UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, 7th Annual International Postgraduate Conference

Inclusion Exclusion

16-18th February 2006

Saturday 18 February 2:30 – 4:00: Panel K3: Sexualities

**Ewa Rzanna (Przegląd Polityczny): ‘Paradoxes of normality: the gay rights debate in Poland in the aftermath of the EU accession’**

Although the EU membership was often phrased by its supporters in terms of "a return to normality" after the period of communism, during the first year in the EU the majority of Poles could not help noticing that their idea of what is normal differs at some crucial points from the standards of Western Europe. This applies most visibly to issues of public morality, in particular, the gay emancipation and equality. What seems to be at stake is the very definition of the norm, or rather the question of its source being located either in national tradition or foreign values. Interestingly, the postulate of "normality" – its establishment or reinstatement – has been appropriated with equal eagerness by both proponents and opponents of the gay liberation in Poland: the recent Equality Parade in Warsaw which called for "normal" treatment of sexual minorities was promptly followed by the Normality Parade arguing, in the name of "normality", for the exclusion of "sexual abnormality" from public life. On the other hand, the "normality" discourse has had an astonishing impact on the gay community itself. In the struggle for political and social recognition its representatives have been at pains to eliminate any appearance of idiosyncrasy from their public image and run their campaign, somewhat equivocally, under the slogan: "We are just the same as you". Therefore, in my paper I would like to concentrate on the way different understandings of normality have been used in the gay rights debate with a special emphasis on the instrumental role played in it by the EU. Secondly, I want to show how the ongoing "normalization" of the gay community is explored and sometimes deplored in literature by the leading Polish gay writers.