Queer(in)g Poland in the 21st Century: How Was It at the Beginning of the Millennium? Introduction to This Special Issue on Queer Culture and the LGBTQ+ Movement in Poland

This special issue emerged from the largest-ever international conference on Polish gender issues outside of Poland, The Impacts of Gender Discourse on Polish Politics, Society and Culture, organized by Ula Chowaniec, Ewa Mazierska and Richard Mole and held at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, on 11–12 June 2018. As can be seen from the group photo at the end of this introduction, the conference was very well attended, suggesting that gender studies, LGBTQ+ discourses and feminist movements in Poland are flourishing. It was also a year in which we celebrated 100 years of Polish women’s suffrage (hence the #naukaniepodległa/independent education on the banner in the photo from the conference at the end of this introduction). Nevertheless, the actual papers revealed that the mood was not optimistic. The nationalist politics and rhetoric of the governing Law and Justice Party (PiS) has exerted a negative impact on openness towards queer culture and the acceptance of LGBTQ+ rights within Polish society. As we prepared this volume for publication, we followed the discourse surrounding the presidential election in Poland (28 June and 12 July 2020), in which homophobic discourse was employed to appeal to the more conservative section of the population. During the presidential campaign, the LGBTQ+ communities’ language and rights were presented as a threat to a healthy Polish society. The most conspicuous sign of this hostile approach was the creation of public ‘LGBT-free zones/strefy wolne of ideologii LGBT’ in approximately 100 cities and towns in Poland. The topic of queer politics and culture in Poland has been the subject of numerous events at University College London in the last few years. During 2017 several events took place, which discussed gender and LGBTQ rights in a changing Europe and elaborated upon the impact of Brexit on the queer communities from Poland. Among the invited guests and authors were Izabela Morska, one of the first openly lesbian authors in Poland, who spoke about her research and the situation for queer people in contemporary