European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen denounced discrimination of the LGBTI community last week, criticising Poland for their LGBTI-free zones. “Being yourself is not your ideology, it is your identity and no one can ever take it away. So I want to be crystal clear, LGBTQI-free zones are humanity free zones,” von der Leyen said during her flagship State of the Union speech. According to a major study last year, 43 per cent of the LGBT community in Europe said they have faced similar discrimination. A petition with over a quarter of a million signatures was handed to the EU equality commissioner calling for Europe to act to protect rights in Poland, which is at the centre of a row over fundamental rights in the European Union. One transgender man, Aiden de Prins, who is living in the eastern Belgian city of Hasselt, said that even in a politically progressive country like Belgium, trans people still face serious discrimination.