The fight against LGBTIQ* in Poland continues: police officers and lawyers are said to have subjected young students* to hours of interrogation. Many were in tears afterwards. Their offence: They had complained about a homophobic and conservative lecturer.

The university students filed an official complaint against the professor of family sociology, who has been teaching at the Silesian University in Katowice for over three decades. They accused her of having made homophobic and backward statements in class and of spreading scientifically backward information, thereby inciting her audience. It was like in a bad movie: It was not the teacher who was questioned for hours by the police of the southern Polish city of Katowice – but her students.

The Centre for Monitoring Racist and Xenophobic Behaviour drew attention to the incident in a Facebook posting. The organisation reported that the victims were subsequently shocked and in tears. The whole thing looks more like an attempt at intimidation than a regular investigation procedure, the organisation said in the post.

Case around arch-conservative lecturer becomes a political issue

Already in 2019 the students* had accused the lecturer Dr. Ewa Budzyńska of intolerance and homophobia. Budzyńska is said to have said during the lectures among other things that abortion is “murder”, contraception is “unsocial”, a “normal family” always consists of one man and one woman, and gender studies, including the acceptance of transgender identities, is a “communist ideology”.

In January 2020, the young sociologists filed an official complaint with the university authorities. The complaint also accused Budzynska of having negatively influenced young people and of promoting anti-Semitism, radical Catholic views and homophobia – and of spreading information that is incompatible with current scientific knowledge. For example, she claimed that birth control pills caused abortion, even though they prevent it first of all.

The disciplinary spokesman of the Silesian University then opened proceedings – and Budzyńska quit in protest. Catholic organisations and conservative media rushed to support of the sociology professor. Also present: Ordo Iuris – a conservative-Christian think tank, which is against the equality of marriage and abortion. Lawyers of the organsation were in the police station and took part in the interrogation of the students.

Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister, Jarosław Gowin, joined the debate on Twitter in January. He defended the professor, referring to the freedom of speech and research at Polish universities,  to whose protection he presented a draft law in February. He presented Budzyńska as a victim and declared that the government would not allow censorship.

Relentless fight against hate

Since last year at the latest, a massive fight against sexual minorities and identities has flared up in Poland (we have reported). The good thing: more and more people are drawing attention to the situation and showing solidarity. Recently, the German city of Schwerte suspended its twinning with its Polish counterpart until further notice (as we have reported).

Last month, the two Polish queer activists Jakub and Dawid distributed rainbow masks in cities along the Polish Baltic Sea (we have reported). With this they wanted to create visibility and open a dialogue. Now they dared to do another distribution action even in “LGBT-free zones” in southern Poland. You can see how the campaign went in the video:

Please follow and like us: