Poland’s president says being LGBT+ is an ‘ideology’ worse than communism: ‘They are trying to convince us that they are people’
Polish President Andrzej Duda. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The president of Poland Andrzej Duda compared “LGBT+ ideology” to Soviet Union-era communist indoctrination in a campaign speech Saturday (June 13), only days after vowing to ban same-sex marriage, gay adoption and LGBT+ education in schools.
Duba made his comments in the small southwestern town of Brzeg as he campaigns for re-election in Poland, a country that spent more than four decades under communist governments, Time reported.
“They are trying to convince us that they are people, but this is an ideology,” Duda said to squakey applause and chants of “Andrzej Duda!” from the packed rally.
Under Poland’s populist governing party, Law and Justice, LGBT+ rights have emerged as a high watermark. Lawmakers have stymied or rescinded queer legislation, while Pride Parades become pinched battlegrounds between those who believe LGBT+ people should be equal, and those opposed.
All to the alarming backdrop of “LGBT-free zones“, turning the county into a patchwork of fear and violence for queer citizens.
Poland president says ‘LGBT+ ideology’ is more harmful than Bolshevism.
Duba, 48, who was once a member of Law and Justice, amplified the party’s poisonous propaganda that, in part, secured their thumping victory last year, effectively enabling lawmakers to bulldoze anti-LGBT+ bills.
He told supporters at the rally that his parents’ generation did not struggle to cast off the chains of communism only to now accept “an ideology” that he said is “even more destructive to the human being.”
The president added that, during Poland’s communist-era from 1945 to 1989, regime ensured survival by indoctrinating the youngest generation – seeding support form early ages.
“That was Bolshevism,” he said. “It was the ideologizing of children.
A Pride march in Poland. (JERZY BALISKI/AFP via Getty)
“Today, there are also attempts to push an ideology on us and our children, but different. It’s totally new, but it is also neo-Bolshevism.”
“We have our tradition. We have our culture that is based on over 1,050 years of history.
He continued: “We won’t allow [Poland] to be taken away from us. We won’t let any ideology, neither communist, nor socialist, nor any other take it away from us, because this is our identity.
“And let no one try to lead our children on the wrong path because we won’t allow it.”
Andrzej Duda is up against pro-LGBT Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski.
The dehumanising declaration comes only days after Duda pledged to ban various planks of LGBT+ equality in Poland, which government officials have already begun to briskly erode.
In an apparent pitch to his conservative base, he signed a ‘family values’ declaration that vows to “protect children from LGBT+ ideology” and prohibit the teaching of LGBT+ inclusion by public institutions.
Parents are responsible for the sexual education of their children,” Reuters reported him saying. “It is not possible for any institutions to interfere in the way parents raise their children.”
Duda’s re-election campaign comes straight from the Law and Justice party playbook. Lawmakers positioned being LGBT+ as a dangerous Western idea that undermines traditional Catholic values, with party leader Jaroslaw Kaczyński describing his party as fighting in an “ideological war”.
Rafal Trzaskowski signs the declaration on February 18th 2019 (Facebook)
The June 28 election is currently crowded with 10 candidates in the race, but bookies are predicting a tense runoff between Duda and Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski.
The Civic Platform party member sparked backlash in 2019 for protecting LGBT+ rights. The declaration signed by Trzaskowski is said to guarantee the basic needs of Warsaw’s LGBT+ community, and enable local administrations to provide what the Polish government refused to put into practice.
