“LGBT ideology” responsible for child suicides, says Polish education minister

The rise in attempted suicides by children in Poland is caused by the “brainwashing” of “LGBT, neo-liberal and neo-Marxist ideologies”, says the education minister. His proposed solution is to reinforce traditional values, including attending church, to help young people better distinguish between good and evil.

The last two years have seen Poland record its highest even number of attempted suicides by minors, with 1,496 in 2021 followed by 2,031 last year. The latter figure was more than double the average registered in the years before 2021.

Experts have pointed to Poland’s underfunded, overstretched and outdated mental health support system and the effects of the pandemic as major factors behind the rise. But education minister Przemysław Czarnek, an outspoken conservative figure, places the blame elsewhere.

Speaking to Polsat News, he said that, while the educational authorities can make efforts to combat youth suicides, these are “only sticking plasters”.

The root of the problem is the “powerful crisis of the family, the attack on it, on Christianity, on the church, on religion, on everything that distinguishes good from evil”, said Czarnek.

“It is necessary to protect the values ​​of family and marriage, and not to attack [them] with Marxist and LGBT ideologies that wreak havoc in the minds of children,” continued the minister.

“These attempted and, unfortunately, successful suicides are the result of the minds of young people being clouded by LGBT, neo-liberal and neo-Marxist ideologues, brainwashing them and leaving them to fend for themselves,” added Czarnek.

However, he claimed that “in smaller localities, where people go to church, the distinction between good and evil is at a better level”.

Czarnek’s remarks were condemned by the Empowering Children Foundation (Fundacji Dajemy Dzieciom Siłę), one of Poland’s largest NGOs supporting children’s mental health, including running a helpline.

“The minister’s statement, which has not been supported by any data, is harmful and disregards the growing problem of mental crisis among young people,” the foundation’s spokeswoman told news service naTemat.

“We believe that the minister’s statement leads to stigmatisation and diminishes the suffering of young people who face mental health problems and may discourage them from asking for help,” she added.

In similar remarks last year, Czarnek blamed the “moral corruption and wickedness of so-called sex educators” for attempted suicides among minors.

He has sought to pass a law that would make it easier to prevent outside organisations such as sex education NGOs from entering schools and “morally corrupting” children. However, the legislation has twice been vetoed by President Andrzej Duda.

Czarnek has also claimed in the past that “LGBT ideology comes from the same roots as Nazism” and that its adherents “are not equal to normal people” so we should “stop listening to this idiocy about human rights or equality”.

The issue of youth suicide has drawn particular attention and debate recently following the announcement last week that the 15-year-old son of an opposition MP had taken his own life.

Many commentators have blamed state media, which are under the control of the ruling party, for his death after they published reports that helped identify the child as the victim of sexual abuse.

However, politicians and media linked to the ruling camp have argued that the boy’s death was the result not of those reports, but of his abuse at the hands of a politician and LGBT activist belonging to the same party as his mother.

Main image credit: MEiN (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.