Voters in Poland have elected the first openly gay mayor, Robert Biedron, in the city of Slupsk.

Biedron already made history in 2011 by becoming the first openly gay politician in Poland’s parliament, now he is the first openly gay mayor in the country. The 38 year-old’s victory has shown a massive change in Poland’s attitude toward LGBT in the last ten years. In 2004, gay rights marches were still prohibited in Warsaw, and homosexuality was treated as a taboo.

His mayoral win was revealed yesterday after two rounds of votes over two weeks.

“I see how fast Polish society has learned it’s lesson of tolerance,” Biedron said two days before he was elected. “So I am very optimistic and happy with Polish society and proud.”

The elections for regional parliaments and municipal government in Poland also saw a record number of openly gay candidates, though they didn’t win seats. Biedron managed to garner 57.08 percent of the ballot (15,308 votes), beating the ruling Civic Platform’s candidate Zbigniew Konwinski, who received 42.92 percent (11,511 votes).

The lack of votes for the other gay candidates have been put down to the fact that they are young and first-time candidates, and because they mostly represented left-wing parties that did poorly.