Adam has been an LGBT activist with a few short breaks since 2001. That year he joined a newly established association, the Kampania Przeciw Homofobii (the Campaign Against Homophobia). Almost from the very beginning he was a member of its board as a treasurer. In 2005, as the boards of three organizations, or the Kampania Przeciw Homofobii (the Campaign Against Homophobia), the Lambda Warszawa and the ILGCN Polska, determined to set up the Fundacja Rownosci (the Equality Foundation), he decided to completely focus on its operation. From the very beginning together with Tomasz Baczkowski he manages and organizes the greatest gay parade in Poland. Professionally he works as an accountant, but as a hobby he keeps shouting at all around and stubbornly repeats that nothing is ready and the parade is virtually there. He loves to worry, does not sleep at night, but when something succeeds, he is twice as happy as the others. Deep in his heart he believes that gays, bisexual and transgender people in Poland will be happier faster than one can imagine. In the foundation he is in charge of money matters and events. |
Tomasz has been working for the Fundacja Rownosci (the Equality Foundation) from its very beginning as its President. By nature, he is a bit lazy but in need you cannot find a better one. He can have everything done in the nick of time, but he sometimes needs to be shouted at. He likes to get his way and he did it when he filed a lawsuit against the Polish country for breaking the freedom of assembly and demonstration. It happened just after the mayor of the Capital City of Warsaw prohibited gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people and their friends from marching along the streets of the capital. Thanks to his action and the verdict of Strasbourg no Polish government (even the most homophobic one) cannot ban a parade. In the foundation he does everything such as contacts with media, international cooperations and political activity. His biggest dream is to build such a civil society that everyone could go through life with a swell of pride in their chests, regardless of sex, race and sexual orientation.
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HISTORY OF PARADES IN POLAND
The first Polish event including representatives of the LGBT community took place on Valentine's Day in 1993, when a handful of gays and lesbians demanded the right to love. Five years later three masked people stood in the same place, demonstrating their presence. Back then nobody even dreamt that an open air LGBT festival could one day be organized in Warsaw.
Three years later, on May 1, 2001, 300 people walked the Warsaw streets in the first Pride Parade. There was only one rainbow flag, and it all happened without much publicity. That was how it all began. Since then, Polish gays and lesbians have taken to the streets every year to manifest their presence. The parade later developed and became a Queer Culture Festival. In 2002 there were about 1,000 people marching the streets of Warsaw. Thanks to the support of many organizations from abroad, the event grew still further, and in 2003 more than 4,000 LGBT people and their friends and families took part in the most joyous parade to date. More and more people from other cities and countries would join the Warsaw Pride Parade in years to come.
In 2004 the Parade didn't take place, as the Mayor of Warsaw, Lech Kaczyński, now President of Poland, didn't allow it, because as he put it 'to protect the morality and religious feelings of the inhabitants of the Polish capital'.. Despite protests, the ban was not lifted, and instead of a parade an event was organized that attracted more than 2000 people.
In 2005 the Mayor of Warsaw, Lech Kaczyński, again refused to allow a gay pride parade to take place in the city, declaring that such an event would “promote a homosexual lifestyle” and that he was against “propagating gay orientation”. Despite this, on June 11th 2005, approximately 10,000 people marched through the streets of Warsaw in defiance of the ban.
After this, the organizers of the parade brought a court case against the Republic of Poland at the European Court of Human Rights, alleging that their right to peaceful assembly had been breached and that they had been treated in a discriminatory manner. On May 3, 2005 the court ruled that by banning the parade, the then Mayor of Warsaw Lech Kaczyński, who is now President of Poland, violated three articles of the European Convention of Human Rights.
Since then, we celebrate Warsaw Pride every year, with many thousands of people from Poland and other countries taking part. The Equality Days events include a film festival, a scientific conference, parties, concerts, art exhibitions, business and political forums, as well as other events.
OUR SITUATION BEFORE EUROPRIDE
Not much has improved in Poland after the last parliamentary election. The government is not openly homophobic but we cannot count on their support. All of our applications concerning public financing have been turned down.
Our organization is on a turning point. On one hand, the general attitude of the society towards us is less hostile. But on the other – the LGBT community is still treated as something odd, and is not considered a rightful member on the Polish scene, for example private companies still are not interested in any forms of cooperation or sponsorship because they do not want to be associated with the LGBT movement since they see it as something marginal and controversial.
This is why this year we want to reach the maximum of general public, to show that LGBT culture can be open for everybody and can create events that will join the mainstream of Polish and international, which will embrace all aspects of LGBT culture and will be able to appeal to various kinds of public.
The EuroPride Festival will be a notable event. For the occasion, we are hiring one of the best movie theatres in Warsaw – the Kinoteka cinema, the National Museum and other well known places in Warsaw, where we will hold all the accompanying activities – exhibitions, official meetings, conferences as well as the Prize presentation ceremony..
The motto of this year’s EuroPride is “Freedom, Equality, Toleranz”. Our activities will be followed by discussion panels on the topics brought up by the GLBT live.
If we don’t manage to raise enough funds we will be forced to give up some of our dearest plans. Anyhow, we all work as volunteers and don’t take remuneration for our work, the organization is a non-profit one, and we are expecting our events to have a minimal charge (of 2 $ approx.). This, because - as we have mentioned before - our aim is to make participate many people, to be open to new publics and to hold a widely accessible event. We consider it our mission to reach the general public.
During EuroPride 2010 we want to affirm the tradition of Christopher Street Day Demonstrations and to celebrate our motto: LIBERTY, EQUALITY, TOLERANCE, thus showing all nations still facing homophobia that nothing is impossible. And of course, we plan to have a lot of fun into the bargain.
