Poland Celebrates Pride With Peaceful Marches In Katowice And Lublin
Poland’s LGBTQ+ community celebrated Pride with peaceful marches after years of opposition. On September 3, nearly 4,000 people hit the streets of Katowice for the city’s annual LGBTQ+ Pride march.
According to Notes from Poland, the annual event was a collaborative venture with the Ukrainian city of Odesa to show solidarity with its queer community.
There were no violent interruptions from anti-LGBTQ+ protestors, however conservative group Fundacja Pro were preent and provided some opposition to the march.
According to Gay Times, before the march, Katowice’s mayor attempted to ban the organization from attending, but a court overturned the decision – resulting in the group attending with anti-LGBTQ+ signs and banners.
The Polish city of Lublin also held its fourth annual equality Pride parade. Like Katowice, the 1,000-person event was a peaceful affair despite previous years of violence and having a heavy police presence.
Katowice and Lublin’s Pride marches weren’t the only ones to take place in Poland this year. In May, Milicz became the smallest town in the country to host a Pride event.
That same month, around 7,500 people participated in Gdańsk’s seventh march. Waving Pride flags, LGBTQ+ advocates shouted the event’s slogan, “We have the power.”
Warsaw and Ukraine’s KyivPride held a joint Pride parade – similarly to Katowice’s collaborative march with Odesa.
“For us, in the Equality Parade, community means standing in defence of others,” said Warsaw Pride organisers. “Community means marching arm in arm for the safety and freedom of those who have had it taken away. We are proud to join Kyiv in their march for Ukraine’s Victory.”
The queer community has recently faced massive attacks from Poland’s conservative government and its anti-LGBTQ+ supporters. In 2019, some towns and regions made a pledge to oppose "LGBTQ+ ideology," which they said undermined the country’s traditional Christian values.
The "LGBTQ+-free" zones were swiftly denounced by EU leaders, who passed a resolution that declared all countries in the Union a “freedom zone” for LGBTQ+ people.
Read related myGwork articles here:
Milicz Becomes Smallest Town In Poland To Host LGBTQ+ Parade
Thousands Of Polish LGBT+ Activists March In Warsaw For Equality Parade
EU Declared ‘LGBT Freedom Zone’ In Response To Poland's ‘LGBT-Free Zones’
Poland Could Lose EU Funding Over LGBT+ Abuse
A Country Divided by Violent Politics: LGBTQ+ Rights in Poland
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