from:lbgt India
Metis file case against Nepal Police following
beatings


Four members of Blue Diamond Society – Julie, Josma, Sunil Sunwar and Suraj (meti names) – have filed a case against Police Inspector Prem Bahadur Malla and Sub Inspector Kuver Chand along with other unidentified police officers who were patrolling in a mobile Police van on 31 Chaitre 2061 (13 April 2005) around 11.30 pm in Kantipath, near Thamel. The police assaulted the metis, who were en route to Thamel having been to a party at Blue Diamond Society's office to celebrate the Nepali New Year. The charges are physical assault and beating. The case was filed at Kathmandu District Court on 19 April 2005. This is the first time that Blue Diamond Society and metis have filed a case in court against the police. The hearing will be on 16 May 2005. We call upon your support in solidarity.

Sunil B. Pant
Director
Blue Diamond Society

Panelists: Gender neutral necessary
by Andrew J. Nusca
Staff Writer


Gender-neutral bathrooms are necessary to preserve the legal right to gender expression, representatives of various LGBT groups said yesterday at a panel discussion on the implementation of the New York City Transgender Rights Law.

Post-RNC Fallout


Over seven months after last summer's protest against the Republican National Convention in New York City, the truth is finally coming out about how the City treated protesters. The charges against Josh Banno, wrongly arrested in connection with the "green dragon fire", were dropped on Friday, April 15. As well, The National Lawyers Guild announced on Friday that the city is to pay 230, 000 dollars in contempt of court charges for their slowness in releasing arrested protesters. Evidence provided by video activists has cleared over 400 of the 1806 arrestees, including some non-protesters caught up in police sweeps. And a front page story in the New York Times largely confirmed 4 months of postings to NYC IMC documenting police perjury and the doctoring of evidence.

Will oil strike $380 a barrel by 2015?
By Adam Porter in Perpignan, France
A steep rise in prices is expected due to growing energy demands
A report prepared by energy economists at the French investment bank Ixis-CIB has warned crude oil prices could touch $380 a barrel by 2015.


Analysts Patrick Artus and Moncef Kaabi said in the next 10 years demand for oil will outstrip supply by around 8 million barrels per day (mbpd).

"If one takes into account the level of previous oil shocks such as in the 1970's, we don't think a price level of $380 per barrel is out of the question," they said.

Acres for Wal-Mart
By Stacy Mitchell, AlterNet.
Known for squeezing every last dime out of employees and suppliers, Wal-Mart has even managed to get a rock-bottom deal on corporate green-washing.


My local newspaper, the Portland (Maine) Press Herald, reported last week, in glowing front-page coverage, that an effort to protect a tract of northern forestland from development had "taken a huge step forward" thanks to Wal-Mart.

Similar stories of treasured lands gaining protection with help from Wal-Mart ran in hundreds of newspapers across the country under such headlines as, "Wal-Mart grant will help fund Squaw Creek conservation plan," and "Wal-Mart to aid in effort to protect Grand Canyon."

Known for squeezing every last dime out of employees and suppliers, Wal-Mart has even managed to get a rock-bottom deal on corporate green-washing. For just $35 million--less than one percent of last year's profits--the world's largest corporation has burnished its environmental image and garnered a cascade of laudatory press coverage

US accused of trying to block abortion pills
Sarah Boseley, health editor
Thursday April 21, 2005
The Guardian


The US government is trying to block the World Health Organisation from endorsing two abortion pills which could save the lives of some of the 68,000 women who die from unsafe practices in poor countries every year.

A Time for Disobedience
Faced with Bush's lockdown on information, reporters have to stand up
by Sydney H. Schanberg
 
"The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it." —Henry David Thoreau, 1848

The press is now looking squarely at a perversion of government. The administration of George W. Bush has raised secrecy and information control to a level never before seen in Washington.

The falsehoods about weapons of mass destruction that gave the White House the public support to wage war in Iraq may be the most vivid example of the perversion, but the practice permeates all corners of the Bush government.

The press has been grappling with how to cope with this extreme control and distortion of news, some reporters and editors more than others. One possibility they might consider is civil resistance, as in quiet, nonviolent, respectful rebellion.

LOOKOUT by Naomi Klein
The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
The Nation


Last summer, in the lull of the August media doze, the Bush Administration's doctrine of preventive war took a major leap forward. On August 5, 2004, the White House created the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, headed by former US Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual. Its mandate is to draw up elaborate "post-conflict" plans for up to twenty-five countries that are not, as of yet, in conflict. According to Pascual, it will also be able to coordinate three full-scale reconstruction operations in different countries "at the same time," each lasting "five to seven years."

Fittingly, a government devoted to perpetual pre-emptive deconstruction now has a standing office of perpetual pre-emptive reconstruction.

Aid worker uncovered America's secret tally of Iraqi civilian deaths
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
20 April 2005


A week before she was killed by a suicide bomber, humanitarian worker Marla Ruzicka forced military commanders to admit they did keep records of Iraqi civilians killed by US forces.

Tommy Franks, the former head of US Central Command, famously said the US army "don't do body counts", despite a requirement to do so by the Geneva Conventions.

But in an essay Ms Ruzicka wrote a week before her death on Saturday and published yesterday, the 28-year-old revealed that a Brigadier General told her it was "standard operating procedure" for US troops to file a report when they shoot a non-combatant.

NEA, School Districts Fight Education Law
By BEN FELLER
AP Education Writer


WASHINGTON -- The nation's largest teachers union and school districts in three states sued the Bush administration Wednesday over the No Child Left Behind law, aiming to free schools from complying with any part not paid for by the federal government.

Exxon-Mobil, International Paper and Georgia Pacific bring your earth day 2005....

University activists boycott Earth Day
Environmentalists oppose sponsorship
By Laura Milazzo
Contributing Writer


Baton Rouge celebrated its Earth Day Festival downtown this Sunday with food, bands, educational booths and artists, but it lacked one thing — University student environmentalists.

“Most of the students who would be here are protesting it,” said Caroline Garcia, an art senior who attended Earth Day to promote Food Not Bombs, a student organization that targets hunger.

Many student environmentalists chose not to attend Baton Rouge Earth Day because the event was sponsored by corporations like Exxon-Mobil, International Paper and Georgia Pacific — corporations whose actions they view as environmentally unfriendly.

Connecticut Approves Civil Unions for Gays
By SUSAN HAIGH


HARTFORD, Conn. - Gay rights proponents had been hoping that Connecticut would follow the lead of neighboring Massachusetts by allowing same-sex couples to marry.

That's why they were pleased but still unsatisfied Wednesday when Connecticut offered civil unions to gay couples, becoming the first state to do so voluntarily, without being forced by the courts.

"As important as the rights are, this is not yet equality," said Anne Stanback, executive director of Love Makes a Family, a statewide gay rights organization.

For Immediate Release: Nepal: Police Attack Transgender People
Pattern of Police Abuse Highlights Broader Threat to Civil Society


(Geneva, April 19, 2005) -- Police in Kathmandu attacked a group of transgender people on Wednesday, underscoring the vulnerability of all Nepalese to police abuse since King Gyanendra seized direct power in February and suspended most civil liberties, Human Rights Watch said today.

On April 13—the Nepalese New Year’s Eve—police attacked 18 metis (a traditional term for biological males who dress and identify as women) who were walking toward a festival in Kathmandu. Nine were severely beaten with batons, gun butts, and sticks.

From: [LGBTNepal] - Are we secure in this lawless country?


Previously I was pretty sure that in Nepal at least at Katmandu we are secure because it is Kingdom and lots of security forces and human right activists are here for our security. My that beliefs came to absurd when I saw the brutal cuts and wound of Roshani  that caused due to brutal lathi charge and boot charge of security force at new-year eve-2062. Roshani who was one of the victim among 18, of that mishap that caused by security forces at Kantipath. Yesterday when she called me for dressing of that wounds and Massage, there I became unconscious after getting such a terrible wounds that I haven not seen yet in my whole life. In her body ,believe me, there is no space to past the massage cream –all cuts and swollen. She told me that police beat her so hard by Guns' Kurda, boot and LAthi of cane. She told me that there is deep pain in her cheast, neck, and lungs.The whole body was aching.

UNITED STATES: School bans gay t-shirt


On April 8, the American Civil Liberties Union commenced legal action against a Missouri public high school that disciplined a student for wearing t-shirts with gay-friendly messages. Fifteen-year-old LaStaysha Myers was twice sent home for wearing shirts with handwritten phrases such as “I support gay rights!”. The ACLU is arguing this is a violation of free speech. A year ago, a student at the same school was suspended for wearing a t-shirt that said “I’m gay, and I’m proud”. Also last week, the ACLU investigated complaints that Ohio schools had sent students home for wearing shirts advocating same-sex marriage rights.

OPINION-Time To Break Shackles
Let antiquated laws go and same-sex lovers be allowed to live in dignity
SALEEM KIDWAI


"We are not living in the time of the inquisition," the poet Firaq Gorakhpuri told a homophobe in 1937, advising him to rid himself of his 'pedestrian prejudice'. It's time to remind ourselves of this advice, now that a plea to remove discrimination against millions of Indians has for the first time reached India's highest court. It is for the Supreme Court now to decide whether those who love people of their own sex will be allowed the basic right to live in dignity.

Greens introduce bill for same-sex marriage


HOBART — On April 12, the Greens introduced a bill into the Tasmanian parliament allowing for same-sex marriages and have called for a parliamentary committee to discuss the issue.

Despite calling the Greens’ move “a stunt”, Labor attorney-general Judy Jackson said that the issue should go to a committee for debate “if it can be shown that states” have the constitutional authority to adopt such legislation. She has called for legal advice.

Urge your government to affirm gender identity language at the Commission on Human Rights
 Action Alert


The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is on the verge of an historic breakthrough in the resolution on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions that will be considered on Tuesday, April 20, 2005. After much lobbying and negotiation efforts from LGTBI, human rights and feminist organizations, the resolution on Extra-judicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, E/CN.4/2005/L.47, was tabled (i.e. moved from informal to formal status for negotiations) by Sweden on April 13, 2005. The draft resolution includes references to both sexual orientation (as it has for several years) and gender identity (for the first time).

While the resolution will come before the Commission on Tuesday, the inclusion of both sexual orientation and gender identity in the formal draft can, itself, be considered a significant step forward. (see the 2005 Action Kit at http://www.iglhrc.org for more information about the Commission) Moreover, we believe that there is a good possibility that the resolution will be adopted with the inclusion of both "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" as discriminatory reasons for which people are targeted for extra-judicial executions, and for which States are called upon to investigate promptly and thoroughly. Please lobby your governments immediately to ensure this significant step at the Commission on Human Rights.

OREGON SUPREME COURT DECISION DENIES THOUSANDS OF FAMILIES BASIC PROTECTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

‘In the blink of an eye more than 3,000 committed couples are now strangers under law,’ said HRC President Joe Solmonese.

WASHINGTON — Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese expressed deep disappointment today in an Oregon Supreme Court ruling nullifying more than 3,000 marriages of same-sex couples performed in Multnomah County in 2004. Solmonese made the following statement:

“In the blink of an eye more than 3,000 committed couples are now strangers under law. Today is an incredibly sad day for fairness and equality in Oregon. But tomorrow the fight