Parliament votes to declare entire EU an LGBT ‘freedom zone’

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Parliament has overwhelming adopted a resolution declaring the entire 27-member European Union to be a “freedom zone” for LGBT people. The resolution is an effort to push back on rising homophobia in Poland but also elsewhere in the bloc. Over the last two years in Poland, many local communities have adopted largely symbolic resolutions declaring themselves free of what conservative authorities have been calling “LGBT ideology.” The Polish government has denounced the resolution. It argues that Poland, as a sovereign nation and a society more conservative than many Western European countries, has the right to defend its traditional family values based on a long attachment to Roman Catholicism. It accuses EU lawmakers of overstepping their jurisdiction.