The anti-LGBTQ policies of some members of the European Union lead to the EU’s Court of Justice (CJEU) ruling in November that all EU countries must register same-sex unions, even if they are performed abroad. In Poland, where same-sex marriages remain illegal, changes are being made to bring the country into compliance.
The centrist coalition government in Warsaw announced on Friday that they would be making changes to civil documents such as marriage certificates to use gender-neutral language. The digital ministry announced on their website that the terms ‘man’ and ‘woman’ would be replaced with phrases like ‘first spouse’ and ‘second spouse’. Poland’s digital minister Krzystof Gawkowski said:
“Today I signed the documents that start the process of changing the templates of civil status records, so that the state operates efficiently and equally towards all citizen…The CJEU’s judgment is not a matter of ideology, it is a legal obligation that Poland must comply with.”
The case ruled on by the CJEU was initiated in 2018 by two gay men who were married in Berlin, and tried to register with the government when they returned home to Poland.
