The transgender life
By KATE SCHOTT | La Crosse Tribune
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Miguel began wearing lipstick at age 9.

He was born male, but said he always felt like he was female, Anne Rubenstein told a group of University of Wisconsin-La Crosse students.

By age 12, Miguel had run away from home, become a prostitute and taken the name Zulma. At 18, she went to Tijuana for a sex change operation but wound up spending six months in jail for assault.

She was stabbed to death weeks after her release from prison.


Rubenstein, an associate professor of history at York University in Toronto, discovered a “non-fiction novel” that describes Zulma’s life while looking at a coffee table book about novel covers.

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BILBAO DECLARATION OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION WITH LGBT POPULATIONS

PREAMBLE
We, the undersigned organizations, express our great concern for the situation that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans (understood as transvestite, transsexual and transgender) people suffer in most of the world. Concretely, we denounce that these populations' right to health, education, culture and work are adversely affected and that they continue to suffer hate crimes with impunity, intolerant aggressions, social rejection, discriminatory laws, police harassment and a lack of legal recognition and protection

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Opinion: The Plight of Transgenders in Healthcare
By Zahra Kassamali 
Staff Writer

The transgender population is a group grossly overlooked in healthcare. Considering even the most basic questions on a medical history, the transgender patient runs into a dilemma at the point when asked, male or female? The simple issue of pronouns becomes convoluted when we consider gender and sex. 

Sex is considered a biological characteristic; in other words, what a person is defined as at birth. Gender is more expansive and includes psychological characteristics and self-definition. Therefore, one may be born male but identify as female. This person would therefore be a transgender female, or simply identify as female. Because of the lack of exposure clinicians generally have with transgender people, they are often unaware of the appropriate care to provide.

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$2.5M Bond Set in Transgender Murder


Bond has been set at $2.5 million for an individual arrested for the murder of a transgender individual who was found in an Elk Grove Village, Ill., motel on April 18


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Transsexual should get pension at 60 - EU

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A British transsexual woman should have her pension paid from her 60th birthday instead of her 65th as a man would, Europe's highest court ruled on Thursday.

The Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice found in favour of Sarah Richards, who was refused a pension at the age of 60 as Britain does not allow a change of sex on a birth certificate.

Richards was born a man in 1942 but had a sex change operation in 2001 after being diagnosed with gender dysphoria -- a condition identified by doctors and psychologists when a person feels a persistent aversion to their own gender.
According to the court ruling, "the right not to be discriminated against is one of the fundamental human rights" and "the court finds the unequal treatment" of Richards is based "on her inability to have a new gender following surgery".

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Opening Up the Mikvah

As a child, Tucker Lieberman could barely stand to take showers. When he passed the bathroom mirror, he would “go into what almost seemed like a mild state of shock, with chills and painful, uncontrollable shaking” because the girl’s body that he saw didn’t accord with his understanding of himself as a young man. Even after having chest surgery, taking hormones, and living as a man for seven years, he avoided undressing in men’s locker rooms. Nonetheless, in March of 2005, he and a friend entered Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikvah and Education Center in Newton, Massachusetts, undressed, and experienced Judaism’s most intimate ritual—immersion in the mikvah (ritual bath).


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Queer Latinos rally against racism
by Rob Akers

City leaders supported LGBT Latinos voicing renewed opposition to racist attitudes during a rally held Friday, April 21, at Harvey Milk Plaza.
As reported in last week's Bay Area Reporter , some instances of racial verbal attacks within the gay community have occurred since recent immigration issues have spawned rallies and protests, according to Miguel Bustos. Bustos and other members of Queer Latino/as Against Ignorance and Discrimination organized the event, called an "Evening of Protest and Education." "We are bringing up something that is taboo to talk about in many communities," Bustos told the sign-toting crowd of about 100.


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Bid to put gay civil-rights issue to voters loses momentum
By RACHEL LA CORTE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Supporters of an effort to overturn the state's new gay civil-rights law sent out an e-mail Wednesday saying they've collected just a fraction of the signatures needed to get the measure to voters.
Tim Eyman sent the e-mail to supporters and the media, saying that only 8,718 signatures have been gathered. He needs 112,440 valid voter signatures by June 7 to get Referendum 65 on the November ballot.
"It's gut-check time," Eyman said by phone Wednesday. "Do we really want this thing on the ballot? Yes or no."


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Anti-gay issue could shake up the fall election


Buoyed by signs of deep trouble among its foes, Chicago's Gay Liberation Network held a little party in a North Side bar last week.

"Join us as we celebrate the failure of far-right forces in Illinois to get an anti-gay referendum on the November ballot," their invitation said.

For several months, the Illinois Family Institute has been circulating petitions calling for an advisory referendum item opposing gay marriage that reads: "Should the Illinois Constitution be amended to say, `To secure and preserve the benefits of marriage for our society and for future generations of children, a marriage between a man and a woman is the only legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State'?"

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Parents sue school for failure to notify about gay teachings


BOSTON --Two couples who say Lexington school officials undermined their rights as parents by giving out and reading storybooks with gay themes without notification filed suit Thursday.

David and Tonia Parker and Joseph and Robin Wirthlin claim in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston that the officials broke state law and violated their civil rights. They claim the school is indoctrinating their children about a lifestyle they consider immoral.

"In this case, there's a huge conflict and a huge explosion and a huge collision," said their attorney Jeffrey Denner.



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Punjab youth eye UK for 'same sex marriage'


After England legalised same sex marriage in 2004, many people in Punjab are using the option to try and get around the visa problem.

Jalandhar's passport office processes thousands of applications of those seeking to go to England.


It is now witnessing a new trend. People like Ashish have applied to go to UK on the ground that they want to marry their partner who's of the same sex.


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Troubled island

In Jamaica, where politicians are openly homophobic and song lyrics incite violence against gay people, coming out can be fatal. Gary Younge investigates
The Guardian

Friday night in Kingston, and at a house party high up in the hills overlooking the city the first refrains of the dancehall track Tuck in yu belly ring out. Within moments the dancefloor is packed. In the darkened room bodies are locked at the hip, dancers facing each other or pressed front to back, swaying in a musical embrace. Two pelvises joined by rhythm and gyrating in sensual unison. It is as close as you can get to having sex with your clothes on.