Dutch City Severs Ties with Polish Sister City over Homophobic Edict
On Thursday, The Guardian reported that the Dutch town of Nieuwegein "voted almost unanimously to end its friendship with Pulawy in eastern Poland" because of the latter declaring itself "gay-free zone."
This follows last weekend's re-election of Poland's president, Andrzej Duda, who has vowed to oppose LGBTQ+ rights, same-sex adoption, and same-sex marriage. Duda refers to the LGBT+ movement as a threat to children, and a "foreign ideology" that threatens the Polish way of life.
The Guardian also cites a survey conducted last year, where Polish men under the age of 40 cited "the LGBT movement and gender ideology" as "the biggest threat to Poland."
Executive councilor of Nieuwegein, Marieke Schouten, said of their twin Polish town Pulawy:
"Setting the gay-free zones is a serious business and our council has issued a very clear statement that this is not acceptable. We are a rainbow city. And we are both part of�Europe, in which we believe that whoever you are, regardless of your orientation, you can be there in public space. It does not include a gay-free zone."
As a response to Pulawy, the Guardian reports that "stickers with a rainbow flag were placed on one of the town's entrance signs to cover up its Polish counterpart's name."
Read more about this story at The Guardian.