WARSAW, Poland — Poland's only openly gay cabinet minister spoke to the Washington Blade on Tuesday about the fight for LGBTQ rights in his country, Ukraine and U.S. politics.
Deputy Minister of Justice Krzysztof Simiszek took office on December 13 last year, following the appointment of Donald Tusk as Prime Minister.
Two months ago, Tusk's opposition group Civic Union won a majority of seats in Sejm, the lower house of parliament. President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the conservative Law and Justice party that opposes LGBTQ rights, remains in power as part of a coalition government.
Simiszek, a member of the New Left party, has been a member of Seim since 2019.
He was born in Starowa Wola, a city in southeastern Poland near the border with Ukraine and Slovakia. Mr. Simiszek is currently the representative of Wrocław, the country's third largest city located in southwestern Poland.
He is a lawyer who worked for several years at the Polish LGBTQ rights organization Campaign Against Homophobia before entering politics. Mr. Šmišek's partner is Roberto Biedron, a former member of parliament and current member of the European Parliament.
In an interview at his office, Simiszek pointed out to the Blade that the Ministry of Justice has introduced a bill that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to Poland's hate speech and hate crime laws.
The Council of Ministers, which includes members of Tusk's cabinet, is expected to approve the proposal in the coming weeks. Szmiszek said lawmakers support the bill despite criticism that it would limit free speech.
“I would say it was only natural for us to agree to it,” he told the Blade. “We all witnessed all these statements and horrible actions against LGBT[people from the previous administration].”
Duda became president of Poland in 2015.
He said LGBTQ “ideology” was more dangerous than communism before defeating Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski in the 2020 Warsaw presidential election. Duda also claimed that LGBTQ Poles are a “threat to families” and “want to sexualize children.”
Ahead of the elections, more than 100 municipalities across Poland have adopted resolutions declaring themselves “LGBT-free zones.''
The Law and Justice Party and Poland's influential Roman Catholic Church supported them, but the European Union cut funding to municipalities that adopted them. On February 6, the Warsaw County Administrative Court rejected the country's final “LGBT-free zone” resolution adopted in 2019 by Moldy, a town in eastern Poland's Siedlce Voivodeship, about halfway between Warsaw and the border with Belarus.
Prime Minister Tusk has voiced support for the civil partnership bill, but Simiszek said it would be a “huge” challenge to secure it through parliament as it was not part of the coalition government's formal manifesto. admitted that it would become
Simiszek noted that Poland had dropped its challenge to a transgender man's case at the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg after Romania refused to recognize the legal name and gender change it received in the UK. .
“We are not only trying to change the legal situation for LGBTI people in this country, but we are also taking a completely new approach for Poland as a member of the European Union,” he said.
The Ministry of Justice met with LGBTQ activists for the first time last month.
Szmiszek said former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, a member of the right-wing Polish Sovereignty Party, wrote many of the previous government's proposals targeting LGBTQ people and women. Simiszek also described the ministry as “the government's center of anti-LGBTI activity” before the current government took office.
“It was a very emotional meeting after eight years of hatred that has been created within this department,” he said.
Szmiszek pointed out that Duda's first presidential veto was a bill that would ease the process for transgender Poles to undergo gender reassignment surgery. Simiszek said he hopes the new government will “make life a little bit better and more bearable for transgender people in terms of relations with the state and relations with the regime,” but that it will be “difficult.” Admitted. He also said Duda, the Constitutional Court and the Catholic Church remain barriers to advancing LGBTQ rights.
“We are not starting from scratch when it comes to new initiatives,” Szmiszek told the Blade. “We're getting back to a good solution.”
“However, we are fully aware that there are many conservative anchors and obstacles within the institutional structure,” he added.
Mr. Šmišek also said that his sexual orientation was not an issue for Mr. Tusk and his fellow ministers and MPs.
“I've never heard any discussion or hesitation about whether or not this person should be in the ministry,” he said. “My sexual orientation doesn't matter at all.”
Poland “knows” Russia well
Russia began war against Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Simiszek pointed out that more than 2 million Ukrainians have taken refuge in Poland, with many remaining in the country.
“Polish society has passed the test in terms of humanitarian aid and compassion for the victims of Russia's war of aggression,” Szmišek said.
On November 15, 2022, two people were killed by a Russian missile in the village of Przevodov, Hlubyszow Voivodeship, on the border with Ukraine. On March 24, another Russian missile briefly entered Polish airspace near the village of Oseldov, less than eight miles from Przebodov.
Mr Šmišek told the Blade there was growing concern that the war could spread to Poland's three Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) and even to Poland itself.
Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea, also shares a border with Poland.
“We're seeing something happening right now, especially in the last few months,” he said.
Simishek acknowledged that Ukraine has suffered setbacks on the battlefield in recent months and that the United States is “less willing to provide any assistance.”
“I understand what Mr. Trump is saying. Some Western countries are still hesitant,” he said. “In Polish society, something will happen, in a few years a war will soon knock on our door, and if President Putin does not prevent it, we will become Putin's second or third There is an unspoken feeling growing within Polish society that it will become the target of a unified West.”
Szmiszek added that Poland “knows the Russians very well.”
“That is why it is not unusual for Poles to think about the invasion of our country by the Russians,” he said. “It's happened before.”
Mr. Tusk and Mr. Duda met with President Joe Biden at the White House last month in hopes that Congress would pass the Ukraine funding bill. Simizek criticized the delay in an interview with the Blade.
“I know they're trying to boost their popularity by saying we shouldn't spend billions of dollars on wars that don't concern us and Russia will never attack us,” he said. . “In some ways, I understand this rhetoric, but I don’t understand it…It’s a really short-sighted approach.”
“I really hope that the United States will change its approach. This is really a huge threat to democracy and human rights around the world, and we have always recognized the United States as a kind of guarantor element of democracy around the world. Because we do,” Simizek added. “This time America, especially the conservative part of American politics, is not passing the test.”
Szmiszek said Poland would continue to cooperate with the United States no matter who wins this year's presidential election. However, he expressed his concerns about former President Trump based on his own positions on LGBTQ and reproductive rights, U.S. Supreme Court nominees, and Ukraine.
“This is a little concerning,” Simizek said. “This kind of approach to fundamental issues that are so relevant to world stability is currently in the hands of a man who cannot predict what decisions he will make when the time comes, and who is very serious about the issue. Decisions will have to be made to stabilize the world. ”
“He portrays himself as quite unstable in terms of the values he wants to uphold,” he added.
