Poland: Solidarity!

Poland's opposition Law and Justice party - conservative and Eurosceptic - has won parliamentary elections.

The party is expected to have enough seats to govern alone - something unprecedented in 26 years. Exit polls suggest it got 39% of the vote.

Its leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski [left] claimed victory, and the outgoing Prime Minister, Ewa Kopacz of the centrist Civic Platform, admitted defeat...

BBC News.

Many congrats to Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a notorious homosexual with an interesting sideline in far right homophobic rhetoric.

Great to have you back on top!

Opera: Queen

[Mariusz] Kwiecien is at Covent Garden to sing Krol Roger, a little-known opera composed by fellow Pole Karol Szymanowski in the 1920s. It tells the story of a Sicilian king and his queen and court who fall under the spell of a shapely young shepherd’s quasi-religious promises of sensuality and sexual abandon. The opera is one man’s struggle between duty and homoerotic hedonism but everyman’s struggle between intellect and impulse.

While Mozart’s Don Giovanni is Kwiecien’s calling card — he has sung it worldwide including at New York’s Metropolitan Opera and most recently at Covent Garden — Krol Roger is something of a personal manifesto. Kwiecien has championed the opera from Paris to Santa Fe, and not only for its shimmering music, which ranges from a byzantine choral opening to standout arias. The piece speaks directly to his Polish roots and a desire to see tolerance rattle Poland’s enduring homophobic social attitudes.

“Poland is such a conservative country dominated by the [Catholic] church,” says Kwiecien, who lives between New York and Krakow. “When I come back to my country I love to see the changes; Polish people are becoming more European. But in one aspect Poland is never changing: it is so traditional.”

Szymanowski privately wrestled with his sexuality at a time when homosexuality was widely disapproved of. Among his gay lovers was Boris Kochno, 22 years his junior, who later became the lover of Sergei Diaghilev and Cole Porter. Szymanowski wrote a gay novel, Efebos, some of which he gave to Kochno, and this expression of tolerance sowed the seeds of Krol Roger, completed a few years later.

“Our nation created this kind of musician, who created such a fantastic piece that celebrates the differences: being different as a man, different as a human being,” says Kwiecien, who won’t be drawn on his own private life. “But in Krol Roger, Polish people always see the Shepherd coming as Jesus Christ . . . and they still think that homosexuality is inappropriate. We have to change the mind of our nation.”

Krol Roger could be considered the world’s first gay opera; it was embraced by American gay culture in the 1990s and last year, before Russia’s Sochi Winter Olympics, gay rights campaigners proposed it as the ideal operatic rallying cry against Putin’s anti-gay legislation, calling on Russian super-maestro Valery Gergiev to conduct. “You cannot say that Krol Roger is an opera about straight people because it’s not,” says Kwiecien.

Kasper Holten’s production at Covent Garden presents the homoeroticism between King and Shepherd as a seduction tool for the impostor’s grander political machinations. “Thank God,” adds Kwiecien, who is glad of a new angle...

The Times.

PS And coming up at the Royal Opera House, Pleasure, set in the toilets of a gay club, by Mark Simpson (not that one).

Gays In The News: Damian Kutryb

Damian and his boyfriend Artur, not sure which is top or bottom.

Is this the UK's only male Polish pole dancing teacher?

Damian Kutryb was forced to leave his home country five years ago fearing homophobic attacks.

Now he is making a name for himself in the world of pole dancing

He says he never had the freedom to try pole dancing in Poland - where he had to keep his sexuality a secret.

But after moving to Manchester, a female friend invited the 24-year-old to a lesson three years ago - and he says he ‘fell in love with it’.

Damian has also found love with fellow Pole and professional dancer Artur Biernat, 28 - and the pair now run their own dance school.

Based in Manchester's Northern Quarter, Damian teaches pole dancing classes for men and women alike at Gay Friendly Fitness Damian Dance Studio.

And to make sure as many people can take part as possible, lessons are taught in Polish and Russian as well as English, reports Manchester Evening News.

Damian, who lives with partner Artur in Salford, said: “People laugh that I am a Pole on a pole - it is really funny.

“But it’s the best fitness activity on the market - it combines acrobatics, dance and fitness together and really helps keep you fit.

“Overall it’s fun and everybody is welcome to the classes - you’ll never get bored of it.

“I always wanted to do pole dancing but Poland is not very tolerant. I feared if I started doing pole dancing there they would kill me and my friends.

“When I was in Poland I had to live two lives - here I can be open and live my life.

“A few years ago a friend invited me to a pole dancing class and after the first one I just fell in love with it, I installed two poles in my house and signed up to three schools.” ...

Daily Mirror.

GFFDamian Studio is the best place to be for gay-friendly dancing lessons and exercises in Manchester!

Lech Walesa: Nie Solidarnosc

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa has provoked outrage among liberal Poles by suggesting homosexuals in parliament should sit behind a wall.
Walesa, the deeply religious former president of post-Communist Poland, was speaking during an interview on Saturday broadcast by news channel TVN 24 in which he was asked about homosexual rights.
Asked where homosexuals should sit in the parliamentary chamber, he said: "No minority should climb all over the majority. Homosexuals should even sit behind a wall, and not somewhere at the front.
"They must know they are a minority and adapt themselves to smaller things."

Reuters. 
 

Ghastly Thatcherite Catholic anti-gay fuck.
In a previous TV Interview in 1993 he outed Poland's Prime Minister, Jarolslaw Kaczynski.
It's a sign of how Poland has changed - and that Walesa is now yesterday's man - that another conservative (!) politician has reported him for incitement to hatred, and he made his comment because its parliament now has both an openly gay and a trans politician.

PS Warsaw is a very beautiful city - rebuilt by the Soviets after the Nazis razed it to the ground - with some lovely people and some nice gay and gay-friendly venues, and a very interesting underground scene - in my experience all young Poles are either devoted Catholics or anarchists.
Mini travel feature there.
You're welcome!

Poland: One Lubią Wesoły Rzeczywiście

The Guardian is running a series New Europe, where each week they take an indepth look at a different country.
Today they've started on Poland.
There's a recurring mini-feature in these things, Debunking Stereotypes.
You know the sort of thing; the French are rude, Spaniards have big families, Germans make everything run on time...
It's telling that the stereotype for Poland is 'Poles Are Homophobic'.
I wonder if they're aware this is how others see them, that it's come to be seen as a defining characteristic?
It's a myth The Guardian doesn't do a very good job of debunking.
The subheadline reads; "Hatred of homosexuality has been rife in Poland, but may be on the wane"
Sounds hopeful.
Fagburn has been to Poland several times and yes; "Some of my best friends are Polish..."
Gay life over there only really exists in the big cities, mainly Warsaw, and even there it's pretty clandestine - but people are increasingly out to their friends, families, neighbours and workmates.
There's a virulently homophobic press, insanely bigoted outbursts from several politicians, attempts to ban Pride marches, and raids on gay venues.
So I guess being gay in Poland today isn't that different to what it was like in Britain in the 1980s.

Update: "Polish migration to the west began to teach a society utterly lacking in diversity that not everyone in the world is white and speaks Polish, and of course that not everyone is heterosexual. It was a long time before a gay person could appear in a Polish television serial and not be killed in a road accident in the first episode. Artists did a fast-track job of conveying this diversity to Polish society at large, and such matters are now in the cultural mainstream..." Dorota Maslowska, CIF, The Guardian, Tuesday.

Poland: Can Europe Cope With Another Gay Head of State?

Jaroslaw Kaczynski - whose brother, Lech, was killed in an air crash earlier this month - has announced he will stand in the Polish presidential elections in June.
Whilst many may feel drawn to the idea of this flamboyant bachelor and former child star (see slightly creepy picture left) becoming the de facto Queen of Poland, we urge them to think again.
And not just because Jarolslaw is also a deeply closeted right-wing goon who happily uses homophobia to try and woo Poland's Catholic fundamentalist nutter vote.
In February 2009, Johanna Sigurdardottir, became President of Iceland - and the first openly head of state in Europe.
Iceland has recently suffered the largest banking collapse of any country in history. Although, the actual collapse took place the year before she came to power, all right-thinking people will see it was clearly intended as a warning by a vengeful god.
In March and April a volcano in Eyjafjallajökull in the south of Iceland erupted for the first time since 1821, bringing chaos across Europe.
Although I can't be bothered to check right now, there's almost certainly a bit about how something like this was going to happen in the Book of Revelation near the back of The Bible.
Perverts in power? Just say "Nr".
It's Polish for "No".

In Memoriam - Lech Kaczynski

So farewell then
Lech Kaczynski
Right-wing homophobic neo-liberal cunt

It's just a shame your brother Jaroslaw
The closeted
Right-wing homophobic neo-liberal cunt
Wasn't in the plane with you.