Sunday, December 16, 2007
Women's World - New look and a new start
Kathy is a new person in the true sense. Because she used to be a burly rugby player called Peter and fathered three children by two ex-wives.
But now the 55-year-old artist, who lives in Cragg Vale, is starting the New Year on a high because she's well on her way to having the body she always dreamed of.
Kathy, who was born in Worcestershire but moved to Calderdale 27 years ago, claims she knew from the age of four that she was trapped in the wrong body but only worked up the courage to do something about it five years ago.
She "came out" to her friends and, 18 months ago, changed her name by deed poll and started dressing as a woman full-time.
Now she attends a clinic in Leeds and has started hormone treatment to become a woman. She hopes to have sex reassignment surgery, paid for by the local health authority, soon. . . .
Former HRC trans business
Trans activist and author Jamison Greenby Heather Cassell
12/13/2007Two transgender business leaders once involved with the Human Rights Campaign have taken matters into their own hands and launched their own employment education project.
The move comes in response to HRC's decision to back a version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that does not include protections for gender identity. HRC, the nation's largest gay rights group, had previously committed to supporting a trans-inclusive version of ENDA.
The sexual orientation-only version of ENDA passed the House of Representatives last month.
Bay Area resident Jamison Green, 59, and Donna Rose, 48, of Arizona, tendered a joint resignation from HRC's business advisory council November 27 and launched the Transgender Employment Partnership to continue the work they began at HRC, they said.
Rose had previously resigned from HRC's board of directors, but had remained on the business council until her recent resignation. . . .
Drag Queen Bingo
These are the ladies who run the show, and these are the ladies who love them. It's called Drag Queen Bingo, an event so increasingly popular, it's booked for the next two months.
But, all this raucous has also become increasingly annoying to the man who lives next door. He lives less than 20 feet away. He's written letters to commissioners, called police, anything to put an end to this.
"For one person to go to so much trouble is ridiculous," thinks Lou Schultz, owner of the Canvas Cafe.
The neighbor only agreed to speak to us on the phone. He said it's not the drag queens he minds, but the sexually explicit, make-you-blush kind of words his daughter is being exposed to. . . .
Woman sues over 30-year-old sex change
DUSSELDORF, Germany, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- A German woman whose female sex organs were removed 30 years ago as an 18-year-old is suing the surgeon who performed the procedure. . . .
Don't Tick Off Trans
From The Advocate December 18, 2007
What’s the T doing in LGBT? You probably get the L and the G from extensive personal experience. You might even get the B (we’ll save that for another article). But that pesky T can be a real mystery. LGBT people (in fact, all people) have a gender identity and expression. That’s how many LGBT people are oppressed. . . .
Gay vs. Trans in America
The LGBT “community” has never seemed less communal than in the last few months. When Barney Frank decided in September to move forward with a federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act that covered sexual orientation and not gender identity, it was as if an earthquake had gone off in the queer world, laying bare the differences between us. Within days, 300-plus LGBT organizations around the country had united in opposition to that version of ENDA, saying it wasn’t fair for some members of the community to gain rights when others would not, while Frank, the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives, and political insiders savvy to the legislative process argued that passing an imperfect measure was better than no measure at all. Caught in between was the Human Rights Campaign, which initially declined to support or oppose ENDA in an effort both to preserve its valuable Capitol Hill relationship. . . .
