by Monika Tichy, Chairwoman of the board of Lambda Szczecin. LGBTQIA activist, boss of Lambda Szczecin, motorcyclist, traveler, feminist. Author of the blog "Pacyfka Pictures and Words - Monika Pacyfka Tichy".
"If we walk separately, they will hang us together"
“Nobody is a lonely island. The death of every human being diminishes me because I am united with humanity. Therefore, never ask for whom the bell tolls: it tolls for you. " - John Donne.
" What is LGBT for in our protests? You have to unite and some people will turn away because of it "; "Now it's time for abortion and women, LGBT now has no problems", "now you have to score PiS, that is, women, healthcare, entrepreneurs, not", "they push and stick everywhere", or simply: "wall behind women, away with fags "- comments on the net.
So what? "Solidarity is our weapon", but only if someone is to be in solidarity with me? Expose yourself for me? And if in my case someone's support "threatens" because the homophobes will turn their backs on me, then not?
Just as the rebellion in Stonewall and the emancipation of homosexuals began with Marsha P. Johnson and other black trances, the rebellion in Poland passed to an effective level from Margot and Stop Bzdurom. For five years we have been doing polite Democracy Marches, Black Protests and peaceful Equality Parades. Hundreds of thousands on the streets of Warsaw in 2016 did not impress PiS. It was only when Margot devastated the truck, showed "faka" and wrote "Hóiu" that the young and slightly older saw the new language of protest expressing our frustrations suffocated for years. As we shouted to fuck and get out, the walls of the ePiScopic fortress started shaking and cracking from that scream.
Moreover, women's and LGBT + rights are inextricably linked. Hitler started with the persecution of gays and a ban on abortion, including the death penalty. He attacked the Jews second. Attacking minority groups is a deconstruction of democracy and the foundation of authoritarianism: showing that not everyone is equal, taking away rights, to the point where only the authority has rights and the rest only obligations. Patriarchy goes hand in hand with authoritarianism, violence, war, the cult of strength and fertility. Injury to the body. Democracy with love, peace, conflict resolution in dialogue, empathy for the weak and equality. And the joy of life, the affirmation of the body. Violence against women, including legislative violence, and hatred of gays are a manifestation of the same toxic, machoist masculinity that poisons our civilization and returns it evolutionarily to the jungle level, where every male wants to be alpha, and fangs and claws, instead of reason and conscience, decide who is right .
The Polish state, not only in Pisowo, treats the reproductive system of its citizens as its property. Women experience this, and not only by obstructing access to contraception and abortion. Sterilization in Poland is illegal; the doctor faces 10 years in prison (and three to five years for an abortion). Doctors refuse to effectively treat endometriosis and other uterine diseases for fear of these provisions, until the patient's life is truly endangered.
Or the patient - because transmmen also have a problem with that. My friend can't ask for the removal of the sick uterus; has a choice: either take strong hormonal drugs that cause depression, or stop taking them and wait for them to bleed out; they will only do surgery when he is on the brink of death.
Transgender people are the most severely affected by the occupation of the reproductive system by the apparatus of power. Gender dysphoria is a life-threatening condition. The rate of attempted and successful suicides of trans people is ten times (!!!) higher than in the general population. Meanwhile, the Polish state forces them to take many years of humiliating procedures to prove whether they are "really" of the gender they are. Milo Mazurkiewicz, a trans-non-binary person, in her first public speech, spoke despairingly about this process: "why should anyone tell me what to look like? Who can I feel and who not? I feel as if my genitals belong to the state!" It was also Milo's last speech. A few weeks later, on May 6 last year, a brilliant mathematical linguist and programmer committed suicide by jumping from the Łazienkowski Bridge into the Vistula River.
Trans women also need to undergo a two-year "real life test". For those whose beauty is highly testosterone, it is a nightmare: either not get a certificate from a psychologist, or get fucked every time they go out in the streets in high heels, skirt, makeup, jewelry. (My friend and roommate, after a few consecutive beatings, stopped leaving the house, including to work, and we lived in the center of liberal Szczecin).
The ePiSkopat attack on women has different consequences than the attack on LGBT +. As a woman in Poland, you do not have the support of the state - when you get an unwanted pregnancy, when you become involved with a violent partner, or when you find a rapist. Being LGBT +, even undisclosed, is feeling physically threatened all the time just by walking down the street. Especially from the Nazis, who, with the ever less discreet blessing of the throne and the altar, hunt down the "deviants". In social relationships, most non-heteronormative people hide their identity (from their family, neighbors, at school, at work). The fact that Goebbelswizja took on a different topic for the time being has changed nothing here.
"You will never walk alone," we shout at the protests. In many cities, their backstage and facilities have been organized by LGBT + groups. Gays are experienced in running street marches, have sound equipment and people to operate it, they know how to avoid Nazi attacks, they know how to report gatherings and - depending on the city - cooperate with or protect themselves from the police. We have years of experience in this. We know how to choose music and raise energy in people. We know how to talk to young people. Not only "Behind every success of a man is a wise woman"; but also more and more often "the success of brave women is supported by a wise fagot ". So let's be in solidarity. In deeds, not words. Without the hypocrisy of "You Can Wear Speakers, But Not The Rainbow Flag".If we walk separately, they will hang us together .
The harm of every human being hits me. Don't ask who they are shooting at; they shoot at you.