The Archbishop of Kraków, Marek Jędraszewski, compared the “red plague” of communism to a new “rainbow plague” at a ceremony in St. Mary’s Basilica. At the event celebrating the Warsaw Uprising, a major uprising against occupying German forces by the resistance, Jędraszewski compared the country’s historic struggles to a battle against LGBT+ people today.

Jędraszewski said, “Our land is no longer affected by the red plague, which does not mean that there is not a new one that wants to control our souls, hearts, and minds.

 “Not Marxist, but Bolshevik, but born from the same spirit: neo-Marxist. Not red, but rainbow.”

He continued: “The greatest tolerance, and at the same time the peak of intolerance […] The memory of graves urges us to defend ourselves and defend authentic freedom.”

Jędraszewski, formerly a professor of theology who served as a visiting professor to the Pontifical Lateran University has previously spoken out against LGBT+ issues, rights and especially trans people describing “gender ideology” as “extremely dangerous ideology that leads directly to the death of our civilisation.”

Jędraszewski who was a close friend of Pope John Paul II also described Halloween as an “anti-Christian festival” and that children should be protected against “its images of terror and dread.”

Anti-LGBT+ rhetoric is on the rise in Poland. In the past year, alone regional governments have declared themselves “free of LGBT+ ideology”, a partially government-funded publication distributed “LGBT Free Zone” stickers and leader of the far-right Law and Justice party Jaroslaw Kaczynski described LGBT+ people as a “threat” to Polish identity.

Archbishop Jędraszewski’s comments are adding the growing anti-LGBT+ sentiment in the country. 

Polish people have responded to growing anti-LGBT+ and far-right sentiments in the country in a number of ways. Responding to the comments by the Archbishop a group of protesters assembled to denounce the hateful comments.

Catholic archbishop in Kraków, #Jędraszewski, said that in Poland there is no more "red plague" (reffering to communism) but instead there is a "rainbow plague". On Friday afternoon we attended a meeting in front of episcopal curia to protest calling LGBT a plague #TeczowaZaraza pic.twitter.com/DYoBrOwq3j

— Magda Dropek (@magdadropek) August 3, 2019

Following a violent outburst at Bialystok Pride march #jestemzLGBT (I am LGBT+) was trending on Twitter and commentators likened it to the MeToo movement using social media to challenge a harmful culture in society.

I live in Poland, a country with lots of highly talented and hard-working people. Unfortunately, many of them face obstacles that make them hard to progress because they were born L, G, B or T. We should build a society that understands its value is in diversity. #jestemzLGBT

— Bartosz Olchówka (@bolchowka) July 31, 2019

Mikołaj Czerwiński of Amnesty Internation Poland said: “In days since the Bialystok violence, something miraculous has happened as a hashtag has swept the country challenging homophobic prejudice”

Secretary General of @amnesty @kuminaidoo supports Polish LGBT community which is fighting a wave of hate with love and empowerment on Twitter through #jestemLGBT (I am LGBT) and #jestemzLGBT (I am with LGBT) @amnestyPL pic.twitter.com/BOkF9X1fc0

— Miko Czerwinski (@MikoCzerwinski) August 4, 2019