QUEERWARSAW
Bankowy Square
motif of the social campaign under the same name which promoted safe sex. The music video created for the song quickly disappeared from television after viewers’ protests, outraged at the fact that the vocalist was licking her lips while singing about sperm. Today the song is still eagerly played by the media on the occasion of the World AIDS Day. Balkan Electrique disbanded in 1994, and ten years later a best of DVD appeared under a simple title Songs. Sławek Starosta took up the business of erotica for men, becoming a publishing potentate within the pornographic magazine industry (under the sign of Pink Press). As of today he still runs the oldest gay sex club in the capital, Fantom. Fiolka Najdenowicz used to be the name sponsor to one of once most popular Warsaw gay locals, Cafe Fiolka. She has also released a solo album. See also: ▶ Cafe Fiolka, ▶ Fantom, ▶ Koźla Pub, ▶ Sigma, ▶ The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Bankowy Square It is today one of the most important public transport transfer areas. With so many tramway and bus routes and the metro station, one can have the impression of an endless chaos. The same is with its architecture! On one side we can see an enormous building standing where before the war Warsaw Jews had their Great Synagogue. The construction of the Blue Tower took for more than 20 years, people started to talk it was a curse – a Jewish one of course. On the other side, a monumental set of 19th century buildings remained; we can find there offices of local and regional authorities. There is also a Hall of Marriages – it remains inaccessible for ceremonies of same sex couples, still not respected by our law. For the LGBT history, the square became an important place in 2004. It was there that – instead of the Gay Pride Parade, our gay pride march, banned by the then mayor Lech Kaczyƒski – activists organized on 11th June a “stationary pride”. More than a thousand people took part in the event. One of the reasons for banning the march, expressed by the mayor, was that it was supposed to “display pornography”. Mayor Kaczyński said with conviction that organizing the pride means forcing the inhabitants of Warsaw to take part in a “sexual event”. Ironically, in Poland’s recent history, the public space was given some porn not by gays and their parades, but by… a group of extreme right activists. It happened in Kraków. A group of enthusiastic nationalists was sentenced by a local court after they displayed very nasty posters aiming at presenting in an odious way the idea of emancipation. On Polish television, it is not gays but right wing publicists that like to talk cock and “what anus should be used for”. Well! The Bankowy Square saw the ending of the 2007 march and was a starting point for the marches in 2008 and 2009. See also: ▶ Gay Pride Parade, ▶ Kaczyński Lech
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