{"id":2664,"date":"2021-09-24T12:50:34","date_gmt":"2021-09-24T10:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/?p=2664"},"modified":"2021-09-24T21:24:54","modified_gmt":"2021-09-24T19:24:54","slug":"even-without-the-lgbt-free-zones-poland-is-far-from-accepting-us-as-we-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/2664\/even-without-the-lgbt-free-zones-poland-is-far-from-accepting-us-as-we-are\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cEven without the lgbt-free zones, Poland is far from accepting us as we are\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s risky to carry a rainbow-colored bag with you. Or even to have bright colored hair\u201d, tells 25 year old Agu Biegun who identifies as non-binary. Though the EU is now threatening to hold back funds from regions in Poland that have so called \u2018lgbt-free zones\u2019, Agu is still sceptical anything will change: \u201cIt\u2019ll only be about money. The problems are rooted way deeper.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI always carry both a taser and pepper spray with me whenever I go out\u201d, says Agu, \u201cAnd I live in Wroc\u0142aw, which lies more in the west of Poland. Compared to the east people are rather accepting here.\u201d Their family lives in a small village in the east, where Agu also grew up. \u201cIt\u2019s close to the lgbt-free zones, and almost became one too: the votes were very close\u201d, Agu sights, \u201cI\u2019ve been out of the closet for five years in Wroc\u0142aw, where I live now, but I only came out to my mother a couple of months ago. She thinks that my new friends in Wroc\u0142aw somehow influenced me with the \u2018lgbtq-ideology\u2019 and that I\u2019m \u2018just confused\u2019.\u201d According to Agu they get little to no support from their family.
\n\u201cLuckily I\u2019ve also got my own \u2018chosen family\u2019\u201d, Agu tells with a smile. \u201cThose are my friends in Wroc\u0142aw. It\u2019s super important to have such a chosen family,\u201d Agu explains, \u201cespecially in Poland, because in a lot of cases your biological family doesn\u2019t support you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/378\/2021\/09\/20210923_1237190-2-scaled.jpg” panorama=”off” align=”center” lightbox=”on” captionsrc=”custom” caption=”Not all people from the lgbtq-community get accepted at home. Picture: Jasmijn Berkers” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

Agu rarely goes back to their home village. \u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to go there, because I sort of have to go back into the closet. My family is very homophobic and transphobic, so it\u2019s emotionally exhausting to be there. My friends in Wroc\u0142aw worry a lot about me whenever I head back there, because it\u2019s horrible for my mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[aesop_quote type=”block” background=”#8d8181″ text=”#ffffff” align=”left” size=”2″ quote=”"My mum would have a heart attack if I would speak to my little brother about anything queer-related. She think I’ll somehow force the ‘lgbt-ideology’ on him."” parallax=”off” direction=”left” revealfx=”off”]\n

Poland is still the least lgbtq-friendly country in the EU, according to the Rainbow Europe Index of 2021, published by ILGA-Europe. This is the second year in a row they got the lowest score in the EU. Out of the 100 points the country could score, Poland only received 13. To name a few things: Poland still doesn\u2019t have gay marriage, lacks basic rights that should protect the lgbtq and has these (previously mentioned) \u2018lgbt-free zones\u2019 since June 2020. These zones (covering five Polish provinces, about one-third of the country) are municipalities that have declared themselves \u2018free of the lgbtq-ideology\u2019: marches and other lgbtq-events are not allowed. The EU is now holding back funds from these municipalities of about \u20ac126.000. On the 22th of October the first province, Swietokrzyskie, has revoked their declaration to being a lgbt-free zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI doubt that\u2019ll do anything though\u201d, says Agu, \u201cThere need to be bigger changes in our law, in our politics, in our way of educating.. Not just a name change of these zones so they can get their money.\u201d Agu is trying to make that change happen together with a lot of other lgbtq-activists in Poland (and around the globe). \u201cI\u2019ve thought many times about leaving this country because of all the hate, but now I\u2019m certain on staying. People need me here, because only together we can fight for a lgbtq-friendly Poland.. We\u2019ve still got a long way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s risky to carry a rainbow-colored bag with you. Or even to have bright colored hair\u201d, tells 25 year old Agu Biegun who identifies as non-binary. Though the EU is now threatening to hold back funds from regions in Poland that have so called \u2018lgbt-free zones\u2019, Agu is still sceptical anything will change: \u201cIt\u2019ll only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":2667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cbj","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cEven without the lgbt-free zones, Poland is far from accepting us as we are\u201d - International Journalism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cEven without the lgbt-free zones, Poland is far from accepting us as we are\u201d - International Journalism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cIt\u2019s risky to carry a rainbow-colored bag with you. 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