On 7 August 2020, a protest against the arrest of LGBT activist Margot led to a confrontation with police in central Warsaw, Poland, which resulted in the arrest of 47 others, some of whom were protesting, and others who were bystanders. The event was called Tęczowa Noc – translated as Rainbow Night – and was dubbed "Polish Stonewall" by some outlets, in an analogy to the 1969 Stonewall riots.

The Polish constitutional crisis, also known as the Polish rule-of-law crisis, is a political conflict ongoing since 2015 in which the Polish government has been accused of failing to comply with European and Polish constitutional law. The 2015 elections resulted in the Law and Justice party winning control of both the presidency and the parliament. With this government trifecta, PiS used its power to appoint judges to the Constitutional Tribunal in 2015, leading to the 2015 Polish Constitutional Court crisis. The government of Poland continued to expand its hold on the judiciary resulting in the 2017 Supreme Court crisis, and the 2019 Polish judicial disciplinary panel law. These events allowed the legislature and executive of the Polish government to have de facto control over judges and their appointments.