Innovation Despite Backsliding—the Importance of the Events of 7th August 2020 for Polish LGBTQIA Youth

Abstract

In this paper, I analysed the events of 7th August 2020 in Warsaw, when 48 people were detained by the Polish police who brutally raided solidarity demonstration with non-binary activist Margot Szutowicz. The aim of the paper is to explore queer activism in Poland on microsociological level using Gabriel Tarde imitation theory. I tried to show how individual experience of resistance gave rise to new, innovative forms of activism which became a social phenomenon. In my research, I used in-depth interviews with some of detainees and over 180 diaries/memoirs of Polish LGBTQIA people.