A Polish publication included “LGBT-free zone” stickers in its magazine’s weekly circulation that was distributed Wednesday.
Reuters reports the conservative magazine Gazeta Polska included the stickers as the country continues to see a backlash against gay rights as a parliamentary election approaches this year.
The stickers feature a rainbow flag, the global symbol of LGBT rights, with a black “X’ through it.
{mosads}Several Polish politicians, as well as bookseller Empik and the Polish branch of BP, said they would not carry the latest edition of the magazine due to the stickers, according to Reuters.
Tomasz Sakiewicz, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, told Reuters that the campaign including “LGBT-free zone” stickers was about pushing back against those trying to censor views critical of “LGBT ideology.”
“We wanted to prove that censorship in this case exists and we have proved it,” Sakiewicz said, referring to criticism of the stickers. “What is happening is the best evidence that LGBT is a totalitarian ideology.”
The ruling Law and Justice government said it would not censor the magazine’s campaign and Gazeta Polska is free to publish under Poland’s freedom of expression laws.
“As the ruling party, we won’t impose on the free media and the free press what it should write and what stickers it should distribute,” deputy prime minister Jacek Sasin said, according to Reuters.
Same-sex marriage is not legal in Poland and homosexual partnerships are not legally recognized.