Court says toy giant must pay transgenders' legal fees


New York's top court ruled Tuesday that Toys "R" Us must pay the legal fees for three transgenders who won a "moral victory" in their discrimination lawsuit against the retail giant. The three customers charged they were verbally harassed and threatened with baseball bats at a Brooklyn store during two shopping excursions there in December 2000. A jury in June 2002 found the plaintiffs were harassed but awarded them only $1 each in damages. Donna McGrath, Tanya Jinks, and Tara Lopez had each sought $300,000 in damages.

Later that year, lawyers for the three were awarded $193,551 by a federal court judge. The Wayne, N.J.-based retail toy giant appealed. A federal appeals court asked New York's court of appeals, the state's top tribunal, to determine if New York law permitted fees in cases where only nominal damages had been awarded. In a 5-2 ruling Tuesday, the court said the fees were justified because the case served "a significant public purpose" by clarifying the rights of transgender people to be protected from discrimination.


~

Free condom handout suspended by Beijing universities
 Health - AFP


BEIJING (AFP) - Two top Beijing universities have suspended a programme to distribute free condoms to students to prevent HIV/AIDS, frowning on it as "inappropriate".

Administrators at prestigious Beijing University and Tsinghua University prevented the handout going ahead Tuesday, saying it was not acceptable and that organizers had not obtained approval.

"We should put more emphasis on guiding college students not to have pre-marital sex," Zhou Baohua, head of Beijing University's hospital, was quoted by the Xinhua news agency as saying Wednesday.

"Condom use only serves as a secondary method for educating those who can't control themselves."