Recognition of Same-sex Unions in Poland - Symbolic Recognition

Symbolic Recognition

In 2004, Warsaw's Municipal Transport Authority decision to allow cohabiting partners of gay and lesbian employees to travel free on the city's public transport system was the first case of recognition of same-sex couples in Poland. In 2007, a decision of Chorzów’s City Center of Social Assistance recognized homosexual relationships. The decision declined to concede social assistance to one partner, recognizing that according to law, persons living in a common relationship in the same household are a family, so that the partner is obligated to care for the first one.

At the end of 2010, the Court in Złotów decided, that the communal apartment after a dead woman to be her partner. The municipality appealed the verdict, the District Court in Poznań, however, rejected the appeal. Thus, the decision of the Court in Złotów became final. "The court found that these women actually remained in a stable partnership. Any other interpretation would lead to discrimination based on sexual orientation," said president of the District Court in Złotów, Adam Jutrzenka-Trzebiatowski. In support of the judge relied, inter alia, European Convention on Human Rights – for the first time in Poland. This is a precedent and courageous decision after the European Court of Human Rights ruled in case Kozak v. Poland that homosexuals have the right to inherit from their partners.