The slow shift of the status quo

The City Council in Lębork discussing the creation of a Council for Dialogue on Equal Treatment.  Photo: Anna Strzałkowska

What made the Lębork city council meeting so popular was a proposed resolution titled “On the freedom of the Lębork Municipality from LGBT and gender ideology”. The project of the resolution was submitted by a group of inhabitants of Lębork under the name “Municipal Freedom Committee from LGBT and gender ideology”. The appeal was signed by about 700 town residents. 

The resolution declares that: “There is a need to counteract the propaganda of strong sexualisation of a person’s life already from early childhood, either openly or in disguise, by the LGBT movement. Discrimination against the voice of parents in the educational process in schools and kindergartens should be prevented. The growing wave of insults towards the religious feelings of Christians should be prevented. Attempts to depreciate the special role of marriage understood as a relationship between a man and a woman, and a family built on such a foundation, should be prevented.” 

Fierce ideology

However, listening to the endless speeches of the resolution’s supporters one can notice that there is more to it. They are listing the threats of so-called LGBT ideology in schools and in public life. According to them this narrative can severely damage the Catholic church in Poland. As proof they point to anti-clerical messages from pride parades in Poland, especially in Gdańsk. In their opinion this “ideology” is destroying the traditional Polish family and the innocence of Polish children through sex education programmes that teach children how to masturbate (sic!). Supporters also argue that the resolution is not against the LGBT+ people, but what they call LGBT ideology. Nevertheless, some worrying sentences have been expressed about “allowing” LGBT+ inhabitants to stay in “our” city providing they won’t “manifest their sexual orientation in public” since they can “sow depravation”. A few speakers during the meeting suggested that sexual orientation is not motivated by psycho-biological factors but by external factors (such as propaganda), which goes against the World Health Organisation’s findings.

These speeches were delivered in two hours and were heard by the whole audience, also by the LGBT+ people (activists and regular inhabitants) who were participating in the meeting. According to Polish law on municipalities, only those proposing the resolution, and their supporters, can speak at a city council meeting before voting on it. The only speech against it was delivered by Ewa Lieder from the political party Nowoczesna, which is a part of the Civic Coalition, the main opposition in the Polish parliament. She referred to fundamental human rights and noted that LGBT+ people live in their town as their neighbours, children, doctors and salesmen and this kind of legislation can only make them feel unwanted and not accepted in the city. 

Anna Strzałkowska, co-president of the Equal Treatment Council in Gdańsk, describes the symbolic power of the resolution: “The resolution divides people into those who are lawful and those from whom freedom should be taken. Legally, the resolution seems to be dead, but symbolically it is a speech of hatred that can transform into acts of hatred. The suicides of teenagers experiencing homophobia in Poland are also the tragic consequences of the increasingly present symbolism of exclusion in public life. Thus, such resolutions are acts of hatred because they can be easily transformed into concrete cases of violence”.

Magdalena Adamowicz, a member of the European Parliament and the widow of Paweł Adamowicz, the former mayor of Gdańsk who was assassinated in January 2019, recorded an official statement where she unequivocally condemned the planned adoption of the resolution in Lębork. In her opinion the aim of these resolutions is to divide Poles into better and worse and sow hate: “Dignity is an inviolable value of every human being, and it is the basis of human rights.” She explains her personal motivation to act: “All people are endowed with the same dignity and have the same basic value, regardless of their physical, mental and spiritual condition.”

A distinct voice

Apart from the above-discussed resolution, one more was submitted to the Lębork council by the grassroots association called Dialogue. Their representative, Magdalena Sarzyńska-Górska explains why they decided to submit their own project: “Since the city authorities accepted a project of the ‘anti-LGBT ideology resolution’ for further proceeding, which is formally and ethically unacceptable due to violations of human rights, we as the Dialogue Initiative decided to introduce a policy of equal treatment into the municipal strategy as a socio-economic priority. Representing the local society of dialogue during the session, we proposed the creation of a Council for Dialogue on Equal Treatment as a civic and local grassroots need, since so far such an initiative has not been created in our city. We also took into account the changing society. The inhabitants of Lębork are now more aware of their independence and the possibility of living according to their own needs. Therefore, we decided that the council will respond to these needs.”

Thanks to the proposed ordinance submitted by the Dialogue association, a different narrative was delivered and its supporters were given a voice in the council chambers as well. Unfortunately these speeches weren’t recorded by the regional and national media, but at least the councillors could listen to them. Having a floor before voting on the second resolution Strzałkowska talked about the vision of Lębork as one community: “I asked the question about what kind of community the councillors want to build. Hate and exclusion, or openness and space for free citizens. Each of us may be at risk of exclusion due to age, gender, health condition or disabilities. Each of us also has an LGBT+ person in the family, among friends or neighbours. Exclusion, divisions, quarrels are easy, building relationships and dialogue requires much more energy.”

As of the end January 2020, 52 Polish municipalities (among them four voivodeships) have adopted a resolution on “a municipality free from LGBT ideology”. Thirty-five municipalities adopted the so-called “Charter of Family Rights”, prepared by the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture which gives a parent the right to to sign out their child from participation in any “propaganda” activities outside the school curriculum based on gender ideology, ideological concepts of “cultural” or “social” gender, and sexual identity. As a result of this legislation, the French municipality of Saint-Jean-de-Braye has broken off its partnership with the town of Tuchów in southern Poland and the Central Region – Loire Valley suspended co-operation with Małopolskie Voivodeship.

In December 2019 the European Parliament adopted a resolution on discrimination against LGBT+ people in the European Union. The resolution states that since the beginning of 2019, councils of more than 80 local governments in Poland have passed resolutions in which they define their areas as “free from the so-called LGBT ideology”. The European Parliament called on the Polish authorities to condemn these acts and revoke all resolutions attacking LGBT+ rights. Moreover, at the end of 2019, the Ombudsman in Poland issued a statement in which he considered the resolutions of “self-government free from LGBT ideology” as being contrary to the constitutional and legal principle that public authorities act on the basis and within the limits of the law. He argued that the resolutions restrict the rights and freedoms of local inhabitants and impede their right to private and family life, freedom of speech, the right to an education, the right to teach and the right to raise children according to their own convictions. Such rights and freedoms are guaranteed in national law and cannot be restricted.

What is it all about?

If the above practices are illegal, then why are these resolutions still being adopted by Polish municipalities? Bartosz Staszewski, a filmmaker and human rights activist, explains that “the reason is deeper than just ‘liberals who live in a bubble that lost the skill to talk with regular inhabitants or forgot their ideals’. For several years now we’ve had a flood of actions against WHO statements, science, etc. Well-organised and well-networked international movements have the task of overturning the current order to restore the supposedly ‘natural’ and proper one.”

“Politicians do it consciously,” Adamowicz explains. “According to the research of Professor Milan Svolik, a political scientist – If I hate a politician who represents the other side, and I am a fan of my politician, I am ready to forgive the undemocratic behaviour on my side, even if I personally value democracy. That’s why there must be some ‘enemy of the nation’. The more they stir up hatred, the more their voters would let them do, even if it undermines the rule of law.”

Many Polish activists see similarities in the situation towards LGBT+ people in Poland with the situation in Russia. Is that a fair comparison? “In Poland we now have the level of declarations, in Russia we already have the level of criminal restrictions” Misha Cherniak, a human rights activist, conductor and artistic director of the Voces Gaudii choir explains. “Since 2006 various districts have adopted resolutions against the so-called ‘promotion of homosexuality to minors, in 2013 the Russian Parliament (the State Duma) adopted a national resolution. They can’t prohibit speaking about LGBT+ at all, but do restrict it with kids.” Cherniak argues that what is similar in both countries is a tendency to discredit the EU, which defends human rights, and to present LGBT+ as moral corruption.

“In Kaliningrad Oblast, in the second reading of the law, the phrase “among children under the age of 18 years” was deleted, and the so-called “LGBT propaganda” was prohibited among people of any age,” explains Dasha Yakovleva, a human rights activist from the Feminitiv NGO in Kaliningrad. “Propaganda in this law means any reference to LGBT+ in a positive or neutral context. So practically, you can’t even talk about yourself in any public place. And we have a lot of issues when people get arrested because of posts on social media. This law is especially dangerous for LGBT+ teens because in the small regions of Russia they don’t have any support. Also, it stimulates homophobia, actually it legalises it. I think that’s why we have a terrible situation with teenage suicide, terrible violence, activists being persecuted – all because of this law.”

Seeking civil courage

The session in Lębork concluded with a vote by the city council that rejected both proposals – the one about a city free of LGBT ideology and the one about the establishment of a dialogue council. Yet in the city, only five out of 21 councillors represent the ruling party in Poland, so one could say that the result was already known before the voting. However, similar resolutions have been adopted also in towns where the ruling party councillors were not the majority. 

When it comes to the second resolution the city council decided that they do not need a local anti-discrimination policy in Lębork. “The councillors equated our resolution with that against LGBT-ideology and considered it equally extreme” Sarzyńska-Górska says. “I am afraid that grassroots action to counter all forms of intolerance and discrimination against minority groups will not be so eagerly supported by local authorities for one simple reason – to implement a pro-equality policy, one should start with oneself. The idea of introducing equal treatment policies into the European municipalities’ strategies as a mandatory EU regulation will be the subject of my proposal in June this year in the EP Human Rights Committee and at a meeting with MEPs.”

“Experience shows that in many cases city councillors have no idea what they are voting on.” Staszewski adds. “Often they can’t decipher the abbreviation ‘LGBT+’, just as often they don’t want to risk themselves, they lack the civil courage to oppose the majority. That is why I wanted to do something as an artist! Art depicts invisible phenomena.”

I ordered a large road sign referring to military zones with information about the “anti-LGBT” resolution adopted by the municipality. Moreover, I photographed LGBT+ people living in these cities/towns next to this sign. In this way I wanted to force the councillors to confront the new policy they voted for. The catalogue of photographs that I placed on Facebook turned out to be a great success. It is of interest to the global media. Recently I have been called by representatives of a German city, which is a partner city to a Polish city that has passed the resolution. They wanted to understand what happened because the municipality staff with which they cooperate gave them evasive answers. In my opinion only the interest from abroad can effectively change the current situation where we are now in Poland when it comes to LGBT+ people’s rights. European agencies’ representatives or foreign delegations on both national and municipal level – they all should keep asking Polish decision-makers on all levels about how they face the challenge of discrimination and human rights crisis taking place in Poland now.”

An indifferent discourse

The frozen and at the same time heating up of the discourse on LGBT+ issues in Poland is dividing the society, similarly to the refugee topic a few years ago. “What I also consider as similar between Poland and Russia today is the atmosphere of hatred created by the ‘anti-LGBT’ and ‘Charter of Family Rights’ resolution,” notes Cherniak. “Any LGBT+ topic is politicised, it cannot be neutral even in the academic discourse at a conference. Any film festival or discussion can be cancelled, any institution can refuse co-operation.”

Marian Turski, who together with his family was forced into the Łódź ghetto and later deported to Auschwitz, was one of this year’s keynote speakers at the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp. During his speech, Turski said the Holocaust did not “come out of nowhere” but took hold step by step as society’s acceptance of small acts of discrimination eventually led to ghettos and extermination camps. Turski, an Auschwitz survivor, called on people to not remain indifferent when minorities are discriminated against, when history is being changed and when “any authority violates the existing social contract”. His maxim: “The 11th commandment is: thou shalt not be indifferent” – cannot be forgotten.

Back in Lębork, city councillors decided that both ideas are too extreme; and were on the same level claiming it is better not to change the so-called “status quo”. Yet, referring to the words of Marian Turski – the question is if today, in the context of human rights and discrimination of LGBT+ people, the status quo was and still is in the same place as we subjectively consider it.

Anna Fedas is a human rights activist, member of the Equal Treatment Council in Gdańsk and the coordinator of bilateral and international co-operation with the Stefan Batory Foundation. She participated in the session in Lębork, pointing to the importance of human rights during her speech.

LGBT, local government, Poland