Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace Nr VIII in Wroclaw, Poland
Task: Virtual Newspaper “Tolerance”
Report on the event: Tolerance in Poland

On the 7^th of November posters concerning gender and homosexuality were hanged on the walls of the school’s hallway. Unfortunately, after 30  minutes they were removed due to administration order and one  day late new posters could appear, more subtle ones. Two days later, in our school students took part in a debate on tolerance in Poland concerning gender, homosexuality and problems homosexual people face in our country. The debate was preceded with the opinion poll carried out in different grades/classes. This opinion poll, which discussed the idea of understanding tolerance in general as well as tolerance towards the idea of a different gender or homosexuality, gave all the students food for thought


The debate took place in our school library (reading room) and 44 people (out of 540 students) from different grades took part in it. We started our debate by reminding basic rules of conversation to participants.  After that, we presented the results of  a survey which has been conducted among the students of our school (presented at the bottom of the page). Participants were asked about the results. One of them came well prepared having a full stack of notes. He pointed out the difference between tolerance and acceptance which was a starting point for a surprisingly heated debate. According to his notes a distinction is that acceptance means agreeing with something and tolerance - lack of counteraction against difference but not necessarily  acceptance.



Then,  students were asked if they are tolerant or not. The vast majority, knowing the definition, identified themselves as tolerant. Later, the discussion continued with various specific questions. The breaking point was when the gender topic was brought up, because of the large active crowd and different opinions on the matter. The main question was whether homosexual  people should have the same rights as heterosexuals (marriage and adoption). In conclusion, we agreed that marriage is acceptable, while adoption was a more controversial subject. Most of the people stated  that it should be forbidden for homosexual couples, in our Polish society, at least for now. It was decided so due to the fact that a large group of Polish people aren’t prepared for acceptance of this kind of change; the conclusion being that it would harm a child mentally by setting certain examples to follow.
The discussion ended on that. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to touch on every subject and hear every opinion due to a limited time. 1 hour and 40 minutes was not enough. In the end we stated that everyone should tolerate otherness but not necessarily accept it. There is a long way for a country such as Poland to get used to the changes in understanding sexuality and gender.