“Today ‘transcription of documents’, tomorrow demands for full adoption rights, and the day after tomorrow any opposition to this ideology will be treated as a crime. Don’t let ourselves be fooled,“ said Przemysław Czarnek, a Law and Justice Party (PiS) candidate for prime minister. The politician commented on a regulation signed by Krzysztof Gawkowski concerning the transcription of foreign same-sex “marriage” certificates.
Same-sex marriages. Gawkowski’s regulation
On Friday, the regulation of the Minister of Digital Affairs allowing the transcription of foreign same-sex “marriage” certificates was published in the Journal of Laws. It will come into force in three months. Earlier that day, the regulation was countersigned by Interior and Administration Minister Marcin Kierwiński.
Krzysztof Gawkowski said during a press conference that it is a “fundamental document that changes Polish reality”. He stressed that human dignity should always be a paramount value.
“I want to proudly say to every same-sex couple who contracted their union abroad: your time of humiliation is over. The time of your dignity is coming,” he said.
Przemysław Czarnek, a Law and Justice Party (PiS) candidate for prime minister, commented on the actions of the ruling December 13 Coalition in a post published on the X platform.
“Today ‘transcription of documents’, tomorrow demands for full adoption rights, and the day after tomorrow any opposition to this ideology will be treated as a crime. Don’t let ourselves be fooled,” the politician stated.
In his view, this is a “political project of reshaping society, a battering ram aimed at traditional values, the family, and parents’ rights to raise children according to their beliefs”.
Position of the Episcopate and opposition from Zakopane
In connection with the regulation on the transcription of same-sex marriage certificates, the Council for Family Affairs of the Polish Episcopal Conference issued a statement regarding the protection of the constitutional understanding of marriage. The bishops noted that Article 18 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland states that “marriage as a union of a woman and a man is under the protection and care of the state”.
The Constitution itself, in Article 91, provides for the precedence of ratified international agreements over statutes; however, this does not mean that the constitutional understanding of marriage expressed in Article 18 can be ignored. Therefore, emerging legal interpretations that attempt to assign a new meaning to Article 18 raise serious questions about the limits of legal interpretation and respect for the constitutional order of the state, the statement emphasized.
The actions of the December 13 Coalition government are also facing opposition from local authorities. The mayor of Zakopane, Łukasz Filipowicz, announced that the municipal office in Zakopane will refuse to transcribe foreign same-sex marriage certificates. As he emphasized, the new regulations “do not change the Constitution”.