Patriotism, Homophobia, and Intolerance and the Image of the LGBT+ Community in Polish Catholic Weeklies in the Context of Equality Marches in 2019 Cover Image

Patriotyzm, homofobia i nietolerancja a wizerunek społeczności LGBT+ w polskich tygodnikach katolickich w kontekście marszów równości w 2019 r.
Patriotism, Homophobia, and Intolerance and the Image of the LGBT+ Community in Polish Catholic Weeklies in the Context of Equality Marches in 2019

Author(s): Rafał Leśniczak
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Media studies, Sociology of Religion, Politics and Identity, Identity of Collectives
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: patriotism; homophobia; intolerance; image; LGBT+ community; Catholic press;

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of the research was to analyze the image of the LGBT+ community in nationwide Catholic weeklies published in Poland, in particular in the context of patriotism, homophobia, and intolerance. Equality marches in 2019 constituted an important framework of the analysis. The author’s intention was also to determine which of the attitudes towards the principle of equality of each person before the law regardless of sexual orientation (acceptance vs. criticism) dominated in the individual press titles. The research material consisted of printed versions of four Catholic weekly magazines: Niedziela, Gość Niedzielny, Idziemy and Tygodnik Powszechny. The analysis covered texts about the LGBT+ community, which contained at least one of the following keywords: LGBT; Equality march; Equality parade, which was published in the period between March 31st, 2019 and September 30th, 2019. The author used the method of press content analysis and the method of qualitative discourse analysis. The results of the analyses showed that the LGBT+ community had an important place in Polish Catholic weekly magazines. Niedziela, Gość Niedzielny, and Idziemy have explicitly criticized LGBT ideology and have portrayed LGBT+ persons as intolerant, and their opponents as patriotic. Tygodnik Powszechny has distanced itself from attributing intolerant attitudes to the LGBT+ community, while imposing a homophobic attitude towards its opponents. The research has shown different press images of people belonging to sexual minorities in Catholic right-wing conservative weeklies and those press titles which represent the so-called open church. The different understanding of the sacred/profane categories, religious symbols as well as cultural dimensions of sexual revolution, found in the analysed press titles, along with different uses of mediatization metaphors for the critics of LGBT+community, contributed to the bipolarity of the narratives explored in this article.

  • Issue Year: 2020
  • Issue No: 3 (243)
  • Page Range: 103-120
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish