In terms of last week, I wanted to write about the KPH (Kampania Przeciw Homofobii/Campaign Against Homophobia), which is the wonderful place where I've been spending time talking to people and working on my Watson project. The KPH is a non-profit that works to educate and advocate for the LGBT community of Poland. From their website:
"We conduct a wide range of activities in order to increase tolerance and acceptance while tackling stereotypes and prejudices including:
-Empowering members of the LGBT community
-Education
-Research and report writing
-Social awareness campaigns
-Combating sexism and working towards gender equality."
Slava gave me these to borrow as a sort of introduction to queer Warsaw and Poland, and they have both made for interesting reading. The report was put together by the KPH in conjuction with two other queer Polish organizations. I'm still working through it and hope to talk about what I learn in more detail in a later post in combination with some interviews with queer Warsavians.
Here's a picture of their offices, where they have covered the not-so-pretty window grid in very pretty rainbow. Their offices remind me of the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center. They're cozy and full of various resources.
Here are pictures of some of the neo-nazi stickers that were placed on the front of the office recently and have been placed there in the past.
Last fall, when Professor Haas and Professor Saxe began to help me plan a Watson proposal, I started emailing LGBT organizations around the world to try and make connections. Jan at the KPH answered my emails and asked me in return what I might be able to do for them if I were to volunteer here or hang around talking to people. It was an important question and made me think about every stop that I'll be making on the trip. It's easy enough for me to take from the organizations in various cities: stories, help, food, connections, a social life, recommendations for a place to get my haircut. As both Jan and the internal interview committee pointed out, however, I needed to be able to give something in return. I don't have any illusions about the fact that I'm taking more than I could possibly be able to give, but I hope that I have at least been somewhat helpful and that I'll be able to spread the word about the work of the KPH in a way that is valuable. Jan informed me that it's "cucumber season" here, which is to say that becauase it's summer and parliament is out of session, things are so slow that the media might report on cucumbers. Still, there are things happening and people working in the KPH every day.
With that in mind, Jan introduced me to Slava who got me acquainted with the offices and asked me to work on translating a KPH exhibit called "Berlin-Yogyakarta" from English to Spanish. Although my Spanish is a little rusty and I have never had quite the vocabulary needed to describe Nazi Germany in Spanish, it was great practice for my next stop, Buenos Aires, and some truly fabulous friends from home agreed to edit the work that I did. The exhibit begins with the gay culture of Berlin as it was immediately before and during the rise of Hitler. It works through the changing laws, the rise of homophobia as a part of Nazi policy, and the terrors of the concentration camps. It ends with the Yogyakarta Principles, which are a set of international standards for the treatment of LGBT people outlined by a group of human rights experts in 2006. It was a really interesting way to get to know more about the history of LGBT people in Europe and to learn about the new ways that people are thinking about LGBT rights as human rights.
I'm now working on putting together a list of countries and organizations that have promoted anti-discrimination policy with regard to gender identity and expression. On that note, if anyone has resource recommendations for that, I'd appreciate it. This is another project that is totally relevant to what I hope to learn over this year, and I'm grateful to the KPH for allowing me to do research and work that relates to my overall goal. The Watson Foundation recommends that we immerse ourselves in technology or projects with the goal of our projects always in mind, and the KPH has helped me to do that while also introducing me to fabulous queer people and allies in Warsaw.
In the first week that I met folks at the KPH, I was invited to a birthday party for Stan, who I'd never met before, but who was so incredibly friendly. Since then I've been able to talk with queer people in the organization and in more social contexts, out and about in Warsaw. Everyone has been so welcoming and I am extremely grateful, especially to Slava, who welcomed me to the KPH, fetched me from a metro stop when I was lost, and made sure to introduce me to many people and invite me out so that I am not always that weird girl alone at the bar (side note: I'm becoming more and more okay with being that weird girl alone at the bar/restaurant/coffee shop/museum/anywhere, and this seems to be a reality of Watson life that I appreciate already, but it's also more than great to have a social group).
There are quite a few folks that work at the KPH and it has been a privilege to be able to talk with people. My goal over the next two weeks (my last as a resident of Warsaw, which makes me really sad) is to conduct interviews in a more formal way and record the experiences of queer people and allies working to change the atmosphere for the better.
This week I'm particularly grateful for:
1. The opportunity to do research that advances the goal of my project
2. The KPH as a whole and the lovely people here
3. The beautiful weather and my favorite outdoor bar
4. Nancy (Claire) Riley, translator and friend extraordinaire
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