Belgium's 1st transgender vice premier target of verbal barb

 Belgium's first trans politician to reach higher echelons of government has come under stinging attack from country's extreme right, only days after she was appointed.

new Belgian government sworn in Saturday includes Green Vice Premier Petra De Sutter, a professor specializing in gynecology and fertility who h been a member of EU parliament since last year.

She posted upon her appointment that she was “proud that in (Belgium) and in most of ( EU) your identity does t define you as a person and is a n-issue."

“I hope that my appointment as Minister and Deputy PM can trigger debate in countries where this is t yet case," she wrote on Twitter.

On Wednesday though, she immediately became an issue and faced bitter criticism in regional parliament of her native Flanders in rrn Belgium.

Bart Claes of Flemish Interest party h posted on Facebook that De Sutter “wants to destroy and replace all cornerstones of our Western civilization."

De Sutter's party colleague, legislator Bjorn Rzoska, decried attempts to “dehumanize her." Rzoska on Thursday received backing of legislature chairperson, Liesbeth Homans. Even though Homans defended right of free speech, she ded that personally she found Claes' comments "extremely reprehensible."

Claes, however, would t back down, saying in ar Facebook post that “I don't see problem. I said that a trans ... is a trans."

This story has t been edited by www.republicworld.com and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.