Paper short abstract:

The emergence of the so-called LGBT-free zones is an effect of the historical inter-imperial positionality of Poland. From a post- and decolonial, race-critical perspective, they emerge as part of global as well as European race and gender dynamic that has been present in Poland for a very long time

Paper long abstract:

Since early 2019, around 100 municipalities, counties and regions (voivodeships) in Poland have declared themselves “LGBT-free zones.” Documents passed by the local councils under titles like “Local Charter of the Rights of the Family” or “A Resolution Against LGBT Ideology” refer to “gender ideology” or pledge “defense” of the “fundamentality” of the binary-gender family, a structure that is allegedly anchored in the Polish legal order and a condition for prosperity in Poland. These documents – which have no legally binding power – have been passed through the initiative of a globally networked, fundamentalist Catholic organization, Ordo Iuris, with active support from the nationalist-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party. However, in late 2021, after the EU Commission announced that regions where these resolutions were passed will be cut off from EU funds, some of them have withdrawn them. Debates in local parliaments preceding these withdrawals have shown that the arguments that led to the resolutions’ initial passing are still very much present in public discourse.

In this presentation I want to show how the emergence of the so-called LGBT-free zones in Poland is entangled with global racist dynamics which are perpetuated by processes of Europeanization. The establishment of these zones is also an effect of the historical inter-imperial positionality of Poland. If we look at these zones from a post- and decolonial, race-critical perspective, they emerge as part of a global as well as European race and gender dynamic that has been present in Poland for a very long time