by Karolina Osiak
June is in full force and Warsaw is in a siesta state of mind on yet another Sunday evening. The enticing atmosphere of relaxing silence today strikes me as unnatural after the whirlwind of emotions of yesterday. From Al. Ujazdowskie, up to Plac Zbawiciela, the rainbow flags were unfurled, platforms were dusted off and filled with dancing. On June 13th the Equality Parade transformed the city into a safe bubble, where everyone was equal.
This was my first parade and I could not help but feel a trembling sense of excitement when I saw a gathering of people waiting for the event to begin. A big platform was in the center of attention with activists approaching it to share their views and mobilize the audience. “This is a majority parade, as equality is for everyone!” – a strong voice screamed and received a powerful round of applause. Among the revelry, the atmosphere was stirred by another voice supporting the currently elected government. He received instant backlash, and was replaced by a speaker who brought positive news to the crowd: the Palace of Culture would forward the powerful equality message of that day even further. The building would gleam with the seven colors of the rainbow.
After the first part, I quickly jumped on the platform, which became an open space for sharing smiles and small conversations with strangers, mastering the art of dancing as if no one was watching and waving at the observers videotaping us from their windows. There was a sense of innate freedom that filled my throat, triggered my body and untied my words. Never has anything been as simple and natural as the concept of equality. Appreciation of diversity was not an illusion anymore: it was shining brightly right in front of my eyes. I was longing for the utopia to be present every day and the celebration of equal rights to never end. Could this fabled dream ever become reality?
Photo credit: Alicja Szulc
I dare to say that we are still very far from reaching this goal. The first question that arises is: who are the people supporting this matter? Considering that we live in a society where our Equality Parade gets funded by Economic European Area Funds coming from Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein, it is painfully obvious that there are still not enough people on board to fight for this cause. This rings especially true for the higher circles. While the progress can be seen in Poland (the first openly gay city mayor of Słupsk, Robert Biedroń; the first transgender Parliament Member, Anna Grodzka), you might need a magnifying glass to spot any real changes. Poles are still nowhere near civic partnership, as we have still not managed to effectively implement this proposal into Polish law despite five recent attempts. The act that SLD (left wing) put on the agenda included shared taxes, hereditary amendments, and social protection after the death of the spouse for both heterosexual and homosexual couples. It was rejected, and the discussion will most likely go back to being a political tool used to win public support during elections.
Surprisingly, the right wing did not speak up too loudly either. During the parade I stayed constantly alert, fearing that extremists would sense the opportunity to inflame the conflict. Yet the only signs of their presence were difficult to notice: only some individuals were standing in a distance holding a Polish flag with insulting captions. Some others were trying to bribe the participants with candies to take leaflets describing in a detailed way their wrongdoings. The big group of policemen seemed startled as well, in the beginning spending the time with little to do.
After the parade I got tempted to ask my foreign friends about their impressions. They are more familiar with parades and pointed out the differences. While the parade of New York was deemed to be more flamboyant, glittery and courageous, ours still appealed to the crowd, bringing colors to the usually grey (as the Varsovians themselves would say) Warsaw. The relative conservatism is however making me think: is it an expression of our country’s background, the comparably short history of such events or the fact that the parade has been only legal (again) since 2012?
Photo credit: Alicja Szulc
Or maybe it’s just because we don’t have that much to be loud and proud about, when it comes to our social equality achievements? After all, hate speech towards LGBTQ people receives the highest amount of acceptance in Poland, and as we have also been learning, levels of physical violence are still very high towards the community.
Even though the problems are on the table and the LGBTQ community is well aware of them, this did not impede on the celebrations of equality. In the end, I loved the notion of us all being equal for a day. As one of my American friends said, “We can celebrate, but we still have a lot of work to do.” May this June day every year bring us closer to having a life-long equality celebration.
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