Anna Grodzka (born 16 March 1954) is a Polish politician. A

trans woman A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and s ...

, she was elected to the

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...

in the

2011 Polish parliamentary election Parliamentary elections to both the Senate and the ''Sejm'' (lower house) were held in Poland on 9 October 2011. The previous election, in 2007, resulted in a Civic Platform–Polish People's Party government. All seats of both Houses were up ...

s as a candidate for the left-liberal

Palikot's Movement Your Movement ( pl, Twój Ruch, which can also be translated as ''Your Move'', TR) is a social liberal, populist and anti-clerical political party in Poland. The party was founded by Janusz Palikot, a former Civic Platform MP, in October 2010 ...

, and was the first openly

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...

Member of

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

in Poland, and the third openly transgender member of a national parliament worldwide, after

Georgina Beyer Georgina Beyer (born November 1957) is a New Zealand politician and former Labour Party Member of Parliament. In 1995 she was elected mayor of Carterton, making her the world's first openly transgender mayor. In 2005 she became the world's ...

(in office 1999–2005) and

Vladimir Luxuria Vladimir Luxuria (), born 24 June 1965, is an Italian activist, television personality and actress. Luxuria was a Communist Refoundation Party MP, belonging to The Union coalition led by Romano Prodi. She was the first openly transgender membe ...

(2006–2008). She was believed to be the only remaining transgender member of parliament until Nikki Sinclaire (in office 2009–2015) outed herself in November 2013. In June 2014, Anna Grodzka joined Poland's Green Party but left a year later. In 2019 she became a member of PPS, which she also left soon after criticizing party's chairman.

Biography

Grodzka was born in 1954 at

Otwock Otwock is a city in east-central Poland, some southeast of Warsaw, with 44,635 inhabitants (2019). Otwock is a part of the Warsaw Agglomeration. It is situated on the right bank of Vistula River below the mouth of Swider River. Otwock is hom ...

, near

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

. Before openly transitioning, she was married (wife: Grażyna) and had a son. She transitioned in 2009 after divorcing in 2007. Grodzka was a member of the

Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other lega ...

at Warsaw University and a political instructor in the Polish Union of Students. Later on she was an entrepreneur and worked in publishing, print industry, and filmmaking. In 2008 she co-founded and became the first president of the Trans-Fuzja Foundation, which works to improve the living conditions of transgender people in Poland and support them and their relatives through the transition process. The foundation offers psychological support and provides legal advice for judicial gender reassignment and other legal aspects of transition.

References

External links

* (Polish) 1954 births LGBT politicians from Poland Living people Your Movement politicians People from Otwock Transgender politicians Transgender women Members of the Polish Sejm 2011–2015 Women members of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland Polish United Workers' Party members 21st-century Polish women politicians Candidates in the 2015 Polish presidential election LGBT businesspeople from Poland LGBT rights activists from Poland The Greens (Poland) politicians LGBT legislators 20th-century Polish women 21st-century LGBT people {{Poland-politician-stub