Transnational Homosexuals in Communist Poland

Lukasz Szulc is Marie Curie Individual Fellow in the Media and Communications Department of the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. He has published articles in journals such as Sexualities and contributed chapters to books such as Queer in Europe: Contemporary Case Studies (2011). He is co-editor of the book LGBTQs, Media and Culture in Europe (2017).

“Through his meticulous and wide-ranging research, lucid prose, and engaging style, Lukasz Szulc pulls back the (pink) Iron Curtain, accompanying readers on a journey through a long hidden and usually inaccessible place in our shared past.” (David Weiss, QED A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, Vol. 7 (2), 2020)“Lukasz Szulc’s monograph is the opening volume of a new book series called Global Queer Politics. … Szulc’s book primarily seems to address readers and scholars who are active in the globalizing field of LGBTQ studies … . Its particularappeal for Polonists and Slavists, in turn, lies in the author’s careful and well-documented analysis of the homosexuality-related adaptive and adoptive attitudes and strategies as proposed by the two Polish magazines under discussion.” (Kris Van Heuckelom, The Polish Review, Vol. 64 (2), 2019)“The book is more likely to be of interest to LGBT and media scholars than to magazine teachers and researchers, but I can imagine it serving as the catalyst for some fascinating dissertations and published research on pre-1989 zines in Central and Eastern Europe. … the book could serve to fill gaps in knowledge about a life that some of us may have experienced personally but understood only incompletely and one-sidedly.” (Miglena Sternadori, Journal of Magazine Media, Vol. 19 (1), 2019)“Szulc mentions the broader context of east central Europe, yet focuses mainly on Poland. This is understandable, a comparative project would require a group of scholars with different linguistic abilities; … . The most original and elsewhere unavailable parts of the book are analyses of the east European Information Pool reports … .” (Piotr Sobolczyk, Slavic Review, Vol. 78, 2019)“Throughout the book, Szulc amasses and interprets a diverse, astonishingly rich selection of resources. … Szulc’s book is a much-needed introduction to an emerging field of study – a reliable source of diverse historical records, a go-to volume when researching aspects of homosexuality in communist Eastern Europe and, in itself, certainly a fascinating story.” (Aleksandra Gajowy, LSE Review of Books, blogs.lse.ac.uk, December, 2017)

• 1. Introduction: A Sexual Cold War and Its Myths.- 2. Globalization of LGBT Identities and Politics.- 3. Homosexuality in the Eastern Bloc.- 4. Homosexual Activism in Communist Poland.- 5. Polish Gay and Lesbian Magazines.- 6. (Re)constructing Identities.- 7. (Re)building Politics.- 8. Conclusion.