Warsaw Fellowship 2016

Girls like Girls. Boys like Boys. People Like People.

So What?

Adam Pakulski, 2016 Ideas Incubator Fellow, Poland

Marek Beresiński, 2016 Ideas Incubator Fellow, Poland

Carlos Flores, 2016 Ideas Incubator Fellow, USA

Over two-thirds (exactly 68 percent) of Poles rejected the idea of allowing same-sex couples to
publicly express their relationship - according to an opinion poll conducted by the Centre for Public Opinion Research (abbreviated CBOS in Polish) in 2013. In Poland, the Sexual and Gender Diversity Community (hereinafter referred to as the LGBTIQ+ Community) continues to face widespread discrimination. A large sector of Poland’s population continues to hold intolerant views of same-sex relationships. Although the LGBTIQ+ Community has held an annual equality parade in Warsaw since 2001 to manifest their desire for more inclusive public policies, negative public opinion has not been significantly reduced. On the contrary, many public officials have inhibited the LGBTIQ+ Community from exercising its right to organize. Fortunately, the European Court of Human Rights ruled—in the 2007 case known as Bączkowski vs. Poland—that Polish officials could not ban LGBTIQ+ pride parades because such actions infringed on the freedom of assembly under Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Despite these modest legal advancements, hate speech and prejudices from large sectors of the Polish
society remain major problems facing the LGBTIQ+ Community. According to researchers Anna Stefaniak and Michał Bilewicz, a large proportion of Polish society considers that offending homosexuals and other gender minorities is socially acceptable.
Before developing our own campaign, our team researched existing campaigns addressing LGBTIQ+ issues. First, we looked at international campaigns such as the Human Rights Campaign, the It Gets Better Project, the All Out Campaign, and the Rainbow Campaign. Although these international projects were more developed, it was important for our team to look at the different campaign strategies utilized in their own activism.

Next, our team looked at local campaigns and projects. The presentation given by the Campaign Against Homophobia (KPH)—a local LGBTIQ+ civil society organization—on Monday, June 6, 2016 to the Humanity in Action Fellows was very helpful in doing that. During the presentation, several campaign ideas were highlighted and served as inspiration for our own campaign designs. Our team also identified local bloggers that we listed as possible allies for our own campaign.    
After considering Poland’s particular shortcomings and various existing campaigns, we decided to launch our own social campaign—coined So What? Our team visualized a Polish society in which same-sex relationships were not ostracized. We also imagined a society in which all relationships—including same-sex relationships—would be treated as normal human interactions that would not require unnecessary attention. In essence, we crafted our vision to be a society in which all relationships are treated with equal respect and dignity.  

In order to make small but important steps towards our long-term ideal vision, we developed a clear mission for the So What? Campaign. The campaign was geared at promoting the idea that all relationships are normal, meaning that none of them require any special attention since they are mainly private interactions; they simply need to be tolerated in public spaces.
We decided that our target audiences should include youth and other users of social media in Poland, which does encompass heterosexual individuals. Since our long-term vision requires a massive change of attitudes within the entire Polish population—most of which consists of heterosexual individuals—we decided to have this broader target group. We also considered the platform that we would use (Social Media) and our time frame (one week).

The main platform for the So What? Campaign is the official Facebook page (see link: https://www.facebook.com/sowhat.campaign/). The page, which is in both English and Polish, provides the following detailed description of our social campaign: “Same-sex relationships should not get more attention than heterosexual ones because they are equal. Simple! In public spaces, same-sex couples should not receive unnecessary attention like surprised glances or snarky remarks. When people with prejudices try to have you mock same-sex couples in public, you should just tell them one short phrase—“so what”—to imply that they are like other couples.” The page also features the following short description: “If you agree with us, then join us to show that you ‘don’t care’ too.”
Graphics were very important for our online campaign. Our logo is the principal image for our campaign. The design is reminiscent of the green logo used for Whatsapp, a very popular social media network. This small allusion, coupled with the simple—but attractive—question (so what?), makes the logo very powerful and marketable for our target groups.

Other graphics, such as photographs taken during our campaign, always feature our logo to attribute the work to the So What? Campaign. Since the campaign’s main platform is Facebook, images have been indispensable for promoting the mission and vision previously described. Other forms of graphics, such as images promoting like-minded campaigns/events, were also featured on the Facebook page but with full acknowledgments to their respective creators and/or designers.    
After taking the photographs, our team was able to interview the members of KaDO, a very popular Polish LGBTIQ+-related blog. The KaDo team has an extensive network of followers, including over three thousands Facebook followers. Thus, this interview was an important way of promoting our campaign and forming alliances with like-minded groups.
Finally, we concluded the day by speaking to several representatives from the civil society organizations participating in the diversity event. We were able to distribute some of our stickers and take photographs of several members that agreed to support the campaign by wearing the sticker.

 Main Idea

The main question of our campaign "So what?" is a manifesto in support of homosexuals who want to freely express emotions and feelings with their partners in public places. Most of the social actions aim to break the passive attitude of people in relation to specific situations and trigger some form of re-actions and thinking. Our campaign against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity encourages passivity. "Passiveness" in this context takes on a new meaning and is an expression of acceptance and respect.

We believe that world where lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people can live openly without discrimination and enjoy equal rights and the freedom of expression is possible.