![Warszawa](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Warszawa.ParadaRownosci2006wz3.jpg)
Equality Parade ( pl, Parada Równości) is an
LGBT community
The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay men, gay, bisexuality, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a comm ...
pride parade
A pride parade (also known as pride march, pride event, or pride festival) is an outdoor event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture, queer (LGBTQ) social and self-acceptance, achievements, LGBT rights by country o ...
held in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
since 2001, usually in May or June. It has attracted at least several thousand attendees each year; 20,000 attendees (the largest number of any year prior to 2017) were reported in 2006, following an official ban in 2004 and 2005. In 2018, there were 45,000 attendees. In 2019, there were 50,000 attendees. It's a member of
EPOA and
InterPride
InterPride is the international organization that brings together Pride organizers from across the World to network, share knowledge, and maximize impact. To this end, Pride organizers design InterPride’s structure, programs, and initiatives, to ...
.
It is the largest gay pride parade in Central and Eastern Europe, and has been described as "the first Europe-wide gay pride parade held in a former
Communist bloc
The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
country".
Support for the parade is slowly growing in Poland; with the 2005 event supported by 33% of the Warsaw inhabitants, and 2010, by 45%.
Goals
The organizers of the parade want to promote
social equality
Social equality is a state of affairs in which all individuals within a specific society have equal rights, liberties, and status, possibly including civil rights, freedom of expression, autonomy, and equal access to certain public goods and ...
in general,
[
and draw attention to the problems faced by the LGBT community in Poland.][
Its organizers, including ]Szymon Niemiec
Szymon Niemiec (born 5 October 1977, in Warsaw) is a Polish priest, gay rights activist, journalist, photographer, and politician. He is the founder of the first Polish Gay Pride parade, ''Parada Równości'' held in 2001. From 2000 to 2006, Niem ...
(who founded the event in 2001), stress that the parade is meant to highlight not only the LGBT movement, but the rights issues of all minorities.
History
Though efforts toward an LGBT parade in Poland were made at least as early as 1998,
Poland's first successful parade, in Warsaw, was organized in 2001 through the efforts of gay rights activist Szymon Niemiec
Szymon Niemiec (born 5 October 1977, in Warsaw) is a Polish priest, gay rights activist, journalist, photographer, and politician. He is the founder of the first Polish Gay Pride parade, ''Parada Równości'' held in 2001. From 2000 to 2006, Niem ...
.
The second and third parades were held in 2002 and 2003.[
That year there were some 300 marchers.]
The 2002 parade was estimated to have at least 1500 attendees,
and the 2003 event attracted about 3000.
In 2004 and 2005, officials denied permission for the parades, citing the likelihood of counter-demonstrations, interference with religious or national holidays, lack of a permit, and other reasons.
The parades were vocally opposed by conservative Law and Justice
Law and Justice ( pl, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość , PiS) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Poland. Its chairman is Jarosław Kaczyński.
It was founded in 2001 by Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński as a direct su ...
party's Lech Kaczyński
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński (; 18 June 194910 April 2010) was a Polish politician who served as the city mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 2005, and as President of Poland from 2005 until his death in 2010. Before his tenure as president, he prev ...
(at the time mayor of Warsaw and later president of Poland) who said that allowing an official gay pride event in Warsaw would promote a homosexual lifestyle.
In protest, a different event, ''Wiec Wolności'' ("Freedom Veche
Veche ( rus, вече, véče, ˈvʲet͡ɕe; pl, wiec; uk, ві́че, víče, ; be, ве́ча, viéča, ; cu, вѣще, věšte) was a popular assembly in medieval Slavic countries.
In Novgorod and in Pskov, where the veche acquired gre ...
"), was organized in Warsaw in 2004,[
and was estimated to have drawn 600 to 1,000 attendees.
In response to the 2005 ban, about 2,500 people marched on 11 June of that year, an act of ]civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hen ...
that led to several brief arrests.
The 2006 parade was held without official interference, and is estimated to have gathered about 20,000 attendees.
In May 2007 the ban has been declared discriminatory and illegal by the European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...
' '' Bączkowski v. Poland'' ruling.
That month, the 2007 parade gathered about 4000 attendees.
The 2008 march attracted "several thousands" again,
and the 2009, "over 2,000".
In 2010 the event was not held, as Warsaw hosted the international EuroPride event, drawing a crowd of around 8,000.
This event was organized privately and required an entrance fee, which was the cause of controversy.[
The parades have been organized annually since, and attendance has grown substantially over the years, from about 4000 to 6000 attendees in 2011, 18,000 in 2015,] to about 45,000 attendees in the 2018 parade. On 8 June 2019, around 50,000 marched in the event. Mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
Rafał Trzaskowski
Rafał Kazimierz Trzaskowski (; born 17 January 1972) is a Polish politician and the current List of city mayors of Warsaw, city mayor of Warsaw. He is also a political scientist specializing in European studies.
He served as a Member of the Eur ...
participated in the event twice as well as granted the festival city patronate. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, the 2020 edition of the parade was called off. It rebooted on 19 June 2021, and again, the mayor Rafał Trzaskowski participated in the event, granting the parade city hall patronage. Although no accurate number of participants was officially announced, selected media stated that there were “thousands” present at the event. In 2022, the march was held alongside KyivPride, which, due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...
causing many Ukrainians to flee the country and Russian aerial bombing campaigns, could not hold an event in the city. In addition to LGBT rights, the march also focused on supporting Ukraine and calling for peace.
A recurring demand of the parade is the recognition of same-sex unions in Poland
Poland does not legally recognize same-sex unions, either in the form of marriage or civil unions. In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have limited legal rights in regards to the tenancy of a shared household. A few laws also ...
.
See also
*Tęcza (Warsaw)
Tęcza (, meaning "rainbow") was an artistic construction in the form of a giant rainbow made of artificial flowers erected on the Savior Square (''Plac Zbawiciela'') in the Polish capital of Warsaw in the summer of 2012. It was designed by an ...
*Warsaw Gay Movement
The Warsaw Gay Movement ( pl, Warszawski Ruch Homoseksualny, abbreviated: WRH) – was one of the first openly lesbian and gay organizations in Poland; it operated in Warsaw between 1987 and 1988. The Warsaw Gay Movement was started in 1987, init ...
References
External links
A brief history of Equality Parade
{{Authority control
LGBT rights in Poland
LGBT history in Poland
Recurring events established in 2001
2001 establishments in Poland
Events in Warsaw
Equality marches in Poland