def METHOD_NAME(attr):
    if isinstance(attr, ET.Element):
        attr = attr.text
    parsed_date = email.utils.parsedate_tz(attr)
    date_obj = datetime.datetime(
        *parsed_date[:6],
        tzinfo=_FixedOffset(datetime.timedelta(minutes=(parsed_date[9] or 0)/60))
    )
    if not date_obj.tzinfo:
        date_obj = date_obj.astimezone(tz=TZ_UTC)
    return date_obj