Queer Eye star Antoni Porowski, who is of Polish heritage but grew up in Montreal, spoke out this week against Poland’s anti-LGBTQ crackdown.
The AP reports: “About one-third of Poles now live in communities that have passed resolutions declaring their opposition to the promotion of LGBT rights. The resolutions carry no binding legal powers, but they are seen by critics as discriminatory. Most were approved in the conservative eastern and southern areas of Poland.”
Additionally, according to the activist group AllOut (which has launched a petition to the EU over the crackdown), “a newspaper distributed stickers with the same inflammatory slogan and a crossed-out Pride flag, and participants at a Pride march in the city of Białystok were attacked with stones and bottles by nationalists and far-right groups.”
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Said Porowski: “If Poland wants to be part of the EU, then they have to behave accordingly. To have its own people excluding its own population, it seems so absurd and counterintuitive to Polish history. I remember my father telling me that Poland wasn’t on the map for 400 years, yet they kept their faith, they kept their country,” he said. “(Now) they’re fighting against their own. For me it’s incredibly frustrating.”
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden also weighed in this week on the crackdown in Poland, tweeting: “Let me be clear: LGBTQ+ rights are human rights — and ‘LGBT-free zones’ have no place in the European Union or anywhere in the world.”
