Poland: Poles are ready to vote for a gay president

Conservative Poland is not really that conservative as it used to be. Recent social surveys have demonstrated that Poles might close their eyes even on the nontraditional orientation and let a representative of sexual minorities become the head of the state, as long as his political decisions and actions are correct.

In fact, since last November polls have been steadily demonstrating that in 2020 presidential election, every fourth Pole is ready to vote for Robert Biedroń, mayor of the Slupsk city, atheist, openly gay, and fighter for the LGBT rights.

According to a recent IBRIS’s survey, conducted for "Rzeczpospolita", support of the politician, who some ten years ago was considered a freak, and twilight of his career was obvious, has slightly decreased. But he still remains one of the top three leaders in the upcoming presidential race: 11,4% of respondents are ready to vote for Biedroń, his main competitors are the incumbent President Andrzej Duda (33,5%) and the President of the European Council Donald Tusk (33%).

In 2011, just a couple of months before the parliamentary elections, Biedroń received an offer to become a candidate for a flamboyant ex-politician of the Civil Platform, businessman Janusz Palikot. This time Biedroń started from Gdynia and received almost 17 thousand votes from local voters, which allowed him to get to the Sejm.Thus, Robert Biedroń became the first and so far the only deputy of the Sejm who openly declared his homosexuality. 

Speaking of Poland, many Ukrainians think about European emancipation, but despite the economic and civilizational changes of the recent decades, this country still remains one of the most conservative in the issue of sexual minorities in the EU (because of its adherence to Catholicism).

Moreover, Poland is one of the EU states, the Constitution of which contains a direct ban on the same-sex marriages. The current president Andrzej Duda has repeatedly stated that such unions would never be legalized. 

According to the opinion polls, between 50 and 70% of Poles are negative about gays and homosexual practices, while more than half of respondents would not object to same-sex couples in their city, home or office (although, less than 30% of respondents already to accept to their family a couple of gays or lesbians). Openly confesses to your homosexuality is a big risk for a Polish politician. Read more via 112