HUMAN RIGHTS
New Yorker Joins Poland’s “Stonewall Movement”
After July 20 Pride March attacks, Brendan Fay helps lead resistance
BY MATT TRACY
New York City-based LGBTQ
activist Brendan
Fay was visiting his
hometown of Drogheda,
Ireland, at the end of July
when he received an urgent plea
for help — from Poland.
The city of Bialystok in northeastern
Poland descended into
violence and chaos on July 20
when the area’s fi rst-ever Pride
March was tarnished by far-right
homophobes who physically attacked
demonstrators and hurled
anti-LGBTQ slurs at them. Some
assailants were arrested, but the
impact of the attacks reverberated
across the nation and prompted
LGBTQ folks to rise up and take
a bold stand for queer rights in a
climate rife with conservative religious
attitudes.
Fay, a longtime civil rights activist
and fi lmmaker who founded
the St. Pats for All Parade in
Queens in 2000, was back home
in Ireland to attend a wedding
and his hometown’s fi rst-ever
Pride March. That was when he
was asked by his friends in Poland
to come participate in two
demonstrations — one in Warsaw,
the capital, and another at the
epicenter of the violence in Bialystock.
“They said, ‘Brendan, we need
you at the rally,’” Fay recalled.
“There still weren’t many details
at that point. They said it would
be Polish community leaders and
I would be the face of the international
movement.”
As news of the protests spread
around the world, Fay seized the
opportunity. He scratched some of
his hometown plans and booked
a fl ight to Warsaw. It was an easy
decision for him in light of his existing
ties to the central European
nation dating back more than
a decade: He fi rst visited Poland
in 2008 when he went there to
respond to attacks levied against
him by then-President Lech Kaczynski,
who showed an image of
Fay and his husband, Tom Moulton,
during an anti-gay speech.
Brendan Fay (center, in plaid shirt) is surrounded by LGBTQ activists in Bialystok.
He had since returned multiple
times.
Upon his arrival in Poland on
July 27, Fay quickly dropped off
his bags where he was staying and
went straight to the Warsaw protest.
He brought with him a Rainbow
Flag signed by Gilbert Baker,
the creator of the fl ag, and spent
time with numerous local LGBTQ
leaders including Anna Grodzska,
a transgender member of Poland’s
parliament, Ewa Holuszko,
a transgender community leader,
and Robert Biedro , a prominent
politician and LGBTQ activist in
Poland and currently a member of
the European Parliament.
It was at the Warsaw rally that
he heard raw, fi rsthand accounts
of the violent attacks in Bialystock.
Rainbow Flags were ripped and
torched; stones, bricks, and cans
were thrown at people; and, at one
point, attackers started urinating
in bottles and throwing those bottles
at LGBTQ people.
“This was a traumatic and
shocking experience for the demonstrators,”
Fay said.
The July 20 attack emerged at
a time when the overwhelmingly
Catholic nation is grappling with
emerging political friction ahead
of looming parliamentary elections
BRENDAN FAY & ANDREAS CITAK
slated for October. Poland’s
ruling nationalist party, known
as the Law and Justice Party,
was under fi re earlier this year
for opposing a new LGBTQ education
program in Warsaw. Infl uential
Catholic leaders also voiced
strong opposition to the program,
calling it an “attack on families,
on children.”
Yet, Fay saw LGBTQ-friendly
Catholic groups and broader
Christian-related organizations
at the demonstrations. Queer
folks of all backgrounds emerged
from the shadows to stand with
the community, giving people an
outlet through which they could
express emotions that refl ected
the marginalization of LGBTQ life
in Poland. The atmosphere at the
rallies, Fay said, included “tears,
anger, and rage.”
“There was a certain vibrancy
in people raising the Rainbow
Flags and Polish fl ag,” he said.
“There was a sense of coming together
in response to this.”
At the Warsaw protest, Fay
brought strong messages of solidarity
and support from communities
in New York and Ireland. In
his remarks, Fay told political and
religious leaders to stop spreading
divisive anti-LGBTQ rhetoric
and further conveyed that violent
attacks like the one in Bialystok
— especially attacks on younger
activists — can cause more than
just physical harm.
“The young people often experience
bullying and intimidation,”
he said. “Sometimes seasoned
activists build inner strength and
resistance.”
The day after the Warsaw gathering,
Fay hopped on a bus with
Polish LGBTQ activists and rode
several hours northeast to Bialystok
for another rally. The area
is not rural — the population is
just under 300,000 — but it is a
fraction of the size of Warsaw and
is surrounded by countryside.
“Bialystok was much more intimate,”
Fay said. “How the rally
closed was so different from Warsaw.
The last speaker was an elder
leader of a Polish socialist party.
I was told to return to the stage
with all the presenters, and politicians
moved forward. Everyone
began singing an anti-fascist anthem.
We held hands and danced
together.”
The presence of anti-fascist
groups represented the fear instilled
in progressive Poles who
have seen the rise of fascist ideology
in their country. Fay was impressed
by the Polish people’s concern
for the future of a nation that
has not embraced LGBTQ rights
as much as many other countries
in Europe and around the world.
“This was so moving,” he said.
“You had all these young people
linking arms. I was in the middle
and led by this elder of another
generation.”
Now back in Ireland to wrap up
his original trip, Fay is refl ecting
on his quick detour to Poland with
a feeling of hope for the future. He
left Poland with an even greater
appreciation for the activism
and resilience there, but perhaps
above all there was one moment
will stick with him forever.
“Someone said to me, ‘This
could be Poland’s Stonewall movement,’”
he said. “I hope that people
will remember Bialystock when
they go to the polls and vote.”
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