One of Poland’s LGBT-free zones becomes first in the country to strike down shameful homophobic ideology

As women’s rights advocates, LGBT+ activists, among other allies, poured onto the streets of Warsaw to battle the country’s near-total ban on abortion, a small town made a hugely symbolic decision. Councillors in Nowa Dęba, a town with some 11,000 residents in the south-eastern county of Tarnobrzeg, voted to withdraw its anti-LGBT+ resolution, according to activists on the ground. Bartosz Staszewski, an LGBT+ campaigner who has sought to highlight the division caused by the LGBT-free zones by placing signs outside municipalities that have passed the declaration, took to Twitter to share the “great” news. Of Nowa Dęba town council’s 15 members, 10 voted in favour of the declaration’s withdrawal, Notes from Poland reported. One councillor abstained, while four did not participate. Around 100 local and regional authorities – many under the control of the ruling right-wing Law and Justice Party, otherwise known as PiS, and tied to EU funding programs – have adopted hostile resolutions that declare the areas “free from LGBT+ ideology”.