Monday, August 27, 2007

Video: FTM Transsexual Interview

. . .on YouTube.

Monkey misery for Kenyan women villagers

By Juliet Njeri
BBC News, Nachu, central Kenya

A troop of vervet monkeys is giving Kenyan villagers long days and sleepless nights, destroying crops and causing a food crisis.

Earlier this month, local MP Paul Muite urged the Kenyan Wildlife Service to help contain their aggressive behaviour.

But Mr Muite caused laughter when he told parliament that the monkeys had taken to harassing and mocking women in a village.

But this is exactly what the women in the village of Nachu, just south-west of Kikuyu, are complaining about, sexual harassment.

They estimate there are close to 300 monkeys invading the farms at dawn. They eat the village's maize, potatoes, beans and other crops.

And because women are primarily responsible for the farms, they have borne the brunt of the problem, as they try to guard their crops.

The monkeys grab their breasts, and gesture at us while pointing at their private parts.

They say the monkeys are more afraid of young men than women and children, and the bolder ones throw stones and chase the women from their farms.

Nachu's women have tried wearing their husbands' clothes in an attempt to trick the monkeys into thinking they are men - but this has failed, they say.

"When we come to chase the monkeys away, we are dressed in trousers and hats, so that we look like men," resident Lucy Njeri told the BBC News website

"But the monkeys can tell the difference and they don't run away from us and point at our breasts. They just ignore us and continue to steal the crops."

In addition to stealing their crops, the monkeys also make sexually explicit gestures at the women, they claim.

"The monkeys grab their breasts, and gesture at us while pointing at their private parts. We are afraid that they will sexually harass us," said Mrs Njeri.

The Kenyan Wildlife Service told the BBC that it was not unusual for monkeys to harass women and be less afraid of them than men, but they had not heard of monkeys in Kenya making sexually explicit gestures as a form of communication to humans.

But whatever the truth of the villagers claims, the predominantly farming community is now having to receive famine relief food.

The residents say the monkeys have killed livestock and guard dogs, which has also left the villagers living in fear, especially for the safety of their babies and children.

All the villagers' attempts to control the monkeys have failed - the monkeys evade traps, have lookouts to warn the others of impending attacks and snub poisoned food put out by the residents.

"The troop has scouts which keep a lookout from a vantage point, and when they see us coming, they give warning signals to the ones in the farms to get away," said another area resident, Jacinta Wandaga.

The town has been warned by the Kenya Wildlife Service not to harm or kill any of the monkeys, as it is a criminal offence.

Running out of options, residents are harvesting their crops early in an attempt to salvage what they can of this year's crop.

Unfortunately, this only invites the monkeys to break into their homes and steal the harvested crops out of their granaries.

Even the formation of a "monkey squad" to keep track of the monkeys' movements and keep them out has failed.

The area is simply too large for the few volunteers to cover, they say.

Some residents have lost hope and abandoned their homes and farms, but those who have stayed behind, like 80-year-old James Ndungu, are making a desperate plea for assistance.

"For God's sake, the government should take pity on us and move these monkeys away because we do not want to abandon our farms," he said.

"I beg you, please come and take these animals away from here so that we can farm in peace."

Disclosure thwarted adoption, trans man says

By Timothy Cwiek
PGN Writer-at-Large
© 2007 Philadelphia Gay News

A local transgender man says privacy invasions related to his sexual status prevented him from adopting in the tri-state area.

The trans man, who asked to remain unidentified, said he and his wife worked with a local adoption agency, Methodist Family Services of Philadelphia, for about four years, hoping to adopt a child in Pennsylvania, New Jersey or Delaware.

He said Methodist insisted on including a paragraph about his transgender status in the home study of the couple. State law requires that home studies be conducted before an individual or couple can become adoptive or foster parents.

The home study could be sent to all 67 counties in Pennsylvania, along with counties in New Jersey and Delaware, he said.

After more than 30 rejections, the trans man and his wife have decided to end their relationship with Methodist.

“We argued with them about including the [trans] information, because it’s not relevant and could hurt our chances of a match,” the man said. “But Methodist insisted and we finally relented. They said they needed to include it to cover their asses in the event the information came out at a later date.”

State and local laws governing home studies in the region are silent on the issue of transgender information, leaving decisions about including the material up to the discretion of the agency conducting the study.

Only one state — Florida — specifically forbids the adoption of children by lesbians and gays. Mississippi prohibits adoption by same-sex couples and second-parent adoption. Utah forbids adoption by any unmarried cohabitating couple.

Anne Rice Burgess, chief program officer for Methodist, said Methodist’s policy is to include the transgender status of a prospective parent in the home study, even if it might get into the hands of a biased county worker.

“We view this as an identity issue,” Burgess explained.

But she noted that future discussions with Methodist’s legal counsel might prompt the agency to amend its policy and not include the information in home studies.

Burgess also said Methodist would respect the wishes of lesbian, gay or bisexual clients who didn’t want their sexual orientation disclosed and that the organization strongly advocates for all of its prospective adoptive parents, including those who are GLBT.

The trans man expressed hope that every adoption agency, not only Methodist, would respect the privacy wishes of transgender clients.

“We weren’t trying to do anything misleading,” he said. “We just wanted to get our foot in the door. When you see other families getting kids after a few months, you realize that prejudice is taking place.” . . .

Finding the Real Me

Sing Tao Daily, News Feature, Xiaoqing Rong, translated by Eugenia Chien, Posted: Aug 27, 2007

Editor’s Note: Advocate Pauline Park, an Asian transgender woman who was adopted by a Caucasian couple, says she has finally found a sense of belonging.

The famous Chinese movie star Chen Xiao Ching once said, “It’s hard being a person, harder being a woman, and even harder being a famous woman.” What about being a transgender woman? Pauline Park, the chair of the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy, understands best the weight of this question.

Whenever someone asks Park where she is from, Park never knows how to answer. Park and her brother were adopted by a Caucasian couple from a Korean orphanage when Park was only eight months old. Growing up in a small town in Wisconsin, Park and his brother were the only non-white residents. When he was in elementary school, teachers and parents looked at Park and his brother curiously and asked, “Whose children are these?”

“Ever since I was a kid, I never knew where I belonged. I was born in Korea but I have never been there. I grew up in America but people call me Chinese or Japanese,” Park says.

Even more confusing for her was her sexuality. “When I was little, I felt that I was a girl. I was just a girl’s soul in a boy’s body,” she says. In 1978, Park and her brother left home to attend college in Madison, Wis. Madison had a more active gay and lesbian community, and the university had a center for gay and lesbian students. This was where Park and her brother came out as openly gay.

Park’s adoptive father passed away when she was 12. Not wanting to upset her adoptive mother, a devout Christian, Park hid her sexuality from her even after she came out of the closet. Even when a male admirer came to her house and roused suspicion from her mother, she still did not admit to being gay.

In 1981, Park left for the London School of Economics and fell madly in love with the first man she has ever lived with. She began dressing and living as a woman. Three years later, when Park graduated and returned to America to work in Chicago, her boyfriend traveled from London to see her. After her boyfriend left, Park’s adoptive mother finally openly talked about her son’s sexuality.

“She said to me, she knows that this man was my boyfriend. She didn’t use the term ‘gay,’ but she was subtly expressing to me that she can accept this,” Park says. . . .