For Poland's Gay Communy, A Shift In Public Attus, If Not Laws : Parallels : NPR

Contents:

• FOR POLAND'S GAY COMMUNY, A SHIFT IN PUBLIC ATTUS, IF NOT LAWS
• IS POLAND GAY-IENDLY? - POLAND FOM
• GAY ORGANIZATN POLAND
• POLAND’S POPULISTS PICK A NEW TOP ENEMY: GAY PEOPLE

FOR POLAND'S GAY COMMUNY, A SHIFT IN PUBLIC ATTUS, IF NOT LAWS

The stggle for gay rights is a foreign ncept imported om the US and Wtern Europe, he adds, and threatens the tradnal heterosexual Polish fay.

Fd out moreWh state-sanctned homophobia and a largely hostile media, Polish gay people risk beg phed back to the closet, pecially small towns. Image ptn, Bart Staszewski SwidnikWhen I arrive on a Saturday morng, half a dozen gay activists are the ma square handg out leaflets, "love is love" stickers and iced doughnuts wh multi-loured sprkl.

Their spokman, Bart Staszewski, has anised what he lled a queer tour of Poland's east to show people that gay people are "normal cizens" adds: "We are the rabow myth-bters. "Swidnik ee of rabow propaganda, " they yell, tryg to drown out the sound of the breezy pop mic g om the speakers of the gay rights activists. " He adds that many gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr Pol have recently emigrated to pe Tuchow, a town of 6, 500 people found medieval tim, which has also clared self ee of "LGBT iology", I meet a gay teenager a lol park.

IS POLAND GAY-IENDLY? - POLAND FOM

Still, that don't mean is easy to be gay this part of Poland, 100km east of ptn, Poland has been lled the worst untry the EU for LGBT rights"Once, when my boyiend and I were holdg hands", he says, "we heard a few people shoutg nam at . Durg his re-electn mpaign June, Print Duda signed a "Fay Charter, " cludg pledg to prevent gay upl om marryg or adoptg children and to ban teachg about LGBT issu schools.

GAY ORGANIZATN POLAND

Rather, 's that the polil parti, the European Unn - and the LGBT anisatns - they're all g Tuchow to pursue their own terts, " she Polish policians have stood up for gay rights. Some even held up pi of the nstutn to show that they believe the print has vlated the untry's legal a number of gay activists feel let down by liberal policians who have failed to take ncrete actns.

The nservative chary regularly sends tcks wh loudspeakers around Polish ci wh a msage nflatg homosexualy and sex tn wh paedophilia.

POLAND’S POPULISTS PICK A NEW TOP ENEMY: GAY PEOPLE

""Basilly the msage they've been blastg through those loudspeakers is that gays rape children, " says Margot, who has jt been released om prison. "I jt read a post on Twter that one of the gay activists has said that the time for peaceful stggle is over", says Matsz Marzoch prottg outsi Warsaw's universy. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTAn latn verbal attacks by the Polish ernment, wh the support of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the threat of physil vlence on the streets of many ci, has triggered an exod of gay Mucha for The New York TimFor months, ernment misters spewed vic rhetoric about gay people.

Fally fed up wh an creasgly hostile environment for gay people Poland unr the erng Law and Jtice party, Marta Malachowska, a 31-year-old who works social media, cid to move to Berl wh her girliend December. But now their numbers are beg add to by gay people fleeg an creasgly hostile environment Limowicz for The New York TimAcrdg to a 2020 survey by ILGA-Europe, an ternatnal gay rights anizatn, Poland now ranks as the most homophobic untry the European Unn.

Activists say that vlence agast gay people Poland surged last year, and clud s of physil vlence, sults and the stctn of is hard to know how many gay people there are Poland, or how many are leavg. ”Homosexualy has long been taboo Poland, where the Roman Catholic Church, which plays a proment role the untry’s social and polil life, has worked hand hand wh the ernment to promote a nservative way of church, which is particularly powerful ral areas, has adopted an actively hostile attu toward gay people. Rpondg to a requt for ment, the Catholic Church poted to an official document outlg s posn, statg that homosexual “clatns” did not nstute “moral guilt, ” but homosexual acts did.

It cled to ment on hate speech employed by prits, and the accatn that they were ntributg to the general terratn of the safety of gay people Jedraszewski, Poland’s archbishop, has scribed L. Neher the ernment nor the print rpond to requts for April 2019 Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the chairman of the Law and Jtice party and Poland’s facto lear, lled homosexualy a “threat to Polish inty, to our natn, to s existence, and th to the Polish state. There have been creasg s of vlence durg pri march, and agast one cint a village southern Poland, a young gay man was harassed by neighbors hurlg homophobic abe at him, and one tried to poison his dog.

In March 2021, another gay man was verbally attacked and then stabbed for holdg hands wh his partner a gay person Poland, Mr. In a bid to get re-elected last year, Print Andrzej Duda signed a draft law that would amend the Constutn to ban adoptns by gay Ms.

" It effectively equat homosexualy wh pedophilia clarg that the cy admistratn is mted to "Dog everythg to stop perverts who are terted the early sexualizatn of Polish children and adolcents. At that time, s most famo native — Polish mocracy in Lech Wala, founr of the Solidary movement — said on TV that gays had no right to impose their will on the Polish majory. Homophobic attus were prevalent among Polish lawmakers when Robert Biedron was elected as a member of parliament back 2011.

Slupsk Mayor Robert Biedron (om left) and LGBT activists Marta Abramowicz and Marta Kosska stand next to a symbolic Gdansk ln statue pated rabow lors honor of the cy's first gay rights march, held May. "I was the first member of the Polish parliament who was openly gay, " Biedron says, "and they would not be brave enough to shake hands publicly bee somebody would thk they're gay. ' " But Biedron, 39, says attus toward gays are improvg, part bee the Catholic Church's fluence is shrkg Poland and bee more Pol are g out of the closet.

Polish gay rights activists say there are other chang, too, cludg the openg of central Europe's first homels shelter for LGBT teens earlier this year Warsaw. Marianna Szczygielska, the project ordator for the Warsaw-based Campaign agast Homophobia, says attus toward gays here began to change when Poland joed the European Unn 2004. LGBT is still a popular term ed to discs genr and sexual mori, but all GSRM are wele beyond lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people who nsent to participate a safe space.

The Polish gay and lbian scene is fairly discreet; Warsaw and Kraków are the bt plac to fd bars, clubs and gay-iendly acmodatn, and Sopot is noted as gay-iendly pared to the rt of Poland. Although 's not pletely hostile, I would suggt not beg openly gay to avoid any nflicts, if you were to be out you should expect people lookg at you and actg a b weird around you, s a betiful untry wh many wounrs but the populatn is generally nservative. This is the grim realy faced by Polish lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and asexual people outled the report "The Social Suatn of LGBTQ Persons Poland.

“The suatn of LGBTQ people has not really improved, but rather gotten worse, " says Mirosława Makuchowska, puty director of the Campaign Agast Homophobia.

Every third rponnt dited the experience of discrimatn as the are some stori participants of the study shared: "Durg a lson, a prit stated that homosexual people are pedophil and zoophil.

" (18-year-old lbian om a village) "At a pre-Christmas meetg among s and their partners, I was yelled at and physilly threatened for tryg to expla that gay people do not adopt children orr to rape them later, after someone ma such a statement. " (36-year-old gay man om a medium-sized cy)As the survey shows, the psychologil well-beg of non-heterosexual people has terrated signifintly jt the past few years.

The media are full of stereotyp and homophobia, and, importantly, var figur of thory, such as Church personali or policians, often openly spread rults of our rearch show that this open hatred, often manifted by aggrsn, has a huge impact on almost every sphere of life of gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, asexual and queer people. Home Gay Organizatn Poland Gay associatns are superb lotns to meet many people who're plete help of equaly and diversy of all typ and kds.

When searchg for any sort of Gay Organizatn Poland there isn't much which you n't acquire to sue your requirements, along wh the ial place to start your search would be to beg by seekg at Menkarta wh the products listed beneath.