A Dutch city has cut ties with its official twin in Poland after local officials declared it an “LGBT-free zone”.
Nieuwegein city council, south of Utrecht, voted 26-1 to delink from Puławy in Lublin province, southeastern Poland.
It followed the decision by the city’s local municipality to join 100 others across Poland in adopting resolutions “against LGBT propaganda” and ‘‘free from LGBTI ideology’’.
Multiple towns and cities have introduced the anti-gay measures as part of the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS)’s campaign to promote conservative family values.
Equality activists have drawn up an “Atlas of Hate” map showing that an area of the country greater than the size of Hungary has effectively become an “LGBT-free zone”, backed by local councillors.
Following the vote in Nieuwegein, alderman Marieke Schouten marked the decision by covering the Polish town’s name on Nieuwegein’s entry signs with a rainbow flag.
“This is a statement,” she told RTV Utrecht. “Gay-free zones are not done. Everybody is welcome in our town. It doesn’t matter who you are, what colour skin you have, what you believe in or what your sexual orientation is.
“If you have a friendship with a town where that’s not allowed, we have good reason to say we are concerned about what’s happening over there.”
The Polish president, Andrzej Duda, who secured a new term last weekend, vowed during his election campaign to “defend children from LGBT ideology”, a pledge that proved popular among his conservative base and the Catholic church.
In a survey conducted by Ipsos last year, when asked to name the biggest threat to Poland in the 21st century, the most popular answer among men under 40 was “the LGBT movement and gender ideology”.
