QUEERWARSAW
Epilogue
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Jacek Kochanowski, sociologist I regret to say that Warsaw is not the city that is best equipped with the places for gay / les / trans. In this respect, I prefer Łódź with my favourite sauna Ganymede, cult Narraganset or the new, exclusive Blue Queen. In Warsaw I visit almost exclusively Lodi Dodi (mainly during the week, because I do not like crowds), where there is always smiling Tomek waiting for me- the bartender with good heart; I also visit the sauna in Fantom, the oldest and cult Warsaw club. I like staying in the places “with soul” where you can just sit and talk. Hence all those snob-clubs are totally not for me. It seems to me that - quite contrary to the popular opinion - gay clubs are and will continue to be needed, because as long as the world around us is the heteronormative world, we will need places where we can be “at home” even if it smells like “ghetto”. They do not need to be and should not be places “closed” in any way, with the selection and other police. Open, yet ours - the places where you can come and complain that another picked up guy is married or a priest. Places (gently) homonormative.
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Krzysztof Kliszczyński, social activist: Is Warsaw homofriendly? I was wondering about this question for just a moment. For me, the answer is obvious: yes! I go out with my boyfriend, we kiss goodbye by the block of flats. The neighbor smiles and nods saying “good morning”. Pride Parade goes down Marszałkowska Street, tram passengers smile at us. The Parade turns into Piękna Street and there is an old lady on the balcony pointing at her crutches. She cannot go with us, but she waves at us. Our volunteer, from Silesia, goes to one of the City Halls of Warsaw, and sends me a text message: Cool office. There are posters of Lambda and KPH, and ladies clerks are not wearing uniforms. Warsaw is friendly. Not only for gays and lesbians. For all “others”. Warsaw - looking for its metropolitan identity – crawls in “diversity”, but it already knows that this is the way to go. Even if some of its residents still do not know that.
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Maciej Nowak, journalist, theatrical and culinary critic: Gay Warsaw begins at the threshold of my apartment. I live in a block of flats in Szczęśliwice, where my grandparents moved in 1950 and where my mother and uncle grew up. I myself went back there in the mid 1980s, and since my professional life for a long time consisted of continuous wandering between Warsaw and Gdańsk, I had the impression that I am not specifically recognized in Szczęśliwice. Several years ago I was invited to take part in the campaign promoting voluntary blood donation. And then half an hour before the appointed meeting I got a phone, saying that I did not have to come. - We do not accept gay blood - I heard. I described this case in “Gazeta Wyborcza”, which caused a lot of emotion. A few EN
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