The popular and outspoken performer plans to protest outside the Polish embassy in the U.K. on Tuesday afternoon to help “stand up to bigotry and oppression” against the LGBTQ+ community by the Polish government.
As the New York Times noted on July 30th: “Even by the often brutal standards of Polish politics, however, the demonization of gay men and lesbians by government officials over the past two years has been ferocious.” (Further elaborated on in their 2019 article here). Polish President Andrzej Duda compared what he called LGBT “ideology” to communist doctrine. The new head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a long history of denouncing “LGBT+ ideology.” And six Polish towns that have declared themselves “L.G.B.T.-free zones” recently lost (modest) European Union funding.
Over the weekend, performer Kayden Gray—who was born in Poland and lives in the U.K.—shared two posts on Instagram that addressed the horrifying situation.
“I was a Polish kid once, too, and I would never want to go back to that time. It was a nightmare. I never felt safe. And, although I have a lot of love for myself now, I’ve had to learn it as an adult. I grew up all kinds of fucked up and ran away from the country to save my own sanity. None of it was because I’m queer. It was because of the hatred and violence being queer seems to invite,” he wrote.
He continued: “There are queer kids in Poland right now who are growing up and learning who they are. Kids who, from the very people who’s job is to nurture and protect them, hear that they’re not valid, not true and not important. 1/3 of the country has now officially become an LGBT-free zone, where queer people have no protection from violence. If the polish government isn’t held accountable for what they’re doing to those young people right now, those children will suffer the denial and erasure of their queer identities. They risk serious erosion of self-worth and destruction of mental wellbeing. There will be bullying. Street harassment. Arrests. Beatings. Addiction. Homelessness. Self-harm. Suicides. Those kids deserve better but there is nothing they can do just yet to fight for their own freedom. So it’s up to us to stand up to bigotry and oppression, something most of us have experienced in abundance.”
Gray concluded by inviting people to join him and his fellow queer siblings on Tuesday at 13:30 outside the Polish embassy in the U.K., noting “This is an emergency.” We thank Kayden for speaking out and bringing more awareness to this gut-wrenching situation.
What about in muslim countries where they literally kill gay people? Can we also get a porn star to lecture us on that?
Ryan, maybe you didn’t read the line about not ” being a dick ” And think about what you’re asking. A Muslim porn star to speak out against Muslim countries killing gay people. we may be hard-pressed to find a Muslim porn star, after all, we here in the USA don’t treat Muslims as a whole very nicely, so why would you assume the Muslim porn star would be treated any differently? And let’s not forget what happened to Salman Rushdie, death threats, and a Fatwa issued., and all he did was write a book. And there’s also Cat Stevens, his music career ended as soon as he became a Muslim. I’m sure your intent was meant with malice. perhaps a little thought next time huh?
Who amongst us would be as brave as Kayden? I hope I would should the day come that I needed to be …
Kayden, you’re an inspiration !
Kayden needs to go back to porn, a shame major studios stopped shooting with I’m since he was vocal about being HIV +.
Great guy. Thumbs up!