Robert Biedroń for naTemat: I don't walk hand in hand with my husband in Warsaw. We are not suicidal

Zdjęcie: Robert Biedroń, współprzewodniczący Nowej Lewicy. fot. Marek Berezowski/REPORTER | grafika Gabriela Wróblewska/naTemat


– Today, Kaczyński is coming for trans people, and next day he will scope for another social groups, due to the fact that the triggering requires constant addition to the stove. Kaczyński is walking over the dead to his goal, and the task of the full democratic opposition is not only to prevent him from reaching his goal, but besides to minimize the number of victims, says Robert Biedroń, co-chairman of the fresh Left, in an interview for naTemat.pl. Anna Dryjańska: Would you examine Jarosław Kaczyński, as he would like to examine transgender people? Robert Biedroń: Yes, Kaczyński should be investigated. No 1 who is intellectually, emotionally or morally unchangeable reaches the bottom and makes real people scapegoats. This needs to be researched! Anyway, let me remind you that erstwhile a justice sent Kaczyński for psychiatric examination. possibly it's a pity they never came to fruition. The lives and suffering of individual citizens are at stake. LGBT people are going through an ordeal in Poland! We are the most homophobic country in the European Union. erstwhile Kaczyński can't cope, he starts to piss. This time he decided to piss on trans people. Lech Kaczyński is turning over in his grave listening to Jaroslaw. The same Lech Kaczyński who illegally banned the Equality Parade in Warsaw in 2005? Lech Kaczyński was changing – most likely under the influence of his wife. I've seen it evolve. Lech awarded Ewa Hołuszko, a heroic oppositionist of the times of the People's Republic of Poland, a transgender person. I want to believe he wouldn't let his brother talk specified nonsense. Unfortunately, cheating is an effective method of doing politics. And you don't even request to mention the 3rd Reich. There is plenty of earlier and later evidence that politicians are paying off. But it has its victims! Are you not afraid that Kaczyński will succeed? That he will effectively divert people's attention from the advanced prices erstwhile he makes games for them and throws transgender people into the arena? Of course I'm scared. That is why I am appealing to my colleagues from all political options to show solidarity. Just as we defended the courts, just as we defended teachers and nurses, now we must besides make a solidarity front. No compromise. The left always stands up for minorities, but it shouldn't do it alone. Today, Kaczyński is coming for trans people, and next day he will scope for another social groups, due to the fact that sex requires constant addition to the stove. Kaczyński is walking over the dead to his goal, and the task of the full democratic opposition is not only to prevent him from reaching it, but besides to minimize the number of victims. At the same time, it is crucial for us to realize that the PiS president will pull LGBT people out of the hat as long as he knows that he can sow fear. It is our work to do what all average country in the planet has done: to admit equal rights and opportunities for LGBT people in all area of our lives. End, period. If we call Polish lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people a "substitute topic", if we dodge and debate about referendums, if we say that they are to blame ... Then Kaczyński will have an excuse and a tool. How do you imagine this solidarity front? Kaczynski's hypocrisy and cynicism must be exposed. You gotta repeat: "Kaczyński says this due to the fact that you can no longer buy a full stick of butter, only half, you can't buy a prescription, you can't pay bills; erstwhile Kaczyński can't cope with advanced prices, he tries to divert our attention, but Poles are not geese , and, to paraphrase, they have their minds. Recently, the twentieth anniversary of your relation with Krzysztof Śmiszek has passed. In the eyes of the law, you are inactive strangers to each other. How do you feel about it? Badly. This is fucking unfair. You know what's most annoying? The fact that even though we came out of the closet, even though we are clearly visible, nothing changes. If only people weren't aware of all this discrimination, all these unnecessary problems that we gotta face all day ... But they are aware. We want to live normally, but the law is against us. What does "normally" mean? This means that Śmiszek doesn't gotta worry all time I leave the home that if something happens to me and I end up unconscious in the hospital, he won't be able to decide on my treatment. It means I don't gotta worry about whether or not he can take care of the burial erstwhile I die. Conservatives say go to a notary public. Let them go to the notary themselves. Better yet, let them change jobs and take a loan. You cannot settle taxation issues with a notary public, and you cannot indicate in your will who is to bury you. So thank you very much for the "good" advice, but the solution is here: matrimony equality. And it needs to be brought in to hell. Now! We are already at specified an age that we are starting to think about the eventual things more and more often. We're not going anywhere, but getting things sorted out is very crucial to us. You can't plan random events. any things just happen. And then we will be left in the cold, due to the fact that the state considers us second-class citizens. We gotta pay taxes, but we cannot enjoy human rights. How many more?! Krzysiek and I do not have children, although we erstwhile wanted to. Do you know what happens in Poland to the kid of a rainbow couple erstwhile the biological parent dies? It is taken from the parent or father and goes to the relatives of the deceased! Horrible. The reality we live in is terrible. Hundreds of thousands of families in Poland are invisible to the state, which closes its eyes, plugs its ears and pretends that we are strangers to each other. And it hurts: children, adults, everyone. I read on Twitter that you have nothing to complain about due to the fact that you are an MEP and Krzysztof Śmiszek is an MP, so you are privileged. We can't get married any more than a teacher and a baker or a saleswoman and a taxi driver. According to the unjust law, we are strangers to each other. This is simply a state lie that affects all rainbow couple and household in Poland. You can be an MEP, you can be the leader of the 3rd political force in Poland, you can be in a relation for 20 years, but if you are LGBT, you will inactive be a second-class citizen. all day we worry about what will happen tomorrow. To say it's unfair and cruel is an understatement. erstwhile you walk with your husband in Warsaw, do you hold hands? NO. We are not suicidal. And in Brussels? Neither, due to the fact that we're trained like Pavlov's dogs. What stimuli? Beatings. spitting. Name-calling. We only cuddle at home. In the Belgian capital, no 1 would attack you for that, would you? It's the trauma you carry inside you. And it doesn't substance that you're a strong, outcast guy. This fear is terrible. Now let's imagine how much the average LGBT individual in Poland is afraid! Gays can hide. They can pretend to be straight. It's destructive and tiring, but it can be done. But transgender people whose features indicate that they are in the process of transition ... In our country they are treated horribly. And for what? For being themselves and daring to leave the house. I am full of admiration and respect for these people, I want to support them in all possible form. I believe that if individual calls themselves a politician and wants to defeat the undemocratic PiS, they should never say that they are not a rainbow revolutionary. During the Poland Campus, Donald Tusk said that 1 of his first decisions after winning the elections would be consent to partnerships. For what? It's 2022, not the 1990s! I'm sick of being treated like an inferior. I want matrimony equality! Same partnerships? You can't do that to people! I want my country to treat me like any another citizen. This is demanded by hundreds of thousands of people who take part in Equality Parades - not only in Warsaw and Poznań, but besides in Sanok and Milicz. I cannot imagine that in the next parliament we will be talking about partnerships alone. And I cannot imagine that I will gotta go out on the street for the next 30 years so that Tusk can see that I am a human being like everyone else, so possibly it is worth recognizing my rights. possibly he will see it in parliament? Co-chairman Włodzimierz Czarzasty announces that after the elections, the fresh Left will be a coalition partner of the PO. Joint regulation is simply a beautiful good idea. And that is why the Left is needed: to fight for issues specified as matrimony equality or the right to housing. There is an expanding discussion on both of these issues, and we have been participating in it for years. We've been saying for years to get these things done. due to the fact that Donald Tusk will not do it. You don't trust Tusk? It's not a question of trust, but a vulnerability that we've had for years and he late says he has. Or just matrimony equality? Well, how else? We do not want prostheses, we do not want to pretend that individual is doing us a favor, we do not agree to any compromises. For almost 30 years, women in Poland have been trained to lie about the abortion compromise. Women's hell goes on and it's getting worse. We will not fall for specified numbers. There is no specified thing as an abortion compromise and there is no specified thing as a partnership compromise. There is equality. The state must admit that people have the right to make decisions. Fuck "compromises"! Will you cut the penultimate word in the authorization? NO. I am almost 50 years old. I have been fighting for basic rights for 30 years. erstwhile I think that I would gotta wait another 30 years for any substitute ... I most likely won't live to see eighty. I don't want to die in Poland, which will throw me a prosthesis of equality! I want to be a full citizen. I want to be buried with Śmiszek and have it written on the grave that we were married. I want equality. Let's decision on to the fresh Left. What do you think looking at the parliamentary PPS: Joanna Senyszyn, Andrzej Rozenek, Gabriela Morawska-Stanecka, Robert Kwiatkowski, Wojciech Konieczny? They made the decision to leave and left. I realize that individual may want to sit on the right hand of Donald Tusk, but then you can't pretend to be a PPS. Liberals should not dress up as socialists. I don't want to deal with them. I like to pay attention to affirmative things: the increasing polls of the Left, the successful combination of 3 generations of politicians, the phenomenal speeches of Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, Katarzyna Kotula ... erstwhile I look at all this, I feel proud. I know that the Left wins erstwhile united and loses erstwhile divided. This is simply a lesson that I erstwhile had to realize and absorb myself. Where is Jarosław Kaczyński's place after the lost election? At home in Żoliborz. If individual does not know whether he is in Inowrocław or Włocławek, he confuses Brejza with Mejza, puts on the watch backwards ... After all, until late Jarosław Kaczyński was liable for our safety, and I would not even entrust him with a cat. Kaczyński can take care of a cat. But I wouldn't trust him anyway, due to the fact that I'd be afraid he'd mistake him for a dog. Kaczynski should take a break from politics. He lives with the demons of the past, he creates conflicts in Poland that take our country back and prevent it from developing. If anyone wants to live in an open-air museum - go ahead. But don't let others do it. PiS inactive has support at around 35 percent. This is the most of all parties. due to the fact that it manages fear and divides people. The ancient Romans were guided by the rule of "divide and rule". Machiavelli described specified methods in The Prince. Kaczyński did not invent gunpowder. He did not have to. It inactive divides and rules. And the opposition is… well, in opposition. We live in a country where there is goddamn polarization, and with 2 guys who are the heads of the biggest parties, it's getting stronger and stronger. I have the impression that Kaczyński and Tusk are not focused on the Poland of the future, but mainly on themselves and their ego. We request to get out of this futile dispute, due to the fact that it will neither heal these guys' complexes nor improve the situation in the country. On the contrary: it is through divisions that Kaczyński can scare any Poles with another Poles, for example trans people. We request to look to the future, rebuild the community. It's happening slowly. The left familiarizes people with certain topics, and then the Platform copies our narrative. For example, the right to housing. Even Tusk said that housing is simply a human right. Similarly, Hołownia. How do you feel about it? Fantastic! That's what I'm fighting for! You don't head that they take your demands? And let them choice up. We are credible due to the fact that we have been talking about it for years. erstwhile in 2019 at Torwar we announced that we had to decision distant from coal, everyone laughed at us from right to left. We were attacked from all sides: that it was a tube dream, populism, deficiency of realism… And today? It's obvious! It's the same with another issues that go mainstream. We want this to happen, due to the fact that then we can yet solve the problems. That's why we should let any fresh air in and perceive to these "leftist" youth who go out on the street and say that housing, abortion, matrimony equality are human rights. We defend the Constitution from the first to the last article, we do not halt at free courts. Since Donald Tusk talks about defending the Constitution, he should do it from beginning to end. Article 18 of the Constitution reads as follows: matrimony as a union between a man and a woman, family, motherhood and parenthood are under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland. erstwhile again: matrimony as a union between a man and a woman. And? For matrimony equality, it means only that same-sex matrimony does not should be protected by the state. Prof. Ewa Łętowska has been talking about it for years. What would you say to the leader of the Civic Platform? I would say to Tusk that the Left is needed to govern. And for the Left to be in the government, it must first be in the parliament, so it should not attack the Left. Until recently, he did it all the time. It was not only stupid, but besides dangerous, due to the fact that if we were pushed out of the Sejm, respective million votes would have been wasted, and this would have strengthened PiS. D'Hondt is relentless. This is the first thing. The second point: The left must be in the government to push certain things forward, so that what we agreed on in the Constitution exists not only on paper. The left is the guarantor that the right to housing, women's rights, the right to good education and wellness protection are things that the parliament will take seriously. I see 3 "ifs" here. If the opposition wins the elections and if the PO is inactive the strongest party, then even if you co-govern, you will not vote for matrimony equality. There is no available legal abortion either. That's what coalition negotiations are for. At the first gathering you will gotta sit down and say "these are our conditions". Neoliberals request our left-wing sensitivity, due to the fact that this is what the voters of the Civic Platform anticipate more and more often. As leftists, we will remind them of the importance of a strong state, the Scandinavian model, which uses citizens' taxes to make a solid safety net and offers high-quality public services. There are those who claim that the left-wing postulates are weakened by the controversial image of Marta Lempart. What do you say? Marta Lempart is not a associate of the Left, as far as I know. And besides: Marta Lempart is the personification of anger and rebellion that sits in the hearts of millions of Poles! I would like to shout what Marta Lempart has the courage to shout at the protests, but since I am already a politician in a tie, there are certain things that I should not do. She has courage and I admire her for that. erstwhile upon a time, erstwhile we organized the first Equality Parades, there were akin objections. any wanted us to exclude any of our colleagues due to the fact that they allegedly didn't look manly enough, and that would put people off the cause. There were opinions that trans people "damage our image", that during the Parade they should stay at home ... Wow. Yes it was. There were specified voices in our environment! Would anyone present - apart from Kaczyński - think to say something like that? It is the same with Marta Lempart today. Someday individual will be ashamed for trying to exclude her from the public space. She has the right to do it, and she's effective at it. Millions of people took to the streets. She fights "for our freedom and yours", including those who criticize her or would like to make her more polite. Protests cannot be polite, due to the fact that then they are not protests. I say this as a erstwhile social activist, an activist who fucked with the police, with politicians, who was stoned, who yelled, who utilized obscene words ... I utilized to be specified a Marta Lempart. And I'm arrogant of it! I don't get people who attack her for what she is. Do you want to be tamed and fight for our rights in a suit or suit? Do it! Show your effectiveness. Lead millions of people. Prove that you can do it better than Marta Lempart, and I will applaud you too. Similarly, I will not cry over writing on walls. The wall does not feel. A female who, dying, begs to terminate her pregnancy, who is afraid, cries, calls her parent ... She feels. The female feels. alternatively of lamenting over a smeared wall, consider why people compose on it. Opposition supporters anticipate the current government to be held accountable, but any of them do not believe that you will do it. How will you comment on it? I can't imagine a situation where Kaczyński and his gang won't be held accountable. There's no way a fistful of MPs will get stuck in an elevator or toilet before the vote. Society would not forgive us. It cannot be that a boy who steals a wafer goes to prison, and a politician who breaks the law ends up in the parliamentary benches. What would you say to Jarosław Kaczyński? He inactive doesn't perceive to us. Even if his colleagues print him the Internet, he won't read it anyway. But let's presume he reads it. What do you gotta say to him? I will repeat after Marta Lempart: she has to go.