A member of the Polish Left Alliance group who took part in the protest against the homophobic policies of President Andrzef Duda said she has received a homophobic note.
Against a troubling rise in anti-LGBT+ politics, MPs including Małgorzata Prokop-Paczkowska boldly stood against the drab attire of other lawmakers at the swearing-in ceremony of Duda last week.
Małgorzata Prokop-Paczkowska, a member of the Spring party, said when she returned to her apartment in Warsaw following the rainbow display of solidarity, a note had been left on her door which read:
“You lesbian plague, get out of our house.”
Dlaczego prawica nie chce się zgodzić aby w polskim prawie był aragraf o przestępstwach z nienawiści do orientacji seksualnej ? ! Bo autor,a tej kartki którą podrzucił mi pod drzwi zostałby ukarany, ukarana 🙁 pic.twitter.com/GNs1eT5ElT
— Małgorzata Prokop (@M_Prokop_P) August 10, 2020
Prokop-Paczkowska posted an image of the note on Twitter saying, “why does the right-wing refuse to agree that Polish law should contain [legislation] on hate crimes against sexual orientation?”
The Polish politician, who is a strong advocate for LGBT+ rights in Poland added that if there was hate crime legislation, the author of the homophobic card would be punished.
The Polish Centre for Monitoring Racist and Xenophobic Behaviour wrote about the incident on Facebook saying “is terrifyingly reminded of interwar when ONR was doing Jewish pogroms. They continued in an even more brutal form under German occupation.
“Because when you allow impunity and point out ‘inhumans’ a crowd ready to lynch. And that’s what PiS politician leads to.”
The rise in homophobic discourse in Poland has resulted in over a third of the country declaring itself an ‘LGBT+ free zone’.
This rhetoric is echoed by President Duda whos right-wing party PiS has been chipping away at LGBT+ rights since they came into power.
The Polish Centre for Monitoring Racist and Xenophobic Behaviour added that “Fascists from Youth Wszechpolska are planning a march against LGBT through Warsaw. Because they don’t like that non-heteronormative people demand rights and would like them to ‘stay at home’.
“Authority allows non-heteronormative Polish citizens to be harassed with impunity, the president uses dehumanizing terms ‘these are not people’.”
In July, Duda was re-elected following a close presidential race against liberal politician Rafał Trzaskowski. He won by 51.2% of the vote in contrast to his opponent receiving 48.8%.
Duda’s campaign for re-election was founded upon deeply discriminatory policies which will strip LGBT+ people of their rights within Poland. During his presidential race, he labelled queer identities as an “ideology” more dangerous than communism as well as signing in a declaration barring same-sex marriage and disallowing LGBT+ people to adopt children.
Following his reelection, many LGBT+ people in Poland have been left fearing for their safety and forced to leave the country.
© 2020 GCN (Gay Community News). All rights reserved.
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