The last few months have shown a spike in our Polish listeners. And it’s no wonder considering the violent anti-queer rhetoric that has filled the country lately. Sadly, the Pis Parties control of the country has put queer Poles in a dangerous predicament. On this episode we cover some of the current events in the Catholic dominated country. As well as the rich queer history of the Polish people. Join us as we delve into the rainbow plague! Today we have written a special episode just for our Polish listeners. Our end of the year data showed a spike in downloads for Poland. And this is no doubt due to the aggressive campaign mounted against queer Poles in their homeland’s most recent election. Our hearts go out to you, and we want to make as many people as we can aware of your situation. And also to educate everyone about Poland’s rich queer history. But first let’s give a rundown of what has happened in Poland this past year. Also as a trigger warning; we will be using queer slurs throughout this episode as we quote bigots and homophobes. In cases of violence against the LGBTQ community, we do not believe in sugar coating the events. These slurs are what our Polish friends hear everyday and we want their plight to be made clear.  2015 saw the rise of the ultra conservative Law and Justice Party. Which in Poland is interpreted as Prawo (Pravo) i (eh) Sprawiedliwość (Spreva dievosht) and is known as the PIS party. And it is also how we will refer to the intolerant political movement during this episode. The PIS party gained the majority lead by running on an anti-immigrant platform during the middle of the decade. However in the most recent campaign, they found that anti-queer rhetoric spoke more profoundly to bigots. The focus of the PIS party’s 2019 campaign was simply to attack, malign, and demonize LGBTQ Poles; and it worked. In September of this year Polish citizens under 40 were polled to see what they believed was the greatest threat to their country. While women pointed to climate change as the biggest concern, men stated the threat was ‘gender ideology and the LGBT movement.’ And it is no wonder that male voters have come to so deeply fear and hate their fellow queer citizens. Leaders of the PIS party have worked to spread homophobic panic by pushing cities to declare LGBT Free Zones. While it is not illegal to be gay in Poland, and while these Free Zones have no judicial backing, it does send a clear message to the LGBTQ community. As does the violence and protesting that has so harshly come down on the queer population. In June of this year 1000 brave LGBTQ Poles and their allys hosted the first Pride March. They were met by an overwhelming majority of counter protesters. Who drowned the festivities in boos, hurled bricks, eggs, and fireworks at the marchers. And other protesters who knelt on the sidewalk to openly pray for the souls of their vile LGBTQ fellows. As one activist later wrote; “everywhere there are hands showing the finger, lots and lots of those middle fingers, to say, ‘Fuck you, faggots.” Had it not been for Police holding back the crowds the entire band of marchers would no doubt have been engulfed in a bloody riot.  And if the pressure from the PIS party wasn’t enough, the Catholic Church is there to make things worse. In August, the church commemorated the Warsaw Uprising. A failed attempt by the Polish Resistance to keep Soviet occupation out as the crumbling German occupation fled the country. The Archbishop paid tribute to the brave resistance who fought the “Red Plague”. And then the church leader went on to warn of a new threat. As he stated; “The Red pestilence no longer marches across our land, but a new, neo-marxist one appears. Not Marxist, Bolshevik, but born of the same spirit – Not red, but rainbow,”. One cannot stress the impact of the Church’s attack on the queer community as the coun...