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# Update: Polish LGBTQ+ activist says rainbow light show isn’t sufficient
- URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/update-polish-lgbtq-activist-says-rainbow-light-show-isnt-sufficient/
- Published: 2020-11-19T11:58:28.000Z
- Updated: 2020-11-19T11:58:28.000Z
- Description: Polish LGBTQ+ activist, Bartosz Staszewski, says the recent light show – which saw multiple Polish cities illuminate buildings with rainbow lights – isn’t sufficient to support the oppressed LGBTQ+ community in the country.
- Author: Rachel Badham
- Tags: News, Politics, Andrzej Duda, Eu, LGBTQ, Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland, Warsaw

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/bart-s-1.jpg)

Bartosz Staszewski

Polish LGBTQ+ activist, **Bartosz Staszewski**, says the [recent ](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/polish-cities-lit-up-rainbow-in-solidarity-with-lgbtq-citizens/)light show – which saw multiple Polish cities illuminate buildings with rainbow lights – isn’t sufficient to support the oppressed LGBTQ+ community in the country. **Warsaw** mayor, **Rafal Trzaskowski**, pledged to light up the city to mark the International Day for Tolerance on **Monday November 16**. The cities of Gdansk, Krakow, Poznan, Wroclaw also took part in the movement.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/poland-warsaw-1.jpg)

Staszewski told[ **Reuters**](https://news.yahoo.com/lgbt-light-show-isnt-enough-173211682.html?ref=scenemag.co.uk): *“In 2019, we paid homage to a trans activist who jumped off one of these bridges* \[which was lit up rainbow\] *in Warsaw, and unfortunately, I have such terribly bad associations when now the same bridges will simply be rainbow-lit and nothing more will happen in Warsaw, no more anti-discrimination measures, just these rainbow bridges will serve the next kid to kill themselves. This is not how it should look.”* **Hubert Sobecki** – an activist from LGBTQ+ organisation **Love Does Not Exclude** – agreed, saying mayor Trzaskowski has not kept his promise to protect the country’s LGBTQ+ community.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/poland-warsaw-rainbow-1.jpg)

**Staszewski** is known for attaching signs which say ‘LGBTQ+ free zone’ by towns which signed pledges agreeing to ‘oppose any acts of tolerance’ towards queer people. This led to prime minister, **Mateusz Morawiecki,** [blaming](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/polish-leader-blames-lgbtq-activist-for-international-backlash/) him for the international backlash against the anti-LGBTQ+ Polish government, saying: “*He completely falsified reality. To call it fake news would not do it justice.”* Despite Morawiecki’s claims, over 100 towns in the country have now declared themselves ‘LGBTQ+ free zones’, causing many queer Poles to flee the country in fear.