Polish House Approves Law Banning LGBTQ Content In Schools
- By
- Carlos Santoscoy
- | January 18, 2022
Poland's lower house, the Sejm, has approved a measure that seeks to ban LGBTQ content in schools.
The measure, which cleared the chamber with a 227-214 vote, would prohibit students from participating in LGBTQ affirming clubs and events. It would also give administrators the power to remove LGBTQ materials from schools.
Dubbed “Czarnek's Law” after Education Minister Przemyslaw Czarnek, the bill now heads to the upper house, where it faces steeper opposition.
Czarnek is vocally opposed to LGBTQ rights.
(Related: Gay couple hands out rainbow masks on the streets of Poland.)
In seeking a second term in office, President Andrezj Duda campaigned against LGBTQ rights.
In asking citizens for their vote, Duda pledged to “ban the propagation of LGBT ideology” in schools and other public institutions and compared the LGBTQ rights movement to Communist propaganda in the Soviet Union. He narrowly beat Rafal Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw, in a runoff election.
In 2020, former President Donald Trump invited Duda to the White House.