Polish/Eastern European homophobia?

I'm in the same boat as you, except that the immigrants are Chinese and Vietnamese. I can't exactly understand the language being spoken here as well. Even though my town has at least 50,000 residents, there is a small town mentality since the older set of immigrants don't dare to venture outside the community, basically going to a place where more adults and children speak English, without bringing me or my sister along.

My predominant languages in my town are Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, and Spanish. I speak a different Chinese dialect with my parents, but the problem is that the dialect I speak is a total minority. My parents are more multilingual than I am, so they can get around easily. I personally can not, so I can relate with you. Chinese dialects and Vietnamese aren't exactly the prettiest languages to hear...

It's basically "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" here. No one ever talks about it except for the kids that I go to school with. However, the homophobia in Chinese and Vietnamese communities, especially among the older immigrants, is quite rampant. Obviously, the younger generation (young immigrants and descendants) is far more accepting with LGBT issues than their parents. And I know for sure that the ones that come here when they were teenagers are also much more accepting.

As a child of two immigrant parents, integration is always happening in immigrant communities. It doesn't have to be so obvious. From the outside, my parents can't understand nor speak a lick of English other than knowing greetings and "Thank You." However, they have integrated to a certain extent like learning about the politics in the country or state they live in, and getting familiar with the cuisine. There are different levels of integration, so for you to say that there seems to zero integration is quite extreme.

Even though I understand why my town thinks the way it does, I'm not planning to stay here. Not only does my town still has the old-school mentality with the LGBT, cost of living has shot through the roof with the new-money immigrants coming here form China to evade high taxes. Here's a suggestion for you, you can move to a town where it's still filled with immigrants, but ones that are more accepting. Maybe French and German immigrants?

I'm planning to do that, since those towns in my county have a lower cost of living and they still have immigrants, but the immigrants are part of the younger generation, which is more accepting than their predecessors. Also, the town where I plan to move to in the future is filled with descendants of the immigrants from towns like mine, so we'd have the same mindset.

 

I am half Polish and I grew up in Poland, in a bigger city.

My city had a pretty vibrant gay community and I was part of it, but I do know it had to do with it being a bigger city with a more internationally minded, middle class & student population. I had many gay male friends who were pretty open about their sexuality. I cannot imagine it being ok in some part of Poland though - so it really depends on what kind of people you encounter, and where they are from.

Generally working class Polish people are more likely to be homophobic in their attitudes.
Middle class people might hold homophobic views, but they will be more or less civilised about them- the operating principle is 'let people do stuff in private as they wish'.

Usually homophobia is limited to verbal type of stuff- negative things that people would say about gay people - just because they have entered the pejorative level of language- it is not particularly dangerous as such, because it is not even thought to refer to actual gay people. Eg if you see a working class guy who works as a labourer, is about 50 and generally looks like somebody who gets a bit rowdy after a pint or two- you might hear him talk negatively about gay people at some point- but it is unlikely that he would be really full of hate or want to attack anyone who is gay. Give them enough booze and drink with them and they will probably start declaring what a great person you are and how 'polish' in your attitudes you are.

The people who are kind of dangerous are those who dress in sports wear, work out a lot- big muscles, steroids, arrogant etc. They are a kind of new breed of people- they were not really around when I was growing up, and certainly I did not really encounter them in person. They are a kind of subculture of working class young men who are associated with heavy gym use, steroid use, maybe football fans, possibly dope smokers etc. They are the types who are on guard even if they 'let go' and are generally not to be trusted.

Basically anyone who looks hyper-masculine, arrogant, loud is best to be avoided- so I'd use your judgment of human energy of that- does the person look intimidating? if they do, they are probably not particularly safe to be around. Everybody else is probably safe, if possibly bigoted, as most people are anywhere.

 

I live in Poland and... I'd say it's not the most accepting place, but it's changing slowly. Generally people who are more religious tend to be more homophobic and transphobic, but yonger generations are starting to think differently. In my class where we have like 32 people most of them are either totally okay with gay people or don't think it's the right thing or whatever but they're like "but it's their business" and the most they'll do is say something about it to their friends. The only case in which I'd be afraid is when those aggresive men appear, the kind who seems to know only swear words and are ready to beat up anyone who looks at them the wrong way.

 

There area I live (northern part of Chicago) has a ton of Polish immigrants. At least 3 of my good friends are Polish (and can speak at least some of it) with immigrant parents. All of them are accepting of LGBT people. I also have a Serbian friend with immigrant parents, and she too is accepting. I don't know much about what their parents think (I know the Serbian parents are homophobic), but I can see that the kids of immigrants are much more open minded.

A lot of Eastern European countries tend to be a little homophobic. Statistically speaking, Poland isn't that bad as the acceptance rate is (estimated) at 40%. Bigger cities are more accepting, so if you're talking about immigrants from rural areas then they are probably more homophobic. If you're talking about people moving in from the major cities of Poland, like Warsaw or Krakow, then I wouldn't worry as much.

I have a lot of family that lives in Greece, which is an Eastern Orthodox country, and it's not too bad for LGBT people. Typically, people there don't care what you do in the bedroom. It's usually a bigger issue when it comes to family being LGBT. My mother, who is an immigrant, doesn't have a problem with gay people. However, the fact that I'm family is what makes her a little more worried. She can accept me, but she worries about what my family might think. A lot of my family lives in smaller cities, so there's a lesser chance of them being more "open minded".

Then there's some Eastern European countries like Russia which are just way too homophobic for me to expect positive results from. I guess the more east you go the worse it gets.

 

I have the same concern for the LGBT when it comes to the middle eastern/Muslim immigration to Sweden. There are certain places that I would never ever ever go to wearing a pride bracelet or anything else that make people believe you are gay unless I was in a big group. Actually just a few days ago I was quite disturbed by what the Swedish LGBT organization "RFSL" said when people from the right winged party "Swedish Democrats"(who are not known to be the biggest supporters of LGBT) decided to organize a Pride parade through some of these homophobic areas.

RFSL basically said that it was racist to have a pride parade there because "they are suggesting" that this very Muslim dense and poor area was homophobic. I mean can you believe they actually said that? The number one place in Sweden that the pride movement should be the most important is pretty much this area among others like it. Yet having a parade there is considered racist by the biggest LGBT organization in Sweden. I was baffled, to say the least.

I don't care who organized the pride parade and whether or not you have the same opinion as them politically. This parade is necessary for the sake of the LGBT living in these neighbourhoods, so stop whining and get on with it. I mean how do these spoiled elite who live in their super accepting feministic/hipster inner-city neighbourhoods think the LGBT got shit done back when the pride movement started? It's not like they got to decide who their ally was. They didn't have the option to choose and it's not like it mattered anyways because the point of the pride movement was to eradicate homophobia. Not to play who is the most PC by neglecting the people who actually live in these neighbourhoods. I actually felt so offended, disappointed and betrayed when RFSL did this. Like they don't even care about the people who struggle the most with their sexuality in the areas where you are most likely to get hurt because of it. I digress.

I think that there is reason to worry. Of course there's a heightened risk of being discriminated if the percentage of anti-LGBT opinion rises in the neighbourhood you live.

 

hm interesting- I've had a completely different response to this.

I agree that there is a general problem with those communities holding more homophobic views due to religion, but I also feel that the people in power kind of use LGBT people as a pawn in their own game, and I resent this.

In other words- they use our sexuality, rather than those parades being organised for our sake. It's a tool so they can say "look we are so progressive, we accept gay people- and you, you are so backward, you don't- shame on you". And this way it has the potential for more hostility.

 

Honestly what does it matter if they do it for political gain, they are the first and only ones who have taken this initiative, whatever their agenda is the initiative to bring pride to the suburbs is still something positive. I also don't see why there's anything wrong with saying that certain people are backwards when they obviously are? It doesn't make sense, because everyone on here do it all the time. If I met someone that said gays are like cancer, I wouldn't just walk away and I'm sure a lot of people on here would agree with me that we need to fight these kinds of notions about the LGBT. Fact is Islam have, much Christianity and Judaism, homophobic scripture. And guess what? People worship and live by these writings.

I mean you cannot seriously say that we should just let these areas continue to hold these horrible views and discriminate and spread hate about LGBT. Do you believe for a second that the Imams in the mosque preach anything good about homosexuality? There are children in these areas that probably feel so awful and have to go through so, so much bullshit because everyone is afraid of saying or doing anything about it because it might make them look racist"?". I mean it's ridiculous. At least someone had the balls to raise awareness on homophobia in the suburbs. It's about goddamn time.

I saw a video from the suburbs. It was from a school during recess when the pride parade was walking through these neighbourhoods. The children were chanting things like "I HATE GAY PEOPLE" and other homophobic stuff. There was a video on facebook today with some young people (couldn't have been older than 14) that were lighting a pride flag on fire. Whatever people say, and how racist (???) they might think it is. Homophobia is a big problem in Islam even in the western world. Just like it is a huge problem in Christianity. Religions shouldn't have some special treatment they are just as much ideologies as socialism, capitalism and feminism are. It's time people realize that and started treating them like such.

 

I'm half Russian on my dads side. He was from Oreol Russia and came here with about 20 of my aunts and uncles yo new York. When he met my mom in California and had me he still was not a proficient speaker so I grew up with him only speaking Russian. When my mom moved to Virginia as well I learned English but I have to speak Russian to all of my relative in New York. Its easy to understand why you (and many other) think Slavic languages sound harsh. I heard people say that Russian sounds like a person with awful constipation and it IS intimidating. Personally I have not come out to any of my family. I k ow my cousins and nephews/neices would be okay but all of my older generational relatives would disown me. Prejudice is hard in that part of the world. Ive heard horror stories of lynchings and rapes of non-heteros back in the motherland so im not to anxious to spill my guts. My mothers side is no better off because all are hard Scots Irish southern men who would disown me too.

My point withstanding I think that most eastern/European nations still have the old style mentality and bring it here with them. Even tho their Americans they don't truly understand that America isn't race or ethnicity or culture but integration into ideals and that's a hard pill to swallow for a lot of immigrants. I think that your plight isn't as bad as it could be and as horrible as it sounds isn't going to go away until the first generation immigrants either integrate or die. I'm gonna add a smiley face cuz I'm depressed now(!)

 

Eastern and Southern European states such as some in Central Europe (Poland, Slovakia) and Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) are unfriendly about lgbt rights a lot. I live in Serbia, southern county (near Greece) and I can surely say that lgbt people here can't feel very satisfied. First, here tradition defines us strictly as males and females with all of their roles and gender expressions, and everybody expects of you to use only behavior that's "natural" for gender you're assigned at birth. Although our constitution gives some sorts of freedom and tolerance (but bans same sex marriage) people suck, actually appear to be rude to individuals with different gender expressions, and there are situations that young lgbt people were hospitalized or injured by some extremely homophobic groups. Protests against 'parade of shame" (that's rude name people calling here pride parade) were organized before every pride which (should) take place annually, but for several years pride was cancelled because of aggression from many gangs and traditionally oriented groups and lack of security. The influence of ortodox church is large, proclaiming intolerance and battle against 'evil"(citing lgbt community), and even in school homosexuality and transgenderism are described as "mental illness". As the conclusion simple life in eastern parts of Europe can be a real shock for some lgbt tourists, so I recommend caution if you're planning to go here, and just to say that i've never seen here same sex couple holding hands together, ohh

 

I live in Hungary, and it's about the same here. There have been attacks on gay bars with Molotov-cocktails not so long ago, people throwing things at parade attenders and such...

Communism really held us back and most of Eastern Europe in many areas of life, like this one.