The 1932 law came into force in Poland again after World War II, but it included homosexual prostitution as a punishable offense. Homosexuality in Poland was fully decriminalized only in 1970.

LGBT people were persecuted by Nazi forces during the German occupation of the Second World War.

Homosexuality is legal.

During the Second Polish Republic, same sex activity was not legislated against, but was considered taboo.

During the Partitions of Poland, the Polish state had ceased to exist and laws from other states were forced upon the lands. Russia's penal code specified a punishment of forced resettlement to Siberia.

Before the Polish partitions, no bans regarding homosexuality were ever mentioned, despite it being considered taboo. There was a time where "brotherly bonds" were made by two people of the same-sex, typically men. According to some historians, this could be considered same-sex marraige. Homosexuality was also weaponised to defame known figures; i.e. kings.

The Supreme Court adopted a resolution on the interpretation of Art. 691 k.c. in which it ruled: “A person actually cohabiting with the tenant (within the meaning of Article 691 § 1 of the Civil Code) is a person connected with the tenant by emotional, physical and economic bonds; also a person of the same sex."

Article 18 of the Polish Constitution defines marriage as "a union of a man and a woman".
Legal challenges have been made against this, including in the European Court of Human Rights, and The Court of Justice of the European Union has also ruled that all EU member states must recognise the rights of same-sex spouse, but no new law has been passed. Unregistered cohabitation recognized.

The Polish government has made frequent attempts to censor LGBT issues on TV or in person by attempting to establish "LGBT free zones" with the first being in Swidnicki County on March 27th, 2019 with hundreds more doing the same. Promises and attempts are being made to move away from this and most "LGBT free zones" have now been abolished. Lancut became the last to abolish it on April 24th, 2025.

There was no censorship of LGBTIQ+ topics in Poland.

Gender marker change requires initiating a court procedure in which the applicant must file an “assessment suit”, manufacturing proceedings between the applicant and their family. This procedure is very subjective and can result in summary dismissal of the applicant’s suit. Conditions can include a “real-life test”, requiring the applicant to have expressed their gender identity publicly for two years (often without any medical intervention) and medical testing, both psychological and physical.
This procedure is based on the Supreme Court decision of 22 March 1991 which interprets the sense of belonging to a gender as “a personal good”, per Article 23 of the Civil Code (1964), meaning that a suit can be brought on this basis under Article 189 of the Code. Another Supreme Court judgment of 22 September 1995 established that parents or guardians of the applicant are the defendants in the lawsuit taken.
Reports produced by Transfuzja showed that a diagnosis of “transsexualism” can be obtained through a series of tests and examinations, both psychological and physical, including head x-rays, genitalia examination and karyotype check. As there are no unified standards to diagnose a person of “transsexualism” in Poland, healthcare providers “recommend” a two-year “real life” test, during which the applicant is required to live full-time as their preferred gender, but they are not prescribed any hormonal treatment and they are still unable to change their legal status. While it is possible to receive hormonal treatment without a diagnosis, this practice can complicate legal gender recognition court procedures.

In the resolution of the Court Supreme Court (ref. no. III CZP 100/77), the court found admissible gender change without surgery. In the same judgment, the court decided that it was possible to rectify the birth certificate.

The Supreme Court ruling III CRN 28/91 established a new procedural regime based on Article 189 of the Code of Civil Procedure (declaratory judgment) in conjunction with Article 23 of the Civil Code (protection of personal goods), moving away from the rectification mode. This path was chosen because the declaratory judgment procedure is flexible and used for various issues like franc loans or housing cooperative resolutions, though it was not originally designed for gender recognition. The Court conditioned legal recognition on the "permanence" of gender identity and the absence of collision with third-party rights (marriage), often requiring surgical intervention prior to the judgment.

The Supreme Court resolution III CZP 37/89 (panel of seven judges) radically altered the legal landscape by establishing the legal principle that transsexualism does not constitute a basis for rectifying the birth certificate because the entry was not defective ex tunc (from the beginning). This decision created a legal vacuum and caused a cessation of surgical procedures as doctors feared legal liability without prior judicial authorization, leading to a search for a new procedural solution.

The Supreme Court resolution III CZP 100/77 sanctioned the practice of rectifying birth certificates via a non-contentious administrative mode, theoretically allowing for gender recognition without surgery if the phenotype was dominant and irreversible, though the Court explicitly recognized the legality of surgical "adaptation" procedures. This period saw the solidification of the rectification practice in judicial decisions, although legal doctrine questioned the applicability of rectification to a condition that manifests later in life rather than being a clerical error at birth.

The legal practice was initiated by a precedent-setting ruling of the Voivodeship Court for the Capital City of Warsaw (case no. II Cr 515/64), which permitted the rectification of a birth certificate based on an analogy to civil status regulations, but this was strictly conditioned on the applicant having already undergone surgical gender reassignment and produced legal effects only for the future (ex nunc). The first successful case in 1964 involved an individual who had struggled for four years to correct their documents, using American medical literature and personal biography as arguments. By the mid-1960s, a small number of similar cases appeared, involving individuals who had already completed full medical transition, including vaginoplasty or phalloplasty.

The Polish legal system provided no specific regulations or established judicial path for the change of gender recorded in a birth certificate, operating under a framework of biological determinism where civil status was considered immutable.

In 1981, the Department of Sexology and Pathology of Interpersonal Relationships was established in Warsaw, which was the first facility in Poland providing help to transgender people, including the diagnosis of gender dysphoria and hormone therapy. Since then, many similar healthcare facilities have been established, including private ones, after the fall of the communist system in Poland.

In 1963, the first fully reimbursed gender reassignment surgery in Polish history (MTF) was performed in Warsaw. Until the first health care facility in Poland was established, which specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of transgender people, hormonal therapy and professional diagnosis of gender dysphoria were not possible.

Medical transition in Poland is not possible

The Equal Treamtent Law of 2010 prohibits sexual orientation discrimination in employment.

General rules regarding adoption are set out in the Family and Guardianship Code, in articles 114 to 127. Formally, there were no prohibition against adopting a child by a single person.