Anyone been to Krakow

Medusa22

Hello everyone, I hope you're well! I've booked a weekend away for myself and my partner to Krakow for her birthday. I have a friend who is Polish and she told me to be careful about public displays of affection in Krakow and I hadn't thought about this previously. Now I'm just wondering if anyone has been to Krakow and if you've been affectionate in public or if you found people to be generally gay-friendly or not? Thanks in advance

strandroad

People are generally sound but there is a strong conservative streak in Poland so it's a question of luck really. You may see some pissed off looking hooligan types, or an old lady may make a face. In public spaces you'll be fine.

Dunno if this helps OP (depends on how old you are:p) but speaking as someone who's been all over Poland a lot of things reminded me of Ireland in the 1980's. Attitudes and so on.

Anti-LGBT and homophobic sentiments are, or at least feel like, the vocal majority and more enlightened people still have a certain fear of "guilt by association". In other words "if I don't tell everyone I hate fags then they'll all think I'm one". Go figure. :rolleyes:

Otherwise Krakow is an absolutely beautiful city. Cheaper, less crowded, and not so spoiled by the stag parties as let's say Prague. Just follow the same rules you would in any city, home or abroad - downtown city centre squares, restaurants, bars, attractions, etc are safe enough in the middle of the afternoon, groups of shaven headed overweight drunks after dark are not.

Leonard Hofstadter

Apparently younger Poles aren't anywhere near as religious as the older generation, it might be stereotyping a bit too much in the same way there used to be stereotypes about 'Holy Catholic Ireland'. Interestingly homosexual acts were never criminal offences in Poland and had an equal age of consent as far back as 1932, so they used to be a long way ahead of Ireland on gay rights. Also, sexually active gay men can donate blood (something that's still not allowed in Ireland).

Of course, it's completely different now, they do allow the equivalent of a 'conscience clause' in the provision of goods and services for example and equal marriage is still illegal. So, I'd still be very careful, the conservative Law and Justice party is apparently quite popular over there and their stance on LGBT rights is so bad it makes the likes of David Quinn and Breda O'Brien seem like bastions of defending LGBT rights by comparison (the Law and Justice party talk about LGBT 'propaganda', which says it all really).

strandroad

captainspeed wrote: »

Apparently younger Poles aren't anywhere near as religious as the older generation, it might be stereotyping a bit too much in the same way there used to be stereotypes about 'Holy Catholic Ireland'.

It might not be driven by religion as much anymore, but nationalism and radicalism is on the rise in Poland which is coupled with strong anti-LGBT stance. LGBT scene is much stronger, but so are its opponents or haters... Law and Justice won across the board, including the young and the urban vote this time (not so in the past).
In OPs place I still wouldn't worry, just try not to ignore any normal warning signs!

Jentle Grenade

Hey OP. My girlfriend and I were in Kraków recently (July) for a family wedding. It's a beautiful city and we enjoyed our time there.
Her new brother in law warned us gently to be careful about PDA. We wouldn't be huge PDAers but I do like to hold her hand. I was a bit wary but we didn't have any problems. We didn't have any problems out by ourselves or anything. The hand holding was at a minimum though. It can be quite old fashioned in some places. I didn't actually see any SS couples hand holding. We did coupley things together without any problems though.
Beautiful city, enjoy it.