WARSAW –Anna Grodzka, president of Transgender Europe (TGEU) member organization Trans-Fuzja, a Polish transgender support group, has become the first openly transgender woman to be elected into the Polish parliament.
Grodzka, who has been working for transgender and intersex issues for more than four years, was a candidate of the Palikot Movement, a new political party which has come forward with progressive ideas especially on LGBTQI matters during the elections.
“This is an incredible step forward for Poland,” says Wiktor Dynarski, TGEU Working Group coordinator. “We were aware of the fact that Anna’s decision to actually become a candidate would bring a lot more discussion on transgender issues into Polish politics, but we have never even dreamt of achieving such an incredible success.”
Currently, many trans and intersex individuals in the country feel unsafe and unheard, say advocates.
There are no laws regulating the recognition of change of name and gender leaving transgender individuals in a state of legal uncertainty.
Encouraged by the development TGEU Co-Chair Richard Köhler stated, “Poland has ignored the rights of its transgender citizens for too long. It is high time to finally discuss introduction of a gender recognition law. We are optimistic that Grodzka’s success will motivate more countries in the Central-Eastern European region to take notice of the existence of transgender and intersex persons and their rights.”
