Conservative Polish Newspaper Gazeta Polska is facing backlash after distributing 'LGBT-Free Zone' stickers in a recent print issue.
Having shared a preview of the stickers on social media, the publication was slammed by local LGBTIQ+ organisations and a number of politicians, with some claiming the stickers could incite violence.
Cecylia Jakubczak of Poland's Kampania Przeciw Homofobii (Campaign Against Homophobia) said the stickers could harm LGBTIQ+ people "both physically and psychologically".
U.S. Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher also weighed in, tweeting: “I am disappointed and concerned that some groups use stickers to promote hatred and intolerance."
She added: “We respect freedom of speech, but we must stand together on the side of values such as diversity and tolerance.”
Gazeta Polska soon addressed the public backlash by re-wording their stickers; changing them from 'LGBT-Free Zone' to 'LGBT Ideology Free Zone'.
"We do not protest against the LGBT ideology, but we do strongly disagree on imposing it by force on anybody," said the newspaper's editor in chief Tomasz Sakiewicz told the ABC.
He added: "The LGBT ideology-free zone is a zone of freedom of speech, tolerance and respect for people who think differently."
Warsaw’s deputy mayor, Paweł Rabiej, took to social media to share his plans to file a complaint with the local prosecutor’s office over the stickers.
“German fascists created Jew-free zones,” he tweeted. “Apartheid, of black. As you can see this tradition finds worthy followers, this time in Poland.”
According to NBC, Poland’s current ruling party, Law and Justice, is ultraconservative, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-immigrant.
