Hiroshima court approves sex-change registration application


HIROSHIMA — The Hiroshima Family Court has approved an application by a transsexual to alter her officially registered sex from male to female under a new law, sources close to the case said Tuesday.

The sources said the court approved the change last Friday after concluding that the applicant fulfilled all requirements under the new legislation that took effect July 16. It was the first such approval in Hiroshima Prefecture


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Official says Canada won't fight gay vows
by Ann Rostow
PlanetOut Network



As same-sex marriage battles erupt across the United States in one form or another, the war over marriage in Canada may be moving toward the mop-up stages. Speaking to the Canadian Bar Association, Justice Minister Irwin Cotler said the federal government will no longer oppose or delay any future challenges to provincial marriage laws.

To date, same-sex marriage has been legalized by court order in the most populous provinces, including Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec and, last month, the Yukon. Although the federal government didn't actively oppose the challenge to Yukon marriage laws, as was the case in previous lawsuits, it did ask the provincial court to delay any action until the Canadian Supreme Court weighs in on the subject next year. The Yukon bench refused, and also ordered the provincial and federal governments to pay court costs.


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12 months' probation ordered in 2002 assault on homosexual
By Eric Weslander, Journal-World


A judge Friday ordered a year's probation for the man convicted of punching Lawrence resident Jeffrey Medis in 2002 during a scuffle outside the Replay Lounge.

But the sentencing of Luke E. Wells, 24, Manhattan, won't get Medis one of his main objective: help paying his medical bills and other damages. Medis, who is openly gay and characterized the punch as a hate crime, suffered broken upper and lower jaws, a broken nose, a fractured eye socket and a gash on his chin after falling onto a concrete planter.

So far, he's rung up about $19,000 in medical and dental bills. He is seeking more than $75,000 from Wells in a civil lawsuit that's yet to be settled.

"I would just like to see something done about all his medical bills," Medis' mother, Linda, of Shawnee, said outside the courtroom after the sentencing.


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No breakthrough in gay murder case:
New Delhi:

Four days after the brutal murder of a USAID employee and his male partner, Delhi Police are yet to make a breakthrough in tracing the killers, who are suspected to be male prostitutes.

The naked bodies of USAID official Pushkin Chandra and his partner, Kuldeep, were found Saturday in the first floor annexe of the Chandras' house in the upmarket Anand Lok neighbourhood in south Delhi.

Chandra was living separately in the annexe after his parents objected to his lifestyle, which included late night parties and frequent drinking sessions, police said.

Senior police officials admitted several leads were being followed up but there were no specific clues regarding the killers, who were last seen with the victims at a party Friday night.
A senior official said: "We have prepared rough sketches of the two men. But there is no information about their