Poland Gays head to UK
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Gay Poles head for UK to escape state crackdown
Thousands flock to Britain as Polish Health Ministry unveils plans to 'cure' them.Warsaw, July 1 - Polish gay rights groups claim thousands of homosexuals have fled the country to escape increasing persecution. Robert Biedron, 27, the head of the Polish Foundation Against Homophobia, said that 'huge numbers' of Polish gays had left the country following the rise to power of the right-wing government. He said: 'It is incredible. The Polish gay community has just left because of the climate of fear and persecution.
'Most of the people I know are now in England because of the current political situation. Not for economic reasons, but because of the persecution of homosexuals going on here. It's impossible for gays to be themselves in Poland.'
He added: 'Around two million Poles have left the country seeking work and thousands of gays are among them. Many gays are approaching our foundation for help in emigrating to the UK.'
Kamil Zapasnik, 22, a gay student who moved to London because he wanted to marry, said: 'It's very important to me that I am able to have a civil partnership and adopt children. In the UK I have that freedom.'
Poland's Roman Catholic right-wing government has openly homophobic members and Polish media recently announced that the Health Ministry had created a special committee responsible for 'curing' gays.
The Deputy Health Minister, Marek Grafowski, said that the ministry was also planning to identify how many people in Poland were gay and work out a set of behavioural guides to assist parents and teachers so that they can recognize any warning signs of potential 'gay behaviour'.
Polish police have also been compiling a database on gays and the gay community in Poland which, although illegal under EU law, is apparently being done as part of a police investigation into a bomb threat two years ago by a gay man. He had reportedly identified himself as a member of the gay community who was angry when a gay rights march was banned in Warsaw.
'The police are not allowed to catalogue "homosexual data", but it's enough to look into the police investigation associated with the bomb in order to establish a list of names and addresses,' said Ewa Kulesza, a former personal data protection general inspector.
It is not just the police who are openly homophobic. Lech Wojtewski, 23, from Warsaw, said his doctor had referred him to a vet when he went to for a check-up. 'He told me there was a specialist for people like me and gave me an address. When I got there it was a vet.
'I called him and he said, "What did you expect? You are an animal".'
When Krystian Legierski, 29, opened a gay club, Le Madame, it was shut down by Warsaw local authorities who hired private security guards to break down the doors, despite an appearance there by John Malkovich a day earlier.
'I understand why people emigrate, but injustice can only be rectified by resistance, not emigration,' Legierski said.
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Please, can anybody give me two simple answers:
1. When do we live just now? In the 17th or the 21st century?
2. Where do we live? In a presuming civilized area of Middle Europe or else?
regards
mgr -
Dear mgr,
WE are living in the 21st century, in the civilized area of Middle Europe. Your rhetorical questions are right. But there is one simple problem: WE do. THEY don't.
Poland is was influenced by the socialism, like Russia or the other countries in eastern Europe, don't forget it. The democracy is fucking 18 years old, it's nothing for a political system. It's even less for the mentality of people living there.
It's hard, but don't expect too much now. It is part of European Union, but it has an other past as the other countries. The countries WE are living in.Our European problem is, that we never really try to understand, why things abroad are like they are. I don't want to say that for me it's not horrible what is happening there or that I pardon what the government is doing - but I also know that it's not as easy as the majority of Europeans thinks.
Greetz from a German Russian living in Switzerland.
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Well almost the same is the situation in Hungary as for the Gay Pride Demonstration scandals.
How to treat this problem? We must live here and now and not 100 or 500 years later waiting for
a developed democracy. -
I think it's important to realise that the Poles are a civilised lot.
You have to look at the little shits who've wormed their way into power and how that ability to corrupt the political process can still prevail ,anywhere actually.
Remember under Margret Thatcher in Britain we had a 20 years fight for our rights which were halted in their tracks for a whole generation.
It is important that people understand how politics works because if you dont the bastards get in and then your pooped.
