A week in Poland

It's been a newsworthy week in Poland, and not just because we're days away from the start of the Euro 2012 football tournament which opens in Warsaw on June 8. First, there was President Obama's impressive gaffe about "Polish death camps" while honoring Jan Karski (worthy of a post in his own right, but you can read about him here) in Washington. Almost every travel guide and website about Poland will tell you that you should *never* say Polish death camps; it's sort of the Polish no-no #1. Sure, it takes more words to say "German death camps in occupied Poland," but it saves a lot of grief and outrage.

Continuing on the outrage front, a week ago the BBC aired a documentary about the racism and anti-semitism that is rampant at Polish and Ukrainian football games. A former British football player went so far as to say that anyone of color who goes to the Euro 2012 tournament will come home in a body bag. While I think that's some pretty aggressive hyperbole, I have to concede that I've never experienced as much open racism as I have in Europe. It has ranged from large public showings like this incident last fall to one-on-one encounters like the taxi driver in Poznan who, upon learning I was American, questioned, "Do you like n*****s?" Yikes. Prior to coming to Poland I'd never actually seen a skinhead, but I can't say that anymore. I don't believe the Euro 2012 matches themselves will have the kind of chants and fights that regular league games do, but I don't blame my Asian friend for his steer-clear-of-all-football policy.

Then on Saturday I attended the Warsaw Pride parade and got a front row seat to some serious hate. I had established a meeting point near the start of the parade, which just so happened to be the spot where some skinheads were getting arrested:

The police presence for what ended up being five floats and about 2,000 marchers was *insane.* All the police were in full riot gear -- helmets, shields, armor -- and they walked the entire parade route alongside the parade. I think they wanted to avoid having a homo beatdown less than a week before the start of Euro 2012; that makes for bad press. Unfortunately the cops didn't use their shields to block the eggs that some counter protesters threw into the parade (my friend Tanya got hit in the hand because skinheads have poor aim) but I was shocked by their massive presence. In the end I think swarms of police make me feel less secure (what do they know that I don't?) than more. Especially when they start running.

It still seems surreal to see 'white power' signs and celtic crosses in real life. First of all because, dudes, look around: Poland is ALL white people. There are almost no minorities here. And second: really? White power? It feels like I'm walking onto a movie set when I see things like that. How outside reality do you have to be to actually hold that sign? Fortunately, none of that fuckery seemed to dampen the "we're here, we're queer, we're in drag" vibe from the parade, as these ladies can attest:

Now that I've gotten my dose of Pride it's time to swing to the other end of the spectrum for endless football nonsense as the Euro 2012 tournament starts. Check out our pieces that ran in the U.K.'s  Guardian newspaper about what to do in Gdansk, Warsaw and Krakow during the tournament (Wroclaw and Poznan come this week). I will update with football madness as it unfolds and all the drunken Russians, Brits, Czechs and Greeks descend on the city.