Friday 5 July 2013

Shifting Frameworks in Hopes of Shifting Perspectives: LGBTQ Education in the Polish Context

By HIA Fellows: Sarah Deal, Justyna Politanska, Anastasiia Mikhaylova


The half-burnt rainbow sculpture in Plac Zbawiciela
Photo by Sarah Deal


An Overview
Sarah Deal

A dynamic trio consisting of an American, Ukrainian, and Pole, our group set out to discuss the state of LGBTQ rights in Poland as they have evolved from the Holocaust to today.  Our assignment: to create a 90-minute high school workshop for Polish students, ages 16-18, tying together LGBTQ rights, polish history, and (of course) a take-away message for the students. 

At first, none of us knew exactly how we would create a curriculum on such a sensitive and contentious subject in Poland. Unlike the other assigned topics, the perceptions of LGBTQ rights in Poland are intricately influenced and intertwined with Catholic faith and beliefs about morality. The official Catholic position maintains that homosexual behavior is a sin and that marriage should be between a man and woman only. Given that almost 90% of Poles are still registered members of the Roman Catholic Church, most LGBTQ-related NGOs and activists told us that one of their biggest struggles relates to getting access to schools for educational activities and awareness campaigns. Thus, we spent the first several days determining how we could create a curriculum that would respect the beliefs of the typical polish students while simultaneously challenging them to think about facts and arguments they may have not yet considered.
 
After much brainstorming, researching, and discussion, we finally came to the conclusion that the key to creating the broadest appeal possible for educators and students was to reframe the issue as one about discrimination and inequalities stemming from the Holocaust. We were not looking to change minds or convince students that they should support LGBTQ values, but rather that they should support equal rights for all people whose rights are guaranteed in the Constitution—regardless of whether their values are in line with each other. In this way, we would be able to discuss forms of discrimination against LGBTQ communities that have carried over from the German Nazi state, creating a platform for discussion and education about what it means to support human rights and equality, without committing one to also support LGBTQ sexual practices.

    Determined to create an educational and engaging workshop, we worked together and independently to create a comprehensive, yet focused, curriculum that could be used by instructors in Poland (and around the world!) to educate high school students about LGBTQ rights as a sector of human rights. In the end, we created a workshop timetable for the instructor and PowerPoint presentation for the students, as well as our own PowerPoint presentation used to present our research and curriculum at our very own official HIA Ted-x presentation at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. 

    Despite the challenges of determining a sensitive yet fun lesson plan, and one that had to fit into 90 minutes(!), our group enjoyed the experience of working in an international team and being challenged to tackle a difficult subject. We learned a great deal about not only the historical and present-day state of LGBTQ issues in Poland, but also about different ways of sensitively addressing these issues to people who may not share the same ideology or cultural background.
 
    Discussing these challenges and their overall experience, Anastasiia and Justyna offer their personal reflections on the process below.

Thoughts and Reflections
Anastasiia Mikhaylova and Justyna Politanska

Choosing LGBTQ issues as our workshop scenario topic, all three of us knew this is going to be a challenging task. Touching upon such subject in a progressive, but still rather conservative country like Poland needs a lot of preparation and a professional approach. We did not want our output to lie somewhere on the shelf, but we wanted it to be used to contribute to changing the situation of LGBTQ people for the better.

Through the actual working process, our team became good friends while taking on the task of determining the right way to incorporate our personal perceptions and opinions into one solid project that would help to advance LGBTQ rights in Poland. Being passionate about something often means having individual agenda, but our team members were always willing to discover new praxes and different angles of the issue. We also learned a lot: Anastasiia and Sarah had the difficult task of diving into such a specific topic concerning a foreign country. However, even Justyna discovered some new facts and trends that she did not know about her own country. This project helped Justyna to realize that living in the capital city had given her a certain approach to issues such as minority rights, which many Poles living outside Warsaw do not have.

The issue of LGBTQ rights protection is a very important sphere of contemporary Polish discourse but at the same time many conditions should be met in order to succeed in development of general tolerance and understanding of every person’s rights and need for equality in Poland. Our mission was basically to come up with a creative but in the same time professional way of how to present LGBTQ rights as human and civil rights, how to make students talk about the issue and make them find solutions to many problems related to the subject. We believe choosing to place LGBTQ people’s rights on the same level as all the other people in Poland, portraying them as human and, thus, deserving of equal treatment was a good choice and a good starting point for further discussion.

It has been a great experience for all of us also because we were assigned into multi-cultural groups and had to work on our project/assignments together. Every member of the team contributed their own knowledge and experience. We are optimistic that our output will contribute to the development of LGBTQ discussion within Polish society, as well as it will provide educators with tools for introducing this topic in educational institutions.

You are eager to explore this topic more? We have another post for you:
Balancing Hope with Realism: The Struggle for Equality in Poland's LGBTQ Community

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