title: Chigirtma

text:
Chigirtma () is an egg dish of Azerbaijani cuisine. The name chigirtma (çığırtma) means that it includes eggs. Chigirtma literally means in Azerbaijani “screaming”. It is believed that the dish is called so because of the sounds the meat (or vegetable) makes while cooking in hot oil. Chigirtma is made from chicken, eggplants, green beans, spinach and mutton.

Types

Chicken
The main ingredients of chicken chigirtma () are chicken, onions, lemon water, eggs, vegetable oil or melted butter and spices.

Preparation
The chicken is boiled, then placed in the pan and chopped fried onions, lemon juice, spices are added on it. A little broth is poured before simmering 20 minutes. Eggs are added to the chicken and cooked until the dish is done. Chicken-chigirtma can be served with plain plov which is known as chigirtma-plov.

Green bean
Green beans, onions, eggs, dill, vegetable oil and spices are used in preparation of Green bean chigirtma (). Beans are cut into small pieces and boiled. Eggs, chopped dill and spices are mixed in a bowl and then added to the fried onions with cooked beans. The dish is served with “” (yogurt with crushed garlic).

Eggplant
The main ingredients of badimjan (eggplant) chighirtma are eggplants, onions, melted butter, eggs, parsley and spices. Sliced eggplants are salted and pressed to remove its bitter juice. Eggplants are added to fried onions and is cooked, then eggs are added. Melted butter and greens are added before serving.

Forcemeat
Forcemeat chigirtma () is made with forcemeat from mutton, onions, melted butter, saffron and eggs. Chopped dill is added before serving.

Spinach
Spinach, sorrel, onions, eggs and melted butter are the main ingredients of ispanag (spinach) chigirtma. Soured milk and chopped parsley are served with this dish.

Ganja
This version of chigirtma is specific to Ganja city of Azerbaijan. The dish is made with mutton, onions, melted butter, tomatoes, greens (coriander and dill), and spices. Meat is cooked in its broth in a deep pan. Separately fried onions and eggs are added when the meat is done. The mixture is simmered until eggs are done. Tomatoes and greens are added before serving. Ganja chigirtma is served with soured milk.

References

Turkish cuisine
Azerbaijani cuisine
Egg dishes
Azerbaijani words and phrases


title: Volkameria heterophylla

text:
Volkameria heterophylla (common names - bois de chenilles, verveine malgache) is a species of flowering plant in the genus Volkameria of the family Lamiaceae. It is a native to Mauritius and La Réunion.

In La Réunion it is found in the semi-dry forests in the West of the island, between Saint-Paul and Saint-Leu and it reaches a height of 4 meters.

It is naturalised in India, Australia (Western Australia and Queensland), Madagascar and the Mozambique Channel Islands.

References

External links

Lamiaceae


title: St. Mary's Forane Church, Edoor

text:
St. Mary's Forane Church Edoor is one of the oldest churches and a notable Marian pilgrim centre in Kannur district of Kerala. It is near Iritty, the eastern town of Kannur district. This church is the first church in the name of St. Mary under the archdiocese of Thalassery. It is also the largest parish in the archdiocese. It is situated about 6.5 kilometres from the town of Iritty, which is also known as 'The Coorg valley in the God's own country'.

Basic Information
Edoor town is a small marketplace for the farmer communities of the surrounding regions. This place is well-connected to any part of Kannur and other parts of Kerala by road. In fact, this church has a great influence in the spiritual life and social development of that locality.

History

This parish was established in 1946. In its initial times, it was under the Latin Catholic Diocese of Kozhikode. Later, it came under the Syro-Malabar Catholic Archdiocese of Thalassery. In those times, the members of the parish were the Christian people who had migrated from Travancore. In 1970, the most beautiful new church was built. Still, it is one of the most beautiful churches in Kerala. The architectural beauty of this church attracts the tourists to come here.

Architectural Features

The church is in a circular shape and it has a dome in the centre. As it is circular, it has a large area and a wide angle of viewing the altar. It is also one of the largest churches in Malabar. The altar of this church was renovated in 2012, which creates a heavenly feeling in our mind. The altarpieces include the sculptures of various saints. The church has entrances from three directions; viz. West, South and North. Above the main entrance which is from the south, we can see a Latin text: "VENITE ADOREMUS", meaning Come, Let us worship. Above the entrance from the south, we can see the text: "AVE MARIA", and above the northern entrance we can see the text: "MY LORD, MY GOD", which is a declaration by St. Thomas, who is the apostle of India and the father of the Syro-Malabar Church.

Special Features

The major attraction here is the presence of Mother Mary, The Immaculate. Here is a charming statue of Mother Mary which may not be seen anywhere else. The people here call it as 'Edooramma (എടൂരമ്മ)', meaning 'The Mother of Edoor'.
Another feature of this church is the wooden statue of crucified Jesus. Unlike other statues, here we can see Jesus crucified on 'four' nails.
Unlike most of the churches in Syro-Malabar Church, this does not have a veil (curtain) in between the 'Madbaha' (altar) and 'Haikala' (the place in the church where people stand).
The feast of St. Mary is held in the first week of January always. Thus it is also considered as the thanksgiving feast for the New Year. People from various parts of the district including those who belong to other religions come here to celebrate this festival.

Edooramma

The presence of St. Mary is the reason for its popularity. The statue of Mother Mary or Edooramma which may not be seen anywhere else is the most beautiful thing in this church.
Edooramma wearing a blue gown means that 'the gown is the sky which covers Earth. So, the whole Earth is protected by her presence.'
In the left hand, Edooramma holds a 'white dove', and in her right hand there is a rosary. This means that she spreads peace on earth. It is through the way of rosaries that she spreads the peace.
She wears a golden crown with twelve stars around it, showing that she is the queen of the Heaven and the Earth.
There is always a charming smile in her face. It really feels like she is staring at us if we kneel in front of her to pray.

This statue was made in foreign country and brought here by the European Missionaries who were working in this region. Actually it was decided to place it in a nearby church and not in St. Mary's Church. It is said that while it was transported to another church via Edoor, the vehicle had a breakdown when it reached Edoor. As the defect could not be solved soon, they placed the statue in the Edoor Church. This is the story how Edooramma reached here.

Many devotees from various parts of Kerala including the ill and the infirm and the distressed, come here and returns with peace and cure from the laps of Edooramma.

Educational Institutions

This church has an important role in the education sector of the region. St. Mary's LP School was established in 1946 by the church. This is the oldest school in this region. Then St. Mary's UP School was established in 1949. Thus it became a great blessing for the people as the primary education was available there. Later, in 1957 St. Mary's High School was established. In 1998, St. Mary's Higher Secondary School came in eDoor opening the Door of the higher education. Now, St. Mary's Higher Secondary School is a single institution consisting UP, Higher Secondary and High school. These institutions provide good education. These are the most famous educational institutions in the district.
Along with these, in 1972 a nursery school named 'St. Treesa’s Nursery School' and in 1984 'Vikas Bhavan Special School' for the differently abled children, were established under the leadership of the 'CMC Convent'. Vikas Bhavan Special School is one of the very few special schools in Kerala. Thus this church plays a key role in the human resource development of the region.

Parishes Under Edoor Forane

1. St. Thomas Church Karikottakkari
2. St. Sebastian's Church Velimanam
3. St. Mary's Church Mangode
4. St. Mary's Church Uruppumkutty
5. St. Sebastian's Church Chedikulam
6. Bl. Chavara Kuriakose Elias Church Keezhpally
7. St. Sebastian's Church Vattiyara
8. St. Joseph Church Edappuzha

Major Institutions in the parish

CMC Convent
Vikas Bhavan Special School
St. Treesa's Nursery School
St. Mary's LP School
St. Mary's Higher secondary School
St. Mary's Sunday School
Alphonse Bhavan
Don Bosco Convent
Sneha  Bhavan Orphanage
Mythree Bhavan Old age Home
Friends Credit Union (TSSS)
Carmel Homeo Clinic

Priests Served in the Parish

1.Fr.Kudakkachira Kuriakose(1945–47)
2.Fr.Kuzhikkalathil C.J.Varkey(1947–49)
3.Fr.Kattakkayam Joseph(1949–54)
4.Fr.Elamthuruthiyil Sebastian(1954–59)
5.Fr.Moongammackal Abraham(1959–65)
6.Fr.Kollamparambil Joseph(1965–72)
7.Fr.Koottiyani Peter(1972–77)
8.Fr.Kadukummackal John(1977–80)
9.Fr.Kattackal Zacharias(1980–84)
10.Fr.Kunnapallil Varkey(1984–90)
11.Fr.Kollakombil George(1990–93)
12.Fr.Kavalakkattu Kuriakose(1993–99)
13.Fr.Purayidam Antony(1999-2005)
14.Fr.Emmanuel Poovathinkal(2005-2010)
15. Fr. Andrews Thekkel (2010-2016)
16. Fr. Antony Muthukunnel from 2016-

References

Churches in Kannur district
Syro-Malabar Catholic church buildings
Eastern Catholic churches in Kerala
Churches completed in 1975


title: Sweet Exorcist

text:
Sweet Exorcist may refer to:
 Sweet Exorcist (album), sixth studio album by Curtis Mayfield, released in 1974
 Sweet Exorcist (band), a British band project by Richard H. Kirk and Richard Barratt


title: Raymond Bowers (actor)

text:
Raymond Bowers is a British actor who has appeared in numerous TV series and movies since the 1970s, including Are You Being Served? (in which he appeared three times, as well as Are You Being Served? The Movie) and Midsomer Murders.  Born in Swansea, he performed in amateur dramatics while a student at Swansea University, where he initially studied philosophy.  His first work after graduation was in rep, initially in Salisbury, before moving on to the West End.  He has also worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company.  Bowers made his television debut with an episode of The Newcomers in 1967.  Amongst the other programmes in which he appeared were The Dick Emery Show, The Good Old Days, Odd Man Out, Come Back Mrs. Noah, Crossroads, How Green Was My Valley, and To Serve Them All My Days.

References

External links

Living people
British male television actors
British male film actors
20th-century British male actors
British male stage actors
Male actors from Swansea
Alumni of Swansea University
Year of birth missing (living people)


title: LGBT history in Hungary

text:
LGBT history in Hungary, while an increasingly debated political and civil rights issue, has received very little scholarly attention. Historians of Hungary have clearly ignored sexuality, especially queer or non-normative sexuality, with the exception of prostitution. Reasons for this, to a large extent, have to do with the availability of historical sources, with no historical memoirs and testaments of Hungarian LGBT people yet found and the 'Homosexual Registry' of the police lost or destroyed after 1989.

Early history
In medieval Catholic Europe "sodomy" was often used as an accusation against political and ideological enemies, and a way to disgrace dead historical figures. According to the chronicler Jan Długosz, the defeat and death in Battle of Varna to the king of Hungary and Poland Władysław III of Poland (I. Ulászló), was a divine punishment for his sinful behavior. The chronicler wrote that before the battle the king in marium libidinem proclivus - „(was) inclined to masculine desires”, later described as disgusting and being against purity. In modern works there are hypotheses, that "perhaps the king had a partner for a time, the several years older secretary Jan, son of Lviv castellan”.

King of Hungary Rudolf II dangled himself as a prize in a string of diplomatic negotiations for marriages, but never in fact married. During his periods of self-imposed isolation, Rudolf reportedly had affairs with his court chamberlain, Wolfgang von Rumpf, and a series of valets. One of these, Philip Lang, ruled him for years and was hated by those seeking favor with the emperor. In addition, Rudolf was known to have had a succession of affairs with women, some of whom claimed to have been impregnated by him. The emperor was the subject of a whispering campaign by his enemies in his family and the Catholic Church in the years before he was deposed. Sexual allegations may well have formed a part of the campaign against him.

His contemporary Voivode and then Prince of Transylvania Sigismund Báthory married Maria Christierna of Habsburg, a niece of Rudolph II in 1595. However, the marriage was never consummated and after wedding night Sigismund sent his wife to a fortress in Kővárgara, where she was kept as prisoner. Historian László Nagy notes that Sigismund's contemporaries made no reference to his relationship with women, implying that Sigismund was homosexual.

Austria-Hungary
Sex between men was criminalized according to the Hungarian Penal Code of 1878 (it consciously rejected Austria's approach, which criminalized both female and male homosexuality). Paragraph 241 of the Hungarian Penal Code criminalized sexual acts between men and bestiality as termèszet ellenes fajtalanság (“unnatural fornication”) punishable by up to one year of fogház (the most lenient form of prison), while paragraph 242 declared non-consensual “crimes against nature” punishable by up to five years in prison, with potential life imprisonment if the act caused the death of the victim. The exact meaning of those terms was never concretely defined and remained open to different interpretation until its ultimate decriminalization in 1961. From the 1880s official accounts (government, police, or public health sources) intentionally avoided addressing the issue of female homosexuality.

Like in many other European places where homosexuality was unlawful at the time, criminalization did not prevent men from having sex and romantic relationships with other men. Authorities in Budapest were acutely aware of a growing queer culture in the rapidly developing and modernizing city. The Metropolitan Police in the late 1880s became one of the first police forces to create a “homosexual registry” as an integral part of Hungarian authorities’ efforts to establish a modern city. It took over two decades before the registry (along with the police itself) began to function more effectively. The exact date the registry was created is unknown, but it appears to have reached its final form in 1908, and as a consistent registry, have lasted at least until the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1961; however, there are also indications that it was actually in place until 1989. Most of the surviving info on the contents of the registry comes from the writings of 1930s doctors. In the beginning of 20th century the Budapest police found “worrisome that perversion between men is quite common in the capital,” and due to that they took responsibility for reducing and eliminating what they saw as the ill effects of same-sex sexuality and other sexual aberrations (such as blackmail, prostitution and other crimes). It appears that while the police kept recording homosexuals, it would only press charges in specific circumstances.

In 1908, the celebrated Hungarian writer  published Homosexual Love, as a part of his crime novel series. The novel revolved around a tragic love story between two well-situated gentlemen, and now stands as one of the few Hungarian sources from this period that directly addresses same-sex love and sexuality. Others are the publications of investigative journalists  and Vladimir Szèkely. In A Bűnös Budapest (Sinful Budapest) (1908), the first book collecting their reportages on the “real” Budapest, Tábori and Székely devoted a chapter to male same-sex sexuality entitled A Beteg Szerelem Lovagjai, (The Knights of Sick Love). Soon after the publication of Sinful Budapest Tábori and Székely published a second book, Bűnös Szerelem (Sinful Love), entirely and explicitly dedicated to queer sexuality. It also included writing about lesbians, presented as more private and less interested in creating a metropolitan subculture than their male counterparts.

Tábori and Székely's journalism work found that there was a formally established Hungarian homosexual association by the first decade of the twentieth century. It was not officially registered, as legally it could not have been. The club was based in Budapest but soon had “offices” in a number of cities within the Hungarian Kingdom, including Arad, Nagyvárad, Kolozsvár, Pécs, and Székesfehérvár. All the offices had subscriptions to a number of queer-friendly or exclusively homosexual publications, including German publication, Der Eigene, the first gay journal in the world.

Interwar period
In 1919, when Hungarian Soviet Republic was established for short, a new judicial system of Revolutionary Tribunals was created. The Experimental Criminology Department of the Budapest Revolutionary Tribunal took a novel effort to judge crime through the eyes of a comprehensive sociomedical approach that incorporated (new at the time) psychoanalytical theories, and the surviving documents bear witness to those aims. There are two surviving case studies of the Experimental Criminology Department that explicitly deal with sexuality, one with homosexuality. Those case files present the life circumstances of the accused, implying sexuality as malleable and unfixed, and sexual history (e.g. childhood assault) as an important determinant of people's action.

After establishing Kingdom of Hungary, the official politics on family and sexuality changed to conservatism and praise of "traditional" bourgeois family model. Still, the Kingdom was a place of the scandal of Eduardina Pallavicini and Cécile Tormay, and the following divorce trial that sparked interest of both authorities and public and showed how scandals involving high society were also always about politics, this time involving two women prominent in Horthy's political circles. On October 30, 1923, Count Rafael Zichy filed for divorce with his wife, Countess Eduardina Pallavicini (daughter of the economist ), based on charges of an “unnatural” relationship between his wife and Cecilé Tormay. This relationship caused a great scandal at the time and was widely commented on by the contemporary press to the point that the two women, to protect their image, decided to sue Count Zichy who was eventually sentenced to one and a half years in prison. It was on the personal intervention of Miklós Horthy, invested in protecting an image of the woman who promoted his regime's conservative values.

In 1926, one of the first books to be fully devoted to the modern aspects of the ‘homosexuality problem’ was published in Budapest. Its author, Dr György Pál, described homosexuality as having recurred suddenly after World War I as a mass phenomenon and as a ‘burning issue of the modern era’ that could not be ignored in Hungary either. The rapid expansion of homosexual life, the ‘great homosexual tide flooding Budapest’,13 was presented as an inherent feature of global urbanization and as a parallel development to those shaping Budapest into a world-class metropolis. In Pál's estimate, by the 1920s the number of urnings was more than 10 000 in Budapest. They had several venues to meet and interact at, including bath houses and steam baths, as well as inner-city locations, most of which would remain popular cruising areas for several decades.

A few years later, a group of journalists and police officers published a two-volume work ‘The Modern Criminality’ (A modern bűnözés) with a whole chapter was devoted to homosexuality, written by the police superintendent József Vogl. He claimed that the proportion of homosexuals used to be 0.5% of the population, and after war increased to 1% and became even higher in big cities (while claiming no data had been collected previously so it could be not exactly determined). He also presented a statistical register, compiled between 1926 and 1929, of 2,000 homosexual men living in Budapest ‘whose homosexuality is undeniable’. This contained information on their ages, marital status, occupations and whether they had criminal records. Out of them 345 already had a criminal record, with only few convicted for homosexuality, and most for petty crimes, blackmail etc. Additionally, it was made clear that the 2,000 homosexual cases did not include any prostitutes. The police had a separate file on cases of homosexual prostitution: since 1924 more than 400 men had such a police record, including 281 recidivists.

In 1933, Jeno Szántó, a practicing doctor of the Royal Hungarian Public Health Institute, published two studies: one devoted to the issue of homosexual male prostitution based on a secret police file of 1932, containing a list of 1,695 male homosexual prostitutes, and another study on homosexuality in Budapest, with published statistics of 3,425 men from police registry in terms of their occupation, marital status, religion, and criminal history. Szantó pointed out that the number of known homosexuals had almost doubled since 1929, when the József Vogl had reported on the personal data of 2,000 homosexual men living in Budapest.

Renowned neurologist and psychiatrist, Zoltán Nemes-Nagy, published a book Tragedies in Love Life in 1933. It mentioned the existence of the registry, and also contained a case study of Nemes-Nagy's homosexual patient, Mr. K. It highlights K's “peculiar” sexual nature, and, first and foremost, it does so in a publication about so-called sexual pathologies. The placement of K's story in a book, which discusses all that could go wrong with love, posits K's homosexuality as a “tragedy.”

In 1934 Nemes-Nagy devoted a whole chapter of his study of sexual pathology to ‘Homosexuals in Budapest’, as well as a chapter on ‘Homosexual Women’ and another one on ‘Punishment of Homosexuals in the Past and Today’. The ‘Homosexuals in Budapest’ chapter listed well-known homosexual meeting places, including bath houses, public beaches with separate cabins, the surroundings of public toilets and steam chambers with limited lighting. The author estimated ‘the real number’ of homosexual men in Budapest at about 15,000, most of whom would never be detected as they belonged to ‘upscale circles, carefully trying to avoid publicity and any kind of scandal leading to the police’.

World War 2
A correspondence between the State Security Center and the Minister of Defense from 1942 (recovered in the Hungarian War Archive - Hadtörténelmi Levéltár) contributes to the still very scarce historical evidence that during World War II homosexuals were also targets of state control in Hungary. The correspondence contemplates whether or not to use homosexuals as forced labour within the wartime Labour Service System and has attached a list of altogether 993 alleged homosexuals. The phrase ‘officially registered homosexuals’ is used in the correspondence, supporting the supposition that the list was based on police registry.

Hungarian People's Republic
The homosexual registry survived World War II and was systematically utilized throughout the Communist years for blackmailing purposes and to keep homosexual subculture under surveillance. Compiling ‘homosexual inventories’, which provided potential blackmail victims who could be coerced into becoming police informers, was part of regular police work in urban areas and especially in Budapest. According to National Police Headquarters instructions on keeping police records from 1958 there were 13 types of criminal records, and data on homosexuals had to be kept in at least three of them: ‘Preliminary Records of Persons Suspected of Crime’; the ‘Record of Regular Criminals’ and a photo register of convicted homosexuals. Preliminary records of homosexual persons suspected of crime were kept only in the capital city; this was not required in the countryside or in smaller cities and towns. Trial records of a murder case in the late 1960s, by which time homosexuality had been decriminalized, speak of the police registry, which “helped to track down and solve the case.” In this case detectives’ main assumption was that the 71-year-old homosexual man (living in an elegant neighborhood of Budapest) had been murdered by another (probably younger and poorer) homosexual. However, all files and the registry itself, along with scores of other official documents, have disappeared and were most likely destroyed by the Communist Party during or shortly after the democratic changes in 1989.

Homosexuality was decriminalized in Hungary in 1961, but until 1978 the age of consent for homosexual sex was 20 as opposed to 14 for heterosexual sex. In 1978 the age of consent was dropped to 18 for same-sex activity under Paragraph 199 of the Penal Code, which imposed a sanction of up to three years in prison for persons found guilty of "unnatural illicit sexual practices" with partners under that age. A further inequality resided in Paragraph 209, which gave police the power to initiate investigations of suspected rape in the case of same-sex acts, whereas investigations of heterosexual acts could only be pursued after the police received a complaint.

In Budapest gay men would continue to meet in the city's Turkish baths and in cruising areas along the Danube. A low-profile gay bar was established in the early 1950s and managed to remain in operation for some twenty years.

Lesbians continued to be less publicly visible than gay men. In 1982 director Károly Makk did bring a lesbian love story to the big screen with Another Way, based on a semi-autobiographical novella Another Love (Törvényen belül) by Erzsébet Galgóczi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Makk. It won the Best Actress Award at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival for Jadwiga Jankowska-Cieślak and was nominated for the Palme d'Or. The film was a notable cult film for lesbian audiences in Cold War Hungary and Poland.

The Homeros Society, Hungary's first gay organization, was established in 1988. Initially a social group, it quickly evolved a political side. Hungarian law required the reporting of positive HIV test results, which discouraged people from being tested. In 1989 the Homeros Society obtained permission to run an anonymous testing clinic in Budapest, on an experimental basis at first.

Third Hungarian Republic
A few years after its foundation the Homeros Society began to produce Mások ("The Others"), an LGBT magazine and established a telephone help-line. The Szivárvány ("Rainbow") Coalition formed in 1994 but not without difficulty. The state refused to grant official registration to the group on two grounds. One was that the full name included the Hungarian word meleg, which had a positive connotation and according to authorities this could "mislead" young people. The other ground was lack of minimum age requirement.

The Háttér Society was established in 1995. One of their first projects was to reach out to LGBT people outside Budapest with another telephone help-line. They also instituted an AIDS prevention project, established an archive, and became the principal organizers of Hungary's annual LGBT pride and film festivals. In May 2000, in conjunction with the Open Society Institute, they opened the Gay Legal Aid Service.

Another group, Habeas Corpus Working Party, was formed in 1996 by a small number of Szivárvány members. In addition to filing petitions with the Constitutional Court, the group sponsors public debates and provides a legal aid service. A specifically lesbian association, Labrisz Lesbian Association, was founded in 1999. It would run a monthly discussion group and work on educational projects. In 2001 several of those groups came together to form Szivárvány Misszió Alapítvány ("Rainbow Mission Foundation"), which now takes charge of organizing the Pride events.

On 17 December 2007, the Parliament adopted a registered partnership bill submitted by the Hungarian Socialist Party–Alliance of Free Democrats Government. The bill was found unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court because it duplicated the institution of marriage for opposite-sex couples. In February 2009, the Parliament approval a modified version of the bill. Since 1 July 2009, same-sex couples can enter into registered partnerships. The law gives the same rights to registered partners as to spouses except for adoption, assisted reproduction or taking a surname.

On 1 January 2012, a new constitution, enacted by the Parliament in 2011, came into effect, restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples and containing no guarantees of protection from discrimination on account of sexual orientation.

In December 2017, a government decree was published, establishing for the first time a legal basis for gender transitions. After 1 January 2018, transgender people living in Hungary were theoretically able to change their legal gender. They required a diagnosis from a medical professional, but did not have to undergo hormone therapy, sterilization or sex reassignment surgery. The Equal Treatment Act specifically included "sexual identity" among the list of protected characteristics.

However, Transvanilla – an organization based in Budapest which campaigns on behalf of transgender rights – reports that the government has refused to honor applications of the legal gender change since 2018. In 2019, a joint case of 23 people was created and submitted to the European Court of Human Rights.

Following the coronavirus lockdown of 2020, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was enabled to rule by decree following an emergency powers act. On 31 March, the Transgender Day of Visibility, a bill was submitted that redefined the Hungarian term "nem", which may mean either "sex" or "gender", to mean sex at birth, defined as "the biological sex determined by primary sexual characteristics and chromosomes". Parliament voted in favor of the bill on 19 May 2020, making it impossible for individuals to change their legal gender. The vote was 134 yes, 56 no, and 4 abstentions. Dunja Mijatović, commissioner for human rights in the Council of Europe, stated it "contravenes human rights standards and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights". President János Áder signed the bill into law on 28 May 2020.

In November 2020, the Fidesz government proposed a Constitutional amendment which would ban adoption by same-sex couples. Language in the amendment would ensure "education in accordance with the values based on Hungary's constitutional identity and Christian culture". The same amendment would also severely restrict the ability of single-parent families to adopt. On 16 December 2020 the amendment was passed by the National Assembly with 123 ayes, 45 nays and five abstentions.

In January 2021 the government ordered that a book published by the Labrisz Lesbian Association carries warnings saying it "[contains] behaviour inconsistent with traditional gender roles". According to a government spokesperson, "the book is sold as a fairytale... but it hides the fact that it depicts behaviour inconsistent with traditional gender roles." In response, the association announced that they would be filing suit.

See also
 LGBT rights in Hungary

Notes

References

Hungary
LGBT in Hungary


title: LGBT history in the Czech Republic

text:
17th Century

1670? Wenceslaus Hollar depicts the departure of Abraham and Lot. Lot is described in the Book of Genesis 18 and 19 as the pious heterosexual with Daughters of Lot during the fire and brimstone of Sodom and Gomorrah for homosexuality.

18th Century

19th Century

20th Century
One of the earliest activists in Czechoslovakia to fight for the equal rights of sexual minorities and the decriminalization of homosexuality was Imrich Matyáš. He started advocating for gay rights in 1919 and continued during the communist regime as well.

Homosexuality in Czechoslovakia was decriminalised in 1962.

See also
LGBT rights in the Czech Republic

References

Czech Republic
Social history of the Czech Republic
LGBT in the Czech Republic


title: Nomis

text:
Nomis may mean:
 Nomis (company), an Australian football shoe manufacturer.
 Nomis (moth), a genus of moths
 Nomis (film), a 2018 Canadian-American thriller film also known as Night Hunter
 Nomis, a service provided by the UK Office for National Statistics providing information about the British labour market
 Stéphane Nomis (born 1970), French judoka
 Syd Nomis (born 1941), South African rugby player


title: LGBT history in Sweden

text:
This article concerns LGBT history in the Nordic country of Sweden.

History
Homosexuality in Sweden was decriminalised in 1944.

6 years later, the Swedish Federation for LGBT Rights (RFSL) was founded.

See also
LGBT rights in Sweden
LGBT rights by country or territory

References

Further reading
 Bertilsdotter Rosqvist, Hanna, and Klara Arnberg. "Ambivalent Spaces—The Emergence of a New Gay Male Norm Situated Between Notions of the Commercial and the Political in the Swedish Gay Press, 1969–1986." Journal of homosexuality 62.6 (2015): 763–781.
 Carlson-Rainer, Elise. "Sweden Is a World Leader in Peace, Security, and Human Rights." World Affairs 180.4 (2017): 79–85. online
 Rydström, Jens. Odd couples: A history of gay marriage in Scandinavia (Amsterdam Univ. Press, 2011).
 Rydström, J. Sinners and citizens: Bestiality and homosexuality in Sweden, 1880–1950 (U  of Chicago Press, 2003) online.
 Rydström J. & K. Mustola, eds. Criminally queer: homosexuality and criminal law in Scandinavia 1842–1999 (Amsterdam: Aksant, 2007). online
 Sundevall, Fia, and Alma Persson. "LGBT in the military: policy development in Sweden 1944–2014." Sexuality Research and Social Policy 13.2 (2016): 119–129. online

External links


title: Jasmin Samardžić

text:
Jasmin Samardžić (born 27 January 1974) is a Croatian retired football striker, who last played for Draga in Croatia’s lower divisions.

Career
He had spent much of his career playing for various clubs in Croatia’s Prva HNL, including 124 league games for his hometown club Rijeka. He also had a two-year stint in Germany with Eintracht Braunschweig.

Career statistics

References

External links

Jasmin Samardžić at HNL-statistika.com

1974 births
Living people
Footballers from Rijeka
Men's association football forwards
Croatian men's footballers
Croatia men's under-21 international footballers
HNK Rijeka players
Eintracht Braunschweig players
HNK Orijent players
NK Pomorac 1921 players
NK Zagreb players
NK Krk players
Croatian Football League players
Regionalliga players
First Football League (Croatia) players
Croatian expatriate men's footballers
Expatriate men's footballers in Germany
Croatian expatriate sportspeople in Germany


title: Khalid bin Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan

text:
Sheikh Khalid bin Zayed Al Nahyan is an Emirati member of the Al Nahyan ruling family of the emirate of Abu Dhabi.

The son of Sultan bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Sheikh Khalid graduated from the American University of Sharjah (BSc, International Relations). He completed an MA by Research at Durham University (Ustinov College) in 2008. He earned his PhD from the Department of War Studies at King's College London in 2014. He is the author of The Three Islands - mapping the UAE-Iran dispute, a book detailing the Seizure of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs which was published in 2013.

References

Living people
American University of Sharjah alumni
Alumni of King's College London
Alumni of Ustinov College, Durham
Khalid bin Sultan bin Zayed
Year of birth missing (living people)


title: Bulgarian Folk Songs

text:
Bulgarian Folk Songs is a collection of folk songs and traditions from the then Ottoman Empire, especially from the region of Macedonia, but also from Shopluk and Srednogorie, published in 1861 by the Miladinov brothers. The Miladinovs' collection remains one of the greatest single works in the history of Bulgarian folklore studies and has been republished many times. The collection is considered also to have played an important role by the historiography in North Macedonia.

History

Publication
The two brothers were interested in Bulgarian folklore. This inspired them to compile the collection. Dimitar was the first one to start collecting songs. He was advised to begin this by the Russian Victor Grigorovich in 1845. Between 1844 and 1847 Grigorovich made a tour through the Ottoman Balkans. Dimitar promised to send some folk songs later to him. He and his brother started to collect folk songs. In 1857 Konstantin took the collection prepared by them to Moscow with the hope of publishing it there, but could not find a publisher. One of the main problems was that the materials were written down in Eastern South Slavic, but with Greek letters. In Moscow he received the encouragement of the Bulgarian students there. Vasil Cholakov assisted, providing him with songs, and taking a direct part in transcribing the songs taken down by the Miladinov brothers, in preparing for publishing their collection. The 660 songs were collected mainly between 1854 and 1860. Most of them by the elder brother, Dimitar, who taught in several Macedonian towns (Ohrid, Struga, Prilep, Kukush and Bitola) and was able to put into writing 584 folk songs from the area. The songs from the Sofia district were supplied by the Sofia schoolmaster Sava Filaretov. Those from Panagyurishte area, were recorded by Marin Drinov and Nesho Bonchev. Rayko Zhinzifov, who went to Russia with the help of D. Miladinov, was another collaborator.

In 1860 Konstantin addressed Croatian Bishop Joseph Strossmayer who sympathized with the Bulgarian people, with an appeal to publish the collection. Originally, the book was written using Greek orthography. He answered Konstantin's letter positively, but insisted the folk songs should be written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Its preprint was finalized in Đakovo and it was printed in Zagreb in 1861. The collection was dedicated to Strosmayer. The book represents an anthology of 660 folk songs, but also folk legends, traditions, rituals, names, riddles, and proverbs. The collecting was highly assessed by its contemporaries - Lyuben Karavelov, Nesho Bonchev, Ivan Bogorov, Kuzman Shapkarev, Rayko Zhinzifov and others. The Russian scholar Izmail Sreznevsky pointed out in 1863 that the Bulgarians are far from lagging behind other peoples in poetic abilities. Elias Riggs, an American linguist in Constantinople, translated some  songs into English and sent them to the American Oriental Society in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1862, Riggs wrote the collection presents an interesting picture of the traditions and fancies prevailing among the mass of the Bulgarian people. The collection compiled by the Miladinov brothers also played a great role in the development of the modern Bulgarian literature.

The Miladinov Brothers Collection has been published many times in Bulgaria. The second edition came out in 1891, already in Bulgarian Principality. The third one was released in 1942, the fourth, in 1961, etc.

Macedonian controversy
After World War II the Collection's historical context and its authors' national identity became a source of dispute and disagreement between the newly created Macedonian scientific community and its Bulgarian colleagues. Although there was no clear separating isogloss into the Eastern South Slavic dialects then, a distinct Macedonian standard was codified in Yugoslavia in 1945. Despite some pro-Bulgarian sentiments still having persisted there, a separate Macedonian nation was also formed. In post-war Yugoslav Macedonia the collection was published for the first time in 1962 and afterwards in 1983 under the title "The Collection of the Miladinov Brothers". The reference to Macedonia as Western Bulgaria in the foreword was removed. The Brothers called Macedonia Western Bulgaria, because they disliked the first name since it was a Greek term. All references to Bulgarian and Bulgarians were replaced with Macedonian and Macedonians. However, after the fall of Communism in 1999, Dimitar Dimitrov, a Bulgarophile and minister of culture, provoked a series of public scandals that resulted finally in his dismissal. Under his auspices the collection of the Miladinov brothers, was reissued under its original title, which caused serious protests of Macedonian historians. As a result the Macedonian State Archive displayed a photocopy of the book in cooperation with the Soros Foundation and the text on the cover was simply "Folk Songs", the upper part of the page showing "Bulgarian" was cut off. Bulgarian scholars have accused their Macedonian colleagues of forging the original edition of the work of the Brothers by deliberately deleting the word "Bulgarian" from the Collection. This Bulgarian argument has strong support in international academic circles.

Macedonian researchers claim the "Bulgarian" designation appeared in the title shortly prior to the book’s publication, and it originally was titled “Macedonian folk songs”. Researchers from North Macedonia also point to Cholakov, who specified Konstantin Miladinov's 100-forint debt. It was the exact sum Cholakov demanded for a dispatch of 100 Eastern Bulgarian songs and an authorization to Miladinovs to attach the "Bulgarian" ethnonym thereto. In fact, Miladinovs did not seek authorization and their idea was to have songs from all the Bulgarian lands, not only from Western Bulgaria, as they called Macedonia. Because of that, they aspired to these Eastern Bulgarian songs collected from Cholakov. Thus in the preface to the Collection, the Brothers expressed their greatest thanks to Cholakov, among all their associates. They have also claimed that it was published under this title because its authors were forced to use Bulgarian. However at that time, there was no standardized Bulgarian or Macedonian language with which to conform. Educated Macedonian Slavs then, called themselves Bulgarians and worked together to create a common literary standard, called Bulgarian.
Today in North Macedonia the pupils do not have the access to this collection in original, while the museums there also refuse to display it, because of the Bulgarian labels in the text. Under such circumstances generations of students there were educated in pseudo-history. In March 2021, a shipment with the original edition of the book, which was intended for the Cultural Center of Bulgaria in Skopje, was not allowed on the territory of North Macedonia, which provoked an official protest from the Bulgarian side.

Sample of the first song in the book

See also

 Political views on the Macedonian language
 Folk Songs of the Macedonian Bulgarians

Notes

External links
 The original collection: Бѫлгарски народни пѣсни. Собрани отъ братья Миладиновци, Димитрıя и Константина и издадени отъ Константина.
 The collection transliterated in modern Bulgarian orthography on Liternet.
  The collection transliterated in modern Macedonian orthography on Wikisource.

References

1861 anthologies
Bulgarian books
Song books
Bulgarian folklore

Culture of North Macedonia


title: LGBT history in Poland

text:
Homosexuality has been legal in Poland since 1932. However, homosexuality has been a taboo subject for most of Poland's history, and that and the lack of legal discrimination have often led to a lack of historical sources on the subject. Homophobia has been a common public attitude in Poland because of the influence of Catholic Church in Polish public life and the widespread social conservatism in Poland. Homosexuality in Poland was decriminalized in 1932, but  criminalized following the 1939 Soviet and Nazi Invasion .

Early history
Due to a lack of historical sources and censorship by the Catholic Church over the centuries, it is difficult to reconstruct Slavic religions, customs and traditions when it comes to LGBT people.

Many, if not all, Slavic countries that accepted Christianity, adopted a custom of making church-recognized vows between two people of the same sex (normally men) called bratotvorenie/pobratymienie/pobratimstvo—translation of the Greek adelphopoiesis—the "brother making" ceremony. The precise nature of this relationship is still highly controversial; some historians interpret them as essentially a homosexual marriage of men. Such ceremonies can be found in the history of the Catholic Church until the 14th century, and in the Eastern Orthodox Church until the early 20th century. Indeed, in Polish sources the vows for bratotvorenije appear in Orthodox prayer books as late as the 18th century  in the Chełm and Przemyśl regions.

Bolesław V the Chaste never consummated his marriage, which some historians see as a sign of his homosexuality.

Throughout history, homosexuality, be it true or alleged, was often weaponised for use by individuals against their ideological or political enemies, and to defame dead historical figures. Bolesław the Bold was accused of "sodomy" by the medieval historian Jan Długosz. He also attributed the defeat and death of Władysław III, the only crusader king not canonized at the Varna, to the king laying with a man before this decisive battle.

Magdeburg Law, under which many towns were built, punished breaking the 6th Commandment ("Thou shalt not commit adultery") by death; however, the actual punishments for adultery given out by the judges in recorded cases included prison, financial fines or being pilloried. Soon the general public's opinion of extramarital sex became more lenient. The only known death sentence carried out for "sins against nature" was the case of Wojciech Skwarski from Poznań in 1561. Wojciech was considered male, until doubts in his youth arose and his gender was inspected by officials and mayor of Poznań. They decided Wojciech was female and should be dressed as a woman and known as such by the local community from now on. After running away from Poznań, Wojciech travelled around the country and married, as a woman, three men—Sebastian Słodownik from Poznań, Wawrzyniec Włoszek from Kraków and Jan the blacksmith (married during Wojciech's marriage with Wawrzyniec). The sentence (burning at the stake) took into account Wojciech's other misdeeds such as frequent thefts, hitting (and probably killing) their first husband with a brick during an argument, sleeping with many women (including married women) and having a public house in Poznań. The case of Wojciech and their ambiguous sex and gender was described (with case file from 1561 republished) by physician Leon Wachholz in his work on "history of hermaphroditism", which suggest they might have been intersex. The only other sentence for the act of sodomy (public beating and exile) was the case of Agnieszka Kuśnierczanka, in 1642, who dressed as a man and committed "imaginary male courtship". Other judicial documents mention same-sex relationships without using derogatory terminology. They are mentioned in a neutral manner as facts in cases of unrelated crimes, showing that same-sex relationships were silently tolerated and not actively prosecuted.

During the Baroque period the general public ignored homosexuality. It was considered it an exception that came from the "degenerate" West and happened among the nobility who had contacts there and the mentally ill. Turkey was considered one of the places where lesbian relationships originated. 18th century travelers shared those beliefs and praised Poland, contrasting it with its neighbours. Accusations of sodomy were still used as a method to diminish political opponents, as was the case of Władysław IV, Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki and Jakub Sobieski.

According to the chronicler Marcin Matuszewicz, Prince Janusz Aleksander Sanguszko of Dubno, "kept men for amorous purposes". (His wife, Konstancja Denhoff, returned to her parents "without receiving any marital proof from her husband except for one good morning at dawn and one good night in the evening"). He donated the town of Koźmin and seventeen villages to his lover, Karol Szydłowski. Sanguszko had a string of openly endorsed (and financed by him) favourites until Kazimierz Chyliński, whose father who wanted him to return to his wife, was arrested in Gdańsk and jailed for 12 years. After this incident Sanguszko kept only secret lovers until his father's death, but then returned to past practices. It is worth noting that Sanguszko was unafraid of publicly keeping male lovers while maintaining the public position of a Lithuanian Miecznik (sword-bearer). Similarly, Jerzy Marcin Lubomirski had a young Cossack boy favourite, whom he made rich and noble (buying the status from Poniatowski). The prince, who had four short marriages and numerous female and male lovers, was the subject of a newspaper-reported scandal, when he appeared in women's clothing at a Warsaw masked ball in 1782.

During the Enlightenment period, despite the fascination with antiquity and the intellectual liberalisation, homophobic beliefs did not completely disappear: the medical profession considered "sexual deviations" (homosexuality, incest, zoophilia, etc.) a sign of "mental degeneration".

Partitions
The Napoleonic Code, introduced in the Duchy of Warsaw in 1808, was silent on homosexuality. After 1815, all three countries that partitioned Poland explicitly declared homosexual acts illegal. In Congress Poland homosexuality was criminalised in 1818, in Prussia in 1871 and in Austria in 1852. Russia's new code of law (called Kodeks Kar Głównych i Poprawczych/Уложение о наказаниях уголовных и исправительных 1845 года) in 1845 penalized homosexuality with forced resettlement to Siberia.

In 19th century, due to men being often absent (insurrections, exiles to Siberia etc.), Polish women would often take on traditionally masculine tasks, such as household management. The social norms were more lax on the countryside, allowing women there to have more liberties than in the cities or in the Western Europe. There are known examples of women living together with their long-time female partners, such as the writer Maria Konopnicka and painter Maria Dulębianka, Maria Rodziewiczówna and Helena Weychert or Paulina Kuczalska-Reinschmit and Józefa Bojanowska. Women's rights activist Romana Pachucka (1886-1964) would later mention in her diaries those pairs, noticing that in every couple one of the women would present herself more masculine, and the other more feminine. It is known that Narcyza Żmichowska had an affair with a daughter of a rich magnate, which later inspired her to write a novel titled Poganka ("Pagan Woman"). In 1907, another writer, Maria Komornicka burned female dresses, announced her new, male name—Piotr Odmieniec Włast— and continued to dress like a man and write under that name.

Second Polish Republic
The magazine Wiadomości Literackie ("Literature News") which published many writers of the period, frequently covered issues that broke Polish sexual and moral taboos, such as contraception, menstruation or homosexuality. The most well known advocates of such topics were Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński and Irena Krzywicka. They were considered propagators of "moral reform (IE deform)" by Czesław Lechicki and others. In 1935 Boy-Żeleński, Wincenty Rzymowski and Krzywicka, among others, established the Liga Reformy Obyczajów (League of Reform of (Moral) Customs).

The taboo-breaking discussions were limited only to literary circles and were ignited by women's emancipation movements, while mainstream (Catholic) society was still prejudiced and viewed homosexuality as a sin. The writers were eager to include gay subplots in their works and to analyze the psyche of homosexual and bisexual characters. Many cultural figures were also out as gay or bisexual in their communities including Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz and Maria Dąbrowska. Examples of gay subplots include the writings of Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Zofia Nałkowska (Romans Teresy Hennert), Jan Parandowski (Król Życia, Adam Grywałd) and the opera King Roger by gay composer Karol Szymanowski which stirred up a controversy at its premiere. The only draft of his gay novel Ephebos was burned in the apartment of the novel's keeper, Iwaszkiewicz, in September 1939.

In 1932, the laws of independent Poland decriminalised homosexuality, which was legal then, but still a taboo. It also resulted in there being less historical material (such as police reports or court transcripts) about the gay subculture of the inter-war period than in many other European countries.

Several stories of LGBTI people made it to the press as "sensations", such as a murder of a lawyer Konrad Meklenburg in September 1923, with several newspapers in the country alluding to his "sexual anomaly" and "being seen with young boys" being motifs of the crime, and one newspaper claiming he was sentenced to prison for homosexuality in Germany. Soon, in November 1923 a Warsaw tabloid "Express Poranny", followed by subsequent Warsaw and non-Warsaw newspapers, published sensational informations. accusing an openly feminist and lesbian doctor Zofia Sadowska of seducing female patients (including minors), organizing lesbian orgies with sadistic elements, running a lesbian brothel and administering drugs to women to make them dependent on her (the police investigation did not prove the truthfulness of the charges). These publications began a several-year-long "Ancient Greek (lesbian) scandal" related to the person of Dr. Sadowska, and several trials for libel, widely reported in the press and mocked in the cabarets, with several famous people involved. During the trial, questioned by the defense lawyer, Sadowska said that "the accusation of practicing lesbian love is not disgraceful". After the scandal, the figure of Zofia Sadowska as a scientist and doctor has been erased from collective memory. Another public figure that came to the press spotlight was a record-breaking athlete Zofia Smętek, whose masculine appearance was a source of many press rumours and cabaret jokes. Smętek, confirmed intersex by doctors in 1937, decided to undergo gender transition to male and sex reassignment surgery, and his press statement caused a further spike in the public interest, even international, with Witold Smętek (post-transition name) giving interview in 1939 to Reuters and becoming a topic of a French book Confession amoureuse d'une femme qui devint homme (Love Confession of a Woman who Became a Man).

World War II
During the Nazi occupation of Poland in World War II gay and bisexual Poles were not a specifically persecuted category, and unlike gay and bisexual Germans were not punished by Article 175. They were, however, still persecuted and killed as Poles. Diaries, such as Z Auszwicu do Belsen by Marian Pankowski, Anus mundi by Wiesław Kielar are testimony to the experiences of gay prisoners during the war.

Polish People's Republic
In 1948, the law set the age of consent for all sexual acts at 15 years of age. Apart from that, the Interwar liberal laws on homosexuality have not changed. The ruling communist party actively censored information about the Kinsey Report, so that the public would not know about its research and its discoveries. The militia (police force) investigated gay subculture (due to it being very hermetic and closed) and tried to determine whether sexual orientation was a factor in criminal activity. The militia's interest did not include lesbian and bisexual women who were "invisible" in public life. According to Lukasz Sculz of the University of Antwerp, gay men in 1980's Poland were often at risk of physical violence from heterosexual men.

As for transgender history, first sex reassignment surgery in Poland was carried out in 1963 in Szpital Kolejowy (Railway Hospital) in Międzylesie (modern day part of Wawer), but SRSs became carried out frequently around 20 years later. First recorded meeting on transgender issues including transgender speakers and listeners took place 10 December 1985 in Department of Sexology and Pathology of Interpersonal Relations, Medical Center of Postgraduate Education in Warsaw. The records of this discussion were published in the book Apokalipsa Płci (Gender Apocalypse) by Kazimierz Imieliński and Stanisław Dulko.

The Catholic Church, now a social force of resistance against the new system and still an important influence on Polish life, became a factor in making homosexuality something scandalous in many social circles and groups. However, Jerzy Zawieyski, who represented Catholics in parliament, was gay and lived with his partner Stanisław Trębaczkiewicz. A gay subculture grew, mostly in areas where there was cruising for sex. In the 70s, gay movements grew in Western Europe and some countries of the Soviet Block—East Germany (DDR) and the Soviet Union USSR—while Polish gay subculture tended to be less activist and more politically passive. This is attributed to the impact of Catholicism on Polish society and to lack of legal penalties for homosexual acts.

The roots of Polish gay movements lie in letters sent to Western organizations, such as HOSI Wien (Austria's LGBT Association), and in reactions to the AIDS crisis. In 1982 HOSI Wien created a sub-unit dedicated to Eastern Europe - EEIP (Eastern Europe Information Pool)  and proceeded to carry out pioneering work contacting and assisting the small, newly hatched LGBT groups in Eastern Europe. It also helped to bring them to the attention of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), dominated by Western LGBT organizations unaware of the situation in Eastern Europe then. Andrzej Selerowicz, who cooperated with EEIP, held conspiratorial meetings of Polish LGBT people in 1983 and 1984, and despite the general shame and anxiety about speaking out about LGBT topics by many of the guests, the meetings kick-started initiatives such as new groups and a samizdat style news bulletin Etap magazine. A 1985 article "Jesteśmy inni" ("We are different") in the prominent weekly Polityka set off a national discussion on homosexuality. In the same year the Ministry of Health established offices of Plenipotentiary for AIDS and a ten-person team of AIDS experts. This was a year before the first case of AIDS was noted in Poland.

The Normal Heart, an autobiographical play by Larry Kramer, received its Polish premiere in 1987 at the Polish Theatre in Poznań where it was directed by . The Polish cast included  as Ned Weeks and  as Tommy Boatwright, with Andrzej Szczytko as Bruce Niles and Irena Grzonka as Dr. Emma Brookner. The television adaptation débuted on the TVP channel on 4 May 1989,  one month before the first free election in the country since 1928.

Operation Hyacinth

The government used traditional negative attitudes towards homosexuality as a means to harass, blackmail and recruit collaborators for the intelligence services. The culmination of these practices was Operation Hyacinth launched on 15 November 1985, on the order of the Minister of Internal Affairs Czesław Kiszczak. On that morning, in different colleges, factories and offices across Poland, functionaries of the Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB) (a secret police force) arrested numerous men suspected of being gay or of having connections with "homosexual groups". Its purpose was to create a national database of all Polish gay men and people who were in touch with them, and it resulted in the registration of around 11,000 people. Officially, Polish propaganda stated that the reasons for the action were as follows:
 fear of the newly discovered HIV virus, as homosexuals were regarded as a group at high risk,
 control of homosexual criminal gangs (as gay subculture has been very hermetic)
 fighting prostitution.
There are suspicions that the operation was a not only means to blackmail and recruit collaborators, but that it was also aimed at developing human rights movements. Gay activist Waldemar Zboralski said in his memoirs the reason gay organizations were targeted was their active correspondence with Western organizations. In 2005 it was revealed that "pink files" of victims of the operations are still held by the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). Despite letters from LGBT activists asking that they be destroyed, IPN claimed it would be illegal for them to do so.

Warsaw Gay Movement

In the counter-reaction to Operation Hyacinth, The Warsaw Gay Movement was started in a private meeting in 1987, initially only for gay men. The founders were a group of activists, led by Waldemar Zboralski, Sławomir Starosta and Krzysztof Garwatowski. However, lesbians began joining the group during its first month of activity.

The first activities of WRH focused on safe sex, anti-AIDS prevention and encouraging gay people to obtain HIV-tests. The reaction of the Polish mainstream media and Ministry of Health to the existence of the Warsaw Gay Movement was positive, unlike the reaction of general Czesław Kiszczak, minister of Home Affairs, who intervened in attempts of legalizing WRH as an organization under Associations Act in March 1988 – it was influenced by the Catholic Church

The Warsaw Gay Movement was mentioned under the name "Warsaw Homosexual Movement" as a politically active group of the Polish independence movement, by Radio Free Europe analyst Jiří Pehe, in his survey published in 1988 and 1989.

Third Polish Republic
On 28 October 1989 an association of groups known as Lambda was established, and registered by the Voivodeship Court in Warsaw on 23 February 1990. Among its priorities was spreading tolerance, raising awareness and preventing HIV. With AIDS spreading, in spring 1990, Jarosław Ender and Sławomir Starosta started a campaign called Kochaj, nie zabijaj (Love, don't kill), a "social youth movement aiming for raising awareness about AIDS".

The first issue of Inaczej (Differently), a magazine for sexual minorities or "those loving differently", (which became a common euphemism in Polish), was published in June 1990. The originator was Andrzej Bulski, under the nom de plume Andrzej Bul. He was the owner of Softpress publishing company, which had published several LGBT-oriented and related books in the 1990s. 7 October 1990 was opening day for the club Café Fiolka at Puławska 257 in Warsaw—the first official gay club in Poland. It was closed in 1992 after repeated acts of vandalism. 1991 saw the first Polish gay male monthly Okay (that closed in 1992), distributed nationwide in  newsagent's shops. It was initially redacted by the writer and poet Tadeusz Olszewski, under the pen name of Tomasz Seledyn.

The first official coming out in the Polish media was an article in September 1992 edition of Kobieta i Życie (Woman and Life) magazine about a renowned and well-known actor Marek Barbasiewicz. The first public lesbian coming out was a declaration by Izabela Filipiak in the magazine Viva in 1998.

Despite the birth of LGBT activism, some politicians chose to use fearmongering against LGBT citizens as a strategy to gain popularity. This included Kazimierz Kapera, the vice-minister of health, who was recalled from this position in a phone call from Prime Minister Jan Krzysztof Bielecki in May 1991 after saying on public television that homosexuality is a deviation and a reason for the AIDS epidemic. On 14 February 1993, a group of people associated with Lambda held a demonstration under Sigismund's Column, calling for their "rights to love". It was the first LGBT public manifestation in Poland. In 1998 there was a happening where several LGBT people, including activist Szymon Niemiec, held cards with the names of their occupations while wearing face masks. In the Spring of 1995 Polish immigrants established a group called Razem (Together) in New York, which served Polish LGBT immigrants in contacting the LGBT community in Poland and integrating themselves in America. Razem was a part of the Lesbian & Gay Community Services Center (L&GCSC). In 1996, inspired by Olga Stefania, the OLA-Archiwum (Polish Feminist Lesbian Archive) was established and registered as an association in 1998. Between 1997 and 2000 OLA published eight issues of Furia Pierwsza (Fury the First), a "literary feminist lesbian magazine". The first gay community internet portal Inna Strona (a Different Site) was created in September 1996. It was renamed Queer.pl and is still active. That same year the Polish Lesbians' Site was created. In 1998, the Tęczowe Laury award (Rainbow Laurels), was given out for the first time for promoting tolerance and respect towards LGBT people. Jarosław Ender and Sławomir Starosta were the originators of the idea. Some of the people awarded the prize included: Kora, Zofia Kuratowska, Monika Olejnik, Jerzy Jaskiernia, and the daily Gazeta Wyborcza.

2001 was the year the first Equality Parade was held in Warsaw, attended by over 300 people. This was the first large-scale protest against homosexual discrimination. That same year Campaign Against Homophobia was established. A campaign, Niech nas zobaczą, (Let Them See Us) was held in 2003. It was the first artistic social campaign against homophobia, and consisted of 30 photos by Karolina Breguła. These showed gay and lesbian couples and were exhibited at exhibitions in galleries and printed on billboards, which were often vandalized.

In 2004 and 2005 officials denied permission for the Warsaw Pride Parade, citing the likelihood of counter-demonstrations, interference with religious or national holidays, lack of a permit, among other reasons. The parade was opposed by the conservative Law and Justice party's Lech Kaczyński (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), was organized in Warsaw in 2004, and was estimated to have drawn 600 to 1000 attendees. In response to the 2005 ban, about 2500 people marched on 11 June of that year, in an act of civil disobedience that led to several brief arrests. By entering European Union, Poland had to fully incorporate anti-discrimination laws into its legal structure, including those dealing with discrimination for sexual orientation. On 1 January 2004, a law that included forbidding workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation became part of Polish labour laws.

In 2011 election Poland made history by electing its first out LGBT Members of Parliament—Robert Biedroń, an out gay man, and Anna Grodzka, an out transgender woman, one of the originators of foundation Trans-Fuzja.

Since 2015

While ahead of the 2015 Polish parliamentary election, the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party took an anti-migrant stance, in the run-up to the 2019 Polish parliamentary election the party has focused on countering Western "LGBT ideology". Several Polish municipalities and four Voivodeships made so-called "LGBT-free zone" declarations, partly in response to the signing of a declaration in support of LGBTQ rights by Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski. While only symbolic, the declared zones signal exclusion of the LGBT community. The right wing Gazeta Polska newspaper issued "LGBT-free zone" stickers to readers. The Polish opposition and diplomats, including US ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher, condemned the stickers. The Warsaw district court ordered that distribution of the stickers should halt pending the resolution of a court case. However Gazeta's editor dismissed the ruling saying it was "fake news" and censorship, and that the paper would continue distributing the sticker. Gazeta continued with the distribution of the stickers, but modified the decal to read "LGBT Ideology-Free Zone".

In August 2019, multiple LGBT community members have stated that they feel unsafe in Poland. Foreign funded NGO All Out organization launched a campaign to counter the attacks, with about 10,000 people signing a petition shortly after the campaign launch. 2019 saw a rise of violence directed against Pride marches, including the attacks at the first Białystok Equality March and a bombing attempt made at a Lublin march, stopped by the police.

In the 2020 Polish presidential election, President Andrzej Duda focused heavily on LGBT issues, stating "LGBT is not people, it's an ideology, which is more harmful than Communism". He narrowly won re-election. According to ILGA-Europe's 2020 report, Poland is ranked worst among European Union countries for LGBT rights. On 7 August 2020, 47 people were arrested in Polish Stonewall mass arrest. Some of them were peacefully protesting the arrest of Margot, an LGBT activist, while others were passerby. The Polish Ombudsman criticized human rights violations by the police.

On 27 September, 50 Ambassadors and Representatives from all over the world (included: the Representatives in Poland of the European Commission and of the UNHCR, the First Deputy Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the Head of Office of the International Organization for Migration, the Secretary General of the Community of Democracies) published an open letter to the Polish authorities called "Human Rights are not an ideology - they are universal. 50 Ambassadors and Representatives agree." and giving their support of the efforts of LGBT people equal rights, the respect of fundamental human rights, the need to protect from verbal and physical abuse and hate speech; ending with the text on the bottom:

On November 11, 2021, while Polish far-right nationalists at a rally in Kalisz attended by hundreds of people yelled "Death to Jews," the rally organizer said: “LGBT, pederasts and Zionists are the enemies of Poland.”

See also

 LGBT-free zone
 LGBT rights in Poland
 Political activity of the Catholic Church on LGBT issues in Poland

Notes

References

Further reading

Poland


title: Ivan Yakovlevich Yukhimenko

text:
Ivan Yakovlevich Yukhimenko (; 2 October 1892, Kharkiv – 6 February 1943, Kazan) was a Soviet actor, director and teacher. It is thought that he died during the Kharkiv tragedy.

References

Soviet directors
Soviet male actors
1892 births
1943 deaths
Actors from Kharkiv
People from Kharkov Governorate
Film people from Kharkiv
Soviet civilians killed in World War II
Ukrainian people executed by the Soviet Union


title: Vishwa Bharti Women's College, Srinagar

text:
Vishwa Bharti College of Education is a branch of a large educational complex, known as Vishwa Bharti Women's Welfare Institution established in the year 1951. The college is recognised by J&K State Govt. and is affiliated to the University of Kashmir.

Women's universities and colleges in Jammu and Kashmir
Colleges affiliated to University of Kashmir
Degree colleges in Kashmir Division


title: James Knight-Pacheco

text:
James Knight-Pacheco  is a television personality who has appeared in cooking shows on the BBC. Knight-Pacheco and Alasdair Hooper were the runners-up in Raymond Blanc's BBC Two programme The Restaurant. Blanc offered them both a job at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons. In 2010, Knight-Pacheco and  Hooper hosted a BBC Two series on event catering Out of the Frying Pan.

Knight-Pacheco is the executive chef at ME by Melia, Dubai.

References

Venezuelan chefs
The Restaurant (British TV series)
British chefs
British food writers
British television chefs
Living people
Date of birth missing (living people)
Year of birth missing (living people)
Venezuelan television chefs