Bas Tajpana’s song is undoubtedly an example of homophobic hate speech. However, the rapper will not be held responsible for a criminal offense because there is no legal provision of homophobic hate speech. He could be liable only for insulting or defaming a group of people.
These crimes can be charged only by private prosecution. “The practice of the Polish courts shows that these crimes are quite often dismissed. The decisions concerning these cases are often based on the assumption that if such statements were addressed to whole group, the single person can not feel threatened or insulted” – says Adam Bodnar from the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.
A coalition of several nongovernmental organizations dealing with the rights of sexual-minority groups, the rights of women and the rights of disabled people has been endeavoring to implement in the penal code a prohibition of hate speech on the grounds of sexual orientation, age, sex, disability and gender identity for a couple of years.
The Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Treatment, Mrs. Elżbieta Radziszewska, claims that this problem should be solved through educational activity, which will change mentality, rather than through the criminal law.
“Accordingly to our investigation every second respondent was a victim of psychological violence and ca. 17 percent of the respondents were victims of physical violence” – says Robert Biedroń, Campaign Against Homophobia.
The Campaign Against Homophobia has prepared a draft of amendment the penal code. The project involves introducing to the code hate crimes on the grounds of age, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity. The Democratic Left Alliance is going to present this project to the Polish Parliament.
This article is based on the article “Nienawiść do geja? Nie ma sprawy” by Ewa Siedlecka (Gazeta Wyborcza, 12 kwietnia 2011).
