What a difference a decade makes. In 2004, Poland, a former Soviet bloc country, deeply conservative and deeply Roman Catholic, had just joined the European Union. Bans on gay pride marches were strictly enforced and homosexuality was a cultural taboo that dare not speak its name in public. Fast forward ten years and, as Poland has climbed the economic ladder and joined the list of middle-class nations, public gay celebrations are routine and people like 38-year-old Robert Biedron, an openly gay man, are getting elected to public office.
The 30-something was just elected mayor of Slupsk, a city of just under 100,000 people in the northwestern region of Poland near the Baltic Sea. And according to ABCNews.com, Biedron has seen firsthand just how fast his society has changed. “I see how fast Polish society has learned its lesson of tolerance,” Biedron told The Associated Press in an interview two days before he was elected Sunday to be mayor of Slupsk. “So I am very optimistic and happy with Polish society and proud.”
Many also credit this up-and-coming politician – named one of the country’s best lawmakers this year by the weekly magazine Polityka – for the ‘Bierdon’ effect. “Before 2011 elections,” ABC notes, “he used his magazine’s Facebook page to call on gay candidates still in the closet to come out. None did. But this time around, people started writing in to say they would be happy to be publicly identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual. Nearly 20 had come out by Election Day.
And, were that not enough, Bierdon is also finding support in an area that is hardly known for its gay sympathies: Sports. “[Bierdon] attended a local soccer match during the campaign and was heckled with homophobic slurs. After the first round, he was by chance approached by one of the men who shouted the insults. “He said, ‘of eight candidates you were the only one we didn’t expect, but you were the only one who came to our game. You have courage, so we voted for you,'” Biedron recalled.
