Recognition of same-sex unions in Poland

Poland does not legally recognize same-sex unions, and the constitution limits marriage to opposite-sex couples.

In 2004, under the left-wing government the Senate approved a bill allowing gay and lesbian people to register their relationships as civil unions. Parties to a civil union under the bill would have been given a great range of benefits, protections and responsibilities (e.g. pension funds, joint tax and death-related benefits), currently granted only to spouses in a marriage although they would not have been allowed to adopt children. The bill lapsed in the 2005 general election.

Only two parties, Alliance of the Democratic Left (SLD)-Labour Union and Social Democracy of Poland, (both social democrats) supported the bill, while Civic Platform (PO), (Liberal Party) League of Polish Families and Law and Justice (PiS) opposed it. Samoobrona was indifferent and the Polish People's Party (PSL) did not take a position.

The previous Polish government, led by the PiS party, planned to amend the Polish constitution to constitutionally ban any recognition of same-sex relationships.

A new Registered Partnership bill was proposed to the government of PO and Polish People's Party in late 2007. However the government rejected this proposal. It was the third bill since public debate on same-sex unions had begun in 2000. The first one to recognise unregistered cohabiting couples (including same-sex) was proposed in 2002. In 2008 a new fourth bill on registered partnerships was being prepared by opposition Alliance of the Democratic Left. However this project had no chances of being passed in the parliament. In the end, Alliance of the Democratic Left did not introduce a bill.

The next debate about the legalization of same-sex registered partnerships began in June 2009. Gay and Lesbian organisations submitted the petition on the matter to the Speaker of the Sejm Bronisław Komorowski (PO). The political climate also changed, in which some politicians from the parties opposed to the legalization of same-sex unions like PO] or PiS, including Jerzy Buzek (PO) and Michał Kamiński (PiS), are expressing opinion about the need to regulate certain issues of the same-sex couples. Similarly, in this regard, the attitude changed also with some representatives of the church. On January 2010 the opposition SLD), in consultation with Gay and Lesbian organisations is preparing a new draft law on registered partnerships. The new bill will be modeled on the same one approved the Senate in 2004 and similar to the French Pacte civil de solidarité (PACS) law. However, the bill has no chances to be passed in the current parliament since the other parties PO, PiS and PSL announced that they will not support the bill.

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Wikipedia