A Polish LGBTQI rights activist received an apology from a state TV host

The activist said he hoped Sunday’s apology would not be empty words and would mark a new beginning.

“It surprised me,” said Bart Staszewski, one of two activists invited to the show. In a show aired on Sunday night, the host of state broadcaster TVP apologized to them for years of anti-LGBTQI rhetoric.

B. Staszewski, who personally suffered from the previous government, added that he had no idea how he needed to hear this apology.

During the eight years in power of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, state media supported its official position that LGBTQI people were a threat to Polish families. At one point, President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the former government, expressed his support for the idea that LGBTQI are an ideology, not a people.

This position was reversed by the new centrist government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The new government quickly moved to oust PiS supporters from leading positions in the state media.

“For many years in Poland, countless people were shamed simply because they decided to decide for themselves who they are and what they love. LGBTQI people are not an ideology, but people with specific names, faces, relatives and friends”, – with these words, the host of the show Wojciech Szelag (Voicech Šelong) began the discussion with both activists.

“All these people should hear the word ‘sorry’ from this very place,” Szelag said. “I’m sorry.”

Mr Staszewski said the apology brought a sense of relief and perhaps even marked a new beginning.

But he also said the new government still has a long way to go, as Polish law still does not allow same-sex marriage. The LGBTQI community is also pushing for the new government to pass a law on hate speech.