For the first time ever, a gay couple has been featured in an advertisement airing on major channels in Poland, as well as Czech Republic, Slovakia and Lithuania.
The ad, for Durex condoms, features Jakub and Dawid Mycek-Kwiecinski, a gay married Polish couple we reported on in April because they were handing out free COVID-19 rainbow face masks to the public to help end LGBTQ stigma.
The couple shared the ad on their Facebook page, calling it a “groundbreaking” moment and praising the company for their inclusiveness. Same-sex marriage is illegal in Poland.
GSN reported: “It’s a return to TV for Jakub Mycek-Kwiecinski who worked as a presenter at national broadcaster TVP for nine years. In 2018, he told GSN that TVP fired him because he is gay. TVP made the decision after Jacek Kurski, a former member of the conservative political party Law and Justice, became president of the company. Meanwhile the Law and Justice Party (PiS) stirred up homophobia to win the 2019 Polish general elections. Furthermore, multiple cities and districts have declared themselves as ‘LGBT-Free Zones’ in the last 18 months. Now 100 municipalities and five voivodships or provinces, the largest administrative unit in Poland, are so-called LGBT-Free Zones. Together they cover a third of the country and make up an area around the size of Hungary.”
