Gay Poland: What's like?

Contents:

• WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE GAY … POLAND?
• POLONIA GAY
• QUé SON LAS “ZONAS LIBR LGBT” POLONIA, LA POLéMI ICIATIVA QUE PRETEN ABAR N LA "IOLOGíA GAY" EN EL PAíS ROPEO
• SER GAY EN POLONIA: OLVíSE L ARíRIS, AQUí TODO BLAN Y NEGRO
• POLISH ELECTN: LEAR TARGETS GAY RIGHTS AS THREAT TO SOCIETY
• POLAND’S POPULISTS PICK A NEW TOP ENEMY: GAY PEOPLE

WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE GAY … POLAND?

And gay people livg the areas are faced wh a choice: emigrate, keep their heads down - or fight back. 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.

POLONIA GAY

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. 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. But she tells me she is not agast gay people and was appalled when she received hate mail om all over the world.

QUé SON LAS “ZONAS LIBR LGBT” POLONIA, LA POLéMI ICIATIVA QUE PRETEN ABAR N LA "IOLOGíA GAY" EN EL PAíS ROPEO

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.

SER GAY EN POLONIA: OLVíSE L ARíRIS, AQUí TODO BLAN Y NEGRO

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

Robert Biedron, Poland’s first openly gay MP, tak the oath of office 2011 next to Poland’s first trans puty, Anna Grodzka.

It was 2007, years before Vladimir Put supposedly veloped a ncern for the fate of Rsia’s children, when the Polish ernment openly discsed stutg s own anti-homosexualy law.

POLISH ELECTN: LEAR TARGETS GAY RIGHTS AS THREAT TO SOCIETY

Edutn Mister Roman Giertych proposed banng the discsn of homosexualy schools, wh school admistrators, teachers, or pupils who disobeyed the directive liable to dismissal, a fe, or even imprisonment. That year, Poland was the grip of anti-gay hysteria and a state-sponsored mpaign of LGBTQ persecutn.

Wh the health mistry tent on creatg a special mtee rponsible for “curg” gays, police pilg a database on gays and the gay muny, and the ombudsman for children preparg a list of jobs unf for homosexuals, thoands of LGBTQ Pol took advantage of their EU cizenship and left for the Uned Kgdom. In 2007, Robert Biedron, who at the time was print of the Campaign Agast Homophobia, known Polish as KPH, said, “It’s impossible for gays to be themselv Poland. Wng an albe most 40 seats the 460-seat Sejm, the lower hoe of the Polish parliament, Biedron beme the first openly gay MP Poland and Anna Grodzka the send trans MP Europe (after Italy’s Vladi Luxuria).

When there is a discsn of gay or trans issu on televisn, a member of an LGBTQ anisatn like KPH or Lambda Warszawa will be ved to participate, but so will a Catholic prit. They also said they would feel unfortable holdg hands the street or kissg except a gay or gay-iendly bar.

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

Warsaw and Krakow each have a small number of gay bars, rangg om regular clubs to ls salubr stutns heavy on darkened rooms. Wh the ci, and pecially Warsaw, although is far om easy to be gay, ntrary to Biedron’s claratn of seven years ago, is not impossible.

But the same nnot be said of the rt of Poland, a untry still wedd to regrsive Catholic dogma on homosexualy. Con la retori anti-LGBT che permea lo spettro poli e sociale lla Polonia, potrti facilmente sere dotto a chierti, la Polonia è gay-iendly? In effetti la Polonia è molto meno aperta di altri pai Europa, n il matrimon gay e l'adozne gay anra illegali e la tolleranza LGBTQ generale certa.