In Poland, rainbow flag becomes symbol of resistance
Support for LGBTQ also a rejection of president’s campaign of intolerance
When President Andrzej Duda of Poland was sworn in Aug. 6 for a second term in office after a bitterly divisive campaign in which he rallied support by targeting homosexuality as a threat to the nation, he looked out over the floor of Parliament to find a sea of colour.
But it was not a celebration. Many opposition politicians wore brightly hued outfits of red, yellow, blue and the rest of the rainbow in a show of protest. Their faces were covered with rainbow masks when Duda spoke, and they lifted copies of the constitution above their heads. No words were needed. The rainbow flag, which first emerged as a symbol of solidarity for gay rights activists in the late 1970s, has become a touchstone in the culture wars that have left Poland more deeply divided than perhaps at any point since the end of Communist Party rule in 1989.
And while there was speculation that the government would soften its rhetoric after Duda won re-election, that has not happened.
The arrest of three activists for hanging rainbow flags on monuments in Warsaw last week escalated already heightened tensions and came after government officials had for days been calling for police to find and punish the perpetrators.
Leaders of the governing Law and Justice party have been emboldened by criticism from the European Union and its decision to withhold funding for six Polish towns that had declared themselves “LGBT-free zones.”
The EU’s action represented a rare financial punishment of a member nation for issues related to the treatment of its citizens.
The party and its leaders have seized on the rainbow flag as a symbol of all the things that they say pose a threat to Roman Catholic values and the nation’s identity.
But the dispute has also galvanized critics, who have seized on the flag as an emblem of opposition. For many, it represents not just solidarity with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community, but also a rejection of what they view as a government-led campaign of intolerance, hatred and xenophobia.
So when LGBTQ rights activists seized on the announcement by the European Union that it was blocking funds, the flag was their weapon of choice.
They published a manifesto called “Stop the Nonsense,” declaring that it was time to fight discrimination.
“It’s an assault! It’s a rainbow. It’s an attack!” they wrote. “We decided to act. As long as I fear holding you by the hand. As long as the last homophobic delivery van doesn’t disappear from our streets, this is our manifestation of otherness — this rainbow.”
The mention of the vans refers to a common sight in Polish cities: trucks festooned with homophobic imagery that blare messages from loudspeakers accusing gay people of all sorts of vile crimes, including pedophilia.
The activists then posted pictures on social media showing rainbow flags hanging from important Warsaw monuments and pink masks strapped on the faces on some of the statues. The monuments included the Mermaid of Warsaw, a symbol of Poland’s capital city; a statue of famed astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus; a memorial to Jozef Pilsudski, the father of Polish independence after the First World War; and a statue of Jesus bearing a cross in front of the Basilica of the Holy Cross.
Sebastian Kaleta, Poland’s deputy minister of justice, said July 29 that the acts should be met “with a firm reaction of our state.”
In his report to police, Kaleta cited a Polish law against offending religious beliefs and insulting national monuments. The crime carries a possible sentence of two years in prison.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki posted pictures of himself on Facebook standing next to the statue of Christ.
“Each side of the great ideological dispute of our times — which grows ever bigger all over the world, and the effects of which we also feel in Poland — must understand that there are some lines of the level of aggression that cannot be crossed,” he said.
“In Poland, we will not commit the mistakes of the West. We can all see what absolute tolerance toward pseudointellectual barbarity leads to.”