Halina Gniewek from the Wolna Gromadka Association and Krzysztof Król, head of the municipal council, appeared in a report published by Deutschlandradio “Anti-LGBT zones on Poland’s map of shame”. We speak with Małgorzata Żerwe, the report’s co-author.
Małgorzata Żerwe believes that hatred of people with different sexual orientations is legitimized by the PiS government and its discriminatory policies. “When both the country’s president and his ministers, including Minister of Education and Science Przemysław Czarnek and his superintendent from the Małopolska Voivodeship, are people who speak openly in homophobic terms in the media or in parliament, I do not think this is a lesson in homophobia for Polish citizens, because I have observed it for a long time. I think that both homophobia and xenophobia are somehow written into our DNA, and it is not true, as everyone claims, that Poles are tolerant, or that tolerance is written into Poles’ DNA,” Małgorzata Żerwe said in the interview.
The report Anti-LGBTQ-Gemeinden in Polen Landkarte der Schande by Małgorzata Żerwe and David Zane Mairowitz can be heard by clicking HERE.
The announcement of this report on the website of the German public radio broadcaster reads:
Many Polish municipalities, especially in the south-eastern regions, have created “anti-LGBTQ zones,” leading to a strategic battle with the European Union.
These towns and villages are supported and inspired by the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), and over the past several years there has been a sharp increase in homophobic attacks, often followed by a series of suicides.
They speak with residents and local politicians to understand their concerns and the propaganda surrounding them in Poland’s conservative Catholic heartland.
Małgorzata Żerwe (born 13 March 1954 in Lublin) is a visual and sound artist, exhibition curator, author of artistic and social reports, columnist and radio journalist. From 1973, she studied at the Faculty of Painting and Sculpture of the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Gdańsk; she prepared her diploma work in Józefa Wnukowa’s Unique Textile Studio and defended it in 1979. For it, she received recognition through participation in the Diploma ’79 exhibition at Warsaw’s Zachęta.
From 1997 to 2018, she worked at Radio Gdańsk. She covered cultural affairs, produced several hundred social and artistic reports, and more than 200 monographic programmes about artists. Her reports earned her dozens of awards and distinctions in national and international radio competitions; she was nominated several times for prestigious awards including the Premios Ondas, Prix Europa and Prix Italia. She is a Grand Prix Marulić laureate.