A TRANSSEXUAL has won a written apology from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for the distress she experienced as a result of having to travel on a passport that identified her as a man.
Stefanie Imbruglia, 42 - a first cousin of the pop star Natalie Imbruglia - has also secured the department's agreement to other measures that amount to fairer treatment of transsexuals who apply for passports.
Ms Imbruglia had lived for two years as a woman before applying for a passport to travel to Thailand for sex realignment surgery in October 2007. She wanted her passport to identify her as a female. But the Howard government rescinded an established practice of issuing transsexuals who were to travel abroad for surgery a one-year limited passport in their nominated gender. . . .Read More
Beauty pageants get a bad rap for many stereotypes and promotion of shallow values, but the recent winner of Miss International Queen 2009 argues otherwise. Known as the world’s largest transsexual cabaret, the Miss International Queen pageant is seen as a platform not only to model swimsuits, but also to raise awareness for transgender issues.
The winner, Japan’s 37 year-old Haruna Ai, was overjoyed at press time, but also aware that her beauty and victory would not be well-received among all audiences, including her home country. “The way of life in Japan is more traditional and transsexuals cannot live freely, but in Thailand they can do what they want,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald.
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A controversial play which portrays Jesus as a transsexual woman was defended yesterday by its writer who has herself crossed the gender barrier to live as a woman.
Jesus, Queen of Heaven, has caused a storm of protest from Christian evangelical groups, who picketed the Tron Theatre in Glasgow when it opened this week.
However, their attacks have caused deep offence to the play’s author, who also acts the leading role. For Jo Clifford — formerly the playwright John Clifford — wrote the piece in an attempt to create greater understanding of transgendered people like herself.
The play’s opening night was attended by about 300 demonstrators. Roman Catholics joined evangelical Christians for a two-hour protest during which they waved placards and sang hymns. . . .Read More
A notorious hallmark of tristate parenting is well-intentioned overencouragement: If your toddler is into music, say, you pack your weekends with live performances and spend thousands on Music Together classes. If your kid happens to like apples, you take him to a pick-your-own orchard, teach him the botanical terms for the parts of a tree and expound on the hardships suffered by migrant laborers. And if your son likes to dress up as a princess, you take him to Disney World and buy him a licensed-reproduction gown.
My son, Cinderfella
The day Meredith H. picked up her son from his first day of preschool, the teacher greeted her and announced, “Oh my God, you have to see Sean. He looks adorable!” In another room, the three-year-old was dressed in a Minnie Mouse costume, grinning from ear to ear. “My heart just thumped,” recalls the Huntington, New York, mother of two. “I knew this was not going to be a one-time thing.”
Sean was never interested in the trucks and trains that his older brother, Liam, had been obsessed with at the same age, and he always gravitated toward girls as playmates. Sure enough, Meredith says, from then on “every day he’d walk into school, head straight for the dress-up section and put on a princess dress.” When the family visited Disney World later that year, both boys were allowed to pick out one souvenir. Liam chose a pirate costume; Sean chose a Sleeping Beauty gown with matching shoes. “He saw the dress hanging there and just said, ‘I want it.’ It was the first time he realized he could have a dress of his own. It was the sweetest thing.” . . .Read More
Piero Marrazzo, who was once tipped as a future leader, announced just hours before the polls were due to open that he would resign as governor of Lazio.
Four policemen have been arrested for allegedly attempting to blackmail the 51-year-old over the apparent encounter in a Rome apartment. . . .Read More
Let’s start with the reasonable assumption that we want to maintain gender segregation in most sports. It provides girls and women — half the planet’s population — a real hope of winning. Without that hope, many may not bother.
The pickle, then, is how to maintain that segregation in the face of apparent challenges. A Renée Richards or a Caster Semenya doesn’t come along too often, but often enough that there needs to be explicit rules about who is considered a woman. But what rules? . . .Read More
After living for more than three years as a man, the person known on his drivers license as Leah Winn-Ritzenberg decided to change his name to match his identity.
A New York court clerk asked for a doctor's note proving Winn-Ritznberg's "need" to change his birth name to Olin. Now, an appellate court has struck down the requirement, saying the state has no business asking people who change their gender to prove it to a court, in a decision transgender advocates hail as a step for equality.
"The court is weighing in and saying transgender people need to be treated the same as anyone else," said Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defence and Education Fund, which provided legal assistance. "We can't impose additional or different burdens upon people just because they're transgender." . . .Read More
In a complex decision released yesterday, the Supreme Court of Kings County ruled that a transsexual father has standing to petition for custody of a non-biological child.
J.R. agreed to marry K.B. even though she knew K.B. was born a woman. K.B. took hormones and had done everything short of surgery to become the man she believed she was. J.R. eventually gave birth to a baby conceived through a third party sperm donor. In 2007 after the marriage between the couple had gone sour, both parents filed petitions for custody of the now five-year-old child. The mother's petition argued that:
"...it would be in the best interest of the child if custody of the child was awarded to her since the Petitioner is actually a woman. In Respondent's affirmation it is alleged that Petitioner committed acts of domestic violence against her while they lived together and that she feared for the safety of the child. In Respondent's custody petition she stated that the Petitioner was "actually a woman" and therefore the marriage was "invalid". (Cross Petition of JR August 6, 2007). " . . .Read More
Jessee Vasold ’11 made history at the College of William and Mary Wednesday when ze was announced as the school’s first transgender homecoming queen, representing the Class of 2011.
Vasold identifies as gender-queer and prefers to be referred to with gender neutral pronouns: “ze” in place of he or she and “zir” rather than him or her. Vasold has also created a Facebook account for a female identity, Kathy Middlesex.
Friends suggested that Vasold run for homecoming queen. Even though Vasold thought that there was a good chance at being elected, Vasold said the win was still surprising to hear.
“We figured it would be something different for the school to go through, something that hasn’t happened too often,” Vasold said. “I was kind of surprised that I won because I knew the other girls running. I know that they’re really friendly; they’re wonderful people, so I was unsure.”
This year marks the return of direct voting by students. Last year, there was no platform to host voting, so the homecoming kings and queens were chosen by class officers out of student-submitted nominations. . . .Read More
Josie Romero loves the colour pink, braiding her hair and having her fingernails painted.
But life has not always been easy for this sweet and charming eight-year-old, who was born in the body of a boy.
The transgender youngster, then called Joseph, knew at the age of four that she was the wrong sex and even told her parents: 'I am really a girl.'
At five, she was refusing to have her hair cut and only wore colours like orange which were nearest to girly pink.
By the time she reached six, Josie had been diagnosed as transgender and was beginning her transition to becoming a female.
Mother Venessia, 42, said: 'When she was a toddler, she was always trying to turn her boy toys into girl toys.
'She used to take her army figures, wrap them up and rock them like a baby.
'As she grew older and started to talk, she always said: "I'm a girl". . . .Read More
But by the following Monday, suspicious school officials had called the FBI and learned that Jack was born Jennifer May, and was actually 24-year-old Jack Jay Kaiser, a California woman in the midst of switching her gender to a man.
Today, Kaiser is being held in Williamson County jail on $20,000 bail, charged with lying to officials at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services about his age and about having been abandoned or homeless.
"It's really sketchy," said Marshall Stone, supervisor special agent for the FBI's Springfield, Ill., unit. "We were initially involved because we were concerned if he was a trafficking victim and needed to be identified.". . .Read More
Frisk Policy Revised
The incident came in the wake of a 2003 court ruling that moved the rights of inmates with "gender-identity disorder" to a new level in the country's federal prisons, directing the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) to pay for the sex-change operations of some offenders.
Officials confirmed this week that since then they have funded two "gender reassignment" surgeries, while others have applied to undergo the service. . . .Read More
Do you have questions about the coming out journey? The Human Rights Campaign has a set of resources to help you along the way. Download a copy of our newly released Resource Guide to Coming Out, or read it online. Or download our Resource Guide to Coming Out for African Americans, the Spanish-language Guía de Recursos Para Salir Del Clóset or our guide to Living Openly in Your Place of Worship.
