Poland and Portugal celebrate start of pride month with parades

For both countries, it was an opportunity to celebrate LGBTQ+ identity as well as demand political changes.
Both Poland and Portugal marked the beginning of pride month with parades held on Saturday afternoon.

The month of June is celebrated as pride month across the world, with festivals, demonstrations, parades, and other events bringing light to LGBTQ+ issues.

Polish cities host Pride Marches one week after critical elections
In Poland, Pride marches were held in the cities of Gdańsk and Wrocław, just one week after the election of conservative-nationalist Karol Nawrocki, who was endorsed by the Law and Justice party.

This was the 17th Pride Parade in Wrocław, and the 10th to take place in Gdańsk. In Wrocław, demonstrators set of from Freedom Square at 14:00, while the “Tri-City Equality March” encompassing the coastal cities of Gdańsk, Gdynia, and Sopot took off at 16:00. Both marches aimed to showcase the cities as inclusive towards all of their residents.

Several political leaders confirmed their participation in the marches, including Minister of Family, Labor and Social Policy Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk, Minister of Equality Katarzyna Kotula, Mayor of Gdańsk Agnieszka Dulkiewicz and Mayor of Sopot Magdalena Czarzyńska-Jachim.

City councilor and president of the Tolerado Association for LGBTQ+ rights, Marta Magott said in an interview with the official website of Gdańsk that the annual march is a “reminder of freedom, solidarity, and equality”.

The event was significant in Poland, which still ranks as the second-worst country in the EU for LGBTQ+ people, after Romania, according to the advocacy group ILGA-Europe, which publishes an annual “Rainbow Map” ranking the countries based on political and social factors.

Poland had occupied the top spot in the rankings for six years, and made marginal progress since the election of the coalition government in 2023, according to the organization. Portugal, on the other hand, is in 11th place.

A Pride March will also take place on June 14 in Warsaw.