Saturday, December 15, 2007
trans law 101
Transamerica (2005) – a Golden Globe Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated independent comedy-drama - is one of the first mainstream movies to look at the practical problems faced by a pre-operative transgender woman.
While we now have books and court decisions on "transgender rights," maybe we need a bit of guidance on terms and issues. Here is an introduction on Trans Law 101 by Prof Douglas Sanders.
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“Transgender” started to be used in the 1990s as an ‘umbrella’ term covering transvestites, transsexuals and others whose behaviour fell outside the Ken and Barbie standard-brand images of males and females. It does not include all gays and lesbians. And it does not include intersexuals.
[PIC]The term “transsexual” refers to individuals who identify as members of the “opposite” sex. They go further than simply choosing clothing and hairstyles that give them an androgynous appearance, or a “butch” or “fem” look. They may cross-dress much or all of the time. They may go further and seek some bodily change by hormones or surgery. And they may seek sex reassignment surgery (SRS).
Sex reassignment surgery started to become generally available in the West in the 1960s. Since that time it has become available in most parts of the world. It is prohibited in Malaysia for Muslims, but allowed in Iran. I have not seen a list of countries which ban the procedure.
The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, formed in 1979, issued a set of “standards” that are relied on by most doctors internationally.
An individual seeking SRS must be assessed by psychologists or psychiatrists as having “gender identity disorder” (the phrase used by the American Psychiatric Association, DCM-IV) or as being a “transsexual” (the term used by the World Health Organization, ICD-10).
The person will then be prescribed hormones and after living in the desired sex for a period, perhaps two years, will be eligible for SRS. This pattern was illustrated in the US movie TransAmerica.
The Harry Benjamin Association has been renamed the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, and the “standards” are to be reconsidered.
Personal documents
The first issue that went to court concerned personal documents. Transsexuals faced problems every time they had to use personal identity documents, whether opening a bank account, showing a driver’s license, interviewing for a job or international travel. Nong Toom, Thailand’s most famous transsexual (of Beautiful Boxer fame), recalled having problems at virtually all immigration check points when she traveled.
When the issue first went to the European Court of Human Rights, the judges were unfamiliar with transsexual issues and not yet really sympathetic to sexual orientation claims. They generally rejected the claims. The Court reversed itself in 2002 in Goodwin v United Kingdom. The judges held that Goodwin, a post-operative male-to-female (MTF) transsexual, was entitled to have her identity documents changed, including driver’s license, birth certificate and passport.
In Grant v United Kingdom in 2006 the Court ruled that the post-operative sex had to be respected. Grant was entitled to a government pension at the age of 60, the age of eligibility for women. She did not have to wait until she was 65, the age for men.
The right of post-operative transsexuals to have their documents changed is now recognised throughout Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. In Asia it is recognised in Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. Some individuals have been able to get corrected documents in China as well, but patterns there may not be nationally consistent. The Supreme Court in the Philippines in 2007 rejected the right of an MTF to have personal documents changed. . . .
Lambda Legal Challenges Denial of Rights of Feminine Gay Male Student to Wear Dress to Prom
(Gary, IN, December, 12, 2007) — In court papers filed today in the Northern District Court of Indiana, Lambda Legal says that West Side High School violated Kevin "K.K." Logan's First Amendment rights when it barred him from his prom for wearing a dress.
K.K. Logan attended West Side High during his junior and senior year and expressed a deeply rooted femininity in his appearance and demeanor. Both classmates and teachers at the school supported him in his daily attendance dressed in clothes typically associated with girls his age.
However, on May 19, 2006, Principal Diane Rouse stretched her arms across the door of the Senior Prom, blocking Logan's entrance. His classmates and friends rallied to his defense to no avail — even though a female student was allowed entrance dressed in a tuxedo. . . .
A Revitalized Resource
TRANS: THRIVE opens under A&PI Wellness Center
SAN FRANCISCO — Take a step into TRANS: THRIVE’s drop-in center on the second floor of 815 Hyde Street, and it feels immediately like a home away from home, with couches, books, a shower and friendly people around every corner.
TRANS: THRIVE — which stands for Transgender Resources and Neighborhood Space (TRANS) and Transgender Health & Resource Initiative for Vital Empowerment (THRIVE) — aims to eliminate health disparities affecting transgender communities of color by providing support groups, case management, harm reduction training, life skills education, shower facilities, as well as referrals and linkages to substance use treatment programs.
TRANS: THRIVE fills the need left when UCSF TRANS closed its doors in June 2007. After that center’s closing, a year before its grant with the government Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration ended, a public outcry from the transgender community prompted the San Francisco Department of Public Health to step in and ask for the remaining funds for the year. TRANS: THRIVE is a collaborative effort between the department, Community Behavioral Health Services and the Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center.
Transgender people often experience discrimination and health disparities markedly different from others in the LGBT community. “Trans people are often more visibly queer at a younger age. A gay kid may not be recognized and harassed at home or school, but a trans kid will,” said Luke Woodward, a program coordinator with TRANS: THRIVE. “So it starts often in youth that trans people are harassed and kicked out of their family, and the way that people survive is through sex work.”
Often, male-to-female transgender people, or “M2Fs,” face the harshest experiences. Woodward has met many trans women, M2Fs, who began sex work at the age of 14 or 15. A lot of trans women do sex work for survival, and often along with sex work is violence, trauma and drugs. Homelessness, viruses and/or incarceration often follow drug usage. . . .
Gender identity, gender change: Stratham school child case brings issue to forefront
Most recently, after a letter was sent out to the parents of a Stratham Memorial Elementary School classroom regarding a student's choice to be recognized as transgendered, the frequency of the situation has surfaced as being more common than generally thought.
Unlike transsexuals, people who identify themselves as transgendered can be physiologically male or female, but feel as though they're trapped in a body of the wrong sex.
Tawnee Walling, executive director of Seacoast Outright, who has been in contact with the family of the 9-year-old student, confirmed on Tuesday that the school department sent a letter to the parents of students in one particular classroom, and that the letter addressed the student's decision to change his name in order to be recognized as a female.
According to Walling, children are able to differentiate their gender identity by the age of 3, and she herself has worked on 20 different cases this year alone involving transgendered youth in the Seacoast area.
"This isn't something to take lightly," said Walling. "It's a serious decision that has to be made related to the health and well being of the youth." . . .
No 'dress' Barred!
MANJARI SABHARWAL,TNN| |
And never mind even if it was only for a small act in a movie, these actors have held their own... and quite well too. Then be it Kamal Hassan in Chachi 420, Govinda in Aunty No.1, Aamir Khan in Baazi, or most recently Ritiesh Deshmukh in Apna Sapna Money Money. So while cross-dressing remained a necessity for actors during the initial days of cinema, it’s quite a hit concept today.
And with the trend of cross-dressing fast being picked up by filmmakers to add a comic element in the film or to just further their storyline, KT takes a look how Bollywood, make-up and fashion industry have crossed all age and sex bars to be where it is today.
Drawing a comparison between intricacies involved in cross over dressing of yesteryears and today, ace actor Raza Murad who acted in Aunty No.1 and Baazi , says, “Bollywood has come a long way. Earlier, most of the cross over dressing roles were that of eunuchs which are easier to perform as compared to dressing and performing like the opposite sex. Secondly, now with a lot of technical advancement actors or actresses work over their voice modulation and dub their original voice according to that of the opposite sex contrary to past. In fact, in Rishikesh Mukherjee’s Biwi Aur Makan Biswajeet acted like a girl but the voice was dubbed by some lady. So these minute details can be taken care of today. Besides, earlier directors and actors seemed to go overborad while performing such roles. But today the the actors are more composed and seem to be doing a better job of the role they have taken on as a person of opposite sex.” . . .
A Transgender TV Debut
Host of Southern India's 'Yours, Rose' Seeks to Challenge Stereotypes, Social Taboos
December 9, 2007
CHENNAI, India -- In a congested neighborhood full of trash heaps, cows and auto-rickshaws lives a budding star named Rose.
Her photographs are splashed across newspaper pages and magazine centerfolds. She speaks at upscale women's clubs and poses for fashion shoots in her diva-like designer chiffon sari. She gets free makeovers at the mall from admiring cosmetics saleswomen. . . .
Q&A: Righting Past Wrongs - Defending the Right to Sexual Diversity in Cuba
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HAVANA, Dec 13 (IPS) - Cuban sexologist Mariela Castro shocked the world, and a good number of people in Cuba, this year when she announced a proposed legal reform in this socialist Caribbean island nation which would include the full recognition of the rights of gays, lesbians, transsexuals, transvestites and transgender persons.
The director of the National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX), Castro has followed a strategy of awareness-raising on sexual diversity in Cuba since 2004, and is one of the few people in Latin America and the Caribbean to carry out a campaign of such magnitude on this issue from a government institution.
The CENESEX proposals include non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, recognition of de facto unions between same-sex couples, the right of same-sex couples to adopt children, and the responsibilities of families and society towards transsexuals, transvestites and transgender persons.
In an interview with IPS correspondent Dalia Acosta, the niece of Cuban leader Fidel Castro and daughter of acting President Raúl Castro said that although amending current laws would not imply an automatic change in social attitudes, it would lay the foundations for such a change and prompt the country’s institutions to move towards guaranteeing the rights of sexual minorities.
IPS: What stage is your proposal at?
MARIELA CASTRO: We have three draft proposals. The first is a Ministry of Public Health resolution to implement integral health care for transsexual persons, including the creation of a clinic to provide care, from diagnosis and hormonal treatment to sex-change operations and post-operative follow-up. . . .
