LGBTQ+ Rights in Poland: The impact of EU budgetary intervention

By early 2020, hundreds of Polish municipalities released statements or passed policies declaring themselves to be 'LGBT-free.' In response, the EU cut funding to six of these towns across Poland in the summer of 2020. This paper explores how these cuts impacted LGBTQ+ activism and human rights in Lublin Province between July 2020 and September 2021, when the EU threatened to cut very large sums of coronavirus recovery money to Poland. The methodology utilized for data collection are: content analysis of Polish periodicals, transcribed interviews with Polish LGBT activists, assessment of social media, and municipal policy and government statements. This work analyzes four different dimensions of LGBTQ+ rights: freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and safety. I argue that the EU’s budgetary conditionality resulted in a temporary decrease in levels of LGBTQ+ rights in Lublin Province in an attempt to stifle activists in this area from continuing to raise international awareness on LGBTQ+ rights backslides. My research brings to light new considerations for the EU when enforcing human rights norms within its member states.