Anti gay flag art
![anti gay flag art anti gay flag art](https://gdb.rferl.org/A94F0054-06A3-4D04-A55C-C5D04A1B2C90_cx0_cy12_cw0_w1200_r1.jpg)
However some 100 municipalities, encompassing about a third of the country, have already declared themselves ‘LGBT-free zones’. It really depends on the particular directors: if they want to risk their careers, if they’re afraid or not.ĪR If you grow up in Warsaw you probably have more access to gay culture than if you grow up in a tiny town, where the local gallery or library could be the one space offering a window to the world. They are risking the budget by doing this, but they are doing it anyway. One of the city galleries in Lublin, quite a conservative city, are staging an exhibition to protest Duda’s homophobic rhetoric. KR It truly depends on the individuals involved. Now they’re trying to avoid this open censorship.ĪR What effect would this new law have on non-state museums, city museums, or even private institutions? Polish art in the 1990s was very provocative and openly pushing taboos, it was attacked by the press, and it was confrontational. A director might say ‘we’re not putting him in the programme, we don’t need the trouble’ and I’d never hear of it.
![anti gay flag art anti gay flag art](http://clipart-library.com/img/1522726.jpg)
Sometimes people ask me how much censorship I experience in Poland, but it’s hard to answer because most of the time, I’m not aware of it: people are making these decisions private. KR I think it would be easy to say it’s LGBT propaganda. Courtesy the artist and BWA WarszawaĪR So if this law passes, a show like the one you had earlier this year at Ujazdowski Castle would never be commissioned? One of those debts is these kinds of ideological campaigns. To be elected, politicians on the right have to get the support of the Church to which there will always be a debt. Poland has seen progress in the last 15 years but systemic homophobia and religion still influences everything. That’s literally what this policy dictates. If you are openly queer, or making work that addresses queer identity, it marks the end of your career in state museums. KR Basically, it’s a proposed law banning sexual education for teenagers and forbidding anything that ‘promotes LGBT ideology’ in public institutions. For the younger people it is really hard to deal with that, it’s really dangerous.ĪR Can you tell me a bit about the so-called ‘family card’? You’d think because Poland is a European Union country, in the modern world, nothing really bad could happen, but the rhetoric of the politicians is encouraging open homophobia. For these younger people living with their families, or in smaller cities, it’s different. KR I’m in a privileged position of being an adult and an artist who can afford to travel abroad or be in my own home avoiding situations in which you might encounter real aggression – although I’ve been shouted at on the street many times. Does it feel noticeably more tense or dangerous? It happened two weeks ago, but today an interview was published with his mother.ĪR As part of his election campaign Andrzej Duda has been whipping up a culture war targeting LGBT people. KR No, he lived in a small town in the north of Poland. People are constantly talking about homophobia, but when you suddenly see something like that in the news it makes me so sad and angry. Karol Radziszewski: I’m quite emotional because just one hour ago, I learned that another young queer person died by suicide in Poland. Oliver Basciano spoke to artist and activist Karol Radziszewski ahead of the vote. The centrepiece policy for the right-wing populist, who is allied with the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), is the so-called ‘family card’, a suite of proposals promising to protect Poles from ‘LGBT ideology’, including a ban on teaching LGBT issues in schools and a pledge to not allow gay couples to marry. On Sunday, Poland goes to the polls after a bitter presidential election campaign. As part of his election strategy, the incumbent, president Andrzej Duda, has whipped up a culture war with LGBT people firmly in the firing line.