Travelling Ideas, Travelling Times: On the Temporalities of LGBT and Queer Politics in Poland and the ‘West’

Abstract

This chapter explores the ways in which 'Western' ideas of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual/transgender (LGBT) and queer politics have travelled and are deployed in Poland. It focuses on Campaign Against Homophobia/Kampania Przeciw Homofobii (CAH/KPH), largest and best-known Polish LGBT organisation. The chapter suggests that in their choice of strategies and discourses one can see the queer mixture of ideas that represent various historical stages of Western LGBT activism. It also suggests that one of the reasons is the 'temporal disjunction', a historical void in which CAH works. The chapter deals with an overview of contemporary Polish political scene, with examples of sexual politics in Poland. It shows some resistance actions performed by LGBT and feminist circles in Poland, and responses they have received among the political elites. The chapter argues that queering politics can mean different things locally and that what can be described as an identity approach from US perspective can have its queer face on local level.

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