Poland IDAHO Report 2013

A widely acclaimed anti-homophobia video campaign was launched by LGBT activists – Spoko, Ja Też (Okay, I do) – which delivers a strong message about homophobic bullying in schools. In Lodz, LGBTQI rights group, Factory of Equality, dedicated readio coverage to the Day, and a silent flashmob action was also reported. Polish centre-right politician, Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament, released a video statement in support of May 17. Poland’s (and the World’s) only transgender Member of Parliament, Anna Grodzka from Poland, also spoke at an IDAHO event in London. Polish Secretary of State, Agnieszka Kozłowska-Rajewicz, spoke at the International IDAHO Conference in The Hague. In Krakow, LGBT activists also took to the streets with a ‘rainbow revolution’ action.

Anti-homophobia video Spoko, Ja Też (Okay, I do) released on May 17

The video features a selection of LGBT young people who recount their experiences of violence and discrimination in schools, with a strong message of unacceptability, and finally hope. The video received a formal accolade from the Polish Children’s Ombudsman, Marek Michalak, who wrote to the organisers Kampania Przeciw Homofobii (KPH, Campaign Against Homophobia): “I believe that thanks to the campaign Spoko, Ja Też (Okay, I do) society becomes more tolerant and that it will contribute to the fight against homophobia. I’m rooting for your project.”
For the release the organisers released the following statement in English: “My teacher told us that homosexuals are junkies and are born on train stations”, “I learned in school that gay people are incapable of feeling love and that they have a sick sexual drive”, “I have been terrorized for the last four years”, “they called me a faggot and the teacher laughed along with them”, “I got beat up in school, the school counselor told me that when I’ll look more masculine everything will be OK”, “the teachers can’t tell the difference between homosexuality and peadophilia”, “in school we had a lesson on how to cure homosexuality with God’s help”, “they don’t let me use the bathroom cause I don’t like a boy or a girl”, “thirty students stood in front of the school and shouted FAGGOT! FAGGOT! And didn’t let me take my exam”.

The young stars of the video speaking on Polish radio
For many years we have been providing psychological crisis intervention and legal aid to victims of homophobia and transphobia. Last year we conducted the first research on the situation of LGBT young people in schools and published a report: “Lesson of Equality – Attitudes and Needs of Youth and School Staff towards LGBT issues”. Finally, we invited young LGBT people to take part in our video campaign and tell us, in front of the camera, about their experience. These are the sources of the quotations you read at the beginning of this e-mail.
Today we are celebrating IDAHO. Apart from the advocacy and lobbying we do with the Ministry of Education and the trainings we are providing to school staff, as a piece of the answer to the needs defined through that research, we are launching a video campaign called “Cool, me too!”.
This is the first out of five videos and this is the first time when LGBT youngsters in Poland will hear their peers saying on TV “it can’t be that someone is calling you names or spitting on you just because they don’t like the way you are, they don’t have the right, they just don’t!”, “you have the right to be yourself and to be happy”.