Celebs, Politicians Use Taylor Swift Song to Tell Poland, “Calm Down” on Anti-LGBTQ Hate

by Jeff Taylor

4m ago

Polish politicians, activists, and celebrities have joined forces, with an assist from Taylor Swift’s anti-hate song “You Need to Calm Down,” to push back against a rise in homophobia and transphobia in the country.

Over 140 people participated in the project, sending videos of themselves lipsynching to the hit to married couple David Mycek and Jakub Kwieciński, who then edited them together to create the final product. Among those taking part were Deputy President of Warsaw, Patryk Rabiej, European Parliament member Robert Biedron, Radek Pestka, a Top Model winner, Mr. Gay Poland, Lukasz Sabat, and drag queen Kim Lee.

“Considering [the] huge scale of homophobia in our country, it is 140 brave people,” Mycek told Attitude.

Kwieciński reflected that they “managed to gather the most important and famous LGBTQ people in Poland in two weeks! That’s pretty amazing.”
 

Poland’s ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has called LGBTQ people “a threat,” and towns have been following in Russia’s footsteps, banning so-called LGBTQ “propaganda,” and declaring themselves LGBTQ free.

A conservative weekly newspaper, Gazeta Polska, announced plans to distribute “LGBT-Free Zone” stickers, and hooligans have recently attacked Pride parades and other LGBTQ events.