As Poland's election heats up, so does anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. Why?

Marcin Nikrant, the mayor of this village just a few miles inland from Poland’s northern coast, is angry.

Not at the people of Leśniewo, to whom he has devoted nearly nine years. Mr. Nikrant is openly gay, something uncommon in conservative, Catholic Poland. But he has proven popular, leaving his mark with neat road signs and decorative bus stops.

But now, after winning over his village of 1,700, he sees his efforts at bridge-building being undermined by negative rhetoric coming from the highest levels of Polish leadership. In August, the archbishop of Kraków warned the country was confronting a “rainbow plague.” Polish politician Jarosław Kaczyński – widely viewed as the nation’s de facto leader – said Poland was “dealing

Targeting the LGBTQ communityThe power of conversation and direct contact