Being gay is illegal in Sharia-run Qatar, but apparently no one told this Polish LGBT activist

I lived for a year in Qatar. Homosexuality is punished with prison time or even a death sentence in the country. Women have much fewer rights than men and everyone knows about the country’s scandalous treatment of its cheap labor force.

Meanwhile, LGBT activist Bart Staszewski invited journalists from Qatar-owned Al Jazeera to Poland and informed the whole world through social media that the journalists were “shocked” by the situation of LGBT persons in Poland.

“Today, I told Al Jazeera about LGBT-free zones in Poland. We visited a few towns in the Lublin Voivodship. The journalists were in shock that such anti-LGBT resolutions exist in Poland,” he wrote.

Dzisiaj dla Al Jazeera opowiadałem o strefach wolnych od LGBT w Polsce. Byliśmy tez w kilku miejscowościach na Lubelszczyźnie. Dziennikarze byli w szoku, że takie rezolucje, wycelowane w osoby LGBT istnieją w Polsce.

— Bart Staszewski ?️‍??? (@BartStaszewski) February 28, 2021

This is hilarious. I am shocked that Staszewski has never heard about sharia law.

According to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), article 258 of Qatar’s legal code allows courts to imprison any man who “copulates with a male” for a prison term of seven years. Meanwhile, article 296 requires prison sentences for anyone who is engaged in “leading, instigating or seducing a male in any way to commit sodomy.”

It is true that gay and lesbian people cannot marry in Poland or adopt children. Gays and lesbians do not have such privileges, but they are also not being persecuted. They have their restaurants and clubs, they are represented by numerous pro-LGBT organizations in the public arena and even have their representatives in the Polish Parliament.

Does Staszewski believe that a gay person could be a member of the Qatari government? The leftist activist clearly has not heard about the fact that homosexuality is illegal in Qatar. In fact, it is completely banned. Even pro-LGBT campaigns are forbidden. Citizens are also not permitted to change their gender and security services actively hunt down anyone attempting to promote LGBT practices.

Staszewski, who is smearing Poland by posting fake “LGBT-free” zone signs in municipalities which do not want to submit to his ideology, holds an Obama Foundation Leaders scholarship. One would think that he would be aware of geopolitics and the overall international situation.

The situation in Qatar is such that international organizations defending human rights regularly release reports about the nation not abiding by basic rules. And the situation for women? In some companies, if a woman wants to marry, she must receive permission from her employer. If her male colleague would want to marry someone, no one would demand such permissions.

A non-Muslim wife is not allowed to inherit anything after her Muslim husband and a Qatari citizenship is given only to those whose father was Qatari, representing an extreme form of immigration restriction most liberals in the EU would frown up. For the record, wealthy Gulf nations like Qater refused to take in any Syrian refugees. 

Is this fair? For many, it is not and there are hundreds of examples. Yet, this doesn’t seem to bother Staszewski. In his further social media posts, he didn’t even allude to LGBT or women’s rights in Qatar. He prefers to eagerly talk about made up LGBT-free zones in Poland which never existed and will not exist in Poland.

Do I believe that Qatari journalists were “in shock” hearing about the situation of sexual minorities in Poland? I absolutely do not.