Polish judge’s tweet on transgender child stirs outrage

A senior Polish judge put a transgender child in danger by tweeting about her and a complaint will likely be filed with prosecutors, an opposition politician said on Thursday regarding the incident which has outraged liberal Poles.

Gender and LGBT rights have become central flashpoints in a wider culture war unfolding in Poland between religious conservatives and liberals, with the former branding the fight for gay rights a dangerous ideology that seeks to subvert traditional values, and the latter calling for more tolerance.

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Krystyna Pawlowicz, a Constitutional Tribunal judge and former politician from the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, tweeted the first name, age, and primary school of a transgender child in Podkowa Lesna, a town in central Poland.

She said the school had instructed teachers to use the student’s chosen name and gender, as per her parents’ request. “Data on official records was disregarded,” she said.