European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has attacked the Polish government for condoning the establishment of ‘LGBT ideology-free zones,’ and announced impending countermeasures.
“LGBTQI-free zones are humanity free zones,” Von der Leyen said on Wednesday while addressing the European Parliament.
The chief executive added that any breaches of European laws regarding the treatment of the LGBT community “cannot be tolerated”.
Polish officials’ openly anti-gay positions have also prompted the Commission to develop a “strategy to strengthen LGBTQI rights” in the bloc. As part of it, there will be a push to recognize registered same-sex family relations between EU citizens by all member countries. “If you are parent in one country, you are parent in every country,” Von der Leyen said.
Currently, some countries in the Union do not recognize same sex marriage and parenthood, which sometimes leads to citizens, most importantly children, having differing legal statuses when crossing borders inside the EU.
Starting this year, various regions of Poland have declared themselves ‘LGBT ideology-free zones,’ which coincided with local bans of gay marriages and LGBT events. Right now, these zones make up about a third of the country.
In July the European Commissioner for Justice and Equality Helena Dalli announced that six Polish cities would not be granted EU funding for adopting the ‘LGBT-free zones’.
The cities which have lost the EU extra funding were promised compensation by the government.
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