Following a backlash from both the Conservative (PiS) opposition and discontented troops, Poland’s defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz has cancelled training for military personnel that concentrated on “human rights and the gender perspective in military operations”.
In a statement issued yesterday, the defence ministry announced the defence minister had decided to withdraw training on LGBT perspectives from the 2025 supplementary training programme that had been approved by the ministry’s human resources department.
The decision was taken after the minister had been criticised by a conservative news service Blask for being “rainbow Władek”, the diminutive form of the Christian name of the defence minister, for forcing left-wing ideology on the army.
Blask included comments from soldiers arguing that training should focus on preparing for military operations and not ideology
News of the training course had been criticised by Poland’s right-wing opposition PiS whose MP Andrzej Śliwka told conservative independent broadcaster Republika that it showed Kosiniak-Kamysz was out of step with Poland’s US allies.
“When the entire world, with the USA at the front, is moving away from ‘woke’ culture …Kosiniak-Kamysz is introducing such inventions,” said Śliwka. “I’m waiting for him to come up with the idea of biodegradable missiles or electric tanks.”
The defence minister enjoys good relations with US President Donald Trump’s administration and its defence secretary Pete Hegseth as Poland is seen as a model military ally, spending the highest amount per capita on defence in the NATO alliance.
Kosiniak-Kamysz is the leader of the centre-right component of the centre-left government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the Polish People’s Party (PSL), which has opposed moves to strengthen LGBT+ rights.
This is not the first time that Kosiniak-Kamysz has been called “rainbow Władek”. He was criticised as being such when his party stood on one election slate with both Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO) and the Left Party in the 2019 European Parliamentary elections.
When Kosiniak-Kamysz decided not to renew that electoral alliance for the 2019 Polish parliamentary elections, he cited being labelled “rainbow Władek” because of the Left party’s strong support for LGBT rights as one of the reasons.
LGBT became a divisive issue in Polish politics during the lifetime of the last PiS government (2015-2023) when that administration took steps to counter LGBT education initiatives.
The centre-left government led by Tusk came into power at the end of 2023 promising to strengthen LGBT rights but has not been able to introduce any legislation to that effect during its term of office thus far.
The main reasons for this are that PSL has so far blocked any legislative proposals to introduce civil partnerships for same sex couples and that the opposition PiS-aligned President Karol Nawrocki has made it clear he will not sign into law any measures that in any way equalise the rights of same-sex couples with those of marriages, which in the Polish Constitution are reserved for heterosexual couples only.
