

Illustration. Photo: EPA-EFE/WALLACE WOON

Several Polish municipalities have announced that they plan to sue a group of activists who created an “Atlas of Hate” map, depicting municipalities covering one third of the territory of Poland that had passed resolutions that activists argue discriminate against LGBT people.

The conservative legal group Ordo Iuris, which will offer legal assistance to the municipalities, announced the lawsuit on Tuesday during a press conference in Warsaw.

Representatives of at least seven municipalities were present, indicating that they would file the defamation lawsuit, although a final list of participating municipalities has not been made public yet.

The map created by the activists says almost 100 Polish municipalities have adopted resolutions that are either “against LGBT ideology” or “pro-family”, which the activists say are “discriminatory” against LGBT people.

Over 30 of the resolutions in question are based on a “Municipal Charter of Family Rights” sponsored by Ordo Iuris.

The ‘pro-family’ resolutions do not explicitly refer to an “LGBT ideology” or even to LGBT people directly. Instead, the charter calls on municipalities to emphasise the protection of the traditional family – namely, heterosexual parents and their children – in all their policies, including school activities and the distribution of public funds, which fall under the remit of the municipalities.

Announcing the lawsuit, Ordo Iuris said it objected to municipalities adopting its Charter being placed on an “Atlas of Hate” map, under the headline “LGBT-free zones”. It claims the “pro-family” resolutions are in line with the Polish Constitution, which calls for the protection of the family.

“The Charter of the Rights of the Family has been elaborated by Ordo Iuris experts in cooperation with over 20 Polish social organizations. It is a declaration that aims to promote the constitutional principles of protection of the family, marriage, parenthood and motherhood (Article 18 of the Constitution), protection of family life (Article 47) and protection of children against demoralization (Article 72),” the Ordo Iuris press statement on Tuesday said.

“Moreover, the Charter embraces particular protection of the right of the parents to raise their children according to their beliefs (Article 48 of the Constitution),” it added.

The ‘Atlas of Hate’ violates the reputation of local government units that have decided to adopt resolutions which protect the constitutional rights of families,” it continued.

The group says it will seek an apology and payment of “social compensation” from Jakub Gawron, the only author of the map Ordo Iuris refers to.

Pawel Kwasniak, coordinator of the family charter project for Ordo Iuris, told BIRN recently that the charter was a “soft” measure undertaken in order to promote a “pro-family’ culture, or even we could say, to put the family in fashion”.

Kwasniak said that Ordo Iuris came up with the initiative as a “response to threats from far-left ideology, social movements, the LGBT ideology and gender ideology, which are spreading ever more across the world and in Poland”.

After the lawsuit was announced, Gawron told BIRN he disputed the claim that the Charter was not discriminatory against LGBT people. He said the effect of implementing the Charter would be “among others, the symbolic exclusion of non-heteronormative people from the public space”.

Gawron said the lawsuit was an attempt to intimidate the activists, but he was not afraid.

On Wednesday, the Campaign Against Homophobia, whose lawyer, Karolina Gierdal, has agreed to represent Gawron and the other activists in the lawsuit, said they were ready to take on the defence

She would aim to “convince the courts that it is out of the question to speak about defamation of local governments, and that the Municipal Charter of Family Rights belongs on the Atlas”.

The European Commission has condemned the resolutions.