Top Polish judge under fire for tweet about transgender kid

WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s leading opposition party is asking prosecutors to investigate a constitutional court judge who it alleges has endangered a 10-year-old transgender child by identifying the child publicly.

It is the latest development highlighting the deep divide in Poland over the issue of LGBT rights. The issue has for more than two years been the source of a bitter standoff between conservatives in the mostly Roman Catholic nation and those calling for greater acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Krystyna Pawlowicz, a justice on the constitutional Tribunal, wrote critically on Twitter about the case of a school director in the town of Podkowa Lesna, near Warsaw, who had instructed teachers to respect the wishes of the child to be addressed as a girl.

In her tweet on Tuesday, Pawlowicz expressed strong disapproval at the school decision, arguing that it disregarded the official sex designation on the child’s records.

Pawlowicz called the child a “boy” and mentioned the name the child goes by now, the names of the school and the principal, as well as the school’s address.

Cezary Tomczyk, who leads the centrist Civic Platform’s parliamentary group, accused Pawlowicz on Thursday of putting the child “in real danger.” Tomczyk said the party was submitting a request for prosecutors to investigate.

There was no immediate response from Pawlowicz to the development, and a phone call and email to the constitutional Tribunal seeking comment on Thursday were not answered.

The mayor of the town where the child attends school, Artur Tusinski, published a statement Wednesday saying there has been an “enormous” outpouring of support for the child and that the school is “open to the needs of every student, including transgender students.”

“We do not agree to the cynical use of children in political games,” Tusinski said.

The Associated Press