Warsaw pride took place on June 15th. Here is Pride Solidarity’s Claire Dimyon’s account of the march and parade:
8-9,000 participants partied along a 5km route through central Warsaw shutting down the transport systems for a while, taking the Polish capital by storm. Participants also included LGBT from Belarus, Ukraine and Russia and a vigil/demo was held at the Russian Embassy just before parade kick-off to mark the passing of the Section 28+++ law outlawing the promotion of homosexuality in the Russian Duma last week.
At the starting point at the Polish Sejm (parliament) the Polish anthem was robustly sung with classic lines such as “While we exist Poland will not perish” and “It is by your example that we created our nation” all wrapped up by a stirring chorus of “March march”. It wasn’t like we needed any encouragement!
One woman appeared in a rainbow burka in solidarity with Muslim LGBT and the parents group “Akceptuje” (Acceptance) stylishly stole the show with an open topped limo. Out of nowhere the Norwegian ambassador appeared and said “Where’s my float?” and volunteers helped to get it decked out in all its finery, this being the first float ever sponsored by an embassy, ever! The weather was perfect bright and sunny with cooling winds which made the flags fly just perfectly, including the Belarusian rainbow with its characteristic stripe.
The Women’s congress meeting in Palac Kultura all cheered and waved and the anti protests were small and few in number and seemed rather half-hearted.
The route had been adjusted to pass by the new plaque to Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka MP, who perished with 3 other LGBT defenders in the presidential aircrash in April 2010. As deputy Prime Minister she saved the day when Lech Kaczynski as Mayor of Warsaw banned the parade and told the Justice Minister he had better police it because she was going, over-ruling the then Mayor’s instruction not to protect the participants. That case subsequently went to the European Court of Human Rights which ruled that PRIDE parades were covered by Freedom of Assembly, a milestone ruling in the development of PRIDE in central & eastern Europe.
Clare Dimyon MBE of PRIDE Solidarity “There is just nothing like PRIDE in Warsaw!”
Best wishes
Poland scores a miserable 22% LGBT satisfaction rate on the ILGA map of quality of life for LGBT citizens. While this is the norm for the former Eastern European Baltic states it is a better score than that earned by the Ukraine, Belarus and, of course, Russia, which is pushing forward legislation banning the mention of homosexuality with the support of Vladimir Putin.