transpeople milieu and situation in Poland

When it comes to Poland, it’s hard to speak about a strong and consistent gay-lesbian scene, much less about any kind of transgender community. The society has very little knowledge about the very existence of such phenomena as transsexuality or transvestitism, and if someone has heard anything about them at all – they associate them with deviation. Transpeople themselves present more or less the same level of knowledge before endeavors of research of their own, looking for information on the Internet, mostly on English-language websites.

In Poland there is no such thing as compulsory sexual education. In the course books to the optional subject: “Preparation for family life’, homosexuality and masturbation are treated as sin and illness. With bad luck one may encounter the same kind of disinformation about transgender issues (that it’s a deviation and illness) on Internet websites or even from psychologists. Many Polish doctors, psychologists or sexuologists forgot what they have learnt during their studies and don’t know how to treat transsexual patients, while transvestites are mostly viewed as perverts qualified for treatment. Even the newest publications about transsexuality or (more widely) human sexuality are openly contradictory to the WHO classifications which discern between dual-role transvestism (where the transvestite does not dress-up for sexual reasons), and fetishistic transvestitism, while only the latter qualifies as paraphilia. The present Polish government is imposing a highly homophobic and xenophobic policy, which leaves no place for differences and diversity. The Ministry of National Education takes all measures to suppress all non-heteronormative voices so that they would never reach the ears of Polish pupils.

Most often transpeople, before they encounter websites concerned with trans matters, think that they are ill, perverted, all alone in the world with their ‘problem’, and that their transvestitism or transsexuality can be suppressed or treated – they are unaware that it’s something ‘for life’ that can only be ‘cured’ by transition or deep self-acceptance as a transperson. A lot of trans people decide to come out to their partner or friends only very late in their lives, sometimes – never. As far as transsexuals are concerned – if they don’t have money to cover their medical (SRS, hormone therapy) and legal costs – they often have to spend several years of their lives earning the money as since 1999 Sex Reassignment Surgery has no longer been refundable, making the whole cost of a MtF transition amount to about 35 thousand PLN (approx. 12500 USD).

Despite all these disadvantages one might say that a milieu and self-consciousness of those transgendered are slowly forming. The website crossdressing.pl has been functioning for three years: it is a compendium of phenomena connected with transgenderism. It has over a thousand registered users and 2 million visitors. Many transsvestites and transsexuals found out who they are exactly from this site. Its users are quite close even though they meet mostly through the Web. For three years, Trans Party events have been organised (mostly in Warsaw), dress–up parties for friends to meet, and there is also a yearly weekend event for transpeople from all over the country – this year attended by around 50 people.

Everything is organised by individuals, as there is no registered organisation working on behalf of the transpeople. Association for Help for Transsexuals was created a few years ago but eventually fell apart. Such organisations as Campaign Against Homophobia and Lambda according to their statutes should help transpeople, but their activity on this field is rather small as these organisations are more concerned with helping homosexuals and the fight against homophobia. So far there hasn’t been any report concerning the situation of transpeople in Poland.

Transgendered people are fairly invisible in Poland, and most likely they will prefer to remain such. Due to the fact that the present government is highly homophobic, and this homophobia is tenacious in the society (e.g. homosexual teachers are very unwelcome at schools), transpeople may fear that if the issue of their transgenderism became widely discussed, they would be even more discriminated than now. However, for a few months a herald of trans topics has been present – Rafalala – a biological man who is trying to become a transgender star. Rafalala is the first Polish transvestite showing his face, not ashamed of his transvestitism.