More than 50 ambassadors and international representatives are urging the Polish government to safeguard LGBTI rights amid concerns over crackdowns under President Andrzej Duda’s administration.
“We pay tribute to the hard work of LGBTI and other communities in Poland and around the world, as well as the work of all those who seek to ensure human rights for LGBTI and other persons belonging to communities facing similar challenges, and to end discrimination in particular on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity,” their open letter from Sunday says.
“Human rights are universal and everyone, including LGBTI persons, are entitled to their full enjoyment,” it adds.
In response, Polish officials denied the rights of LGBTI Poles are restricted or threatened.
“To the dear ambassadors, I can only say that tolerance belongs to Polish DNA,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Monday at a news conference, according to The Associated Press. “Nobody needs to teach us tolerance, because we are a nation that has learned such tolerance for centuries and we have given many testimonies to the history of such tolerance.”
Despite Morawiecki’s claims, Duda won reelection this year after campaigning against LGBTI “ideology,” and several eastern and southern Polish towns have passed symbolic resolutions declaring themselves free of “LGBT ideology,” according to the AP.
“Human Rights are not an ideology — they are universal. 50 Ambassadors and Representatives agree,” tweeted U.S. Ambassador Georgette Mosbacher.
Joachim Brudzinski, deputy head of the ruling Law and Justice party and a European member of parliament, demanded that signers also write a letter “on defense of murdered Christians, imprisoned #ProLife activists, people dismissed from work and persecuted for quoting the Bible, people subjected to euthanasia against their will.”
Abortion is illegal in almost all cases in Poland, and euthanasia is outright illegal. A state prosecutor is currently suing an IKEA manager for firing a man quoting the Bible to suggest gay people should be killed, according to the AP.