ABSTRACT
It is safe to say that homosexuality belongs to the most controversial and contentious topics in political discourse of both Latvia and Poland. These two Central- and Eastern-European (CEE) post-socialist states that joined the European Union together in 2004 are commonly described as homophobic due to the limitations of expression and assembly rights, regular use of hate speech by public figures – including politicians and religious leaders – or lack of legislation addressing the needs of the LGBT community (Abramowicz, 2007; Amnesty International, 2006; Locmelis, 2002; O’Dwyer and Schwartz, 2010). In the most recent Rainbow Map ranking, which assesses the social climate for LGBT people in European countries, they scored the lowest of all EU countries – Poland at 18 percent and Latvia, together with Lithuania, at 17 percent. The EU average was 48 percent and Europe’s overall score – including Turkey with 9 percent and Russia with 6 percent – was 38 percent (https://rainbow-europe.org/">https://rainbow-europe.org/).
