Few More Articles

There were a few more articles about us today and lucky they're much more fair and accurate. Gazeta Wyborcza published a small article in their Warsaw section entitled "Akcja przeciw homofobii" (Action Against Homophobia) with this picture.

Also, the right-leaning Rzeczpospolita newspaper also had a tiny article "Nienawiść boli, czyli gej na miejskim billboardzie" (Hate hurts, meaning a gay on a city billboard)...which admittedly sounds weird in English :-). They are pretty objective and report the issue well in this other than they got the female model's name wrong and they claim that I'm still an English teacher. However they did a good job in not making a sensation out of the "Kill the Fag" game or anything else.

TV Options:

Unfortunately we haven't gotten much airtime about the issue. TVN had invited Biedron to be a guest on a popular primetime debate show, Teraz My. He was already booked to be on a local show in the Polish mountains and told them he would offer them a replacement for him. But they wanted no one else other than him (probably knowing that he'll create a good show in terms of battling it out with the opponent, and also because the hosts are a tad sexist and are not as keen on having women guests). They evidently wanted him SO badly that they even offered to rent a HELICOPTER to fly him back to Warsaw! In the end it was too expensive for them and they couldn't arrange it but you gotta give them credit.

Otherwise, on Wed. and Thur. nights this week I'll be on a show called Homofonia, obviously about homo issues. It airs at 11.30pm both nights and can be viewed either online at: http://itv2.itv.net.pl/

Or for those with Polish tv: Cyfra Plus (kanal 64),Cyfrowy Polsat (kanal 73), Telewizje kablowe:AsterUPCSatelita: Eutelsat HOT BIRD 1

Our Following in the Right:

One last note for today. It seems like the Right is watching out step. As you might remember, there was a Global Village last Saturday at which I was representing my work organization OSCE handing out materials on anti-semitism, xenophobia and hate speech. During the event there was a very handsome young man taking photos the whole time. We all thought he was pretty hot and "friendly". Until today we happened upon the website prawy.pl, a ultra right-wing website with a photoreport of the event. And there we find out that our young friend, Jakub Szymczuk, is actually part of the ultra-conservative League of Polish Families (LPR) and was doing a photoreport on the event. here is the picture he took of me. In it I'm standing out our table with OSCE materials with a sign that says "Everything is for free". His caption to the photo says "Materials which promote unhealthy morals could be taken for free- financed by the European Union, of course." I found that a touch funny considering what the books were about (in fact none of them really mentioned lgbt issues, which I suppose he was referring to) and that he didn't seem to understand the difference between the EU and OSCE. We found his blog and I sent him an email asking him about these things. We'll see if he replies. In the meantime (although I don't encourage his blog to become more popular) I would like others to look at his work and judge if I'm the only one who detects...oooh, a little homoeroticism in it?!?! http://www.szymczuk.fotolog.pl/

(One of the captions to his male model photos is something like "I had to do this for class. It's not my "thing", but the photographic effects are satisfying".) Yes, Jakub, indeed they are.