By Pawel Sobczak and Christian Lowe
Friday, February 01, 2013
WARSAW (Reuters) – The third-biggest party in Poland’s parliament nominated a transsexual woman for the job of deputy speaker on Thursday, upsetting conservative lawmakers who said they would try to block the appointment.
The nomination of Anna Grodzka, a 58-year-old who completed a sex change three years ago, will test attitudes in Poland, a devoutly Catholic country where traditional moral values often clash with new, liberal ideas about sexuality.
The opposition Law and Justice party said it opposed Grodzka because she lacked the experience need for the job. But one of the party’s lawmakers had previously said Grodzka had a “boxer’s face,” and questioned if she could really be considered a woman.
Speaking to reporters in parliament after Janusz Palikot, the leader of her ultra-liberal party, the Palikot Movement, announced he was putting her name forward for the role, Grodzka said she was ready to take on the challenge.
“I’ve been a member of parliament for over a year now and this experience is enough, I think,” Grodzka said. “It’s important what one represents. If there are voices against me, they are voices that are heading into the past.”
A businesswoman with a psychology degree, Grodzka was elected in October 2011, becoming Poland’s first transsexual lawmaker. The deputy speakership is a more visible role: it involves chairing sessions of parliament when the speaker is not available, and carrying out occasional ceremonial duties.
Continue reading at: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2013/2/1/worldupdates/polish-conservative-mps-flinch-at-idea-of-transsexual-speaker&sec=Worldupdates
