Educational Media Reviews Online

Coming Out Polish Style is an energetic portrait of the state of GLBT rights in Poland. Though it is becoming more common for Polish people to publicly support GLBT rights and even join demonstrations and parades, many people are still ostracized, rejected by their families, or abused in public. This documentary illustrates this wide range of possibilities, from a transgender couple celebrating a public (and legal) wedding ceremony, to an activist who lost his first love to suicide because his father threatened his life if he found out his son was gay. The filmmakers also succeed in providing a diverse cast of characters: their narrators are a variety of ages, religions, and gender expressions – they even address how experiences differ in small towns versus cities.

For North American audiences, the most valuable aspect of Coming Out Polish Style is the opportunity to contrast Poland’s GLBT rights movement with that of other countries and other time periods. For example, Poland’s contemporary struggle incorporates transgender individuals in a way that the early North American movement did not, and Poland’s youth are much more likely to encounter nontraditional sexualities and gender expressions because media and the internet have opened up channels unimaginable a few decades ago. And finally, the possibility of legal same-sex marriage is not on the distant horizon but is very present as seven European Union countries have taken that step.

Coming Out Polish Style is highly recommended for academic collections supporting GLBT studies and European or Eastern European Studies programs. Instructors may also find it valuable to students in civil rights or cultural studies courses.