2021 campaign: #OUTinPoland
Parts of Poland have created over 100 'LGBT exclusion' zones and Polish sexual and gender minorities are being ostracised, attacked and discriminated against throughout the country as a result of it. ReportOUT took part in a virtual walk from Lublin to Rzeszow, doing 100 miles in 100 days with our campaign team. This was to lead with solidarity and to offer a donation to the work of Równość, a Polish equality organisation. Want to read more about what we did? Read below.
What is the walk about?
Our virtual #OUTinPoland walk is taking us directly through the heart of the so-called 'LGBT exclusion' zones in Poland. We used the ‘Conqueror Challenges App’ to design our own virtual walk through the actual exclusion zones themselves.
This walk is in solidarity with the brave LGBTQI+ activists who live in the Polish exclusion zones, who face discrimination, harm and state-led symbolic violence. We have led with our hashtag #OUTinPoland and have pledged some of what we have fundraised to go toward the Polish LGBTQI+ organisation Równość https://rownosc.org.pl/
What did Równość say about our #OUTinPoland campaign?
“The last two years were really difficult for our community: we have faced LGBT witch hunts from the government, LGBT free zones, the rise of anti-LGBT violence, the pandemic and lockdown, fear for the future, the presidential campaign full of homophobic discourse and our own Polish Stonewall. Every sign of support, every letter, reaction, pound which we can spend on support, campaigns, education is something which let us in a feeling that we are not left alone. That's why I'm deeply thankful for initiatives like this” (Magda Dropek, Równość)
See images from our walk and campaign below!
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We smashed our target of £1,300 and we raised almost £1,500!
As Lauren, one of our Campaigns Officers states:
“Parts of Poland have symbolically tried to wipe out the existence of sexual and gender minorities. So, we fought back with a symbolic walk through these so-called ‘exclusion zones’ to show that we are very much here, and in doing so, have raised some money to help Polish organisations to mobilise their campaigns. Our walk and campaign will be sent to Polish officials to increase the pressure to remove these exclusion zones. We could not have done this without the support of the public, thank you so much” (Lauren, Campaigns Officer)
Would you like to take part in our next virtual walk through another country who claims that we do not, or should not, exist there? If you would like to hear about this first,
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