“Pedophiles, get out!
»On the night of Friday 2 to Saturday 3 October, this graffiti is tagged on the concrete slabs of the Place de la Liberté, where the 12th gay pride of Wroclaw, the fourth largest city in Poland, is due to start in the afternoon. .
In the morning, around 10 am, at the headquarters of the Kultura Rownosci association, one of the organizers, Alina Szeptycka, learns by text the presence of this homophobic inscription left to their attention.
In the parking lot that borders the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi, transgender) center, while volunteers hang speakers and bunches of balloons from vans that will guide the protesters, the 40-year-old activist shrugs.
She is used to the insults of those who, every year, howl their hatred around the procession.
“I know they will be there.
Sometimes I will talk to them.
But they tell me I'm going to give them STDs.
However, I do not offer them a sexual relationship!
Jokes this mother of two.
While she contacts the town hall to have the tag deleted, about fifteen activists unfold rainbow flags, to the sound of a retro playlist where Cher takes over from George Michael.
Parked at the end of the driveway, the police keep watch.
Their presence is essential.
Alina Szeptycka, at the headquarters of the Kultura Rownosci association, one of the organizers of the event.
/ Kuba Kaminski
It takes courage to go parading
In Poland, pride marches are often attacked by far-right groups.
In July 2019, during that of Bialystok, near the Belarusian border, thousands of nationalists came to intimidate the few hundred participants and injured about fifteen.
In Wroclaw, a bourgeois city in the west of the country, the previous editions have not suffered from such overflows.
But it takes courage to participate.
“Some fear the extreme right, others do not dare to come out of the closet.
Me, I'm not afraid, but I know that the danger exists, ”says Anna Kubiak, co-organizer, arriving at the LGBT center.
For the occasion, this 36-year-old woman donned, as every year, the white and red jersey of the Polish football team, enhanced with a rainbow badge.
“I don't want the far right to steal our national symbols,” she slips.
Despite a phlegmatic temperament, Anna Kubiak is angry: “I have rage!
This year there has been an avalanche of hate speech against our community.
During the campaign for his re-election in June, President Andrzej Duda stirred up homophobia in this country, considered today as the most hostile to LGBT in the entire European Union, according to the international NGO Ilga.
"They try to convince us that LGBTs are human beings, but it is only an ideology", he declared in a meeting, deeming it "more destructive than Bolshevism".
"It is as if the authorization to be homophobic was given by the government", deplores Anna Kubiak.
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At the local level, around 100 municipalities and almost all of the counties in the south-east, covering almost 30% of the country, have signed resolutions declaring their territory "free from LGBT ideology".
This deleterious atmosphere has a direct effect on the discomfort of homosexuals.
The number of distress calls received by the LGBT Lambda hotline in Warsaw has doubled since 2017.
Co-organizer of the event, Anna Kubiak wears a jersey in the colors of the Polish football team, “not to let the far right steal our national symbols” ./Kuba Kaminski
"Most of the gay pride have been canceled this year because of the Covid, but in this context, we could not bring ourselves to it", insists Anna Kubiak.
The team it composes with Alina Szeptycka and Piotr Busko, the third co-organizer, redoubled their inventiveness to overcome the obstacle.
As gatherings of more than 150 people are prohibited, the parade must be divided into 20 groups, positioned at a distance from each other on the starting plaza.
Wearing a mask, which is optional outside in Poland, will be compulsory.
Thanks to this careful planning, the walk was allowed.
"But nothing was certain until the last moment," admits Piotr Busko, 33, sitting behind the desk of the LGBT center and busy posting the parade route on social networks, a few hours from the gong.
These areas where LGBT people "are not welcome"
While the trio of Kultura Rownosci polishes their speech while listening to the Spice Girls, police vans take up position, at lunchtime, on the Place de la Liberté.
Alongside the homophobic inscription, which has not been erased, posters of the same ilk have been stuck on the windows of a parking lot exit: "Protect your children, fight LGBT ideology".
In the city center, a few demonstrators are already walking.
Marius, with a thick brown beard, and his mother Magdalena, whose black T-shirt is flocked with the rainbow flag, will walk together.
“She supports me, it's not common!
»Rejoices the young man of 34, who waited for the death of his grandmother, very Catholic, three years ago, to confess his homosexuality to his family.
He has moved away from religion since the Polish episcopate declared itself, at the end of August, in favor of the opening of clinics where homosexuals could "regain their natural sexual orientation".
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On the pretty Solny Square, surrounded by pastel facades that recall the city's Prussian past, local MP Krzysztof Smiszek, from the left-wing Wiosna party, shows his support for LGBT associations set up in a tent.
This lawyer, whose companion, Robert Biedron, this year became the first openly gay presidential candidate in the history of Poland (also one of the first in the world), challenged in court the administrative resolutions of the zones declaring himself "without LGBT ideology".
“These local authorities let homosexuals know that they are not welcome.
What will be the next step?
The ban on access to public service professions?
He asks himself.
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Shortly before 3 p.m., several thousand people covered with multicolored flags gathered in the Place de la Liberté.
Social distancing, promised by the organizers, is a pipe dream.
Rows of riot police filter the entrances.
Other officers are in civilian clothes.
While the powerful hammering of the percussionists resonates, this colorful assembly awaits the signal to leave.
Raina, 20, lifts the sign that reads "Stop pretending that hate is patriotism".
"A message for my father, who says that homosexuals must die", comments this brunette with the cut in brush.
Standing on the back platform of the decorated van that very morning, the trio of organizers take the microphone and remind them of the obligatory mask, before pronouncing their manifesto.
“In Poland, in addition to the coronavirus, we are facing another dangerous epidemic, that of homophobia and transphobia, which is consuming public life […].
Poland is our home and we want to live there in safety, ”says Anna Kubiak.
The tension is palpable, and the police are watching to prevent any spillover between the demonstrators defending the rights of the gay community and the far-right movement National Renaissance of Poland./Kuba Kaminski
Insults and other homophobic insanities fuse
The procession sets off.
The groups, numbered from 1 to 20, set off one by one in Zamkowa Street.
An almost continuous line of police separates the demonstrators from their detractors, who await them at the first intersection, on Avenue Kazimierza-Wielkiego.
Observing the parade disdainfully from the opposite sidewalk, four men stand near a “stop pedophilia” banner.
Homosexuals attack children more often ”.
Leszek, in a black jacket and dark tie, is not sure of the facts put forward by his banner.
“I have nothing against homosexuals, he warns, but I don't want them to be able to adopt.
LGBT ideology wants to destroy the traditional family.
"In black bomber, his friend Grzegorz takes less tweezers:" The LGBT system is a threat to humanity, homosexuality is not natural.
"
Three hundred meters further, activists of the far-right movement National Renaissance of Poland spread a homophobic flag which represents sodomy with a prohibition sign.
Among the far right activists, Grzegorz and Leszek.
The slogan of their banner abusively equates pedophilia with homosexuality (“Stop pedophilia - Homosexuals are more likely to abuse children”) ./ Kuba Kaminski
Their leader, hooded, throws threats in a megaphone - "The death penalty for pedophiles and pederasts" -, while, behind him, another activist sends a middle finger to the crowd.
"The biological law wants that a couple is made of a man and a woman and nothing will be able to change that", considers Adam, blue mask and sunglasses on the face.
“When you see two men kissing, it's not aesthetic.
No society allows it, ”he believes.
This is obviously false, including in Poland, even if social pressure makes it more difficult to show affection in public than elsewhere.
At the next intersection, two young demonstrators hoist the rainbow pennant and pose in front of a new crowd of detractors.
“I want them to feel silly.
Such hate speech should be banned in a democracy, ”says Piotr, 23.
Straight, he came with a friend to support the gay community.
Watched by a hovering helicopter, the procession enters the alleys of the city center to the sound of drums.
In front of Wroclaw's town hall, a charming Gothic-style red brick building, other counter-demonstrators stretch out their banners behind a dozen police officers.
Janina, 67, managed to outsmart their surveillance to brandish her “LGBT = deviants” sign as close as possible to the walkers.
"Look at them, normal people don't dress like that", judges the retiree, who has been scouring the country's gay pride for five years to proclaim her rejection of homosexuals.
“I am totally against them, because I am a patriot and these people are communists,” she maintains.
Janina, 67, holds up an “LGBT = deviants” sign and a Polish flag.
She has been on the pride marches for five years to proclaim her rejection of the gay community./Kuba Kaminski
The Church circulates a #StopLGBT petition
In the procession, Marius and his mother advance, indifferent to criticism.
"We only saw a few groups of this kind", relativizes the young man.
In total, six counter-demonstrations were declared at the town hall.
Radiant, Anna Kubiak, speaker in hand and pink sunglasses on her nose, shouts: "We are the future!"
Walking along the procession with determination, Janina engages in conversation with two old ladies who are watching the parade from the sidewalk: "Are you against it too?"
" Missed.
"No, these young people are peaceful, we are for", retort the grandmothers.
Around 5:30 p.m., the walk ends on a large lawn where the participants disperse.
Right next door, the sun is casting its last rays on two kissing students.
“Here, we can do it, because we feel safe,” says Nathania, 19.
Following the recommendations of the organizers, the two young girls will come back as a group and take off their rainbow scarves when they have to go their separate ways.
At the end of the gay pride, the organizers will advise the demonstrators, including Nathania and her partner, not to go home alone ./Kuba Kaminski
The next day at noon, the volunteers of the Kultura Rownosci association meet for a brunch at the Proza cultural center.
The eyes are circled.
For many, the party continued late into the night.
"We have achieved the impossible", rejoices Anna Kubiak.
Officially, 3,000 people marched (10,000, according to an unofficial estimate).
There is no incident to report.
"I hope that people will understand that it is not about ideology, but about human rights, concludes Alina Szeptycka, who adds: as long as the Catholic Church retains such an influence on our political life, that will not change.
"Several dozen parishes in the country have been signing a petition entitled" #StopLGBT "to their followers since September, to" protect the public space from homosexual propaganda ".
This is the case with the Klemensa-Dworzaka church in Wroclaw.
"This ideology, aggressive towards the Catholic religion, is not compatible with our beliefs, in particular on the question of gender", justifies Father Jacek.
For Poland's LGBT community, salvation may come from Europe.
At the end of July, the European Commission cut its subsidies to six municipalities "without LGBT ideology".
A lack compensated in the wake by the Polish Ministry of Justice.
“The EU must continue and take real financial measures, warns MEP and ex-presidential candidate Robert Biedron, otherwise other populist parties, in Hungary or Bulgaria, will imitate our country.
"
