WARSAW, Dec 8 (Reuters) – The number of Polish LGBT people with depression rose by more than half between 2017 and 2020, according to a new study, amid what campaigners say is growing intolerance driven by the deeply conservative government. Gay rights have become a deeply divisive issue in predominantly Roman Catholic Poland. Religious conservatives condemn what they say is an “ideology” bent on destroying the traditional family while more liberal Poles demand tolerance and equal treatment of what they regard as an oppressed minority. Some 44% of LGBT people reported experiencing serious symptoms of depression in 2019-2020, up from 28% in 2017, according to the study by the University of Warsaw’s Centre for Research on Prejudice commissioned by the Campaign Against Homophobia group, which was published on Tuesday. LGBT respondents said their families had become less tolerant of them during the period surveyed, with 61% of mothers and 54% of fathers accepting LGBT children in 2020, down from 68% and 59% respectively in 2017.