Polish LGBTIQ+ celebrities remake Taylor Swift music video to fight homophobia

Spearheaded by gay man Jakub Kwiecinski, the video project invited members of the community to self-record themselves lip-syncing to the Swift track, which resulted in over 350 submissions.

You Need To Calm Down

Queer celebrities in Poland have remade Taylor Swift's 'You Need To Calm Down' music video to protest homophobia. Source: YouTube

A number of Polish LGBTIQ+ celebrities and public figures have joined forces to recreate the music video for Taylor Swift’s song ‘, hoping to bring awareness to Poland's ongoing problem with homophobia.

The move is thought to be a response, in part, to a conservative magazine in the country, Gazeta Polska, .

Spearheaded by gay man Jakub Kwiecinski and his husband, the video project invited members of the community to self-record themselves lip-syncing to the Swift track, which resulted in over 350 submissions.
In an Kwiecinski said: “We didn’t have any money but had a huge will to do it, so we asked LGBTIQ+ people to record their own videos and send them to us."

He added: "The response was overwhelming - we got 350 videos! Considering the huge scale of homophobia in our country,  these were 140 brave people.”

Participants in the video's final edit include Mr. Gay Poland, Lukasz Sabat; Poland’s Teacher Of The Year, Przemysław Staron, and the Deputy President of Warsaw, Paweł Rabiej.

“We did it for fun but also to draw world’s attention on LGBTIQ+ rights in our country,” Kwiecinski told LGBTQ Nation. “That’s why video ends with two boards where we inform people about the huge scale of homophobia in our country.”

You can watch the full video below:

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Published 2 August 2019 10:42am
By Samuel Leighton-Dore


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