I tried to scan a very long discussion under this post to check if someone tried to reply. Sorry if the answer skipped my attention.

As a Polish native speaker I can reply, that the word “gay” is used in Polish strictly as a noun. A masculine noun. Therefore using it to describe a woman is unnatural (although sometimes something like that is done, mostly in case of names of professions, e.g. pani doktor – madame doctor). Polish speaking person would tend to create a feminine version of the word “gay” – but e.g “gejówka” lacks respect and “geini” sounds weird and sophisticated (which I state on the basis of my being Polish native). Using the word “lesbijka” (feminine noun) is easier.

In Polish “homosexual” is a more universal word, as it may have a form of an adjective (homoseksualny/a/ni/ne) and nouns (homoseksualista/tka).

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/how-the-forces-finally-learnt-to-take-pride-1762057.html

You’re welcome:
http://sylwiaofwarsaw.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/men-kissing-in-polish-history/

Can you see the difference between one’s being gay, hetero or whatever, and one’s way of campaigning? Do you really think that if you’re gay anything you do is above critique, or is there a slight possibility that even gays can do things that are seen by others as an attack, without reasons linked to sexuality? Or perhaps I imagined the respective 75% and 87% against you, and, as you say, I am wrong, and the Polish nation and gay rights merge quite well?

You are not the Polish nation. You are only a small percent of it, and unless you campaign in a way that shows respect to the majority you’re going to alienate them. It’s not a matter of any objective truth or justice, these are just simple mechanics in democracy. You may be 100% right and still a loser.

That’s what I’m saying, and I don’t think it requires a huge intellectual effort to understand the point. You don’t have to agree with the people, but you need their votes.

All I told you is that Poles see parades as a thing against them because they have had bad experiences. Somehow feminists have as bad results, and they like parades as much. On the other hand, Polish women were granted equal rights without any parades at all – luckily for us our contemporary feminists weren’t yet born.

What the UK conservatives have to do with it? How many of them have reasons to link parades to communism? And how many churchgoers are there in the Church of England? 5%? Do you really think it likely that over 50% of Poles will stop going to Church if you keep blaming it? Or can you admit the possibility that the longer you blame it the lesser your chances will be?

I may be wrong in my assessment of the causes of your bad results, but that they are extremely bad is a fact. During the last 8 years people’s support for gay marriages fell from 24% to 14%, and their support for gay adoption fell from 8% to 5%. Their opposition grew from 69% against gay marriage to 75%, and from 84% against gay adoption to 87%.

http://kobiety-kobietom.com/naszasprawa/art.php?art=11

You can either look for causes, analyse them and improve your methods, or get offended at anyone who dares to say that something must be wrong, keep stomping your foot, and hope that you’ll succeed if you cry loud and long enough.

I didn’t say that gay activists claim that they are against the Polish nation, only that from the point of view of the majority of Poles it looks like they are. To which you accused me of being against gays and went on offending me, all the time claiming that you don’t offend anyone. Bravo! One would assume that with the overwhelmingly bad results you already have you’d care not to make even more enemies.

OMG I would LOVE to see Stalin in drag, Brezhnev and Honecker kissing and waving rainbow flags… effeminate miners and farmers holding hands:) Rosa Luxembours with moustache… That would be so fun to watch such a communist parade! :) You right-wingers sometimes do have the funniest ideas!

Sylvia darling, I’ve never seen any gay activist claim they are against the Polish nation. It is people like you, who claim that being gay, or having certain politicical ideas – excludes from being Polish. It is you, who says gay rights are against the Polish nation. I told you: WE ARE POLISH NATION. Whether you like it or not. You are gainst the rights of a part of Polish Nation.
And I think you are wrong. I think Polish nation and gay rights merge quite well. And that in 30 years people like you, just like conservatives in the UK or Sweden, will understand that.

I didn’t put homosexuality and the Polish nation as opposites. You do. If you go on demonstrating against them, you put them at the opposite side whether they wish it or not.

I didn’t compare homosexuality to communism. I compared your campaigning methods, that happen to be similar. Haven’t you ever seen communist parades?

No, not everyone was against communism, but 90% of Poles were. Gay adoption is opposed by 87%, and you think you’ll win by offending them. I just meant to point out to the lack of logic, but I’m sure you know better.

Finally something interesting. I wouldn’t agree with anything you say but it’s interesting:)

The way you put homosexuality and the Polish Nation as opposites… could Agnieszka Graff be right in her “Rykoszetem: rzecz o płci i narodzie”?… I am the Polish Nation too, just as you are. How could I oppose myself?:P I oppose stupid ideas some of my compatriots have. Right-wingness and petit-bourgeois are not genetically Polish.

You then go comparing (again – intertesting) homosexuality to communism. I am sure you would be able to explain how you draw the connection…

But if your logic is
1. Poles reject communism (A # B)
2. Poles reject homosexuality (A # C)
3. Then B = C? Homosexuality equals communism?:)

Then it’s kinda weak.

Especially that communism is an ideology and practice, while homosexuality is a persons quality:) So it’s like comparing apples to VCRs.

And if you think that communism was did not have ANY support among the Poles you are wrong. Many people did support it. People are not all the same. Within my family there were hard-commies and anti-communists arguing on every imieniny. My grandmother still keeps her communist medals, even though she doesn’t get a bonus pension for them any more;)

I’m not going to discuss what’s normal or not. That’s moot. What I’m going to say is that gays won’t get any rights here unless they change their ways. Pawel says that protests won them (and other people) rights in the past, but where? Seriously, did ever any manifestation against the Polish nation bring any good to anyone?

I think I remember some polls some years ago that were ca 60%. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was even less some 20 years ago. Just like the opposition to abortion steadily grows in spite, or to spite, the feminists.

Marches, activists – to Poles you just behave like communists, so that’s how they see you. Keep offending the people’s beliefs, calling them ‘backward’, and repeating all those slogans about liberals and European kind of thinking, and see where we are in 20 years from now.

Solidarność won thanks to strikes, but those were 38 million people against a minority, and not the other way around. How can one grow up in this country and not know that Poles always strike back when they are attacked? Poles don’t have to change, so they won’t. They might do it out of good will, but you don’t leave them room for that.

It’s quite naïve to expect that RC will change its politics. It doesn’t pay. The Churches in the West that showed relaxed attitudes lost out. People want the Church to be an alternative, and Poles will be even harder on you if you force them to defend the Church. Why should they site against their own convictions in support of something they don’t even care about?

Drop the word ‘marriage’. To Poles ‘marriage’ is synonymous with ‘matrimony’. Civil union is quite likely in my opinion, providing people behave reasonably. But not if you bring adoption in the same breath.

Adoption is an entirely different issue, and not only in reference to gays. There’s no such a problem like a shortage of married couples wanting to adopt kids. On the contrary, it’s very difficult to be allowed to adopt, even if you’re in a heterosexual Catholic marriage and both you and your spouse earn a lot of money. The government in Poland has quite a lot to say in reference to kids. No home schooling here or other such things. Parents don’t get to decide about everything, and the government thinks it might be better for the kid to stay in an orphanage.

Even if the general attitude to gays changes there still will remain the attitude to families, and then homosexual women will have much more chances than men. The Polish family is the most matriarchal institution in the world, and 99% of judges in the family courts are women anyway. If a biological father cannot be granted the care of his kids, even if the mother is irresponsible, don’t expect that two unrelated men will.

It really makes no sense to bring Western practices here. In the past women in the West weren’t allowed to raise their kids in case of divorce. Children belonged to fathers. There was no such an issue here. Kids are the domain of Mother Pole, and women won’t give up their rights lightly.

Sylwia, wondering if the Brits who want to marry a Pole ever wondered how it is to get divorced here. :P

Yess…. the unique freshness of Fronda… may only be compared to novelty and freshness of pickled shrimp.

Having mother at ZMS doesn’t mean you’re up to day with leftist thinkers of 20th century. I’d reccomend John Storey’s “Cultural Theory And Popular Culture” for starters.