Poland becomes the first post-Communist European country to have a dedicated LGBTQ+ museum.
Poland’s first LGBTQ+ museum has opened in Warsaw. It marks a significant moment for the country as its politics shifts back to the centre following a decade of right-wing populist rule.
The Queer Museum has been opened on Marszałkowska Street by the Lambda Warsaw Association, the oldest operating Polish LGBTQ+ organisation. It’s the first museum of its kind in a post-Communist European country.
“We are on Marszałkowska Street, in the heart of Warsaw,” said Miłosz Przepiórkowski, Lambda’s president. He continued that “this sends a message to politicians: ‘Look, we are opening the fifth queer museum in the world in a country with the worst legal situation for queer people in the EU.’”
In the museum, there are around 150 artefacts from Poland’s LGBTQ+ history, including letters, photographs, and early activist materials. Some of these items date back to the 16th century.
It all comes from Lambda’s archive of LGBTQ+ historical materials. The 100,000 artefact collection was part of Lambda’s motivation for opening the museum.
“Lambda Warszawa functions primarily as an aid organization, so our activities aren’t visible from the outside, but that’s changing today,” Przepiórkowski said at the opening ceremony.
As the museum opened its doors to the public, key figures from Poland’s LGBTQ+ past attended such as the writers writer Andrzej Selerowicz and Ryszard Kisiel, who were both subject to the country’s homosexuality profiling in the 80s.
Of the items exhibited, there is a 1932 edition of the Journal of Laws turned to the page where prosecuting same-sex relationships was abolished. It sits alongside activist leaflets and images of covert meeting spaces.
“For me this museum is both small and big at the same time, because it represents a milestone in the life of our community,” Krzysztof Kliszczyński, the museum’s director said.
While same-sex sexual activity was decriminalised in Poland in 1932, the German occupation of the country from 1939 to 1945 imposed laws prohibiting homosexuality.
Although during the Communist era, Poland removed all its criminal charges for homosexual activities by 1969, the AIDS crisis brought about a culture of surveillance over gay people during the 80s.
Since then, Poland’s conservative culture and the Law and Justice (PiS) party – which ruled between 2015 and 2023 – encouraged anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in society. With the change of government in 2023, the centre-right Civic Platform party, led by Donald Tusk, has indicated a more progressive approach to LGBTQ+ Polish people.
Same-sex partnerships, while decriminalised, are still not recognised by Polish law. Although there are laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual identity, there are no protections against hate crimes in the law.
“We can no longer be afraid,” said Kliszczynski at the opening.
