Polish embassy “appalled” by German teaching material saying “Polish mother hates gays”

Poland’s embassy in Berlin says it is “appalled” by training material for teachers produced by a German government office that includes a section about a fictional Polish mother whose son is afraid of coming out because, “as a faithful Catholic, she hates gays and will reject him”.

This “reproduces anti-Polish stereotypes and harmful generalisations that Poles hate homosexual people”, says Polish ambassador Dariusz Pawłoś, who is seeking to have the material withdrawn.

Poland’s consulate in Munich, meanwhile, announced that it had launched an official intervention over the “scandalous and unacceptable passage, [which] defames Poland, Polish mothers, the family, Catholic religion, tradition and culture”.

The online training course, entitled “Was ist los mit Jaron?” (What’s wrong with Jaron?), has been created by the German federal government’s Independent Commissioner for Child Sexual Abuse Issues.

The material, which is advertised on the website of the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, is designed to help education professionals protect children from sexual abuse. One section relates to a child afraid of coming out as gay to his parents.

“The mother doesn’t suspect and the young man hasn’t made any attempts to confide in her,” it says. “His father has made it clear that his mother, who comes from Poland and is a faithful Catholic, hates gays and would reject him as a son. Also, other members of the family will share her attitude.”

“The embassy of the Republic of Poland is appalled by the content of the educational programme…[which] harms the good name of Polish society,” Pawłoś said in a statement to the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

He added that the material is “dangerous for at least two reasons”. First, it perpetuates “anti-Polish stereotypes” that Poles are homophobic. “The second even more dangerous issue is introducing into the minds of German youth the belief that the Catholic faith is based on hatred.”

The ambassador said that the embassy and consulates in individual German states would be “taking action to ensure that this dangerous content disappears from education materials in Germany as soon as possible”.

Pawłoś also noted that homosexuality was a criminal offence in West Germany until 1969 under a Nazi-era law while not until 1994 was the so-called “gay paragraph” – dating back to the 19th century – abolished from the German penal code.

By contrast, noted Pawłoś, the criminalisation of homosexuality in Poland – which the Polish state had inherited when obtaining independence in 1918 – was abolished in 1932. He also pointed to the severe persecution of LGBT people in Nazi Germany and its occupied territories.

Though homosexuality was decriminalised almost a century ago, Poland today lacks many of the rights – such as same-sex marriage and adoption – granted in some other European countries.

Meanwhile, Poland’s ruling party and parts of the Catholic church have in recent years led a vocal anti-LGBT campaign, though they insist this is aimed at what they call “LGBT ideology” rather than at individual LGBT people.

Those legal and social issues have resulted in Poland being ranked as the worst in the EU for LGBT people for the last four years running. However, opinion polls show growing support for LGBT rights.

Main image credit: Marco Verch/Flickr (under CC BY 2.0)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.