Poland’s main opposition Conservatives (PiS) have reported Warsaw city’s Museum of Modern Art (MSN) to prosecutors for allegedly displaying and selling child pornography.
The issue came about regarding the graphic novel, Gender Queer: A Memoir by US author Maia Kobabe. It has already caused controversy in the US and Australia and it was available for sale in the Warsaw museum’s bookshop.
The PiS has reported the book to the public prosecutors and the MSN for presenting it in what it said was a manner accessible for children.
“This book contains depictions of a child in situations of a sexual nature,” PiS MP and former justice minister Marcin Warchoł said at a press conference on February 7, adding that “such moral corruption of children cannot be allowed”.
Kobabe’s book is a memoir about the author’s exploration of gender identity and sexuality. It includes a depiction of her sexually fantasising as a 14-year-old and also of masturbation and oral sex.
While the book has been available for sale in Poland since 2021, it came to broader attention in January following a report by independent Conservative broadcaster TV Republika.
According to Warchoł: “Child pornography includes all content – books, photos, comics – that depict a child in sexually explicit actions, and that is what we have seen at the museum. It is scandalous that such depravity is taking place.”
Mayor of Warsaw and Tusk’s Civic Coalition candidate in May’s local elections Rafał Trzaskowski shredded a copy of the book’s cover onstage during one of his recent campaign events.
“Obscene, violent images are to be found in [the] museum,” he said, adding that “indoctrination and ideology that violates the sensitivity, safety and comfort of the childhood of our children”.
Trzaskowski has in the past been highly supportive of LGBT rights and has attended equality parades and funded LGBT groups in Warsaw.
LGBT rights have become a contentious political topic in Poland. The promotion of LGBT sex education and single-sex marriage have been strongly opposed by the Catholic Church and by both parties on the Right, the PiS and Confederation.
Both of these parties have opposed any moves towards civil partnerships for same-sex couples, having said they feared any such concessions would be a precursor to same-sex marriage.
The present centre-left coalition has failed to produce legislation on same sex civil partnerships, primarily due to opposition from the centrist Polish People’s Party (PSL) but has agreed to expand hate-crime legislation to cover attacks on LGBT people.
The PiS has argued that the effect of such hate-crime legislation would be to ban criticism of ideas promoting LGBT rights and practices.