World arts stars accuse Polish government of homophobia

Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, Canadian author Margaret Atwood and Nobel winner Olga Tokarczuk on Monday (17 August) accused Poland’s ruling party of condoning homophobia in an open letter signed by dozens of global writers and directors.

“We speak out in solidarity with activists and their allies, who are being detained, brutalised, and intimidated,” said the letter addressed to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.

“Homophobic aggression in Poland is growing because it is condoned by the ruling party, which has chosen sexual minorities as a scapegoat with no regard for the safety and well-being of citizens,” the letter said, referring to the Law and Justice (PiS) party.

The letter, which was published in Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza and Le Monde among others, was also signed by the writers Paul Auster, J.M. Coetzee, Ian McEwan and Leila Slimani, and actors Ed Harris and James Norton.

The text referred to a protest on 7 August in Warsaw against the detention of a gay rights activist known as Margot at which dozens of campaigners were arrested in clashes with police.

It said Margot was a “political prisoner” because she is accused of vandalising a van carrying homophobic slogans — part of what the letter said was a “well-funded hate campaign”.

“We call on the Polish government to stop targeting sexual minorities, to stop supporting organisations that spread homophobia and to hold accountable those who are responsible for unlawful and violent arrests of August 7, 2020.”

Gay rights have become a flashpoint issue in Poland in recent years under the populist PiS government, which campaigns against what it calls “LGBT ideology” and likens it to communism.

Since the PiS came to power, several regions in Poland have declared themselves “LGBT-free zones” in a protest against support for gay rights from Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski — a member of the opposition Civic Platform party.

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