The institution, set up by nonprofit rights group Lambda, is the first of a kind "in all of post-communist Europe", said its director Krzysztof Kliszczyński.
Hosting almost 150 artefacts, the museum exhibits the history of LGBTQ people living in Poland back to the 16th century, illustrating it with letters, pictures, and early examples of activism, often clandestine out of fear of oppression.
Researchers say it has not always been easy to gather artefacts documenting the often forgotten struggle of the LGBTQ community.
"A huge part of this queer history is also very private... and very often destroyed after the death of these people, and often deliberately so," said Piotr Laskowski, a University of Warsaw historian.
Among the objects on display was a handcrafted copy of a magazine from 1956, previously unknown to LGBTQ researchers, which was only brought to light when offered to the museum.
"That is also why this museum is here... so that memory is never thrown away again, the memory of us that often ended up in the rubbish heaps," Kliszczyński noted.
While hailing creation of the museum as another milestone in the history of LGBTQ people in Poland, the community also pointed to their struggle for full legal rights still ongoing.
Last week, a UN-mandated expert urged Poland to swiftly amend laws to protect LGBTQ people against discrimination and violence, lamenting the slow pace of reforms from the pro-EU government.
Although the main ruling party had pledged to legalise civil unions, nearly a year into its tenure, same-sex couples still cannot marry or register their partnerships in this staunchly Catholic country.
Until late 2023, the country was ruled for eight years by the right-wing, socially conservative party, categorically opposed to granting LGBTQ people more rights.
Its ally, the conservative President Andrzej Duda, was widely criticised during the election campaign for railing against what he called "LGBT ideology", likening it to communism.
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Source: AFP