Last month, I got to meet our EU neighbour, Poland, as a guest of the 15th LGBT+ Film Festival in Warsaw – crazy, when you think that the image of Poland people have in mind is highly Catholic, conservative and anti-queer.
Of course there are plenty of queers and radical, progressive Polish people, but still, headlines announcing the creation of multiple “LGBT-free zones” in parts of Poland in 2019 and beyond have lingered. They’ve received plenty of attention in the queer media here, too.
A mixed crowd of all genders as well as drag queens made the opening gala feel like a real happening.
The venue of the festival was the Palace of Culture and Science, an enormous Stalinist architectural-style building in the middle of Warsaw, ‘gifted’ to the city by the Soviet Union in 1955. It’s impressive that the big LGBT+ Film Festival took place in one of Warsaw’s most recognisable landmarks, easily accessible to the 1.86 million Varsovians.
The general programme was a bit tame by Berliner standards, but it’s nonetheless important to have these kinds of films for people in Poland.
Before the movies, a couple of the trailers referred to 1.5% of Polish taxes. The festival organisers explained to me that Polish people can choose which social programmes 1.5% of their tax money goes to, which is an interesting and direct way to support LGBTQ* organisations.
But what’s most important here is the atmosphere. There’s a feeling that Polish LGBTQ* culture within the city is pushing on the mainstream, which you can take as you like, but given the situation of the past few years, this may be exactly what’s needed. A mixed crowd of all genders as well as drag queens made the opening gala feel like a real happening.
What’s most important here is the atmosphere.
Young volunteers and cinema and service workers smiled and engaged with enthusiasm and as if this festival self-evidently belonged there. Even outside the cinema, we were treated to lunch at a proudly queer restaurant, rainbow flags and all, and most of its employees looked like young queer Berliners. Adidas logo on your manicure, anyone?
From an outsider’s perspective, things look hopeful. Even the last “LGBT-free zone” was repealed by the Warsaw Voivodeship Administrative Court in February earlier this year. But are things getting better in Poland?
From an outsider’s perspective, things look hopeful.
I also happened to be there during their last set of local elections and while centrist mayor Rafał Trzaskowski won a second term, the nationalist PiS party won the most votes overall, bolstering their presence once more.
For the last eight years, this party has been elevating Poland to one of the most anti-queer states in the EU, and LGBTIQ* people suffered immensely under them. There’s been very little, policy-wise, that’s changed for queer people in the brief time PiS have been out of power. Queer causes in Poland still have work cut out for them.
I’m glad I met our neighbours in this context, though. They’re fabulous hosts and they’ve always got my support if their landlords start to give them shit again.
