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April 9, 2024 - 4:30pm
Merely a year ago, it would have seemed unthinkable that the government of a country like Poland should propose a law that would put people behind bars for hate speech against LGBT people. Yet that’s exactly what happened late last month. In an effort to make good on the new centre-left Polish government’s campaign promises, the country’s Ministry of Justice proposed draft amendments that would impose a sentence of up to three years in prison for an array of actions ranging from the use of violence to vague insults against people based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, or other factors.
The proposed measures have already been hailed as a victory by the LGBT community in Poland, which has for years weathered intense state-backed repression and discrimination. More broadly, the move showcases just how far the political pendulum has swung in Poland, which was once considered one of the most religious and least LGBT-friendly countries in Europe under the previous conservative government led by the Law and Justice Party (PiS).
Yet in seeking to pull Poland to the Left on LGBT rights, the newly proposed amendments more closely resemble reactionary proclamations rather than sound, well thought-out policies.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government seems to have taken the same sledgehammer approach to this issue as it has to others since taking power late last year, and by introducing ambiguity into the Polish legal code on a matter that is so crucially in need of precise and careful reform, the Polish state risks throwing the baby out with the bathwater. By leaving crucial terms such as “insults” and “call for hatred” up to legal interpretation, the new amendments potentially allow legitimate non-hateful speech to become caught in the crossfire.
Years of inflammatory actions by state authorities like the establishment of LGBT-free zones and personal attacks against activists have made the debates around LGBT rights in Poland just as emotionally charged as those around other lightening-rod issues like abortion. Yet like many emotionally-driven reforms, the unscrupulous and inexact language present in the new law is hardly an adequate solution to Poland’s historic intolerance of LGBT rights. This is a trap that the country has fallen into before — the PiS government’s amendments to Poland’s historical memory laws similarly threatened up to three years in prison for individuals who suggested Poland was complicit in crimes committed by the Nazis during the Second World War. This ambiguity was used to target Holocaust scholars in Poland on several occasions and stifle their research. By the same token, a lack of specificity here again opens the door for politically motivated decision-making, and risks adding fuel to the fire of Poland’s increasingly divided socio-political landscape.
If Poland wants to correct course on LGBT rights, as it eagerly should, it must be careful not to repeat the mistakes of its recent past. Tusk’s government must do everything in its power to protect LGBT people while also putting up guardrails to make witch hunts of the sort that took place under PiS impossible. As it stands, the current version of the law only satisfies one of these requirements.
Michal Kranz is a freelance journalist reporting on politics and society in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the United States.
Michal_Kranz
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SubscribeBut they just want equal rights. Isn’t that how it goes? I’m sure jail is a possibility for anyone who offends a random straight guy. Or random straight woman, for that matter, along with people from other groups not perpetually seeking govt enforcement of thought.
Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.”
Somehow we seem to have moved away from this principle by granting special status to particular groups. We should all have to put up with feeling offended and insulted but not harassment, intimidation and violence, and we should all have equal protection before the law from such unlawful behaviour with no special privileges and protected characteristics having particular advantages.
Equality before the Law was once regarded as good liberal principle. Let’s try to get back to that.
I favor gay rights, and marriage equality, but when I see “LGBTQ &c.” these days, I assume it is controlled by trans activists who will come after women. And not to mention gays and lesbians, since trans activists still regard same-sex attraction as bigoted and transphobic. Many people in Poland, particularly women, may be naive about what trans activists want.
The slippery slope is real. None of this was possible without SSM. You can’t legitimize it and parse out why to say no to the next thing that comes.
What a coincidence, Scotland have done the same and ireland maybe too. Its almost like there is a global plan or something
And Canada, NZ, Australia and others not far behind. Odd coincidences surely.
No . Where have you been living the last 15 years.
There is .
European, anyway…
United Nations too.
It’s called fascism, not ‘hate-speech’ laws.
And then when the pendulum swings the other way, they will blame “populism” or the “far right”
Unfortunately, the liberal left is such a weak force on the left now. If it wasn’t, this de-facto ‘hate-speech law’ fascism wouldn’t be happening.
LOL they birthed these monsters, they aren’t going to strangletheir children.
Transhumanism is taking hold of Europe too. As (fake) national governments go, their masters in California and Brussels are insisting that the young enjoy the liberty to enjoy their sex and end their life with state assistance should their ‘mental health’ problems remain grievously pronounce.
For some reason I can’t currently open the link to the actual draft amendments. I guess even if I could the translation might be imperfect. Nonetheless without seeing these it’s difficult to really comment. We have Hate Speech Laws in the England & Wales that cover LGBT and have had so for some years. One or two interesting apparent differences in how the Courts have concluded on different cases, but you get that in all areas of Law. Certainly not overwhelmed the system and in general good common sense.
What I can’t see, as can’t open the link, is whether Poland jumping straight to amendments more in line with Scotland – which do look problematic – or more just aligning with what we’ve had for years in Eng/Wales?
Hate speech laws are stupid. When they started becoming popular it was obvious to me, even at a young age, that they had the appalling potential to be applied against any who questioned the political status quo. I also knew it would turn the worst sort of people into informers.
There were never any real LGBT-free zones in Poland. Just like we didn’t jail homosexuals which was practiced in the past in other European countries.
Sending a parent to jail for telling a child not to have her breasts removed will be legal. Use of non-woke pronouns will also be jail worthy as well as any attempt to ridicule a man for joining a women’s athletic team.
They always preach tolerance until they get into power.