LGBTQ history in Poland
[3][4] Due to a lack of historical sources and censorship by the Catholic Church over the centuries, it is difficult to reconstruct Slavic religions, customs and traditions when it comes to LGBT people.
[16] The only other sentence for the act of sodomy (public beating and exile) was the case of Agnieszka Kuśnierczanka, in 1642, who dressed as a man and committed "imaginary male courtship".
They are mentioned in a neutral manner as facts in cases of unrelated crimes, showing that same-sex relationships were silently tolerated and not actively prosecuted.
[21] Accusations of sodomy were still used as a method to diminish political opponents, as was the case of Władysław IV, Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki and Jakub Sobieski.
[22] Sanguszko had a string of openly endorsed (and financed by him) favourites until Kazimierz Chyliński, whose father who wanted him to return to his wife, was arrested in Gdańsk and jailed for 12 years.
[24] The prince, who had four short marriages and numerous female and male lovers, was the subject of a newspaper-reported scandal, when he appeared in women's clothing at a Warsaw masked ball in 1782.
[2] During the Enlightenment period, despite the fascination with antiquity and the intellectual liberalisation, homophobic beliefs did not completely disappear: the medical profession considered "sexual deviations" (homosexuality, incest, zoophilia, etc.)
[26] Russia's new code of law (called Kodeks Kar Głównych i Poprawczych/Уложение о наказаниях уголовных и исправительных 1845 года) in 1845 penalized homosexuality with forced resettlement to Siberia.
[30] The magazine Wiadomości Literackie ("Literature News") which published many writers of the period, frequently covered issues that broke Polish sexual and moral taboos, such as contraception, menstruation or homosexuality.
[26] The taboo-breaking discussions were limited only to literary circles and were ignited by women's emancipation movements, while mainstream (Catholic) society was still prejudiced and viewed homosexuality as a sin.
[33] In late 1920s Warsaw "pederasty" (pederastja) was tracked by 6th Sanitary-Moral Brigade of the city's police, who organized a hunt on local cruising spots in 1927.
These publications began a several-year-long "Ancient Greek (ie lesbian) scandal" related to the person of Dr. Sadowska, and several trials for libel, widely reported in the press and mocked in the cabarets, with several famous people involved.
Smętek, confirmed intersex by doctors in 1937, decided to undergo gender transition to male and sex reassignment surgery, and his press statement caused a further spike in the public interest, even international, with Witold Smętek (post-transition name) giving interview in 1939 to Reuters and becoming a topic of a French book Confession amoureuse d'une femme qui devint homme (Love Confession of a Woman who Became a Man).
[40] Diaries, such as Z Auszwicu do Belsen by Marian Pankowski, Anus mundi by Wiesław Kielar are testimony to the experiences of gay prisoners during the war.
[26] During World War 2, a later Righteous Among the Nations Stanisław Chmielewski promised to his Jewish partner Władysław Bergman to protect his mother before parting ways.
This led him to organize an informal conspiratory network that spun various classes and political affiliations and provided shelters and Kennkarte for several Jews, such as Janina Bauman.
[26] The militia (police force) investigated gay subculture (due to it being very hermetic and closed) and tried to determine whether sexual orientation was a factor in criminal activity.
[26] The roots of Polish gay movements lie in letters sent to Western organizations, such as HOSI Wien (Austria's LGBT Association), and in reactions to the AIDS crisis.
It also helped to bring them to the attention of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), dominated by Western LGBT organizations unaware of the situation in Eastern Europe then.
On that morning, in different colleges, factories and offices across Poland, functionaries of the Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB) (a secret police force) arrested numerous men suspected of being gay or of having connections with "homosexual groups".
Officially, Polish propaganda stated that the reasons for the action were as follows:[55] There are suspicions that the operation was a not only means to blackmail and recruit collaborators, but that it was also aimed at developing human rights movements.
[64] The first official coming out in the Polish media was an article in September 1992 edition of Kobieta i Życie (Woman and Life) magazine about a renowned and well-known actor Marek Barbasiewicz.
This included Kazimierz Kapera, the vice-minister of health, who was recalled from this position in a phone call from Prime Minister Jan Krzysztof Bielecki in May 1991 after saying on public television that homosexuality is a deviation and a reason for the AIDS epidemic.
In 1998 there was a happening where several LGBT people, including activist Szymon Niemiec, held cards with the names of their occupations while wearing face masks.
Some of the people awarded the prize included: Kora, Zofia Kuratowska, Monika Olejnik, Jerzy Jaskiernia, and the daily Gazeta Wyborcza.
[67] In 2004 and 2005 officials denied permission for the Warsaw Pride Parade, citing the likelihood of counter-demonstrations, interference with religious or national holidays, lack of a permit, among other reasons.
[72] By entering European Union, Poland had to fully incorporate anti-discrimination laws into its legal structure, including those dealing with discrimination for sexual orientation.
On 27 September, 50 Ambassadors and Representatives from all over the world (included: the Representatives in Poland of the European Commission and of the UNHCR, the First Deputy Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the Head of Office of the International Organization for Migration, the Secretary General of the Community of Democracies) published an open letter to the Polish authorities called "Human Rights are not an ideology - they are universal.
[92][94]On November 11, 2021, while Polish far-right nationalists at a rally in Kalisz attended by hundreds of people yelled "Death to Jews," the rally organizer said: “LGBT, pederasts and Zionists are the enemies of Poland.”[95][96] On 27 December 2023, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that a bill to legalise same-sex unions would be introduced and debated in the Sejm in early 2024, in line with a pledge made during his campaign in the 2023 election.
[102][103] On 6 December 2024, nonprofit group Lambda opened Queer Museum in Warsaw, first of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe, showcasing the history of LGBTQ people living in Poland.
