Rainbow Night
On 7 August 2020, a protest against the arrest of LGBT activist
Declarations of
The action of the police on 7 August was criticised by the
Background
According to a 2019 survey, 24% of Poles believe that the
Some LGBT activists, including the collective "
7 August mass arrest
On 7 August 2020, a second judge granted an
The
To justify their actions, police later released a video of the mass arrest called "Through the eyes of the police", which did not show any violence on the part of the protesters. According to Balkan Insight, "testimonies from the detained and their lawyers, as well as independent observers, point to a disproportionate response by the police, who arrested peaceful protesters and even random passers-by while acting violently".[32] All except Margot were released later that weekend after spending the night in jail.[32] Later, police visited the addresses of the arrestees, which a spokesperson for Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights [pl] said was unusual and unwarranted except for serious crime, and could be considered a form of police harassment.[38][24] Margot was taken to Płock where she was held in solitary confinement[24] and released on 28 August following an appeal by her lawyer.[39]
Solidarity demonstrations
After word got out of the arrests, sympathizers gathered outside the police stations to protest, and multiple parliamentarians, including Magdalena Filiks and Klaudia Jachira of Civic Coalition, visited the police stations to ensure that detainees' human rights were respected. Pro-bono legal help was offered to many of those arrested.[32][34] Some of the people outside Wilcza Street police station were also arrested.[34] The next day, thousands of mostly young people gathered in Warsaw to protest the arrests, using slogans such as "You will not lock all of us up!"[37][40] and "She will never walk alone!" Activists pinned a rainbow flag to the Copernicus monument[41] and criticized Trzaskowski for not attending the demonstration. Several MPs were in attendance: Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, Beata Maciejewska, Małgorzata Prokop-Paczkowska, Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk, Anna Maria Żukowska, Katarzyna Ueberhan, Magdalena Biejat, Krzysztof Śmiszek, and Maciej Gdula (all from The Left) and Barbara Nowacka, Urszula Zielińska, and Monika Rosa from Civic Coalition. The writers Szczepan Twardoch and Łukasz Orbitowski also participated in the demonstration.[42]
Over the weekend, solidarity demonstrations were also held in
During the next week, solidarity demonstrations were held outside the
The week after the mass arrest, in
"Stop LGBT aggression" counter-demonstrations
On Sunday 16 August, nationalist demonstrators held a demonstration in Krakowskie Przedmieście, near the main gate of the
Reactions
The
On 8 August, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights released a statement criticizing excessive arrests and police brutality in connection with the previous day's mass arrest, which was signed by dozens of other Polish
On 2 September, the police crackdown was discussed by the Sejm's internal affairs committee. A representative of the police did not answer all questions posed by opposition MPs, refusing to say why it was necessary to arrest the demonstrators.[68]
The events have been dubbed "Polish Stonewall" by some LGBT activists and media, in an analogy to the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York.[56][6][37]
See also
References
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- ^ Klimczak, Pawel (7 August 2021). "Rocznica Tęczowej Nocy. Nigdy nie zapomnijmy o 7-ego sierpnia" [Rainbow Night Anniversary. Let's never forget 7th August]. Poptown.eu.
- ^ Gmiterek-Zablocka, Anna (7 August 2022). "Dwa lata od Tęczowej Nocy. "Słuchając wypowiedzi Kaczyńskiego, nie wygląda na to, by PiS wyciągnął wnioski"" [Two years from Rainbow Night. "Listening to Kaczyński's statements, it does not seem that PiS has drawn conclusions"]. Tok FM [pl].
- ^ "'They Treated Us Like Criminals': From Shrinking Space to Harassment of LGBTI Activists" (PDF). Amnesty International. EUR 37/5882/2022. July 2022.
Amnesty International raised specific human rights concerns over the events of the so-called Rainbow Night of 7 August 2020.
- ^ "Annual review of the human rights situation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex people in Poland covering the period of January to December 2022" (PDF). ILGA-Europe. 2023.
In March [2022], the District Attorney's Office dropped investigations against 41 of 48 people who were arrested on Rainbow Night in 2020.
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Gay men and lesbians living in Poland, Mr. Duda said, were promoting an ideology "more dangerous than communism." Mr. Duda won by a thin margin in the closest election in the country since the end of communist rule in 1989.
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External links
- Wesołowicz, Piotr; Krawczyk, Dawid (7 August 2020). "Policja pacyfikuje pokojową demonstrację po decyzji o areszcie dla aktywistki LGBT (photo essay)". Gazeta Wyborcza. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
- Interview with Paweł Knut, lawyer for Campaign Against Homophobia (in Polish)
- Essay by a participant (in Polish)