“After eight years of hate against people like me, the nightmare is over,” Bart Staszewski, a Polish LGBTQIA+ rights activist, told Openly by phone. One of the first LGBTQIA-friendly policies the opposition pledged to advance if elected was the legalisation of same-sex civil unions, a right that already exists in most fellow European Union countries. In Slovakia, like Poland, same-sex civil partnerships are not recognised and gay couples cannot adopt. Hungary allows gay civil unions but has effectively banned adoption by same-sex couples. Michaela Dénešová, an activist with Slovakian LGBTQIA+ rights NGO Inakost, said the change in government had put the community on alert.

Source: The Times October 30, 2023 11:15 UTC