Monday, October 10, 2011

Polish Gay, Trans Leaders
May Win Seats in Parliament

(Polish transgender leader Anna Grodzka. Courtesy photo.)

Word out of Poland today from Greg Czarnecki, board member of Kampania Przeciw Homofobii/Campaign Against Homophobia, is that the heavily Catholic nation is on the verge of seeing its first gay and transgender members of Parliament.

I'm a bit fuzzy on out gay or transgender elected officials in Europe, beyond the mayors of Paris and Berlin, but I believe these two Poles could be the first of their kind to win elective seats in Eastern Europe. Many congratulations to the LGBT community of Poland on what appears to be a nice big step forward.

(Polish gay leader Robert Biedron. Courtesy photo.)

Click here to visit the Trans-Fuzja site and learn more about trans Polish issues, and Anna Grodzka. Very interesting to read that among the new political party's agenda is legalizing marijuana! Here's the full message from Greg Czarnecki:

Preliminary Parliamentary elections results in Poland show that the new left party, Palikot Movement, has gained about 10% making it the third strongest party. This means that trans activist Anna Grodzka, president of Trans-fuzja (elected in Krakow) and LGBT activist Robert Biedron, board member of KPH (elected in Gdynia) will become MPs. This is a historical event which would make them the first openly LGBT people in the Polish Parliament. In an interview, Palikot promised to present a bill for registered partnerships before the end of the year, though he doesn’t know how it will be received by the rest of Parliament.

Palikot’s Movement is a recently formed party (2010), lead by entrepreneur Janusz Palikot. He was an MP with the ruling Civil Platform (PO) leading the so-called “Friendly Government” Commission. He left the party after disagreements with the Prime Minister. His party is very left on social issues, gathering many activists from movements for LGBT rights, legalizing marihuana, abortion and women’s rights, and is very anti-clerical. Economically he is more liberal than left. He is criticized for having been the owner of a homophobic and Catholic magazine “Ozon” in 2005-6 which he now admits was a mistake.

The PO party gained about 40% and it is the first time in post-communist Polish history that a party was re-elected with such popularity. This will mean that they will most likely be reluctant to make many reforms. The left-wing party, SLD, which presented the bill for registered partnerships earlier this year, suffered a huge defeat with only 7%.

Official results will be available on Tuesday.

1 comment:

Lonnie L said...

I am not as familiar with Polish politics as I should be, but I no longer believe that electing public officials is a sign of "progress" for LGBT liberation. In fact, I believe that the election of LGBT public officials serves as a cover for the real attacks on LGBT people and the lack of substantive progress in terms of political and social rights. Given the roles of the "mainstream" political parties of every country, I think activists should learn a lesson from the Arab Revolutions, the European uprisings, and the Occupy Wall Street movement: that revolution is the only way. Only drag queens can transform themselves by putting on a mask. The same old homophobic system doesn't change just because you put a queen in office. Just take a look at Barney Frank, Goldman Sach's bitch in office.