Human Rights | A female couple living in the suburbs of Warsaw is waiting for Poland to recognize their marriage as well

Warsaw

TV has been up all day in an apartment in a Warsaw suburb.

The live broadcast comes from the parliament, where the representative of the liberal centre-right Donald Tusk has just been elected as the new Prime Minister of Poland.

The day is historic for the female couple sitting on the couch.

They ask for a break from the interview and watch as parliament sings the Polish national anthem after Tusk's election.

Mirka Makuchowska41, eyes get wet.

“I'm really happy that he returned to power,” says Makuchowska, watching Tusk on TV.

Marta Bartosiak, 37, feels he can breathe freely after eight years. For so long, the previous party in power, the value-conservative nationalist party Law and Justice (PiS), was in power.

“I almost can't believe this is true. However, the Poles are quite a conservative people.”

The last ones eight years have been difficult for sexual and gender minorities in Poland.

During the period of the Law and Justice party, the state channels were under political control and involved in the government's hate propaganda.

It is a new thing that Makuchowska and Bartosiak keep the television on at all.

“LGBT people were equated with pedophiles and it was said that we are a danger to children. We completely stopped watching TV,” says Makuchowska.

Sexual and gender minorities were presented as an ideology from abroad and a scourge that threatens traditional Polish values. The influential Catholic Church was solidly behind the previous government.

According to the government, talking about sexual and gender minorities in schools was sexualizing children.

“Teachers also started to be wary of talking about the subject,” Makuchowska says.

He leads an organization promoting the rights of rainbow people. Bartosiak works for a company that manufactures power tools.

Change of power has raised high expectations that same-sex couples would be recognized as couples under Polish law.

In Poland, male or female couples cannot get married or register their partnership, unlike in the majority of EU countries.

The new government's minister for equality has already promised that allowing registration for male and female couples is one of his main goals.

Prime Minister Tusk has also announced that he supports allowing so-called civil unions. In the previous prime minister's term of 2007–2014, he did not promote the issue.

The law would directly affect the lives of Makuchowska and Bartosiak.

The couple, who had been together for eight years, got married two years ago in Copenhagen.

Before Polish law, they are still like two strangers.

The couple owns an apartment building together, but for example, when determining inheritance tax, their relationship would not be considered a family bond.

“The situation is even more difficult for those who have children,” Makuchowska says.

Facilitating intra-family adoption or expanding public fertilization treatments for female couples are politically still a long way off.

Sexual and gender minorities the promotion of rights is not an overriding issue.

The new Polish government includes several political groups that have united into parties and electoral alliances. Among others, the value-conservative center party is included.

The program of the new government does not include allowing civil unions between male and female couples. There is also no record of the right to abortion in the government program, even though the government has promised to allow abortion.

During the rule of PiS, an almost complete ban on abortion came into force in Poland. Abortion is only allowed when the mother's life is in danger. Pregnant women have died when the fetus was protected at the expense of the woman's health.

Women's rights were one of the main themes of the October 15 election in Poland and a major reason for the opposition's victory.

The rights of sexual and gender minorities are a more difficult issue.

Makuchowska estimates that the new government avoids talking about the issue due to internal disagreements.

“The topic is difficult, and they want to appear united.”

On Tuesday, female and male couples received help from outside Poland.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that it is against human rights not to allow the official registration of unions between male and female couples.

The line-up increases the pressure on the Tusk government to quickly allow unions between male and female couples. According to Makuchowska, the court's decision is a convenient excuse for the conservatives in the government not to oppose the reform.

“They can say that the reason is the decision of the international court, not the conviction.”

The president can slow down the enactment of new laws Andrzej Dudawhich is an ally of the previous government.

On Tuesday, Duda decided to pardon two men who had been convicted of homophobic attacks.

Bartosiak believes that the atmosphere has already changed in Poland and is more progressive than the politicians, at least in the big cities.

They can live quite openly in Warsaw as a couple, even though the threat of violence exists. My best friend, who is gay, was assaulted in the middle of the day a couple of years ago.

In the suburbs, you don't see rainbow flags in the windows like in the center of Warsaw, but the neighbors know that they are a female couple.

It's just not talked about.

Sometimes there is surprising support. Bartosiak tells about a conversation with a neighbor's lady in her sixties.

“He had seen Mirka on the news and came to say that we are doing a good job.”