Once brothers, now sisters... and winners!


WHEN Singaporean Angel Hutchison turned 18 and started wearing bras and dresses, her parents got angry and objected strongly.

This is because Angel (blond in picture, right, with sister Jesse), now 29, was born a boy.

When her younger sibling, Jesse, followed suit five years later, it dealt them another blow.

Years later, their mother reconciled herself with the inevitable - two of her sons have become daughters.


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Court approves Carrousel's request to change registered sex


TOKYO — The Tokyo Family Court approved a bid by transsexual entertainer Maki Carrousel, 61, to change her officially registered sex to female from male, her spokesman said Monday. Carrousel, which means a merry-go-round in French, was informed of the court approval late last month, the spokesman said.

She was among the first to make applications to family courts nationwide when landmark legislation took effect in July. She will alter her real name Tetsuo Hirahara, a typical male name, to Maki Hirahara. Hirahara was born a male but underwent a sex-change operation in Morocco at the age of 30. She has used the stage name Carrousel for decades. (Kyodo News)


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Marking National Coming Out Day
By LAURA INCALCATERRA
THE JOURNAL NEWS


Rockland and Westchester organizations are preparing to mark National Coming Out Day with events to help educate the public and increase the acceptance of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and members of the transgendered community.

That's an important goal, because only by educating people will all people be safe to live their lives, said Joanne Goodman, executive director of the New City-based Community Awareness Network for a Drug-free Life and Environment, or CANDLE.


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Groups unite to oppose stadium
By S.A. Miller
THE WASHINGTON TIMES


A diverse coalition — including local politicians, black-power militants, homosexual activists and child-welfare advocates — has emerged to oppose plans for a Major League Baseball stadium in Southeast, as the D.C. Council today begins debating legislation for the "sweetheart" ballpark deal.

    A group calling itself No D.C. Taxes for Baseball, made up of more than 20 organizations ranging from the New Black Panther Party to D.C. Action for Children, plans to demonstrate this morning on the steps of the John A. Wilson Building, home of the City Council and the mayor's office.


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Fremont area fights anti-gay harassment
Three groups get funds from California Safe Schools Coalition
By Grace Rauh, STAFF WRITER


The Fremont area is an emerging center for groups actively promoting tolerance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth, according to the director of California Safe Schools Coalition.

"There's an exciting amount of work going on in the area," coalition director Molly O'Shaughnessy said. "Groups all over California will be able to learn from strategies that work (there)."

Three Fremont area organizations are among 13 statewide receiving grants from the coalition. The money is intended to help end anti-gay harassment in schools.

Pat Skillen, president of the Newark-based chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, believes the 2002 slaying of Newark transgender teen Gwen Araujo galvanized residents.


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Same-sex benefits lawsuit against Pitt officially over
By Bill Schackner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Seven workers today will officially drop their 8-year-old discrimination lawsuit against the University of Pittsburgh over same-sex benefits now that the school intends to offer the coverage, individuals involved in the case said.

The development means an end to the highly charged court fight that spawned a challenge to Pittsburgh's gay rights law as well as campus protests and a hunger strike.


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Chico State President responds to acts of vandalism
Scott Jason


President Paul Zingg sent an e-mail Monday to students, staff and faculty in response to racial, anti-gay and political vandalism that has happened in the past three weeks.

University Police Sgt. Robyn Hearne said a car parked at University Village had racial slurs written in its dust on Sept. 17. Another car parked at Craig Hall had slurs written in its dust on Sept. 26.

Hearne said a newspaper article about gay marriage and a MEChA flier were also vandalized.


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Is this now the thought police?

THE BROADCASTING Council has fined Simba FM sh1.8m for hosting homosexuals on a discussion programme. The homosexuals were protesting against discrimination.

The Broadcasting Council said that Simba had offended the public and breached the law on public morality.

This ruling is probably unconstitutional and an infringement of the right of freedom of speech. Homosexual acts are indeed illegal in Uganda. But it is not therefore illegal to say that you are homosexual, or have homosexual tendencies.

Moreover neither Simba nor the homosexuals committed a crime during the discussion programme in August. Demanding a change in the law cannot be criminal


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Gays want demint to apologize
Controversy flares over his opposition to hiring homosexual teachers in S.C.
BY SCHUYLER KROPF
Of The Post and Courier Staff


Several gay organizations were unable Monday to get an apology from Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jim DeMint, who said Sunday that known homosexuals should not get teaching jobs in South Carolina's schools.

One request came from the Log Cabin Republicans, a national organization of gay conservatives who called DeMint's position "out of touch."

"At a minimum he should issue a formal apology for the comment," said former Charleston County solicitor David Schwacke, who is gay and leads the Charleston chapter of the Log Cabin group, which has about 50 mem


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Baton Rouge court to hear gay-marriage ban challenge
The Associated Press


BATON ROUGE, La. -- Many of the arguments gay rights advocates prepared for Tuesday's trial on their challenge of the newly passed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage have been heard before, but they were never really settled.

They were largely built around claims that the amendment should never have been on the Sept. 18 ballot because, among other reasons, it was drafted improperly. But such arguments were premature, state courts said. Now that the amendment has been passed, the lawyers will try again.

State District Judge William Morvant was set to hear the challenge at 10 a.m.

Some 78 percent of those voting favored the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, and its related prohibition against state recognition of same- and opposite-sex civil unions. The vote was part of a national groundswell against gay marriage, which followed last year's Massachussetts Supreme Court recognion of gay marriage.