How to familiarize local communities with authoritarian propaganda language? Polish 'LGBT-ideology free zones’ in the light of democratic backsliding

According to the Freedom House, Poland has experienced the greatest decline in democracy among 29 countries in the Central and Eastern European region in the last 5 years. The Polish government is accused of restricting media freedom, disciplining independent judges, violating parliamentary procedures, and limiting human rights. LGBT+ people are also victims of these policies, and have been treated as scapegoats by the state authorities. One of the important initiatives promoted by the Polish ruling party members at the local level is to declare some municipalities, districts, and regions as ‘LGBT-ideology free zones’. The paper demonstrates how the local and regional deputies familiarize voters with this authoritarian language of exclusion. Additionally, it reconstructs the propaganda tools used to justify the stigmatization of the LGBT+ community. The main finding is that propaganda tools used to justify ‘LGBT-ideology free zones’ were accusations of an attack on traditional values (such as faith, and family), imputation of pedophilia (referred to as ‘protection of children’), and linking the LGBT+ abbreviation with some ideologies (as Nazism or Communism). The paper provides new insights into the methodology of research on mechanisms of state propaganda, which are focused on the familiarization of voters – hitherto accustomed to democratic public discourse – with an authoritarian narrative creating an internal enemy of the state.