Warsaw
A modern parliament: Poland’s new parliament has sworn in its first transsexual lawmaker. Anna Grodzka, the former Krzysztof Begowski, was married to a woman and fathered a child before undergoing a sex-change operation and running for parliament. She was greeted with applause from her new colleagues as she entered the chamber this week. “It is a symbolic moment, but we owe this symbolism not to me but to the people of Poland because they made their choice,” said Grodzka, of the progressive Palikot party. “They wanted a modern Poland, a Poland open to variety, a Poland where all people would feel good regardless of their differences.” The parliament also elected its first female speaker this week and swore in its first openly gay lawmaker.
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