After six consecutive years in the first place, Poland is no longer the worst country in the EU for LGBTQ+people, according to the annual rainbow MAP ranking published by the Ilga-European non-governmental organization, because it was outclassing by Romania, writes Euronews.com.
The parade of egalitations in Warsaw. Photo EPA EFE
According to a ranking Ilga-European, based in Brussels, Romania has surpassed Poland, becoming the worst country in the EU for LGBTQ+ people
Poland has occupied this first place in the bad ranking, which is based on a score that takes into account factors such as the number of hate offenses in a certain year and the rights granted by the authorities of the LGBTQ+community.
Several Polish political leaders, including the president of the Party Law and Justice (PIS), Jaroslaw Kaczytski, have in the past against what they call “LGBTQ+ideology.”
How did the situation change in Poland
After the parliamentary elections of 2023, the conditions for LGBTQ+ people have improved in Poland. However, the new government has not introduced any new reform to improve the rights of LGBTQ+, although it promised this during the pre -election campaign.
Ilga-European reports that in the category “The space of civil societyE ”, Poland registered an improvement, referring to the fact that there were fewer obstacles to” LGBT+ events“such as pride marches.
“Last year, over 35 marches were organized in Poland and almost all were done peacefully. However, the protection of these events is insufficient”, It is shown in the last Ilga-European report.
Recently, Poland recently abolished its last “free area for LGBT”, six years after introducing the first. These, mainly symbolic areas, were an attempt to exclude the LGBTQ+ community in public life, according to activists, but they faced critics from the EU.
According to an Ipsos+survey, 67% of Poles support the marriage between people of the same sex or the legal recognition of unions for LGBTQ+couples. Although there were two motions whereby the ruling coalition could introduce draft law on civil partnerships, both failed due to the lack of support from more conservative members.
However, the data from 2024 show that Romania has surpassed Poland, while Malta, Belgium and Iceland are on the opposite side of the spectrum.
Romania has become the country with the worst conditions for LGBTQ+ people
But why are many Romanians homophobic and where does this transgenerational fierce come from homosexual people?
We recall that the sociologist Gelu Sunday offered, in March 2025, an answer for “Adevărul”
“We have received this as information. I am referring to my generation and those of older generations: being homosexual means being an offender. That’s how we were taught to think. The church told us this, the political class told us this society itself told us this: homosexuals are inferior and criminals. We had no leaders to tell us that what a person does in his intimacy should not look at anyone. On the contrary. We have been and are led by people who tell us that these people are either sick, or mentally unbalanced, emotionally, or have psychic disabilities, or are even criminal. Therefore, if so we were taught, if these ideas were sold as absolute truths, we also act. Behaviors are learned. We are not born with them ”, Gelu continues on Sunday.
We live in a conservative-masculinized society, in which the woman must be subject to the man.
From a sociological point of view, Romanians have, rather, a problem with homosexual men, rather than women, explains the specialist. “The idea of masculinity is attacked here. We live in a conservative-masculinized society, in which the woman must be subjected to the man. This idea is in contradiction with that of homosexuality. How to give up your gifts as a man?”explains the sociologist how some Romanians think.
