Białystok Equality March

Białystok is located in Podlaskie Voivodeship which is regarded as the bible belt of Poland and is a stronghold of the party Law and Justice (PiS).

[1] In February 2019 Warsaw Mayor signed a declaration supporting LGBTQ rights and pledging to integrate sexual education in schools following World Health Organization guidelines.

PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński saying LGBT "ideology" was imported to Poland from abroad, a threat to the Polish identity and nation.

[4] In response to speeches opposed to the homosexual agenda and gender ideology by the Church and PiS, some 24 pride marches were scheduled for 2019 in Poland.

[2] He evoked the memory of Poland's struggle against Communism with the Latin phrase non possumus (roughly, "we can not allow"),[7] which Polish Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński used in an historic protest that led to his arrest in 1953.

[6] Counter-protesters shouted "Bialystok free of perverts" and "God, honor and motherland", and objects were hurled at marchers from housing blocks along the route.

[12] According to the New York Times, similar to the manner in which the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville shocked Americans, the violence in Białystok raised public concern among some in Poland over opposition to the homosexual agenda and gender ideology.

[13][20] Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda, two days after the event, condemned the violence in a brief statement as incompatible with Christianity but also urged believes to pray for "the family and its internal purity".

[21] LGBT campaigners stated that PiS and the Church created a radicalised atmosphere, saying the government incited a "pogrom mood" towards to gays.