#PolishStonewall: LGBTQ activists together after police violence during protests in Warsaw

As LGBTQ activists Malgorzata Szutowicz, is in solitary confinement for the fourth day in the city of Plock, central Poland, hundreds of people across the country to protest on their behalf. On Friday, Margo, as it is more commonly known, was placed in custody for two months, violent at the expense of a driver of a truck attack that an anti-LGBT banner displayed. On the same day, hundreds of people gathered in the capital Warsaw, to defend their freedom. They risk their own: 48 protesters were arrested and several others injured in what they say the unprecedented assault of police experts against LGBTQ event, particularly in an EU Member State. On Saturday, thousands gathered to denounce Margo stop and the police aggression against LGBTQ people in Warsaw. And although Poland has recorded an increase in new cases of COVID-19, at least 15 protests of solidarity, large and small, took place on Monday in the towns and cities in Poland, as well as in Budapest and London, New York, Paris and Berlin, more planned, although it may not accept all activists with Margo methods, their persecution and imprisonment was widely condemned. “This radical actions are part of the history that has happened before in many other countries,” says Julia Maciocha, president at the headquarters in Warsaw LGBTQ organization of equality Volunteers Foundation. In a nod to the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York, multiple users on Twitter post #PolishStonewall started in the tweet over the weekend, the events and the subsequent protests of solidarity. What is the status of LGBTQ rights under the President of Poland Andrzej Duda? The protests of the weekend are aggravating anti-LGBTQ rhetoric of government officials and state media after the recent reelection of President Andrzej Duda. On August 6, the anti-E.U. populist leader was sworn in for a second five-year term as president of a strong rights anti-LGBTQ platform branding LGBTQ an “ideology” to marry worse than communism, and suggests “Card Family,” a vote to block the legislation, including permits gay couples adopt children. The Charter prohibits also contain “the spread of LGBTQ ideology in schools and public institutions,” recalls the infamous gay propaganda law of Russia ‘in 2013. These moves pave the way for’ verbal and physical attacks against ‘the LGBTQ community says Hanna -Gill Piatek, a lawmaker from a pro-EU party politics, spring. Adam Bodnar, the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights agrees, saying that “LGBT persons have been victims of largely political life.” For more than a year, have government leaders and religious LGBTQ persons used as a “scapegoat,” says Mirosława Makuchowska, Deputy Diretor of the campaign based in Warsaw against homophobia. The Duda ally of Law and Justice Party (PiS), which Poland has made since 2015, has consistently railed against the LGBTQ community to present their members as a threat to family values. (Attacks anti-LGBTQ are not considered a hate crime by law in Poland.) The Church in Poland also exerts a huge influence on education, law and politics, and about 86% of the population identify themselves as Roman Catholic. Marek Jędraszewski, an archbishop, warned last year that a “rainbow plague” trying to “control” the population. From 2019, the authorities of a third of cities in Poland decisions have to explain the “free zones LGBTQ ideology.” In late July it announced the EU would not provide funding to six Polish cities that have made this statement. What sparked the protests? On July 14, Margo, stopping Bzdurom (bullshit stop) a member of the group LBTQ activists, was arrested in Warsaw and anti-LGBT promote assaulted by the driver of a truck blaring propaganda and accused of ties of speakers, as well as damage to the vehicle on June 27 and was kept overnight. On August 3, the police again arrested Margo, along with other activists for participating in a campaign between Warsaw monuments covered with rainbow flags. The authorities accused him of “insulting religious feelings and Warsaw monuments to offend.” Four days later, on Friday, one court ordered Margo taken for two months in custody. When the court decision comes through, he was looking at the headquarters of an organization of local legal aid, campaign against homophobia. Although Margo gave himself up to the police, they did not arrest them. Since the campaign headquarters, Margo and other activists and protesters then headed suburb of Krakow, one of the main streets of Warsaw, where the statue of Christ has had a week already been covered with a rainbow flag in response to the announcement that the EU it was blocked funds to the six Polish cities is explained by “LGBT-free zones.” Witnesses say police officers in an unmarked police car then Margo arrested with excessive force. “It ‘was the last straw,” says LGBTQ civil rights Zośka Marcinek, who tried to prevent the machine starting from the scene. “Not only is the cost and the arrest were a farce, not only was obvious Margo is transgender as binary / person in particular was vile and brutal,” he said. What happens to the protests? Hundreds of protesters were gathered at Krakowskie Przedmieście, he was arrested at the scene as Margo. What it began as a peaceful, spontaneous protest soon escalation of violence when police men started strongly from the site to be removed. Protesters pushed some just walking or standing were walking on the sides of the walls and thrown to the ground by police, say activists. The police made many “mistakes,” says Bodnar, whose team was 33, the access of the 48 protesters arrested on Saturday when all other visitors were blocked. Bodnar says some people mistakenly detained- “a person has only been observed protests, another was on a shopping trip.” Said Marcinek time a uniformed policeman they stumbled on what his back of his head on beating the pavement before an officer then held in a vise. She was arrested and in custody, and police say taunted with homophobic insults. Despite a concussion suffered, she says she was denied medical care for 8 hours. Makuchowska, Country Bureau Chief of Warsaw stop homophobia says police have pushed to the ground to let the bruised back. On Twitter, Warschauere Police said 48 people were arrested in connection with a police officer and damaging a police car to insult, and that the police for “legal behavior” had called for the protests. A report by the Polish Commissioner has found that many people were interrogated overnight without access to counsel, eat and drink, and that some detainees had visible body injuries due to police violence. Piatek said police blocked some prisoners attorneys for hours in contact. Several left-wing politicians intervened at police stations were also denied the right to information, he says. Bodnar says he would not compare this situation with LGBTQ previous demonstrations, which were planned events and marches proudly. But he notes an “unequal actions of the police”, which led to even nationalist groups-on demonstrations to the lack of police response if such marches could be seen as promoting aggression, such as burning a flag LGBTQ . According to him, the police response to the demonstrations due to the fact that a particular group is “pleased by the authorities or not.” What happens next? Now LGBTQ community in Poland is preparing for what comes next. In the course were arrested over the weekend now released from prison, activists say that many of them likely to face trial on charges of unlawful assembly order. In Polish law, this is defined as a riot, in which participants commit a violent attack on a person or an ordinary object – a provision “only if a lot of calls violent actions,” says Bodnar. But the events of the weekend “were not so,” he says. However, he-like many others, has found hope in the solidarity of the LGBTQ community after the weekend received protests. What these protests made “different” and “awesome,” he says, the way in which politicians and lawyers had gathered in support. At least eight were political in police stations, where protesters have been arrested, he says, while lawyers to defend them voluntarily. “Polish authorities have predicted that Margo would put in prison because of such strong LGBTQ protests and these protests will be supported by opposition politicians Community and pro bono attorneys,” said Bodnar. In addition to the Solidarity protests rally together legal assistance and psychological support for the 48 people who were arrested in Poland LGBTQ community. The campaign against homophobia has been recruiting pro bono legal help for people who have been arrested, and LGBTQ organized psychological aid funds 20,000 Polish zloty has risen ($5,345). But what happens next for Margo remains uncertain and is still waiting for a lawyer when logging in isolation. Outside Marcinek, the protester, said that the visit of police time by chance and try the other houses who were arrested during the protests without warning or notice. And the broader future for LGBTQ rights in Poland, is unclear. “Living in Poland, you can not predict the future,” says Maciocha, head of the Equality Foundation volunteers. What it is now the activists want greater international solidarity, particularly by European governments. Remy Bonny, an activist for the rights of LGBTQ based in Brussels and researcher who focuses on Central and Eastern Europe, says: “we have seen violence in Russia and Belarus this type, for example, but not in an EU country.” The European Commission should monitor the violence in Poland in the same way it has recently condemned the repression of the protests in Belarus sentenced says. Makuchowska says to call her and other activists of the international community “immediately help us solve MARGO.” Despite the recent political campaign against LGBTQ people say activists believe that support is growing for this community and that more people today still silent legal issues LGBTQ were forced to speak on social media or attend protests solidarity. “The community feels more at the end,” says Makuchowska. “We are determined to protect them. The feeling is that we are strong.” image copyright Rafal
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