Conference: Homophobia, Misogyny, and Backwardness? The Tumultuous Fate of Controversial Laws – 20 Years Later

Today, we will reflect both on the role that conference played in shaping the agenda of academic and activist debates at the dawn of the PiS era, and on the changes that have occurred in policies relating to gender and sexuality.

In October 2005, we discussed drafts of four key laws. By 2025, although we have laws on equal status of women and men and on the alimony fund, there is still no law on marriage equality or even civil partnerships. Instead of the liberalization of abortion regulations proposed back then, we have seen their radical tightening.

How can these two decades be summarized, and what does the future of gender-related policies look like? These are the questions we aim to discuss on October 14, 2025, at the Faculty of Economics and Sociology, University of Łódź.

We invite both academics and activists to participate. Attendance at the conference is free of charge.

Registration

To register, please send the title, abstract, and a brief biography by September 15, 2025, to: lodzkieseminariumgender@gmail.com