For the first time, transsexuals may compete in the Games


The modern Olympic games have long included competitors of all races, nationalities, and gender -- but for the first time, transsexuals will officially be allowed to compete this month. Although no transsexual athletes are anticipated at this year's games, the rules may trickle down to the local and regional level, affecting athletes such as Australian golfer Mianne Bagger, a former man who has struggled to enter international women's golf competitions.
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The new rule is an extension of an effort to protect athletes who are "unassailably women," but could have chromosomal variation that puts their gender in question, said Myron Genel of Yale University, who served on the advisory committee to the International Olympic Committee's medical commission.

In 2000, a required chromosome test for women was discontinued. But the commission has expanded the definition of "female" further, with a decision that transsexuals do not have an advantage beyond that of a tall woman, as long as they have undergone corrective surgery to their genitals and have been on a documented hormone regimen for two years.



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other then the last paragraph, and a leaning towards nature vs. nurture without any exploration of the social and gender diversity.. this is a good read on Bruce Reimer.. the boy raised as a girl, and the abuse of power by John Money. this writer just wants to prove nature as the only signifying quality of gender. but that does not explain gender diversity throughout the world and time...

Told To Act Like A Girl
By Carey Roberts


The death certificate listed suicide as the official cause of death. But the real cause of his demise was a controversial gender experiment lead by one of the most influential sex researchers of the 20th century.

Bruce Reimer was born in 1965 to a blue-collar family in Winnipeg, Canada. Eight months later, he was victimized by a botched circumcision, and baby Bruce ended up without his sex organ.

The distraught family eventually contacted John Money, a charismatic psychologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Dr. Money was a leading advocate of the idea that sex-role identification is determined by one's environment, not one's genetic make-up.


Money recommended sex re-assignment surgery, a dubious procedure that had never been performed on a boy born with normal genitalia. Bruce would be given a vagina, his name would be changed to Brenda, and he would be raised as a girl. It would be as easy as that.


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Sexual orientation no reason to violate rights,
Sexual orientation no reason to violate rights, WARC delegates told
by Noel Bruyns
Ecumenical News International


ACCRA, Ghana - Members of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches have different views on homosexuality but Christians can agree that it is wrong to violate human rights because of sexual orientation, WARC general secretary Setri Nyomi told delegates at the alliance's general council meeting in Accra.

He said that the alliance's executive committee had engaged in a study of where member churches stood, after the issue of the rights of gays and lesbians had been raised at the 1997 general council, the last worldwide assembly which took place in Hungary.

"While it is clear they have a variety of views on gays and lesbians, the executive committee came to the conclusion that we can together as Christians at least agree on the fact that it is wrong to violate the human rights of anybody for any reason - including sexual orientation," Nyomi said