Gay Couple’s Union Becomes the First Same-Gender Marriage Recognized in Poland

A landmark European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling last November opened up a new avenue for same-sex couples in Poland: the ability to have their marriages, performed in other European Union (EU) nations, legally recognized by their own government without a separate legal battle. Ryszard Ziobro and his husband, Tomasz Kwietko-Bebnowski, who married in Vienna last year, recently became  the first couple in Poland to take advantage of this ruling.

Ryszard Ziobro and Tomasz Kwietko-Bebnowski

“Our marriage poses no threat to anyone,” said the couple, according to The Times of London. “It is simply a conscious decision concerning the lives of two adults.” They are both in their 70s, and met in a shop nearly 50 years ago. 

“What matters to us is that we now have the same pension rights, social security and rights during illness as heterosexual couples,” says Ziobro. “This is about equal rights.”

This step towards equal rights began in 2018, when another Polish couple who married in Berlin attempted to have their marriage recognized at the records office in their hometown of Warsaw. Local officials refused, citing the Polish constitution, which strictly defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. ‘

The couple appealed to the ECJ, and the court in Luxembourg ruled that all EU states must recognize same-sex marriages performed in other EU states, and “afford couples their corresponding marital rights.”

While the couple at the center of that ruling had to appeal once more to Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court, Ziobro and Kwietko-Bebnowski were luckier in their hometown of Wroclaw. They describe their experience in their local records office:

“The wise head of our registry office decided he would allow our application, because court rulings must be recognised as case law. We have now achieved what we wanted in a more normal way, without accusations and complaints to the courts — so there is certainly some progress.”

In deeply Catholic Poland, this is a more positive step than it may seem. The political and cultural resistance to same-sex marriage still runs deep. The Polish bishops’ conference’s Council for the Family issued a statement opposing the new law on marriage recognition, saying:

“Article 18 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland sets out that marriage is a union between a woman and a man and, as such, is placed under the protection and care of the State.”

Members of the Catholic hierarchy in Poland have a long history of over-the-top condemnations of LGBTQ+ issues  in their country, at times calling the growing LGBTQ+ movement  “a great threat to freedom,”  a “plague,” and the “most serious threat to humanity.”

The couple display their marriage certificate.

Beyond the crowd of well-wishers and friends who greeted the newly-recognized married couple, right-wing demonstrators chanted “konstytucja,” the Polish word for constitution, as Ziobro and Kwietko-Bebnowski emerged from the records office. Politicians are ambiguous on the subject of LGBT rights, with the current president stating during his campaign that the LGBT community “cannot count on me to deal with their affairs.” 

But hope continues to grow. Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, promised to ensure compliance with the ECJ ruling. He also issued an apology to any couples who felt “rejected or humiliated” by a lack of recognition from the Polish government. “The state has failed in this regard for many years,” he said. Homokomando, a Warsaw-based LGBTQ advocacy group, praised the “courage” of the clerk in Wroclaw. They issued a statement:

“All other authorities in Poland should act in the same way. A certificate is a certificate; the law is the law. It must be applied, and that is that.”

Ziobro and Kwietko-Bebnowski hope the registration of their marriage will inspire other couples to get married abroad, and have their marriage registered at home. In fact, Ziobro will soon travel to Dresden with another same-sex couple who will marry there and have their union recognized in Poland.

“You simply have to try and overcome these obstacles with the legal means available,” Ziobro said. “Officially, we were told that it’s impossible to register our marriage. But I now have a husband, and I am a husband, and we’re extremely happy about this.”

The “constitution” chants outside the Wroclaw registry office didn’t dampen the couple’s celebration. In fact, Kwietko-Bebnowski lifted his marriage certificate in one hand, and a rose in the other, and chanted back: “The constitution let us do this! Finally, the law is on our side!”

–Lynnzee Dick, New Ways Ministry, June 5, 2026