Thread by @qyuiqq, LGBTQ RIGHTS IN POLAND - A THREADtw homophobia, transphobia, suicide I've seen [...]

LGBTQ RIGHTS IN POLAND - A THREAD
tw homophobia, transphobia, suicide

I've seen a lot of misinformation about this, often in good faith, so I want to clear it up for people from outside of Poland. First of all, in the foreign news it's often said that "Andrzej Duda wants to ban gay marriage". You can't ban something that doesn't exist.

Not only we don't have gay marriage (let alone a possibility for adoption for same sex couples), we don't even have any legal partnerships for same sex couples. people can be in a relationship for 20 years, raise kids together and still not be able to visit their SO in a hospital

the main opposition party, now framed as "progressive", stopped the passing of a law that would legalize legal partnerships when they were the ruling party. the opposition "progressive" candidate for president this year explicitly opposed same sex couples adopting children.

It's worse for trans people. Despite having national healthcare, there are almost no doctors treating trans people, so they have to pay A LOT to even get a diagnosis. to legally change your gender and name, you have to sue your parents, even as an adult. This process takes years

It was always bad for us, but ever since the current ruling party, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice) won the elections in 2015, it's progressively getting worse. The homophobia became normalized. This was the first pride in Białystok, last year:

My friends got kicked out of their homes, beaten at the streets. The police usually does nothing. Last year a couple brought homemade bombs to pride in Lublin. Thankfully they were arrested before a disaster would happen. At every pride hundreds of people try to attack us+

Throw stuff at us, threaten us with death and yell slurs at us. It's getting more and more terrifying. Every year people commit suicide because of homophobia and transphobia.

You have probably heard about our president Duda, who, while campaigning for reelection, viciously attacked the LGBTQ community, calling us a danger to children among other things. what other people from his party said was even worse. Duda won the reelection.

But, what's even more scary: the fourth place was taken by Bosak, from far right party Konfederacja (Confederacy). He got 6,78% of the votes, a million people voted for him. In his manifesto "New Order" he calls LGBTQ people ill and opposes transition and legal gender change.

both bosak and his colleague, Janusz Korwin-Mikke, are sitting members of the parliament. Korwin-Mikke is known for, among other things, being a raging homophobe and a rape apologist. You can check his quotes on the internet, they're too disgusting for me to post.

While hate crimes against LGBTQ people mostly are ignored by the police, they decided to intervene after rainbow flags have been placed on monuments in Warsaw. The flags caused national outrage, our PM intervened to protect the dignity of a monument of Jesus

Two people from an anarcho-queer collective Stop Bzdurom ("Stop Bullshit") were arrested over this. The police (who, mind you, mostly ignored when we get beaten up in broad daylight) drove hundreds of kilometers to arrest one of them OVER RAINBOW FLAGS ON MONUMENTS

They were freed, but today it has been announced that one of the members, Margot, is getting arrested for two months (!!!). We don't know the legal reasoning behind this. The situation is changing rapidly. All that because our ruling party decided rainbow flags were offensive

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP
talk to your queer friends who live in Poland. Donate to our gofundmes. Donate to Stop Bzdurom, Fundacja Trans-fuzja ("The trans-fusion foundation" that helps trans people) and Kampania Przeciw Homofobii ("Campaign against homophobia").

I think there will be protests in some European countries so attend them. Educate others. We want the world to know.

I will add links to petitions and additional information later!!!

Today's update: Margot got arrested by an unmarked police car. The people were protesting and trying to stop the arrest, the police became violent. We don't know what's next, but polish stonewall is definitely happening right now.

Read this thread too for more info on yesterday: https://twitter.com/PissPigWife69/status/1291836500129337346?s=19