQ rights, and announced his intention to follow World Health Organization guidelines and integrate LGBTQ issues into the Warsaw school system sex education curricula. Law and Justice (PiS) politicians objected to the program saying it would sexualize children. PiS party leader Jarosław Kaczyński responded to the declaration, calling LGBTQ rights "an import" that threatens Poland.
According to The Daily Telegraph, the declaration "enraged and galvanized" conservative politicians and conservative media in Poland, the "LGBT-free zone" declarations emerging as a reaction to the Warsaw declaration. The British newspaper further argues that the conservative establishment is fearful of a liberal transition that may erode the Catholic Church's power in Poland like the transition around the Irish Church. Decreasing Church attendance, rising secularization, and sexual abuse scandals have put pressure on the conservative position.
Two weeks prior to the 2019 European Parliament election in Poland, a documentary on child sex abuse in the Church titled Tell No One was released online. It was expected to hurt the Church-aligned PiS electorally, and was responded to by PiS leader Kaczyński speaking heatedly of the Polish nation and children as "being under attack by deviant foreign ideas", which led conservative voters to rally around PiS. According to feminist scholar Agnieszka Graff, "The attack on LGBT was triggered by the [Warsaw] Declaration, but that was just a welcome excuse", as PiS sought to woo the rural-traditional demographic and needed a scapegoat to replace migrants.
In the run-up to the 13 October 2019 Polish parliamentary election, PiS focused on countering "LGBT ideology". In 2019, it rebuked the Warsaw mayor's pro-LGBTQ declaration as "an attack on the family and children" and stated that LGBTQ was an "imported" ideology. In August 2019, Marek Jędraszewski (the Archbishop of Kraków) said that "LGBT ideology" was like a "rainbow plague" in a sermon commemorating the Warsaw Uprising. Not long after, a drag queen simulated Jędraszewski's murder on stage, stirring controversy.
, being openly gay in Poland's small towns and rural areas "[takes] increasing physical and mental fortitude" due to the efforts of Polish authorities and the Catholic Church, according to The Daily Telegraph. Public perception, however, has been becoming more tolerant of gay people. The 41 percent of Poles surveyed in 2001 stating that "being gay wasn't normal and shouldn't be tolerated" dropped to 24 percent in 2017, and the 5 percent who said "being gay was normal" in 2001 had grown to 16 percent in 2017.
Declarations Anti-LGBTQ resolutions were passed by some Polish gminas (municipalities), (Reprint at The Independent) powiats (counties), and voivodeships (provinces), which declared themselves free from "LGBT ideology" in reaction to the Warsaw Declaration. While unenforceable, activists say the declared zones represent attempts to exclude the LGBTQ community, and called the declarations "a statement saying that a specific kind of people is not welcome there."
The two documents declared by municipalities were a "Local Government Charter of The Rights of The Family", and a "Resolution against LGBT ideology". Both of these documents were labelled in media as "declarations of LGBT-free zones", but neither of them actually contain a statement of exclusion of LGBTQ people from any territory, activities or rights. The "Charter of Family Rights" focuses on family values in social policies and only refers to LGBTQ rights indirectly, such as by defining marriage as a relationship "between a man and a woman". The "Resolution against LGBT ideology" opposes an "ideology of the LGBT movement" and introducing sex education in line with WHO education standards and condemns political correctness. An interactive map of Poland marking all municipalities which accepted either one or both of these resolutions, with links to their original texts, is available online, under the titles "Atlas of Hate".
In August 2019, around 30 different local governments have accepted such resolutions, including four voivodeships in the south-east of the country, namely Lesser Poland, Podkarpackie, Świętokrzyskie, and Lublin. The four Voivodeships form the "historically conservative" part of Poland. In February 2020, local governments controlling a third of Poland officially declared themselves as "against "LGBT ideology" or passed "pro-family" Charters, pledging to refrain from encouraging tolerance or funding NGOs working for LGBTQ rights.
Voivodeships (provinces) Lublin Voivodeship, revoked by the voivodeship council on 27 September 2021 Lesser Poland Voivodeship, revoked by the voivodeship council on 27 September 2021 Podkarpackie Voivodeship, revoked by the voivodeship council on 27 September 2021 Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, revoked by the voivodeship council on 22 September 2021 Łódź Voivodeship, revoked by the voivodeship council on 28 September 2021
Powiats (counties)
Powiat białobrzeski, revoked by powiat council on 7 September 2023. Powiat białostocki, revoked by powiat council on 16 March 2023. Powiat bielski, revoked by powiat council on 25 May 2023. Powiat dębicki, revoked by powiat council on 28 March 2025. Powiat jarosławski, revoked by powiat council on 31 March 2023. Powiat kielecki, revoked by powiat council on 7 August 2023. Powiat kolbuszowski, revoked by powiat council on 26 January 2023. Powiat krasnostawski, revoked by powiat council on 29 November 2021. Powiat kraśnicki,Powiat Kraśnicki wolnym od ideologii „LGBT”. revoked by powiat council on 26 April 2023. Powiat leski,Stanowisko nr 1.2019 Rady Powiatu Leskiego w sprawie powstrzymania ideologii „LGBT” przez wspólnotę samorządową. revoked by powiat council on 5 April 2023. Powiat limanowski, revoked by powiat council on 18 May 2023. Powiat lubaczowski, revoked by powiat council on 28 October 2021. Powiat lubelski, revoked by powiat council on 30 March 2023. Powiat łańcucki, revoked by powiat council on 24 April 2025. Powiat łowicki, revoked by powiat council on 30 August 2023. Powiat łukowski, revoked by powiat council on 20 March 2023. Powiat mielecki, revoked by powiat council on 2 October 2023. Powiat nowotarski, revoked by powiat council on 30 March 2023. Powiat opoczyński, revoked by powiat council on 26 September 2023. Powiat przasnyski, revoked by powiat council on 25 October 2023. Powiat przysuski, revoked by powiat council on 16 October 2023. Powiat puławski, revoked by powiat council on 29 March 2023. Powiat radomski, revoked by powiat council on 17 October 2023. Powiat radzyński, revoked by powiat council on 28 March 2023. Powiat rawski, revoked by powiat council on 5 June 2023. Powiat rycki, revoked by powiat council on 25 April 2023. Powiat sztumski, revoked by powiat council on 22 September 2020. Powiat świdnicki, revoked by powiat council on 24 October 2023. Powiat tarnowski, revoked by powiat council on 27 June 2023. Powiat tatrzański, revoked by powiat council on 29 July 2024. Powiat tomaszowski, revoked by powiat council on 7 December 2023. Powiat wieluński, revoked by powiat council on 19 October 2023. Powiat włoszczowski, revoked by powiat council on 16 August 2023. Powiat zamojski, revoked by powiat council on 21 December 2022.
Gminas (municipalities)
Gromnik, revoked by gmina council on 28 April 2024. Istebna, revoked by NSA on 28 June 2022. Jordanów (gmina wiejska), revoked by the gmina council on 31 January 2023 Klwów, revoked by NSA on 28 June 2022. Kraśnik, revoked by gmina council on 29 April 2021. Końskowola, revoked by the gmina council on 1 February 2023. Kock, revoked by WSA on 11 January 2021. Konstantynów, revoked by gmina council on 14 March 2024. Lipinki, revoked by gmina council on 29 May 2023. Łososina Dolna, revoked by gmina council on 29 May 2023. Mełgiew, revoked by gmina council on 30 March 2023. Mordy, revoked by WSA on 6 February 2024. Moszczenica, revoked by the gmina council on 29 December 2022. Niebylec, revoked by NSA on 12 October 2023. Osiek, revoked by NSA on 28 June 2022. Ostrów Lubelski, revoked by the gmina council on 31 May 2023. Poniatowa, revoked by the gmina council on 15 May 2023. Potworów, revoked by the gmina council on 7 September 2023. Przeworsk, revoked by the gmina council on 28 December 2022. Radziechowy-Wieprz, revoked on 11 September 2020 by the voivode of the Silesian Voivodeship, Jarosław Wieczorek. Skierniewice, revoked by the gmina council on 16 February 2024. Szczytniki, revoked by the gmina council on 15 June 2023. Świdnik, revoked by the gmina council on 29 December 2022. Stary Zamość, revoked by the gmina council on 17 May 2023. Serniki, revoked by NSA on 28 June 2022. Szerzyny revoked by the gmina council on 30 March 2023. Trzebieszów, revoked by the gmina council on 30 March 2023.