Romania has overtaken Poland as the worst country in the EU for LGBTQ+ people, according to a ranking published by the Brussels-based non-governmental organisation ILGA-Europe.
Poland had occupied the top spot in the rankings since 2019, which are based on a score that takes into account factors such as the number of hate crimes in a given year and the rights afforded by authorities to the LGBTQ+ community.
Based on new data from 2024, Romania has now overtaken Poland, while Malta, Belgium and Iceland find themselves on the opposite side of the spectrum.
In the past, several Polish political leaders, including the chairman of the Law and Justice (PiS) party Jaroslaw Kaczyński, have campaigned against what they call “LGBTQ+ ideology.”
Asked about the “threat of the imposition of gender and LGBTQ+ ideology on Poland” during a virtual meeting with the editors of the Gazeta Polska newspaper in 2021, Kaczyński said that “all this madness- because it really is madness – is happening in a world in which there are tough and strong civilisations, both economically and militarily, which are weakening. This weakening of the West will be taken advantage of.”
Poland’s lowly ranking changed after the country’s 2023 parliamentary elections, indicating that conditions for LGBTQ+ people have improved. However, the new government has not introduced any new reforms to improve LGBTQ+ rights, despite having promised to do so during the pre-election campaign.
Nevertheless, ILGA-Europe reports that in the “civil society space” category, Poland has seen an improvement, referring to the fact that there were fewer obstacles to “LGBT+ events” such as pride marches.
“Last year, more than 35 marches were organised across Poland and almost all of them took place peacefully,” reads the latest ILGA-Europe report. “However, the protection of these events is insufficient.”
Poland recently abolished its last “LGBT-free zone”, six years after the first one was introduced. These zones, although mainly symbolic, were an attempt to exclude the LGBTQ+community from public life, according to activists.
“LGBT-free zones” have also faced criticism from the European Union. In 2019, the European Parliament voted with a majority of 463 to 107 to condemn the zones, of which there were more than 80 at the time.
According to an Ipsos+ poll, 67% of Poles support same-sex marriage or legal recognition of unions for LGBTQ+ couples. Although there were two motions in place for the ruling coalition to introduce bills on civil partnerships into parliament, both failed due to a lack of support by more conservative members.