our performances

A happening within the framework of The Antihomophobic May Picnic Participants: - Antiguy General of Poland, - The Campaign Against Homophobia Wroclaw (KPH Wroclaw) - Trans-Fusion - Freelance advocates of queer movement

On 11th of June at quarter to 5 pm the two pairs of Newlyweds accompanied by a Master of Ceremony set off down Grodzka Street, Wroclaw with the sounds of the Wedding March to 'conquer' the Market Square. As they were passing, one could see smile or surprise in the faces of accidental passers-by. Occasionally laughter could be heard or words gay and lesbian, although the couples' composition was by no means homosexual. However, it was difficult to make a superficial, based on appearance, judgement on who was the Groom and who - the Bride.

At the front there marched a counterculture crossdressed pair of Brides: these were Ann, a KPH member, and Antiguy - both in the typical wedding costumes of white dresses, veils, with Ann carrying a bunch of flowers and necklaces of pearls, all of which obviously provided food for thought to on-lookers. Following were the pair of Grooms in tail-coats and top hats - these were Freja and me. Next to us walked with fortitude our Master of Ceremony in a lithurgic robe, carrying a loudspeaker and a board with a propaganda slogan. The streets of Grodzka and Szewska on our way to the Market Square were not crowded at the time so we passed smoothly with only heat causing discomfort to the heavily clad Grooms to arrive in our destination in really high spirits contemplating the sincere reactions of surprise of the general population.

While entering the Market Square, we saw the policemen who had come to help us in case our vision of the world was rejected by somebody in a violent way. However, till the very end of the happening the policemen only stood by and, as I hope, they enjoyed the show no less than we did.

To greet the crowd of viewers in the Market Square we took one of the coaches and had a route around the square with the music on. As we were passing, Antiguy waved to the audience with the style matching that of Queen Elisabeth, with Ann doing the same, restricted only by the bunch of flowers she had with her. I and Freja were trying to stay serious. We were greeted by people drinking beer in outdoor pubs as well as by those standing at the walls of the libraries and shops. Their reactions ranged from shock, through astonishment with ironic comments to sincere smiles and laughter. Both the local people and the visitors who enjoyed our appearance waved back to us. Many expressed opinions, yet more people took photos of us. After the coach ride, we got off and with the sense of dignity went on to send onto people our message about sexual roles and going beyond them.

The Master of Ceremony married us symbolically by just tying our hands with a plastic tape typically used for marking areas under construction. Then we humbly listened to a humorous speech in honour of the Newlyweds which had been prepared by Antiguy. It was a parody of the current government of Poland, which seeks to make people believe that a family is a heterosexual only relationship of a true man and a truly feminine woman, where both parties obey their gender roles with devotion matching our commitment in arguing that there are many styles that can be followed by couples in real life nowadays.

After the speech, there was an exclamation of the wedding party urging the Newlyweds to kiss each other, which is typical of a Polish wedding, so the couples gave each other a passionate kiss, and then went on to march around the Townhall again, still to the accompaniment of the Mendelson tune. Our 'wedding party' provided a group dressed up as so called and self-appointed defenders of the public order, the family values and tradition in general, whom we called The Polish Party of True Poles. They looked gorgeous in their army boots, military trousers and hooded black blouses hiding their faces or baseball caps, also worn to hide one's identity. Walking in a column with PPTP, the Newlyweds gradually lost their initial romantic attitude and pitched in with the nationalists shouting the well known slogans of 'Hey, Hey, the family's OK.!' or 'A Boy and a girl - a family OK!' with appropriate hostile gestures of fists and, this time, purely mechanical kissing. Let's hope that the effect of crossdressed couples' shouting this kind of slogans will result in modifying their original antifreedom and antitolerance meaning known from the public rallies and marches so far, and that these slogans will eventually be abandoned by the youths only too fond of aggression. We also hope that we managed to take our share in the public space and win some public support for our ideas by making accidental passersby laugh while watching our show as well as start thinking on the topic of gender roles.

After the happening the Newlyweds were cordially greeted by 'the Polish Party of True Poles', KPH and the audience. We had a photo-op and a traditional throw of the bunch of flowers, which is said to bring good luck to the person who catches it. This time the thrower was Antiguy (anyway - one of the Brides), and the lucky one (that almost caught the flowers) turned out to be Mariusz of KPH - no doubt he will marry a handsome guy soon! Moments later a few interviews were given, one resulting in a nice footage aired in the evening by the local TVP3 channel.

The whole happening was the closing part of The Antihomophobic May Picnic organized by the Campaign Against Homophobia (KPH). Its author was Antiguy General of Poland who received substantial assistance from KPH in Wroclaw and the newly established group called Trans-Fusion, with a few other advocates of the queer movement.

Special thanks must be given to the participants of the show: Ann, Marcin, Master of Ceremony, Prószka (a woman with prominent voice who excellently acted as an aggressive youth), the others of the PPTP, i. e. Mariusz and Michał, who endured a 30-centigrade hot in their paramilitary clothes, as well as to Karolinka of Opole, who drove from there to shoot a video at our performance, together with Mirka, who not only kept an eye on the safety of the show, but videotaped it as well, and to Zuza - who helped organize the costumes of both the Grooms.


information about our happenig from TVP 3

Antiguy & Voca