Weeks after a 2019 European parliamentary election, Kalwaryjski and his boyfriend moved from the city of Poznan to Berlin – joining a growing number of LGBTQ+ Poles who have fled homophobia at home by settling in the German capital. “It was the first time they were so openly using homophobic rhetoric,” said the 27-year-old, who works in tech. “I knew that Poland wasn’t a gay-friendly country, yet you could be gay in bigger cities.
But that was too much.” Poland ranks at the bottom of the 27-member European Union when it comes to legal protections for LGBTQ+ people, according to the ILGA-Europe advocacy group.