WARSAW — Agata Michalak and Pawel Lachowicz — a heterosexual couple — have been waiting 13 years for Poland to pass a law on civil unions. They’ve managed to start a family, Pawel has changed professions and his hair has turned gray. Yet they still don’t want a traditional wedding.
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But the situation in Poland may soon change. In December 2023, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg found that the country’s lack of regulation of same-sex unions violates human rights. And in October 2024, the government presented a bill to introduce legally recognised civil partnerships for same-sex couples.
This comes more than a decade after the first attempt at legalizing civil partnerships in Poland was made by Professor Maria Szyszkowska and a group of leftist senators. That came in 2003, when even my newspaper, the liberal-leaning Gazeta Wyborcza wrote about the proposed law in a way that would be impossible today: “Alliance gives gays a wedding” or ”Battle for homosexuals,” the headlines of the time read.
A first attempt
The 2003 bill called for a civil partnership at the registry office and is aimed at all adults, regardless of gender. No rings, no “Wedding March” by Mendelssohn. Just a clerical note, and what every couple needs: common property, the same last name, and the ability to settle taxes on a spousal basis. It also included the right to information about the health of their partner and the right to raise a child together (if one of them already has one). And in the event of death, it offered them the right to survivor benefits, such as a pension.
Speaking to a TV camera, Roman Giertych, then leader of the League of Polish Families and today a politician of the Civic Platform, the largest member of Poland’s present-day ruling coalition, laughed: “We appeal to the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) to reveal which of their leaders, parliamentarians and members of other constitutional bodies intend to enter into such a union after the possible entry into force of the draft allowing homosexual unions.”
During that time, the Polish Senate received more than 300 letters demanding that work on the bill be expedited, with dozens demanding its rejection. In December 2004, after a year of discussion and procedures, the chamber adopted the bill and passed it to the Sejm.
Right-wing politicians, invoking recently deceased Pope John Paul II, managed to withdraw the bill.
But instead of putting it to a vote, the leftist Speaker, Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, put it in the Sejm “freezer.” A year later, right-wing politicians, invoking the honor of the recently deceased Pope John Paul II, managed to withdraw the bill.
Nearly two years later, the Law and Justice (PiS) party in coalition with the League of Polish Families Party and the Self-Defense Party were in power, and the topic was not taken up by anyone.
In January 2008, a spokeswoman for then Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government, when asked about the bill, said: “The Council of Ministers has not and will not deal with this issue.”
At this time, civil unions were already in effect in the Czech Republic, Uruguay, Germany, Spain, Ecuador and Finland, and same-sex marriages were legalized in South Africa, the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada, as well as in some U.S. states.
Next steps
In 2011, the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) resubmitted its previous project, but it did not go to a vote. In the next term of the Sejm, three parties: the Palikot Movement (a socially liberal populist party), SLD and Civic Platform (PO), submitted their own legislation. Yet none gained any traction. They also lacked the votes of some PO deputies, among others, for adoption. Soon SLD and the Palikot Movement tried again to bring their bills to a vote, to no avail.
Every debate on civil unions is a lingering sign of homophobia in Poland. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, in 2017 an Ipsos poll for the OKO.press portal saw public support for civil unions exceed the 50% mark (by two points) for the first time. Support for civil marriage of same-sex couples is also at a record high: 37% of those asked are in favor, and it’s only getting higher ever since.
In January 2020, LGBT-free zones made up 30% of Poland’s territory.
From 2015, PiS and the United Right, Poland’s most homophobic government, were been in power. But three years later, a group of MPs proposed the bill anyway. Two years later, the Left again proposed the bill, refusing to back down. The first print didn’t even get an identification number in the Sejm, the second is lost in the vote.
Meanwhile, several Polish municipalities passed resolutions declaring their area an LGBT-free zone. In January 2020, they made up 30% of Poland’s territory.
Meanwhile, at the time, same-sex couples could now get married in Uruguay, Colombia, Mexico, Ireland, Austria, Portugal, Germany and Taiwan. Over the next few years, they were joined by Chile, Cuba, Costa Rica, Slovenia, Switzerland and Andorra. But while the focus for many, both at home or internationally, was the right of homosexual couples, many heterosexual couples had also been seeking the right to a civil union for years now.
Not only for gay couples
Agata and Paweł have been seeking a civil union for more than a decade. A wedding didn’t interest them, because they believe that a relationship is a personal relationship, not one to share with the public.
“Among our closest friends, only a few couples are married. They get married because one of them comes from a traditional family that can’t imagine otherwise, or because they have a child. The rest are living together without being married. Even as a girl I never dreamed of wearing a white dress,” Agata says.
“I associate marriage with a patriarchal arrangement, with the woman promising obedience to her husband, the husband sitting on the couch reading the newspaper, while she busies herself in the kitchen. And what we have between us is a partnership par excellence. We have an equal division of household duties, separate finances, share expenses equally, take turns paying the bills. The name ‘partners’ is more appropriate,” she adds.
Some things can be notarized, but that takes time, money, knowledge and access to a lawyer.
But that doesn’t mean a legal arrangement would not be beneficial to them.
“After all, we exist and live together, so we want to legitimize our relationship somehow,” Paweł says. “Maybe someday we’ll want to take out a loan or have children, but right now the ideological aspect is more important than the practical one. Only once at the post office, picking up Agatha’s package, I had to say that I was her husband,” he adds.
But there’s more to it than that. In Poland, unmarried people can’t decide on their partner’s medical treatment. No one will release the remains to them in the event of a partner’s death. There is no question of a joint surname or the right to guardianship benefits to take care of a sick person. Some things can be notarized, but that takes time, money, knowledge and access to a lawyer. And even so, there is no guarantee that powers of attorney will be respected.
Signs from above
This must change now. In December 2023, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled against Poland. And found that the lack of regulation of same-sex unions violates human rights. In September 2024, it reiterated this, adding that the same violation is the refusal of Polish offices to transcribe a marriage certificate concluded abroad.
Israel and Peru have followed this path — they do not grant weddings to same-sex couples, but recognize those performed abroad.
Strasbourg has spoken out about same-sex couples, because in order for the Court to address something, a complaint must be filed. Heterosexuals don’t fight for their rights because they can get married. They don’t have to hide their orientation, no one throws them out of work or outside the family nucleus because of it. They do not hide if they have children, they would be surprised to hear that their orientation can be infected. Or that they are not people, but an ideology.
Legal protection is due to every human being.
Therefore, in order to get the Polish state to respect human rights, non-heteronormative couples have been setting legal precedents for more than a dozen years. First, they exhaust the domestic route (common courts, administrative courts, the Constitutional Court), and after that they go to Strasbourg.
“They all then invoke three articles of the European Convention on Human Rights: on the right to privacy, family life and marriage,” explains Jakub Urbanik, a law professor at Warsaw University, who has filed a complaint in Strasbourg.
“Conservatives argue that we want privileges over heterosexual couples”, Urbanik continues. “And yet marriage is about rights and obligations.”
“As far back as ancient times, this legal construct served to safeguard: The community that the individuals in question form, and each of them separately. And this is still the case today. Because as long as people live in harmony or are healthy, there is no problem. This one arises when one partner leaves the other, dies or the couple has children. Marriage is supposed to protect the weaker party and the offspring. The Strasbourg Court ordered Poland to recognize the rights of same-sex couples, because legal protection is due to every human being,” he says.
The date for the vote on the Polish law on registered partnerships has not yet been set. But the fight for civil partnerships continues.
