Coping with a crisis: the relationship between citizenship and mental health as experienced by LGBTQ population in Poland

Maria Obrebska

Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 2025, vol. 33, issue 1, 129-146

Abstract: The rise to power of the Law and Justice party in 2015 brought LGBTQ issues to the forefront of public debate with unprecedented hostility, correlating with a surge in mental health issues among non-heteronormative individuals. Through interviews with LGBTQ participants and mental health professionals, this qualitative study explores this relationship, exposing the systemic roots of minority stress and the state’s failure to provide LGBTQ-inclusive mental health support. This study also reveals how the crisis compelled Polish citizens to develop alternative structures of care, termed by the author as “caring civil society.” The discussed coping mechanisms are not aimed at challenging the status quo, which is the common focus in literature, but at making it liveable. This research ultimately argues that the extent of one’s dissent should be evaluated based on their capacities, for in extremely hostile environments, the very act of valuing one’s life can be an act of resistance.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/25739638.2025.2455863

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