A leading Polish LGBT activist, Małgorzata “Margot” Sz. (whose surname is withheld under Polish privacy law), has been indicted by prosecutors for the crimes of hooliganism, assault and property damage in relation to an attack against a van broadcasting anti-LGBT messages last year.
A fellow activist, Zuzanna M., will also stand trial for participating in the gathering. If convicted, the pair could face up to five and three years in prison respectively.
Following the incident last summer, a court accepted prosecutors’ request for Margot, who is nonbinary and identifies with a female name and pronouns, to be held in pretrial detention for two months. The court’s decision sparked a wave of protests by supporters, leading to dozens of further detentions by police.
“Michał S. [Margot’s legal name] is accused of taking part in an illegal gathering on 27 June 2020 in Warsaw, the participants of which jointly and violently attacked two men and their property – a vehicle – belonging to a foundation,” Aleksandra Skrzyniarz, spokeswomen of Warsaw court, told public broadcaster TVP Info yesterday.
Skrzyniarz went on to say that during the investigation it was determined that “Michał S. in cooperation with still unidentified persons damaged the car by puncturing two tires, cutting vehicle canvas, tearing off a side mirror and plate as well as breaking the reversing camera.” The damage amounted to 6,000 złoty (€1,300).
The activist is also accused of assaulting a volunteer of the foundation “that resulted in injuries and damage to health for more than seven days”. “What is more, he violently forced the volunteer to stop filming the incident on his mobile,” Skrzyniarz added.
Polish state TV has broadcast further footage of the incident that led to an LGBT activist being detained for two months
A van broadcasting anti-LGBT slogans was vandalised and its driver physically attacked
The activist (wearing glasses) is seen clearly pic.twitter.com/GQE1DLhNr3
— Daniel Tilles (@danieltilles1) August 9, 2020
The attack was motivated by anti-LGBT messages displayed on the vehicle. Such vans – which are run by Fundacja Pro, a conservative NGO – have become a common sight on the streets of Polish cities. They display posters and broadcast slogans from speakers that associate homosexuality with paedophilia.
Various legal efforts have been made to stop the vans, but have largely been unsuccessful, due to the fact that Poland’s laws against hateful and offensive speech do not cover sexual orientation or gender identity.
A court in Wrocław dismissed a lawsuit last year against Fundacja Pro. The judge found that its anti-LGBT campaign had an “informative”, “educational” purpose and helped raise awareness of paedophilia.
Last year, a group of young activists, including Margot, began a campaign in which they vandalised the anti-LGBT vans. Some were also detained and charged with the crime of offending religious feelings for hanging LGBT rainbow flags on a statue of Christ.
While their actions have won support from many parts of Poland’s LGBT community, they have also drawn criticism even from some advocates of greater LGBT rights.
“I always supported the argument that activism should be based on peacefulness and striving for creativity,” Poland’s commissioner for human rights, Adam Bodnar, told Notes from Poland last year.
“As soon as we start to go beyond the limits of physicality, inviolability, it will be much harder to defend it later and on that basis build something long-term,” he continued, though admitting that “it’s probably easier to talk about this from the perspective of a person on the outside”.
Recent years have seen a concerted campaign by the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party and the Catholic church against what they refer to as “LGBT ideology”. This is presented as a dangerous western import that threats to undermine Polish culture, values and even the nation itself.
The education minister claims that “LGBT ideology comes from the same roots as Nazism” and that its adherents “are not equal to normal people” so we should “stop listening to this idiocy about human rights or equality”. A large number of local authorities, usually under PiS control, have declared themselves free from “LGBT ideology”.
Poland has been ranked as the worst country in the EU for LGBT people for the last two years in the Rainbow Europe index produced annually by ILGA-Europe, a Brussels-based NGO that advocates for LGBT rights.
Main image credit: Adam Stepien / Agencja Gazeta
Agnieszka Wądołowska is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She has previously worked for Gazeta.pl and Tokfm.pl and contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy, Duży Format, Midrasz and Kultura Liberalna
