Education minister criticises “irresponsible” principals for allowing LGBT day in Polish schools

Poland’s education minister has criticised principals who were “irresponsible” enough to allow an annual event in support of LGBT people to be held in their schools. He warns that “gender revolutionists” are trying to implant dangerous ideas in the minds of children.

Since 2016, Campaign Against Homophobia (KPH), an NGO, has organised a nationwide “Rainbow Friday” (Tęczowy Piątek) in October during which school pupils can show solidarity with their LGBT peers by wearing rainbow-coloured clothes and organising events such as workshops and film screenings.

“We want young people from the LGBT+ community to know that they are okay, that they have support and are not alone – that there are a lot of people, both adults and their peers, who stand alongside them,” Joanna Skonieczna from KPH told news outlet Noizz.

School authorities can decide whether to officially allow such activities to take place. KPH does not collect data on which institutions are involved to ensure the safety of those taking part, but the organisation’s Cecylia Jakubczak told OKO.press that events “were held all over Poland”.

One school that took part this year was the Academic High School in Toruń, which is consistently ranked as one of the top high schools in Poland. As well as Rainbow Friday, it held a broader Day of Tolerance, encouraging students to show respect for everyone regardless of sex, ethnicity, religion or skin colour.

A number of celebrities also publicly supported the initiative, including a group of figures from the worlds of sport, music, filmmaking, art, social media and fashion who this year created a special film – You’re OK! – for the occasion.

Figures from Poland’s ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party – which has mounted a long-running campaign against what it calls “LGBT ideology” – have long been critical of Rainbow Friday.

In 2019, deputy prime minister Jacek Sasin warned that such “indoctrination should not be allowed” and suggested “introducing regulations” to prevent it. The education ministry sought to discourage schools from taking part in Rainbow Friday and suggested they instead organise “patriotic trips” on the same day.

Asked yesterday by the Polish Press Agency (PAP) about Rainbow Friday, education minister Przemysław Czarnek said that he believed it was only “taking place in a marginal number of institutions, where there are irresponsible principals who do not care for the proper education and upbringing of children”.

Czarnek has been one of the government’s most vociferous opponents of “LGBT ideology”, which he says “comes from the same roots as Nazism” and whose adherents are “deviants” who should “not have the same public rights” as “normal people”.

The minister has been seeking to introduce a law that would allow government-appointed officials to prevent NGOs from carrying out activities in schools. The bill was vetoed earlier this year but a similar one was recently resubmitted and approved by the parliamentary education committee.

Speaking about the proposed law this week, Czarnek told TV Republika that it would help stop “gender revolutionists that want to mislead children” into believing that there are “fifty or so genders” and that it is “possible to choose a culture gender”. This causes “problems with identity”, he warned.

LGBT rights groups, however, say that it is anti-LGBT language, especially from public figures, that contributes to mental health problems among children.

A study published in 2021 by the University of Warsaw’s Center for Research on Prejudice found that almost 70% of LGBT people in Poland have experienced at least one type of violence based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, reports Onet.

The deputy mayor of Warsaw – which is under opposition control – said this week that “there is no consent for any form of homophobia in our schools”. The city provides funding for a shelter to help homeless LGBT youths. Kraków last year also introduced a programme of support for LGBT youth.

To mark this year’s Rainbow Friday, Włodzimierz Czarzasty, one of the leaders of The Left (Lewica) and deputy speaker of parliament, tweeted an image of him displaying an LGBT flag in the chamber. “YES to equality, NO to discrimination, because everyone has the right to love and be loved,” he wrote.

Main image credit: Agnieszka Sadowska/ Agencja Wyborcza.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.