Gay Married Couple Is First to Appear in Ad in Conservative Poland

A gay married couple in Poland who made headlines in April when they handed out rainbow masks in the Eastern European nation -- a country where 80 towns recently declared they were "LGBTQ-free zones" -- is now the first same-sex couple to ever appear in an ad there.

The commercial for Durex condoms depicts various couples being physically intimate. The same-sex couple in the ad, Jakub and Dawid Mycek-Kwiecinski, crafted and handed out about 300 Pride masks early in the pandemic.

Jakub Mycek-Kwiecinski was a presenter at one of Poland's national broadcasters TVP for nine years before he was fired for being gay, according to Gay Star News.

Despite the positive imagery in the Durex ad, which is being aired on main channels throughout Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Lithuania, Poland remains deeply conservative. The same month that the Mycek-Kwiecinskis took to the streets with masks, the country considered a Stop Pedophilia bill that critics and educators called a dangerous attack on LGBTQ+ rights.

In 2019, 80 towns in Poland declared that they were LGBTQ-free zones, a move that the European Union condemned.

Watch the Durex ad below.