Argentina

Transgender Community Faces Uphill Battle for Rights

Inter Press Service - March 23, 2006
Marcela Valente

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BUENOS AIRES, Mar 23 (IPS) - Noelia Luna was born a man, but lives as a woman. She is unemployed, has lived with the same partner for 15 years and has three children. Her life seems fairly uneventful. But compared to other transvestites, transsexuals and transgenders in Argentina, she is a relative rarity: she is a survivor.

"I was able to go to school and have a family, but for the majority of us, life is extremely difficult," Luna told IPS.

"It's a cultural issue. For the typically 'macho' Latino male, 'fags' are something to look down on and laugh at from the time they are children, and this continues to be true later, in school or in hospitals, where we face discrimination," she said.

According to a report on the situation of transvestites, transsexuals and transgenders in Argentina, for which 302 people were interviewed in the cities of Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata and in outlying suburbs of the Argentine capital, the list of friends in the transgender community who have died in recent years totals 420, most of whom died at a young age.

The report reveals that 62 percent of the total died of AIDS, 17 percent were murdered, and the rest either committed suicide or died in car accidents, of drug overdoses, as the result of medical malpractice during plastic surgery or other procedures to change their physical appearance, or of cirrhosis of the liver, cancer and other diseases.

Almost 70 percent of these deaths occurred when the victims were between the ages of 22 and 41, adds the report, titled "La gesta del nombre propio" (which roughly translates as "the epic battle for one's own name").

The study was published this month by the Association of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and coordinated by Lohana Berkins of the Association for the Struggle for Transvestite and Transsexual Identity.

Berkins was able to undertake tertiary level studies after successfully demanding official documentation in a name representing her chosen gender, which she achieved by filing a complaint through the Buenos Aires Ombudsman's Office. But it is because of obstacles like these that barely three percent of the women interviewed for the new study have had access to higher studies.

Of the 302 interview subjects, only 11 percent are currently undertaking studies of one kind or another. A full 64 percent have not even completed a primary school education, while 20 percent began but were unable to complete secondary school.

In almost all cases, the reason they dropped out of school is related to the conflict that emerged in childhood or adolescence with regard to their gender identity. . . .

Looking Back: Christine Jorgensen arriving at Idlewild airport NYC (1952)

How should transgender be defined?

Lesbian riled by boot from ladies room

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BY RICH SCHAPIRO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Saturday, June 30th 2007, 4:00 AM

Khadijah Farmer was mistaken for a man in the ladies' room at Caliente Cab Co. and shoved out by a bouncer.

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A masculine lesbian was kicked out of a Greenwich Village restaurant after a bouncer - who believed she was a man - saw her in the ladies' bathroom, the woman charged yesterday.

Khadijah Farmer said she felt humiliated by her experience at Caliente Cab Co. on Seventh Ave., which took place last Sunday shortly after the city's gay pride march.

"I felt violated ... to say the least," said Farmer, 27. "I really thought that especially in New York City, especially in the heart of the Village, things like this had stopped happening."

Farmer said she went into the popular Mexican restaurant with her girlfriend and another pal about 10:20 p.m.

The trio ate shrimp and nachos before Farmer, who is 5-feet-5 and has short hair, excused herself to go to the rest room.

Just as she was about to enter the bathroom, a woman walked out, flashed her a nasty look and said, "This is the women's bathroom," according to Farmer, who is an HIV counselor.

"I replied, 'I know that. Thank you. This is where I'm supposed to be,'" Farmer said, noting that she was wearing a yellow polo shirt, blue jeans and sneakers. . . .

POV, Critique, Opinion

Our little boy is becoming a woman!

Bet you never thought you'd hear anyone be encouraged for saying that, huh?

A video on CNN proves that, for moonbattery, no low is too low.

Paula Zahn interviews a "transgendered" boy and his family. All right, fair enough. Transgenders can make that decision for themselves and their family should love and accept them for it, right?

Except, in this case, the boy is seven. Let's start with his parents. They have five boys, and then have a sixth Paula refers to as "George". And his parents started dressing and referring to him as a girl at around the age of two when they "realized" that he liked pink, pretty, and feminine things -- which clearly was a sign from their eighteen-month-old that he wanted to be a girl, not a boy. And the mother gushes about how she "let" her four-year-old boy dress up in a pink gown, there was sheer joy in "her" face and how "she" came out of "her" shell.

More evidence that "George" supposedly wanted to be a girl was that he wanted to go to the bathroom in public with Mommy instead of Daddy -- because, you know, little boys never use public bathrooms with their moms. That's a rare sight, right there. They say "George" became depressed and angry, and attempted to cut off his penis with scissors. And the mother states, very seriously, that if she didn't "let" her son become a girl, he/she would take his/her own life... "whether it be tomorrow, or the next week, or the next month". . . .

CNN: Paula Zahn NOW - Transgendered 7 Year Old

See YouTube viewers comments: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRCcylpZms0

Transpeople Who Need People

A few hours after this week’s Scene hit newsstands, I received a letter from the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition (posted in its entirety after the jump) regarding our cover story . The story is about El Dos de Oros, a South Nashville bar that caters to immigrant laborers and attracts...

A few hours after this week’s Scene hit newsstands, I received a letter from the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition (posted in its entirety after the jump) regarding our cover story. The story is about El Dos de Oros, a South Nashville bar that caters to immigrant laborers and attracts women and transvestites who are paid for their companionship. The letter takes us to task for the use of the term "transvestite," saying that the word “is a perjorative [sic] term and is considered insulting.”

They preferred that we use the term “cross dresser.” At least one gender studies expert says that either term could apply to men who dress as women (or vice versa) and that the label "transvestite" is not an insult, per se.

The second part of the letter finds fault with the use of the pronouns “he” and “him” when we refer to Gracia and Ashley. “The Transwomen described in the article should have been referred to as "She" in every single instance,” says the TTPC, even though the “transpersons” in question referred to each other with male pronouns and often used the masculine forms of Spanish words when talking about themselves and their friends.

It seems that this is an unsettled matter even among those who are experts in the field. We’d like to open the floor to you folks, and if there are any cross dresser/transvestite/transpeople out there, we’d especially like to hear your opinions.

What follows is the email (titled "Incorrect Use of Gender Terminology") that I recieved from the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition:


It was with interest that I read the story in the June 28 issue about El Dos de Oros. It was with great dismay that I saw the totally incorrect use of terminology regarding the transgender customers of the club. . . .

New Zealand: Opinion Story, Joy Liddicoat: Transgenders make plea for acceptance

How Noel became Noeleena, the story of the 60-year-old married builder who had gender reassignment surgery, is at heart about how important it is to assert our true identity.

Noel had always known he was different, a girl born in a boy's body. But as a child it would not have been wise to go public.

As Noeleena said this week: "Back then in 1958 I would have been thrown in Lake Alice if I said anything, and I knew no one would know what I was talking about."

By all accounts, when Noeleena returned home to Waimate nobody batted an eyelid and she has taken another step in her new life, happy at last to be acknowledged as a woman.

However, it is worth noting that though many will applaud Noeleena's forthrightness and support her decision, there are many in the transgender community who change their name and live as a woman (or a man) without surgery.

Gender reassignment surgery is a serious and expensive step to take. Many transgender people, whether those in transition from male to female like Noeleena, or female to male, either cannot have surgery for financial or health reasons, or don't see surgery as the path they need to take. . . .

Cat's Eye Wide and Deep

. . .for viewing

From CNN.com: Sex vs Gender. . . and more videos

Step by step, researcher looks for sexuality clues

• Researcher thinks sexual orientation may be reflected in the way a person walks
• Consistencies in characteristics show orientation is inborn, expert says
• Similar research focuses on speech, hair-growth patterns
• Critics see no gay genetics, point to lack of inherited orientation

By Elizabeth Cohen
CNN

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Can you tell whether someone's gay just by the way he or she walks?

David Sylva wants to know. He straps bright red lights to people's bodies and videotapes them walking in the dark. He then shows the videotape to observers (who won't be biased by clothing or hairstyles since the walker is in the dark) and asks them to guess the walker's sexual orientation.

(Click here for access to videos to see whether you can tell if the walker is gay or straight.)

Sylva's observations focus on the physical characteristics of the individual's stride, such as the closeness of the knees.

Why does Sylva, a graduate student at Northwestern University, care so much about how gay people walk? Because he's one of a growing number of researchers who think sexual orientation may be as basic as how you walk, something inborn that you don't choose.

His premise reflects a growing belief among Americans, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll. (Poll majority: Gays' orientation can't change ) For the first time a majority of respondents -- about 56 percent -- said they don't believe a person can change his or her sexual orientation. In a similar poll in 2001, 45 percent said orientation couldn't change. In 1998, 36 percent held that belief. The sampling error for Wednesday's results is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

A growing number of psychologists and geneticists are working on the "nature versus nurture" question -- a question that's set off a highly charged political debate about whether people choose to be gay, or whether gayness is determined by their DNA.

Take Richard Lippa, a professor of psychology at California State University at Fullerton. His studies show that gay people are twice as likely to be left-handed. He also collects photos of hair whorls -- those circular swirls you see atop a man's head. He says about 10 percent of the general population have whorls that rotate counter-clockwise, but about 20 percent of gay men have counter-clockwise whorls.

Lippa acknowledges that studying hair patterns sounds strange. "It sounds a little like the 'Twilight Zone' or voodoo science," he says. But to Lippa, a link between sexual orientation and something that's clearly inborn (like handedness or the way hair grows) speaks volumes. His theory: You can't choose your whorl, and you can't choose your sexuality, either.

"You're born with either a clockwise or a counter-clockwise hair whorl. It's fixed, it's biologically determined. No one's going to argue that your hair whorl is influenced by learning or culture," he says.

Lippa says his next step is see whether there are specific genes that control sexual orientation. . . .

The Cliks featuring lead singer Lucas Silveira

Trans Spokesman No Good ‘ol Boy

By Jacob Anderson-Minshall
Published: June 28, 2007

Controversy erupted in San Francisco recently, when Frameline’s LGBT Film Festival pulled Gendercator, a short film by lesbian filmmaker Catherine Crouch, which trans activists accused of being transphobic. In response, a number of lesbians protested Frameline’s actions, anti-censorship folk expressed concern and both sides called for dialogue.

Jamison Green doesn’t know if discussion is the answer. The world’s most renowned trans man, Green says that he’s strongly against censorship and he agrees that dialogue—between lesbian and trans communities—is important. But, he argues, “People come [to those discussions] with a huge amount of emotional baggage and investment in the outcome. I don’t see being able to actually have a meaningful theoretical discussion in that environment. I think we’re not at the place where we can go there—not until we actually have some ground rules.”

At the forefront of FTM activism since he transitioned in 1989, Jamison Green has served on the board of a half dozen trans organizations including FTM International (ftmi.org) and Gender Education and Advocacy (gender.org), and has received numerous awards for his activism.

Becoming A Visible Man, Green’s 2004 award-winning memoir has been utilized in universities and colleges programs. He writes a column for PlanetOut.com, lectures at colleges, is a keynote speaker at this year’s London Gay Pride and regularly helps trans people resolve “problems that professionals in the various fields don’t want to address.”

At home with his wife Heidi (who Green calls “a big ol’ lesbian activist and bisexual activist”) in a quiet San Francisco suburb, Green grapples with an issue he sees impacting the broader trans community. “I think one of the most important things that we as a community have to struggle with is balancing people’s need for connection with others who share their experience against people’s need to just live their lives. That has been tricky…especially [for] many of us who come from queer space.”

Although Green is committed to maintaining his ties with queer culture, he insists that not all trans folk need do so. “It should be ok to just live your life without having to be a martyr. Being out as trans is not always an option. And what people choose to tell other people about their lives is their own business. Nobody should have to feel compelled to be out.”

Thrilled about what’s defined as genderqueer, Green says “That’s how I felt in my late teens and early twenties. I didn’t think I was exactly female before and, although I look and am comfortable being perceived as very male, I know I’m not exactly male now.”

Still, Green acknowledges, “For all intensive purposes, I pass. On one hand, it makes me a very good spokesperson; on the other hand, it makes a lot of people angry, which is funny, because I can’t help the way I look. I’m either treated like I’m a good ‘ol boy or I’m not a real man, according to gay male standards.” . . .

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Bias In Workplace Report

By Dennis McMillan
Published: June 28, 2007

The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy is a think tank dedicated to the field of sexual orientation law and public policy.

Over the last ten years, many researchers have conducted studies to find out whether LGBT people face sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace. These studies include surveys of LGBT individuals’ workplace experiences; wage comparisons between LGB and heterosexual persons; analyses of discrimination complaints filed with administrative agencies; and testing studies and controlled experiments. The report summarizes findings from these studies.

When surveyed, 16% to 68% of LGBT people report experiencing employment discrimination. Studies conducted from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s revealed that 16% to 68% of LGB respondents reported experiencing employment discrimination at some point in their lives. Since the mid-1990s, an additional fifteen studies found that 15% to 43% of LGB respondents experienced discrimination in the workplace. When asked more specific questions about the type of discrimination experienced, LGB respondents reported the following experiences that were related to their sexual orientation: 8%-17% were fired or denied employment; 10%-28% were denied a promotion or given negative performance evaluations; 7%-41% were verbally/physically abused or had their workplace vandalized; and 10%-19% reported receiving unequal pay or benefits.

Fifteen to 57% of transgender people also report experiencing employment discrimination. When transgender individuals were surveyed separately, they reported similar or higher levels of employment discrimination. In six studies conducted between 1996 and 2006, 20% to 57% of transgender respondents reported having experienced employment discrimination at some point in their life. More specifically, 13%-56% were fired; 13%-47% were denied employment; 22%-31% were harassed; and 19% were denied a promotion based on their gender identity.

When surveyed, many heterosexual co-workers report witnessing sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace. A small number of researchers have also asked heterosexuals whether they have witnessed discrimination against their LGB peers. These studies revealed that 12% to 30% of respondents in certain occupations, such as the legal profession, have witnessed antigay discrimination in employment. In states that currently prohibit sexual orientation discrimination, LGB people file complaints of employment discrimination at similar rates to women and racial minorities. Individual complaints of discrimination filed with government agencies provide another measure of perceived discrimination. The General Accounting Office (or “GAO”, now known as the Government Accountability Office) collected the number of complaints filed in states that outlaw sexual orientation discrimination and found that one percent of all discrimination complaints related to sexual orientation. However, comparisons of data from ten states show that the rate of sexual orientation discrimination complaints per GLB person is 3 per 10,000, which is roughly equivalent to gender-based complaints. . . .

extra: feel like dancin'. . .no time for lunch

http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/

Shawna Virago & The Deadly Nightshades

Trans Rocker’s A Little Bit Country

by Jacob Anderson-Minshall 2007-06-27

Images for this article: (click on the thumbnail to see fullsize)

“If Keith Richards was a tranny that got together with Merle Haggard, I’d be their love child,” declares trans rock ingénue Shawna Virago. “Only a lot better-looking.” Dubbed “the sex symbol laureate” of trans rock, Virago is far more than a pretty face. The singer-songwriter is also an activist, writer, filmmaker and actress. As a filmmaker, Virago’s black-and-white shorts include Hustle, Shut Up, Josephine! and Almost Human. Now working on her fourth film, Virago says, “I have a very DIY aesthetic and—just like my songwriting—I prioritize content above all else.” Having starred in several underground movies, Virago is adamant: “Hollywood could never portray a trans woman like myself, or like most of the trans people I know—hence, the importance of festivals like Tranny Fest.” Every November, the Transgender/Transgenre Film Festival, or Tranny Fest ( www.trannyfest.com ) , offers screenings, performances and visual arts by and for transgender and genderqueer people. When founders Al Austin and Christopher Lee retired recently from the world’s first transgender film festival, Virago took over. She says this year’s Tranny Fest will be smart, sexy, and naughty, “just like it always is.” As an activist, Virago served on San Francisco’s Transgender Human Rights Task Force, co-chaired the Transgender Political Caucus and co-founded TransAction, an organization that aims to expose and end police violence against the transgender community. And, she was the first trans woman to serve on the board of San Francisco Woman Against Rape. “Trans women also deal with misogyny and sexism … and all the other fucked-up shit women have to face. Over the years, I’ve heard lamenting by queer women about trans men ‘leaving’ the community, which I can understand. But I’d also like to see women celebrating the inclusion of trans women into the community.” . . .

CNN Plans Day-Long Coverage of GLBT Issues Wednesday

. . .Special correspondent Thelma Guitierrez's report from Trinidad,
Colo.--the "Sex-Change Capital of the World"--for Paula Zahn Now.
Guitierrez interviews Dr. Marci Bowers, who every week performs about
five vaginoplasties, an operation to transform men into women. Nine
years ago, Bowers was a man herself, and she provides first-person
insights into the physical and emotional journey that her patients
experience. . . .

On prenatal tests: “We can sympathize with the unborn child”

. . .and peddling religion:

Pro-life movement finds support from an unlikely quarter

Steve Cook of San Jose, like most California pro-life advocates, is not surprised when he and his anti-abortion posters attract verbal abuse. After all, "pro-choicers" on the Left Coast have a reputation for intolerance. But after over 25 years of marching, picketing, and speaking out for the unborn, what really hurts, he says, is people screaming, "Traitor!" "Shame!"

[[ProLifeGays.jpg]]This is because Steve represents a group that the Left never expected to find on the anti-abortion side: the Pro-Life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians.

Like most pro-lifers, Cook is convinced that any abortion of any unborn child is murder. But he has another reason to be uneasy with the ideology of "choice". “If prenatal tests could detect a tendency toward homosexuality in the unborn, some mothers would abort their babies because they did not ‘choose’ to have a gay son or daughter,” he explains.

Asks Cook, "Would gay abortion advocates say, ‘OK, it's your choice: go ahead and wipe us out?’

"I was on a medical ethics committee connected to an Episcopal Church," recalled Cook in a phone interview with California Catholic Daily, "and I was amazed at people who said that infants are ‘not necessarily' human beings. I said, 'They're different from you, and maybe you don't want them, but that doesn't make them less human.'

“Yet the gay and lesbian community itself is divided,” said Cook. “Not all gays are against aborting ‘gay’ babies. In the UK in the 1980s [famous British cross-dresser and gay activist] Quentin Crisp told me he’d had a life of rejection and wished he had been aborted.” . . .

What does the hammer throw look like?

Here Russian Tatyana Lysenko, the current world record holder (78.61 meters or 257.91 feet), shows how to throw the hammer.

Keelin Godsey: Transgender All-American, discus and hammer throw

A transgendered track and field star at Bates College is determined to earn a spot on the U.S. national team and compete in the 2008 Olympics.

Godsey, left, poses with teammate Liz Wanless Reprinted from SunJournal.com LEWISTON - Keelin Godsey arrived at Bates College in September 2002 as a young, free-spirited woman named Kelly who planned to play basketball. Long before she decided to exchange the orange ball for a silver shot put and hammer, charting a course to become an 11-time All-American track and field thrower, Godsey decided that the gender side of the equation wasn't a perfect fit, either. Bates' current most-decorated female student-athlete, possibly its best ever, has begun the long, complicated and expensive process of becoming a man. "I knew it in seventh grade, when people really started hassling me about being gay," Godsey said. "I could never really figure that out, because I didn't think of myself as gay. I thought of myself as straight. I liked women, but that was a straight thing for me to do." Now a senior, less than a year away from graduate school and the myriad obligations of life that follow, Godsey has chosen to do something about that confusion, permanently. Bates' current most-decorated female student-athlete, possibly its best ever, has begun the long, complicated and expensive process of becoming a man. Godsey, a native of Parker, Colo., spent last summer and fall "coming out" as transgender to the Bates community and its rival schools in the New England Small College Athletic Conference. After announcing the name change, Godsey requested that professors, coaches and teammates use the male pronoun in athletic department press releases and casual conversation. Most have respected those wishes. When interviewed, coaches and teammates refer to "Keelin" and "he" without fail, and with a straight face. . . .

Review: "Alexis Arquette: She's My Brother"

by Marc Breindel

"People tend to think that everyone's open about every subject and everyone's willing to talk about anything," says Alexis Arquette with a huff at the end of her supposedly revealing self-documentary. "I'm done with the fascination. I'm really just happy to be me at this point."

That odd comment comes as an unwelcome conclusion to a two-hour portrait of a sex-change candidate that ends without revealing whether the subject has actually had gender-reassignment surgery.

"People just have to have a big question mark as to whether I have a vagina or a penis," Arquette declares. "It's nobody's concern but mine."

Well, then, can we have our money back?

Arquette wants to have her breasts and penis, too. As an Us Magazine editor points out in "Alexis Arquette: She's My Brother," the celebrity and her family have benefited mightily from the public's fascination with them. If it weren't for celebrity-obsessed publications like Us, the editor points out, "They'd be working at salt mines now, or something." Yet the actor who basked in the psychedelic spotlight of "The Surreal Life" reality show is now reprimanding viewers of her documentary for wanting to know how her story ends. "People should not be asking me those kind of questions," Arquette scolds. "It's inappropriate." . . .

Inmate's Sex-Change Demand Draws Scrutiny

Murderer's Bid To Have The State Pay For His Sex Change Is Bogged Down In Federal Court

BOSTON, June 26, 2007

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Robert Kosilek, en route to the county jail following his arraignment on drunken driving charges in New Rochelle, N.Y., 1990. Right: Robert J. Kosilek, now known as Michelle, is seen in this file photo taken in a New Bedford, Mass. courthouse, 1993. (CBS/AP) Fast Fact Kosilek was convicted of strangling his wife in 1990. He claimed he killed her in self-defense after she spilled boiling tea on his genitals.

(AP) A trial that opened more than a year ago has become bogged down in Boston federal court. There have been hundreds of hours of testimony from witnesses, including 10 medical specialists paid tens of thousands of dollars. The judge himself even hired an expert to help him make sense of it all.

The question at the center of the case: Should a murderer serving life in prison get a sex-change operation at taxpayer expense?

The case of Michelle — formerly Robert — Kosilek is being closely watched across the country by advocates for other inmates who want to undergo a sex change. Transgender inmates in other states have sued prison officials, and not one has succeeded in persuading a judge to order a sex-change operation.

The Massachusetts Correction Department is vigorously fighting Kosilek's request for surgery, saying it would create a security nightmare and make Kosilek a target for sexual assault.

An Associated Press review of the case, including figures obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and interviews, found that the Correction Department and its outside health care provider have spent more than $52,000 on experts to testify about an operation that would cost about $20,000.

The duration and expense of the case have outraged some lawmakers who insist that taxpayers should not have to pay for inmates to have surgery that most private insurers reject as elective.

"They are prisoners. They are there because they've broken the law," said Republican state Sen. Scott Brown, who unsuccessfully introduced a bill to ban sex-change surgery for inmates. "Other folks, people who want to get these types of surgeries, they have to go through their insurance carrier or save up for it and do it independently. Yet if you are in prison, you can do it for nothing? That doesn't make a lot of sense."

But advocates say in some cases — such as that of Kosilek, who has twice attempted suicide — sex-change surgery is as much a medical necessity as treatment for diabetes or high blood pressure. . . .

Jim Bailey as Judy Garland (2007), singing "After You've Gone" and "Swannee"

Illusionist Bailey sings all songs in character.

In Profile: Jim Bailey
— By Bruce Vilanch (taken from Advocate Magazine)

I once saw Jim Bailey perform in Las Vegas. The audience was from a plumbers’ convention. When he was introduced as Judy Garland, the illusion was uncannily realistic. One plumber turned to his wife and said, “I thought she was dead.” “She is,” the wife replied, “This is the daughter.”

See Jim Bailey's web site: http://jimbaileyweb.com/index.htm

Jim Bailey as Judy Garland sings for Charles and Diana in London

Illusionist Jim Bailey as Judy Garland, singing "'Ol Man River"

POV: Being Transgender in Taiwan

by Rachel Kronick

Being transgender is tough, but being transgender in Taiwan, where I am, is even harder. Taiwan has a culture which gives little room for self-expression or even self-respect, and allows even less to transgender people.

Taiwan is not really Chinese, though it does share a lot of the cultural mores of China. Some of these include a very strong sense of the division between male and female, and a very different type of moral system than we usually see in the West.

In the US, a person is worth something regardless of their relationship to you. Even if you don’t know someone, you owe them respect as a person. Of course, people don’t always accomplish this, but this is the ideal. In Taiwan, though, the ideal is quite different. In Taiwan, the degree of respect you owe to a person is almost entirely dependent upon the person’s relationship to you. If they’re your grandfather, you owe them more respect than just about anyone else. If they’re a friend, you owe them an entirely different kind of respect, and a different amount. If they’re someone you don’t know, you don’t owe them respect at all, at least not necessarily.

I’m always amused by government ads in Taiwan which try to promote such things as traffic laws or obeying building codes. They often try to show people that doing so will benefit others, and they’re always at pains to demonstrate that doing so will benefit our own selves. However, the proof always seems strained, and I get the feeling that they are struggling uphill. Taiwanese people in general do not feel a need to take strangers into consideration, so much so that I sometimes wonder if they understand other people as people at all.

Another example which comes to mind is the simple example of walking on the sidewalk. Due to the vast amounts of motorscooters, streetside vendors and poorly constructed buildings, the sidewalks are severely limited in size – often only a foot or two wide, even on major streets. To make matters worse, Taiwanese people walking on the sidewalk simply do not take other pedestrians into mind while walking. They meander, hold bags across the entire sidewalk, hold hands and walk abreast with their four-person family even when the sidewalk is narrow, etc. etc. This kind of behavior in New York, for example, would result in either being forced out of the way or a fight or something else. However, Taiwanese people take this as normal, which it is in their culture, and accept it.

In the West, training oneself not to care about others is a pragmatic necessity, but it is not an ideal in any way, at least not in my experience. If you say, “Group X is the object of violence, but they always will be because they are inherently weird and different from the rest of us,” people will label you Machiavellian. This kind of thinking goes on all the time, of course, and is necessary in a world with limited resources and limited time to think about others. However, this kind of thinking is not idealized in the West.

In Taiwan, though, this kind of thinking is the cultural norm. To put someone off to the side of one’s thinking because they are not closely related – in order to pay more attention to the closest relations in one’s life – is the Confucian ideal. Though many Taiwanese people would say that Confucius was a humorless blowhard, they are in fact laboring under his systems and even supporting them.

One of the best examples of how people are pushed off to the side is transgender folks. There is a common myth in the West that Asia is a land of mystery where transgendered people are accepted far more than they are in the West. Many people in the US, for example, seem to imagine some sort of enlightened Shangri-La where transgendered people are seen through enlightened eyes. This is far, far from the truth, though.

Transgender people in Taiwan are accepted in one small way: when they keep to their socially-prescribed niche, and do not try to break out of it in any way – in other words, when they allow themselves to be the objects of disrespect from the culture at large. They are allowed to be club performers or hostesses, but if they try to gain true acceptance or equality, the culture at large quickly labels them freaks and walks away.

Of course, this is not purely a problem experienced by Taiwanese people. Handicapped people, non-Chinese citizens (did you even know there are aborigines in Taiwan?), gay and lesbian folks, women – there are so many groups in Taiwan who are so far from any kind of equality.

But the kind of oppression experienced by transgender people in specific is so strong, so massive, it’s hard to even express it. In Taiwan, it is of course completely legal to fire someone for such things as being transgender or being gay. Even protecting the rights of pregnant women is still far away. Naturally enough, the consciousness of the society at large is far from focused on the harms visited upon TG folks. . . .

Transgender Athletes Get Into The Game

My love of sports also includes me participating in them as well. I played Little League baseball as a kid and was on my high school's varsity tennis team my senior year. I also played basketball pick up games, tennis and bowled until I started transition. After I moved to Louisville I played softball on my church team in 2002 and recently started bowling on a regular basis again.

So as a transgender sports fan I was pleased to hear about the International Olympic Committee's decision to allow transgender athletes to participate in the Olympics starting with the 2004 Athens Games. Under the Stockholm Consensus, the IOC allows transgender athletes to participate in their new gender two years after they've undergone genital surgery. If the operation took place before puberty, the athlete's gender will be respected.

In the case of a post-puberty gender transition, the athlete must undergo complete genital surgery and get their gonads (their ovaries or testes) removed before they can compete. They also have to get legal recognition of their chosen gender, complete hormone therapy to minimize any sex-related advantages and wait two years before they can become eligible to apply for a confidential IOC evaluation.

While most transwomen are okay with the new policy, transmen understandably bristled at the genital reconstruction requirement. Jamison Green in a 2004 CNN.com interview criticized the genital reconstruction completion requirement.

"I don't think that needs to be a criteria," said Green, who sits on the board of directors of the Transgender Law and Policy Institute. "Many female-to-male people can't afford to have genital reconstruction, so I think that's an unreasonable penalty."

That thought is echoed by Keelin Godsey(left in photo), who is a transgender track and field star at Bates College has a goal of making the US Olympic team and competing in Beijing next year. The transman is delaying his transition in order to make it happen.

Transgender athletes are not a new issue. Stella Walsh, the Polish-born 1932 100-meter Olympic gold medallist and 1936 silver medallist dominated women's sprinting during the 30s and 40's. The naturalized American citizen was revealed by an autopsy to have male genitalia and XY chromosomes after she was killed by a stray bullet during an 1980 armed robbery in Cleveland.

Renee Richards battled the USTA during the 70's and filed suit in 1977 for the right to play at the professional level as a woman. Mianne Bagger recently underwent the same struggle in the golfing world. Canadian mountain biker Michelle Dumaresq has been on the receiving end of biowomen complaints, Hateraid and petition drives to bar her from competition after she started winning races.

The IOC, dogged by persistent rumors in the world press of dominant Eastern European athletes such as Irina and Tamara Press of the Soviet Union being men competing as women and fears of women being fed male hormones for competitive advantage like the East German women were during their 70's and 80's runs of international sports dominance, instituted a mandatory gender verification test starting with the 1968 Mexico City Games. It was interesting to note that the Press sisters, despite winning gold medals in Rome and Tokyo and setting a combined 26 world records never again competed for the Soviet Union at the international level once the gender verification test was made mandatory.

The IOC gender test was initially a gynecological exam that evolved into a chromosomal test called the Barr Test. It was invasive, unreliable and was scrapped before the Sydney Games in 2000. It led to some awkward situations such as 1964 Olympic gold medalist sprinter Ewa Klobukowska from Poland being ruled ineligible for the European Cup women's track and field competition in 1967 because of 'ambiguous genitalia'. She was stripped of her Tokyo Games gold and bronze medals by the IAAF but gave birth to a child years later.

A year later 1966 Austrian downhill skiing world champion Erika Schinegger failed it after it revealed she was chromosomally male, making her ineligible for the 1968 Winter Games in Grenoble, France. Erika later transitioned and reemerged on the international skiing scene as Erik Schinegger. In December 2006 at the Asian Games being held in Qatar, 800 meter silver medallist Shanti Sounderajan from India failed a gender test and was stripped of the medal she'd earned.

Some of the issues against transgender athletes stem from ignorance or jealousy. In 1996 a Thai volleyball team made up primarily of gays and transgender people nicknamed the 'Iron Ladies' won the Thai national championship and was immortalized in two Thai films of the same name. Thai governnment officals barred two of the transpeople from joining the national team and competing internationally out of fears and concern for the country's international image. Canadian mountain biker Michelle Dumaresq is constantly accused of having an 'unfair advantage' by biowomen especially afer she began to frequently win events on the Canadian mountain biking circuit.

The 'unfair advantage' argument is actually a bogus one and medical science is increasingly backing that up. Even though a transwomen grows up with testosterone coursing through her body, hormone replacement therapy takes the muscle building advantage away over time. A genetic female skeleton is lighter, so a transwoman has the handicap of lugging around basically a heavier skeleton with FEMALE musculature.

The IOC was followed by the Ladies Golf Union (Great Britain), the Ladies European Golf Tour, Women’s Golf Australia, the United States Golf Association, USA Track and Field, and the Gay and Lesbian International Sports Association in crafting policies governing transgender athletic participation in events sponsored by their organizations. The Women’s Sports Foundation, United Kingdom and the United States-based Women’s Sports Foundation have issued policy statements supporting the inclusion of transgender athletes in sport. Other international governing sporing federations have followed the IOC's lead when it comes to determining eligibility of transgender athletes in their sports. . . .

Sean Dorsey: Dancing on Razor’s Edge

By Jacob Anderson-Minshall
Published: June 14, 2007

When Sean Dorsey confesses, “It’s scary breaking new ground,” it’s hard to believe. After all, Dorsey is a critically-acclaimed dancer and choreographer who has been honing his craft for years. He’s the creator and director of Fresh Meat Productions, an organization whose very name reflects the transgender man’s commitment to showcasing new talent, and the powerhouse behind San Francisco’s annual three day event, which, in its sixth season, promises audiences not one, not two, but nine world premiers.

This is the guy who’s intimidated by trailblazing?

Before Dorsey founded Fresh Meat Productions in 2001 there was nothing else like it, and transgender artists often struggled for years in vain attempts to gain recognition and support from traditional art institutions. Fresh Meat was created to overcome those kind of barriers and it’s been extremely successful in doing so, creating an infrastructure to support transgender artists, promoting unique works and gaining visibility through year-round arts programs that explores the transgender experience.

“This year, over 16,000 people will attend Fresh Meat’s events,” Dorsey boasts. “We are giving an artistic voice to transgender experiences in a way that’s never happened before.”

In addition to producing and commissioning original work for the annual Fresh Meat Festival, the organization sponsors Dorsey’s internationally renown Dance Company, co-presents TrannyFest (San Francisco’s transgender film festival) and curates art exhibits throughout the year.

Promoting trans artists may be the primary function of Fresh Meat Productions, but the impetus behind Dorsey’s work is a commitment to trans activism. “At heart, I’m an activist and an artist—they’re inseparable for me. It’s a political and revolutionary act to stand up for transgender rights and expression—[especially while] we are still being mocked, killed, sexually assaulted, fired, evicted and silenced because of who we are.”

He says Fresh Meat’s work is transformative, arguing, “That’s how real change happens: when we are empowered to bring our voices forward, to speak positively and authentically…about our experiences as transgender.” . . .

Looking Back: Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria

This clip is from the excellent documentary by Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman about "transgenders and transvestites fighting police harassment at Compton's Cafeteria in San Francisco's Tenderloin in 1966, three years before the famous riot at Stonewall Inn bar in NYC."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464189/

A supportive dad speaks. . .

An articulate FTM college student introduces himself

Southern Comfort. . .offers female-to-male transgender individuals access to healthcare services in a supportive, trans-friendly environment

FtM's face unique challenges in the area of healthcare needs, and are often unable to identify or access healthcare providers with an understanding of these issues. SCC organizers believe the Men's Health Project is a first step toward better healthcare services for transmen. We have teamed up with an Atlanta feminist health clinic, and will provide transportation from the hotel and back, along with significantly discounted exams and lab work.

Those who have attended in the past found that the clinic provided a comfortable environment staffed with caring people. The clinic accepts Mastercard, Visa, Discover and ATM check cards; they do not accept personal checks. If you would like to reserve a space for this event or if you need additional information regarding clinic services and fees, please contact the event organizer at MHP@sccatl.org.

The Men's Health Project was created in 2000 in honor of our friend Robert Eads.

Never quite male or female, it's her decision now

Houston woman born intersexual is getting the surgery she's dreamed of

By SARAH VIREN

A doctor hurried from the delivery room following the early morning C-section at Houston Northwest Hospital — the sounds of infant screams rising from inside.

"Congratulations," he told the young man and his mother-in-law, both waiting just beyond the door. "You have a healthy baby boy."

It was the man's first child. Excited and giddy, he and his young bride called friends and family with the good news. Soon the hospital room filled with flowers and relatives.

But by that afternoon, doctors were urging caution. One mentioned the need for hormone injections. That night, the family's pediatrician called the young woman in her recovery room. He asked her whether she had named the baby yet, and she said yes: Dan Jr., after his father.

The doctor paused.

"I think you better wait a few days to name it because we don't know if it's a boy or a girl," he said, according to family members' accounts of that conversation.

Taking the phone, the baby's father listened to the same message as he watched his wife cry. The next day, doctors advised that Dan Jr. needed a new name. The new parents chose Jessica.

One or 2 in every 1,000

Jessica, now 21, was born intersex, meaning as an infant she fell somewhere in that gray territory between male and female. Babies like her arrive in hospitals every day, their confusing bodies confounding parents in an estimated one to two of every 1,000 births, according to a 2000 survey of medical literature.

For decades, these babies were treated as secrets. Often, doctors alone picked their sex and prescribed the surgeries and lifetime of hormones. Parents were rarely involved in the decision-making process, and their children even less so.

But in recent years, this has begun to change. Emboldened by the Internet and patients' rights movements, adults classified as intersex at birth have begun sharing their stories of botched surgeries and childhoods filled with shame. And some doctors are listening. Within the past five years, many have begun delaying irreversible surgery until later in a child's life, seeking more parental input and following up on the results of the treatments they recommend.

In other words, they are realizing that gender is complicated. . . .

Boyish Girl Meets Girlish Boy

By Eleanor J. Bader

Helen Boyd’s fascinating memoir-cum-social analysis, She’s Not the Man I Married, turns a personal dilemma into fodder to discuss what we mean — or don’t mean — when we pin gender labels on each other.

For starters, there are those pesky terms, “male” and “female.” By way of introduction, Boyd informs readers that the book is the story “of how a tomboy fell in love with a sissy, how a butch found her femme, how a boyish girl met a girlish boy. Who is who is not always clear and doesn’t always matter. In some ways, that’s the heart of this book: the idea that a relationship is a place where people can and do and maybe even ought to become as ungendered as they can.”

Sounds great in theory. But again, there’s that pesky thing: reality. Here, we smack head-on into the blues and pinks of childrearing and the homophobia that undergirds the sexuality we develop.

Boyd wasn’t raised in a bubble, and understands the obstacles that make complete “ungendering” a utopian fantasy. Like all of us, she carries ideological baggage and is unabashedly honest about her heterosexual preference. Nonetheless, when her husband, “Betty,” whose male name is never revealed, announced his interest in crossdressing, Boyd was nonplussed. In fact, she found it something of a turn-on and enjoyed helping him primp, apply make-up and shop for female attire. But shortly thereafter, when Betty opted to move from the boudoir to the streets, spending more and more time as a woman, things got increasingly thorny. To wit, Boyd had to confront both public perceptions and her own deep-seated ideas about sexuality, propriety and physical appearance.

Casual observers watching the pair toddle down the street, for example, saw them as an attractive lesbian couple. Was that okay? Did it matter? What’s more, Boyd has had to ask herself if she will stay with Betty if he opts to surgically alter his body. Will she still desire him if he physically becomes she?

It’s not your standard boy-girl stuff and Boyd admits that she vacillates about the answer. On some days, Betty is the love of her life, regardless of which genitals she possesses; at other times she is far less certain. Luckily for both, it is a non-issue since Betty is currently not pursuing medical intervention. . . .

Transgender may KO Barack dinner

Helen Kennedy

Barack Obama

---

When Florida Firefighter Jennifer Lasko told Barack Obama's campaign she wanted to have dinner with the candidate, she mentioned that she used to be an Army soldier and an active Republican who had become an anti-war Democrat.

The campaign, which loves to highlight support from former Republicans, picked her as one of four small donors it is flying to Washington on July 10 to meet Obama at a restaurant.

But Lasko, 42, didn't mention another big change: Until 2005, she was John William Lasko.

Now, after the Palm Beach Post unearthed her past life, Lasko thinks she should skip the dinner.

"I'm just a citizen who wants to discuss issues. I was foolish to think I could keep it under wraps," she told the paper. "There are a lot of close-minded people who'll make an issue of this."

Lasko, who underwent the sex change while working at Delray Beach Fire-Rescue Department, says it's not a secret, but she doesn't want to cause trouble for Obama.

A campaign spokeswoman said if they had known she used to be a he, it wouldn't have mattered.

"Sen. Obama would love to have her attend the dinner. If she chooses not to attend, Sen. Obama looks forward to meeting her and hearing more about her thoughts on how we can change this country," said spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

---

Trans editor of 'Baseball Prospectus' tells her story

By Ronit Bezalel
Outsports.com

Christina Kahrl, one of the founding five members of Baseball Prospectus, made news by coming out as transgender in 2003. For Christina (who grew up as Chris), coming out was relatively easy once she had made the decision to do so. It was the journey getting there that was the challenge.

"From an early age, I knew I was different," Kahrl told Outsports. "I knew that I wasn't like the other boys. I knew I wasn't like the other girls; I couldn't put my finger on it. I grew up feeling like an ‘odd duck.’ I didn't stress out about it. I didn't mind being different. I just knew that I was."

It wasn't until college that Kahrl began to make sense of her experience when she came across information about transgender issues while browsing the stacks in The University of Chicago Library.

"It was sort of a revelation, and something I could finally understand was a pretty well-understood phenomenon," Kahrl said. “This was in 1990, the year that I graduated. I worked on campus subsequent to my graduation and spent considerable time reading about transgender issues from there, but I really couldn't say that I knew what to do about it at the time; it was simultaneously reassuring and terrifying." . . .

Transgeneration- It's hard to admit you are a transsexual

Tranny Travolta's all woman

JOHN Travolta really enjoyed dressing up and pretending to be a woman for his latest film role in Hairspray.

The devout Scientologist has made a return to musicals after almost 30 years, in the role of Edna Turnblad in the cult classic.

And Travolta fills the screen – literally.

"I wanted (Edna) to look like Sophia Loren if you added 200lb," says Travolta. "I wanted her to be a sexy bombshell who was fun to look at."

"The criteria for Edna was it had to be a woman, it could not be a man dressed up as a woman, and that meant big breasts, big ass, little waist and a full prosthetic where you really visually believed there was not a man in there," he told the Daily Mail.

The film's other stars include Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah and Christopher Walken (as Travolta's husband Wilbur Turnblad).

"I showed the screen test to other people and I didn't tell them it was me. I showed about 10 people and I said, 'Tell me what you think of this broad that they're thinking about playing one of the parts in 'Hairspray',' and I'd play them the DVD and they said, 'Woah, she's something.' About five minutes in, I'd say, 'You know, that's me'."

The role also gave Travolta the chance to learn to appreciate the daily struggle women face to look feminine.

"Being Edna was fun, but becoming Edna was not fun," he says. "I loved the effect the look had on people when they would see me on set as Edna, but I did not love the process involving the prosthetics and the fat suit. It was very hot.

"I knew from Robin (Williams, who starred in Mrs Doubtfire) and Martin Lawrence (from Big Momma's House) that it was hell on wheels! It was like wearing seven layers of very uncomfortable clothing and I remember thinking I would never want to be a woman if that was the case.

"I know my mother had a girdle, bra and sometimes a cinch, but, wow! How do they endure stockings and high heels? The discomfort level was astonishing, but losing the suit was like coming out of a prison. . . .

Gender schmender

I used to flip when called sir, but now I like muddying the sex spectrum

By SUSAN G.COLE

The cashier hands me my change , gives me a wide grin and lays on that old familiar sign-off. "Thank you, sir," she says brightly.

There was a time when such mistaken identity would make me apoplectic.

"What's your problem?" I would ask. "Don't you have eyes? Are you so messed up by sexual stereotypes that you can't tell the difference between a man and a woman, even a woman who wears a D cup? Gimme a break."

Nowadays I'm finding that I just smile back. Except for those times when I'm hassled on my way into the women's bathroom, I don't even correct the offender.

Does this mean I've lost my feminist edge? I know I still believe that women have the right to female-only spaces and I'm still super-proud of my dykedom and my lesbian motherhood. But at the same time, I'm warming to the idea of my gender fluidity.

It's not an entirely new thing. I've rejected the butch label for years, even though people make all kinds of yawn-inducing assumptions about where I fit on the butch-femme spectrum.

The truth is, the more experience I have, the more I see myself as ever-morphing. I change depending on who I'm with. In the company of an über-butch I become a little more femmy, but give me a high femme and I can do butch with the best of them. . . .

Transgender Italian Congressperson Plays Helena

OK, not exactly opera bu relevant nonetheless, and Opera Chic has a soft spot for the first transgender Congressperson in Italy's (and Europe's) history (the New Zealenders have already elected the first transgender member of Parliament EV4R111), the honorable Vladimir Luxuria (and, to be fair, with the exception of a shameful incident provoked by a center-right, Catholic colleague, Luxuria's tenure in Camera dei Deputati has been so far free of ugly incidents of discrimination, a credit to Italians and a testament to this very strangely Catholic nation, so easily outraged by smalltime stuff but also so basically tolerant at the same time).

Anyway the honorable Luxuria, a human rights activist and a former actress, after undergoing what seems to be a nice amount of plastic surgery (the old nose really HAD to go, girl) -- and pretty good surgery by Italian standards at that -- is now cranking up the awesome on stage, too, not just in politics.

Luxuria will appear tomorrow night at 930 PM in Trieste, at Teatro Romano, in a production of Euripides Helena, Giuseppe Rocca director and author of the translation into Italian.

from the video. . .Transgeneration

The Task Force: Transgender Issues

There are many issues that affect the transgender part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. In 2001, the Task Force established the Transgender Civil Rights Project to work for transgender equality. The Task Force strives to make all of its work transgender-inclusive and also believes that working on transgender-specific issues is critical to meeting our mission of achieving freedom, justice and equality for all LGBT people.

Why it Matters:

Transgender people are and have always been an integral part of our community, and the struggle to establish civil rights protections for transgender people cannot be separated from the struggle to win freedom and equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people.

What We’re Doing:

The Task Force leads national efforts to broaden the definition of our communities to include transgender people in the public policy debates on civil rights, hate crimes and health.

• We work in coalition with other groups devoted to ensuring transgender equality. A primary goal is to educate members of Congress about discrimination against transgender people to lay the foundation for a transgender-inclusive anti-discrimination bill. We also work for transgender-inclusive hate crimes legislation at the federal level.
• Our Transgender Civil Rights Project provides legislative, policy and strategy assistance, including evaluation of legislative and policy language, to activists and organizations working to pass trans-inclusive or transgender-friendly laws and policies. Although the primary work of the project centers on nondiscrimination laws and policies, the project can provide assistance to policymakers and activists working to pass any legislation or policies regarding transgender equality. The Transgender Civil Rights Project's primary goal is to increase the number of state, local and federal laws that prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and expression. Prohibiting discrimination based on "gender identity or expression" ensures that the entire range of transgender and gender non-conforming people are protected.
• The Task Force has published two transgender-specific publications: Transgender Equality: A Handbook for Activists and Policymakers and Transitioning Our Shelters: A Guide to Making Homeless Shelters Safe for Transgender People.

Why You Can Do:

• Support the work of the Task Force.
• Get involved! Check out our Activist Center.

Nurses call for end to homophobia and heterosexism in health care

TORONTO, June 21 /CNW/ - As Toronto's Pride Week marks a series of events
across the province to celebrate diverse sexual and gender identities, the
Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) is calling on nurses and
health-care organizations to eliminate discriminatory attitudes and practices
which create barriers to inclusive and appropriate health care.

  Today, RNAO released a position statement entitled 'Respecting Sexual
Orientation and Gender Identity' to address homophobia and heterosexism in the
health-care system which can limit access to health-care services and
compromise health. Up to 1.25 million people in Ontario identify themselves as
members of gender or sexual minority communities. A Health Canada survey found
that the rates of unmet health-care needs among gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender people were nearly double those of heterosexuals.

  One reason this diverse population doesn't always receive the care it
needs is because some avoid traditional health-care settings for fear that
they will experience discrimination or be refused care, explains RNAO
President Mary Ferguson-Paré. "We have to confront these issues head on and
ensure that nurses and other health-care providers treat all patients
respectfully," she says.

  "Nurses want to provide the best care possible for all their patients. To
meet the needs of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, it is
essential to understand the complexities of their lives. By issuing this
position statement, we are asking nurses to examine their own attitudes and
beliefs and to learn more about providing holistic care to members of diverse
communities. As frontline health-care providers, nurses can play an important
role in fostering respect for sexual diversity and making our health-care
system inclusive," says Ferguson-Paré.

  Health-care organizations must also adapt in order to meet the needs of
diverse clients and the RNAO's position statement outlines steps they should
take. "Organizations must assess the services they provide to determine
whether members of all communities have equal access to care. The next step is
to develop, implement and monitor policies to ensure that services, procedures
and environments are respectful of sexual diversity. It is essential to
include members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities in
this process," says RNAO Executive Director Doris Grinspun.

  The position statement also stresses the importance of creating work
environments where gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender nurses and other
health professionals do not experience discrimination from colleagues or
clients. "Genuine respect for diversity is essential to building workplaces
and societies where all people enjoy health and well-being. Nurses of diverse
sexual and gender identities must feel as comfortable at work as their
heterosexual colleagues and must have the same opportunities for professional
development and career advancement," says Grinspun.

  To read 'Respecting Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity', please visit
www.rnao.org

  The Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) is the professional
association for registered nurses in Ontario. Since 1925, RNAO has lobbied for
healthy public policy, promoted excellence in nursing practice, increased
nurses' contribution to shaping the health-care system, and influenced
decisions that affect nurses and the public they serve.

Religion at forefront of this year’s LGBT Pride March

By Audrey Tempelsman

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender synagogue, has attended New York City’s Gay Pride March for 20 years — and each time, the experience takes her breath away.

“It’s always so moving when we turn down Eighth St. in the West Village from the park at Fifth Ave.,” she said. “You see the crowds and feel such a tremendous outpouring of love and energy and excitement.”

This Sunday, Rabbi Kleinbaum will be among the first marchers to take in the view. She and Reverend Dr. Troy Perry of Metropolitan Community Churches, a worldwide ministry with a special outreach to the L.G.B.T. community, are the march’s grand marshals. Not only will they lead thousands of celebrants downtown, they will be the first religious figures in the march’s 38-year history to do so.

“We’re going to stand at the front in a united float with choruses from both our communities singing together,” Kleinbaum explained.

Though the choice of this year’s grand marshals may come as a surprise to some, Dennis Spafford of Heritage of Pride, the organization behind the march, considers it complementary to the event’s agenda:

“People often forget that this is not a party, it’s a march. It’s a political statement,” Spafford said. “Religious groups around the world have been so negative toward the idea of homosexuality and transgender identities. Rabbi Kleinbaum and Reverend Perry will send the message that we’re as much a part of the religious community as others are.”

Both Rabbi Kleinbaum and Reverend Perry have long struggled on behalf of the L.G.B.T. community.

Before joining Beth Simchat Torah in 1992, Kleinbaum served as the director of congregational relations for the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, D.C.

She has stood before the U.S. Congress and in federal court to argue for the legalization of same-sex marriage and attended the conference of U.S. religious leaders at the White House in 1999.

In March, Kleinbaum was arrested in front of the Times Square military recruiting station for protesting comments by General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on the immorality of homosexual behavior. Less than a month later, she was named one of Newsweek’s “Top 50 Rabbis” in America for her work at Beth Simchat Torah.

Perry’s story begins with the founding of Metropolitan Community Churches in his living room in 1968. Within a year and a half, membership jumped from 12 to 1,000, prompting the ministry to seek an alternate space. . . .

OPINION: LGBT Solidarity

By Nancy Wohlforth and T Santora

Thirty-eight years after Stonewall, the LGBT movement approaches Pride in a promising political environment. Dramatic progress has been made in winning anti-discrimination protection and relationship recognition at the state and local levels, and, after years on the defensive, we are advancing a positive LGBT agenda is in Congress.

But as hopeful as this moment is, it’s important to remember how we’ve grown as a movement, and to be aware of pitfalls that remain before us. We should guard our hard-won unity and solidarity, which has paid handsome dividends in recent years. And we must also step up efforts to educate allies about our “cutting edge” issues.

In Washington, the hate crimes bill, now fully inclusive of transgender people as well as gay men, lesbians and bisexuals, passed the House of Representatives this month by a strong majority (237-180), and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), now similarly inclusive, has been introduced in the House.

At the state and local levels, LGBT equality is moving forward at a record pace. Anti-discrimination bills covering sexual orientation and gender identity have been enacted this year by the legislatures of three states (Oregon, Colorado and Iowa), while the Vermont legislature has extended civil rights protection to transgender people (gay, lesbian and bisexual Vermonters have been covered since 1992).

Gay, lesbian and bisexual people are protected from discrimination in jurisdictions covering 52 percent of the U.S. population, and transgender people in jurisdictions covering 37 percent of the population. And about 20 percent of the population live in jurisdictions that offer broad rights and responsibilities to same-sex couples.

All of these gains didn’t come without painful internal struggle. We’ve made mistakes as a movement, corrected them and learned and grown in the process. The most important of these lessons concerns the danger of disunity and the necessity of solidarity in diversity.

In his 2004 book, “Stonewall,” David Carter points out how the synergy of different groups of queer people helped make the Stonewall riots of 1969 the decisive moment for the modern gay movement.

When the Greenwich Village bar was raided, a small number of transsexuals and drag queens set the tone by refusing to cooperate with arresting officers; a few butch lesbians resisted physically when the police began dragging them to patrol wagons; and effeminate gay street youth bore the brunt of the confrontations with law enforcement. Meanwhile, more conventionally gendered gay people, who had already begun organizing politically well before Stonewall, provided leadership that could ideologically challenge the pervasive homophobia of that time and turn a street confrontation into a sustained movement. Queer people of color such as Sylvia Rivera and Marcia P Johnson offered a strong example of courage and militancy during the three-day uprising. . . .

Chicago-area library to add transgender collection

A Chicago suburb's public library received a $3,000 grant enabling it to develop the country's first transgender resource collection. Oak Park Public Library will acquire materials aimed at educating and serving transgender people.The collection consists mainly of nonfiction materials and includes medical and legal information as well as coverage of social issues. With its own resources, Oak Park Public Library has augmented the collection with popular and lesser-known fiction titles as well as films. . . .

Transsexuals of Brazil

Monique, Karlesa, and Wanessa, October 2006.

This photo is from Barry Michael Wolfe's slideshow of transgender people in Brazil, "the country's single most marginalized group." His presentation is a special feature for www.glbtq.com (click on the title above).

Community pushes for TG health coverage

by Zak Szymanski

Recently, an employee of an East Coast LGBT health organization was asked to assist in preparing one of the organization's trans-related grant proposals. Just weeks before, he said, a male co-worker was denied insurance coverage for a medically necessary procedure that is routinely covered for other subscribers. The reason for the denial was that the man has a transsexual history, and the insurance policy excluded anything that could be construed as related to sexual reassignment – in this case, a hysterectomy, a procedure often sought by transsexual men for nonfunctioning organs and related pelvic pain, and typically covered for women without question.

The man, who was in dire need of the procedure, eventually had to hire an attorney to help him secure proper care. But the irony of such an exclusion was not lost on the man's co-workers, whose organization is known for providing healthcare to the transgender community.

"I had to write back to my organization and say I was sorry, but I could not help to bring in more funds for a place that makes a lot of its money on the perception that it's trans-inclusive,� said John, an HIV prevention worker for the organization. "I would hate to have to find a lawyer before I found a doctor."

John was one of several people who declined to give his last name and asked that his organization not be identified for this article. Many LGBT organizations are currently grappling with how to handle transgender health benefits, and identifying these groups could upset the delicate nature of negotiations, advocates said.

Six years after the city of San Francisco passed its groundbreaking transgender healthcare benefits package, progress across the country has been somewhat slow to follow. As a result of the 2001 legislation – which mandated trans healthcare and sexual reassignment coverage for all transgender city employees in need – regional private insurance companies such as HealthNet, Blue Cross, and Kaiser developed the infrastructure that would allow them to offer such benefits to other employers' healthcare plans, and some employers – like the entire University of California system – quickly adopted packages with full coverage. Other employers – from the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign to corporate entities like Microsoft have offered full hormonal and surgery coverage to their employees through "self-insuring," or what amounts to a separate fund for employee health costs.

But unlike the surge in domestic partner benefits that was seen nationwide after San Francisco passed its landmark 1996 equal benefits ordinance – which mandated that companies doing business with the city provide equal health benefits to their employees with same-sex partners – the issue of transgender healthcare remains misunderstood – both in terms of medical necessity and potential cost. And even employees who do have trans-related healthcare may find that adequate care remains difficult to secure.

The biggest problem, according to Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), who authored San Francisco's legislation when he was a city supervisor, is that the insurance industry itself remains broken. Discriminatory exclusions and exorbitant costs mean "so many small employers have a problem trying to give any of their employees coverage," though he added that San Francisco has proved that transgender benefits as part of an existing health plan need not be cost-prohibitive. . . .