Since 2019, almost 100 cities and municipalities have declared themselves to be “LGBT free”. Over the weekend, the parades took place under heavy police presence as LGBTQ+ organisers took to the streets in Czestochowa and Gdansk.
Officers were at the event on horseback, something which those marching feel was a factor that stopped any issues arising when far-right groups shouted anti-LGBTQ+ slurs such as “no homosexual love”.
Czestochowa is a town that is home to 220,000 people and is located in southern Poland, with Gdansk being a port city situated along the northern Baltic coast.
The presence of the police was deemed necessary as Pride parades across Poland in recent years have faced an array of attacks.