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| - Poland's ultra-conservative child rights ombudsman faced calls to resign on Wednesday after he alleged that sex educators in schools offer children hormonal treatments to alter their gender. Mikolaj Pawlak also echoed anti-LGBT views promoted by Poland's right-wing government and bishops in the deeply Catholic EU country, saying that LGBT "ideology" and "ideals" were "out of step... with traditional Polish patriotism". Pawlak accused non-governmental organisations specialising in sex education in schools, especially in the western city of Poznan, of "targeting unstable, abandoned children, and giving them pharmacological substances to change their sex. "And this is without the knowledge of parents and doctors," he told the TVN24 news channel. He said he based the allegations on an article in the low circulation Tygodnik Solidarnosc weekly that focused on internet forums illegally trading in hormonal treatments used in gender transition. Poznan's mayor and local education authorities have flatly denied the allegations while centrist and leftist opposition parties have demanded Pawlak's resignation. "A person with such views should not be the children's rights ombudsman," leftist MP Barbara Nowacka told reporters in Warsaw. Pawlak is known for other controversial views, particularly for dubbing invitro fertilisation an "unworthy" method of procreation and for defending corporal punishment by parents. And his latest comments come on the heels of a controversial proposal by the Polish episcopate to set up conversion therapy centres for gay people. In an official statement against "gender ideology and LGBT+ movements" issued last week, Polish bishops proposed setting up "consultation centres for people wishing to find their sexual health and their natural sexual orientation". Gay rights have become a flashpoint issue in Poland in recent years under the governing right-wing Law and Justice (Pis) party, which campaigns against what it calls "LGBT ideology", likening it to a form of communism. Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets at several rallies in recent months over gay rights activists being detained by police for hoisting rainbow flags, symbols of the gay rights movement, on historic statues, among other activities. sw/bo/mas/spm
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