Coming Out of Communism by O'Dwyer Conor

Author:O'Dwyer, Conor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New York University Press

Figure 6.2. Number of Czech LGBT Groups by Primary Orientation (1988–2012)

Figure 6.3. Number of Polish LGBT Groups by Primary Orientation (1990–2012)

The demobilization of the Czech movement exemplifies these vulnerabilities: its signature policy victory was followed by the dissolution of the major rights groups. The Polish movement, by contrast, built strikingly robust organization over the same period, moving from an informal to a professional, local to national, and apolitical to electorally mobilized movement—all despite enjoying less favorable societal attitudes regarding homosexuality. Figures 6.2 and 6.3 distill the overall arcs of each movement’s trajectory by creating counts of LGBT-oriented groups—both predominantly political and apolitical ones—over time. The contrast between trajectories is unmistakable. Poland’s movement has shifted from an overwhelmingly apolitical orientation to a mostly political one. After nearly disappearing in the late 1990s, it has grown steadily. The number of groups comprising the Czech movement has been stable since the early 1990s, but their orientation has switched in the opposite direction, from politics to constituents.

EU leverage and links to transnational networks were critical to the Polish outcome; however, this was not a straightforward story of international norm diffusion. Both countries were equally exposed to EU leverage, but only in Poland did leverage shape the politics of homosexuality. The critical difference was the Polish hard right, whose opposition to transnational norms reframed the issue, built solidarity within the movement by threatening the “protective surround,” and drew in allies for whom LGBT rights became a litmus test of Poland’s place in Europe.

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