The parliamentary caucus of The Left political grouping has asked Poland’s police chief for an explanation as to why a new textbook for police officers lists the transgender and LGBT community among social pathologies.
Left politicians also demanded an explanation from the police training centre which had published a textbook with the title “Social pathologies, selected problems”.
“Apart from such social pathologies like drug addiction and beggary, the textbook also speaks about the LGBT community,” Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk, a Left MP, told a press conference in the Sejm (lower house) on Friday.
“In particular, transgender and gender-queer people have been described in the textbook as examples of social pathology,” she said.
The MP stated that the LGBT community was neither an ideology nor social pathology. “These are people who are being exposed to harm, violence and discrimination.”
Dziemianowicz-Bąk said that “it was unacceptable that the police, who are obliged to protect all citizens irrespective of their sexual orientation, irrespective of their gender identity, and irrespective of who they are, discriminates against these people.”
The MP stated that The Left had long fought for the rights of the LGBT community and repeated that it was waiting for an explanation about the book.
Mass media reported earlier that the ombudsman had also lodged a complaint.
The scandal surrounding the handbook could further tarnish Poland’s reputation when it comes to LGBT affairs.
Last year a number of local councils made headlines around the world when they declared themselves LGBT free zones. Przemysław Czarnek, the education minister, also came under fire after he said LGBT people “were not equal to normal people” and compared “LGBT+ ideology” to Nazism.
The United Right coalition, which holds power in Poland, has been accused of scapegoating LGBT people, and sexual and reproductive health activists for political ends, under the rubric of attacks on “gender ideology.”
It has also been charged with treating efforts to advance gender equality and end discrimination as attacks on “traditional” family values.
