Surveillance of Homosexual Priests  under the Legal and Regulatory Discourses of People’s Poland

Laddach, Agnieszka

Surveillance of Homosexual Priests under the Legal and Regulatory Discourses of People’s Poland

Abstract

The Polish communist state (the so-called “People’s Poland” 1944–1989) promoted a collective image of society and undemocratic regime. Supporting the socialist system, it challenged individual political and civil rights through, among other things, the use of security bodies. In the context of the above, during the communist period, Polish society was subjected to anti-representation policies against homosexuals that varied in intensity. Non-heteronormative people were under surveillance, because security officers suspected them of criminogenic behavior, including sharing discourses censored by Polish state. These discourses included, among other things, elements of social discussion of the evaluation of homosexuality. Moreover, the status of homosexuals in communist Poland stemmed from the moral teaching of the Catholic Church. As an institution that enjoyed growing social trust between 1944 and 1989, the Church promoted the discernment of homosexual acts as sinful. Despite the above, gays, lesbians, and bisexuals formed an informal scattered sexual minority which, especially in the 1980s, participated in the transnational construction of homosexuality. In this chapter, my aim is to show communist Poland and its legal and regulatory discourses which could directly or indirectly impact homosexuals, including priests considered by Polish security bodies as homosexuals. I show how the discourses reinforced social moral evaluation of homosexuality as unwanted.

Keywords

Polish People's Republic morality sexual history

Citation

Laddach, Agnieszka. (2026.) “The Surveillance of Homosexual Priests Under the Legal and Regulatory Discourses of the Polish People’s Republic.” In Erotic Discourses in History, Culture and the Arts, ed. Aleksandra Musiał-Pudełko, Nina Augustynowicz, Agnieszka Podruczna, Routledge: New York, ch. 6, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003665267-10.