Polish President Andrzej Duda called LGBTQ rights an “ideology” that is more destructive than communism during a campaign speech last month.
“This is not why my parents’ generation for 40 years struggled to expel communist ideology from schools, so that it could not be foisted on children, could not brainwash and indoctrinate them,” Duda said during the speech in the city of Brzeg. “They did not fight so that we would now accept that another ideology, even more destructive to man, would come along, an ideology which under the clichés of respect and tolerance hides deep intolerance.”
Duda is closely aligned with Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party, which promotes a nationalist ideology. The party holds a majority in parliament and often stresses conservative Catholic values; it strongly opposes marriage equality, which is not currently legal in the country.
The BBC reported that on June 10, Duda vowed to promote a so-called “Family Charter,” a series of election proposals that include a ban allowing same-sex couples to marry or adopt children as well as bans on teaching about LGBTQ issues in the nation’s schools.