Bratislava is recovering from a murder at a gay bar: Is Prague LGBT+ friendly?
The murder of two young men and the wounding of a young woman in Bratislava on October 12, a tragedy that shook not only the whole of Slovakia, but also the Czech Republic. The topic of the queer community is often trivialized in our region, or journalists and politicians avoid it altogether. Tolerance is not the same as respect. In response to last Wednesday’s tragedy, a group of 22 LGBTQ+ organizations and platforms submitted a “Together Against Violence” petition to the Government and House of Commons. In it, they demand, for example, the amendment of the criminal code and the approval of marriage for all.
“Since Wednesday, I’ve been thinking about how I probably feel here as a fifteen-year-old boy or girl who is just realizing their identity and learning about the events in Slovakia. And how their parents must feel,” Lucie Zachariašová from the organization Prague Pride and Jsme fér stated at the press conference. When such an act could happen in the capital of our “siblings”, queer people are also afraid in Prague.
Queer people in the Czech Republic
According to Patrik Korda, vice president of the UK queer association Kaia a whole book could be written on the subject of the life of queer people in Prague. “The queer community is not homogenous. It has a lot of different parts, people with different identities, and each group also faces its own specific problems.” says Patrick. He himself is a cisgender gay (gender identity corresponds to his birth sex) and, moreover, he is white, so he has a more privileged position within the community than other people belonging to more discriminated groups.
“In general, the Czechs have been trying to gain the status of a Western European country in many areas for the last thirty years, but when someone is a member of a marginalized, minority group, the more they begin to realize that society is biased towards the East,” Patrik tells Bleska. Many people in the Czech Republic, including a large group in Prague, are said to want to live in accordance with the established status quo and have problems with those who deviate from their idea of what is “normal”.
A great indicator can be the behavior of our top politicians. It is said to be difficult to find politicians in top politics who ever speak positively about LGBT+ people in public. According to Patrik, the lack of true information about LGBT+ people is primarily to blame for negative attitudes.
“Without education and true information, it is impossible to achieve respect between mainstream society and LGBT+ people. Many Czechs do not know anything about our history and how long and hard they had to fight to achieve at least a certain degree of tolerance. All information about the queer community remains from populist politicians and ultra-conservative groups who use our community as a scarecrow, as a scapegoat to help them quickly climb the political ladder.” Patrik reports. Populists use the term “gender ideology” to incite fear.
Prague, a relatively safe place
Most physical attacks on the queer community are said to go unreported. People are afraid to report an attack because they could face inappropriate treatment from official institutions such as the police. When asked if queer people are respected in Prague, Patrik answered that rather not.: “I wouldn’t say that we are not, but neither are we. But we are on the right track,” he adds.
“A lot of queer people, even in Prague, are growing up in fear of being ‘revealed’ by their surroundings.” We fear that after coming out (public disclosure of our sexual orientation or gender identity, editor’s note) we will be abandoned by our families, our friends, that we will lose the respect of those around us. We are often afraid of physical safety as well,” says the vice president of the association Charlie. On the other hand, Patrik, I think that queer people in Prague enjoy greater privileges compared to other Czech municipalities.
Prague offers a real community background in which queer people can find support and friends with the same experiences and traumas. “The vast majority of us go through very similar traumas growing up and functioning in a heteronormative society,” explains Patrik Korda. By community facilities, I mean places where queer people can feel safe – for example bars or teahouses that are friendly to LGBT+ people.
“The beauty of a big city like Prague is that there is a much higher chance of meeting people from different cultures and countries who have taken different paths in life and live in very different styles“ says Patrick. It makes it so much easier that there isn’t just one prescribed way we have to live and what our life should look like.
Reaction to the tragedy in Bratislava
“For a lot of people it was an extremely shocking event that we all took very hard,” explains the association’s vice president Charlie. The Czech and Slovak queer communities are closely linked. They have a shared history and have gone through similar obstacles in the fight for equality. “There are a lot of Slovak queer people, students, artists, performers and activists living in Prague who are part of our community” Patrick explains.
He himself had been afraid for a long time that a similar situation would come and was mentally preparing for it. All you have to do is look at the social network, where you can see an increasingly radicalized group of people who are looking for a scapegoat, someone on whom they can vent their frustration with worse living situations, for example due to rising prices. Marginalized groups and minorities often serve as such targets. “We’re always an easy target,” says Patrik Korda sadly.
An ideal future
According to Patrik Korda, in terms of values, the Czech Republic is now at the very border between Western and Eastern Europe. We are like a swinging pendulum. In some aspects we lean towards the West, in others towards the East. As far as the approach to the social minority is concerned, we are closer to Eastern European thinking in terms of values. “I’d like to live in a future where I don’t get asked, ‘How was your weekend,’ another question at work?” says Patrick. If he answered truthfully, he would face the risk of discrimination in the workplace based on his identity.
He wants to live in a future where LGBT+ people won’t be afraid to report hate crimes, or kiss their partner goodbye, because heterosexuals take it for granted and no one has to think about it. “I think the path to this future is through mutual respect and acceptance of diversity,” says Patrik. It is said that “not veering from the line” is still rooted in Czech society. “To be in any way different is always or as something evil, dangerous” complements.
Patrik believes that: “Safe-spaces must be created for queer people, safe places where they can be fully themselves, places for self-expression and for the cultivation of queer culture and art, without which the world would not be as colorful as it is today”.
“I would like to see a future where at least a brief history of queer rights activism becomes part of the school curriculum“ supplies. Furthermore, we wish that one day in the Czech Republic we will reach a stage where society is not only tolerant, but also respectful. “Tolerance may be far more widespread than in the past, but mutual respect is something we still need to work on,” I think Patrick.
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Author: Blesk: Photo: Czech News Center / Rušinová Mária