Two out of three young gays in Poland admit feeling suicidal

“These figures are alarming: this is a serious problem that requires urgent action,” said Miroslawa Makuchowska, vice-president of the Campaign Against Homophobia on Thursday, as the group unveiled online research taken from a sample of 11,000 gays, lesbians, bisexuals and the transgendered (LGBT) in Poland.

Seventy percent hide their sexuality from school friends and teachers in the staunchly Roman Catholic country, in fear of rejection and violence, says the report.

Fifty six percent of those surveyed said they experienced feelings of loneliness and isolation, while only 13 percent of heterosexual youth said they felt lonely.

One-in-ten said they experienced some form of violence in relation to their sexuality, mostly perpetrated by people unknown to the victim (68 percent) but also from people at school or university (31 percent).

Two out of three had experienced “verbal aggression”, however, mainly from strangers.

The report recounts incidents of discrimination against LGBT, including one dentist who said that he “refuses to treat queers (pedaly)”.

A doctor told one patient that “homosexuality is a disease”.

A priest said at a funeral of a gay person said that his death was “punishment for the crime of sodomy,” claims one respondent.

Professor Ireneusz Krzeminski, a sociologist at the University of Warsaw, cautioned that the report, while revealing, should not be taken as representative of the whole of the LGBT community in Poland, “as there is a large over-representation of young people” she told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. (pg)