Poland publishes civil partnership bill in boost for LGBT couples

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland moved a step closer to legalising civil partnerships with the publication of a draft law on Friday that the minister responsible for the legislation hailed as a "historic day" in a country where gay rights have proved bitterly divisive.

Donald Tusk's pro-European coalition government swept to power in predominantly Catholic Poland last year largely thanks to younger, liberal voters keen to draw a line under eight years of nationalist rule during which the struggle for LGBT equality was branded by those in power as a dangerous foreign ideology.

However, some of those voters have become disillusioned with what they see as the slow pace of change, putting the onus on Tusk's centrist Civic Coalition and one of its partners in government, the Left, to show progress in charting a more socially liberal course ahead of a 2025 presidential election.

"Our voters expect us to introduce these changes to human rights," Equality Minister Katarzyna Kotula, a member of the Left, told a news conference.

"I believe this is an absolutely reasonable solution... that can provide a feeling of security for many people who live in informal relationships."

Under the bill, couples who have a civil partnership would gain rights to inheritance and medical information about their partners.

However, they would not gain the right to adopt children, a concession designed to secure the support of the conservative Polish Peasants' Party (PSL), another party in Tusk's ruling coalition.

PSL's failure to support a liberalisation of abortion laws has already prevented its more liberal coalition partners from delivering one of their key promises to voters.

LGBT activist Bart Staszewski said the draft law was a "good sign" but the LGBT community had also been promised legislation to prevent discrimination against them.

In order to come into force, the legislation would have to be approved by parliament and signed by President Andrzej Duda, a conservative ally of the previous nationalist government. His term ends next year.

There was no immediate comment on Friday from the presidential palace on the new bill.

(Reporting by Pawel Florkiewicz, Barbara Erling, Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Writing by Alan Charlish; Editing by Gareth Jones)