What Is The Link Between GLBT and Immigrant Rights?

You may remember from our e-newsletters during this past month, but just in case:

Today, Basic Rights Oregon will join Oregon’s immigrant community and its allies as protests around the country take place to demonstrate the economic power of immigrants and opposition to anti-immigration legislation and dialogue sweeping the country. Along with boycotting work and commerce for a full day, we will join the rally at 11 a.m. at the Oregon State Capital in Salem and at Pioneer Square in Portland. Then there is a march at 12 p.m.

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Hundreds of thousands march for immigrant rights
Schools, businesses feel impact as students, workers walk out

(CNN) -- Kids skipped school. Men and women walked off their jobs. Others didn't bother going to work. Businesses shut down for lack of patrons or employees.

Throngs of immigrants and advocates took to the streets of many U.S. cities Monday to protest proposed immigration laws, and the sites represented a veritable where's where of American metropolises.

Among them: New York; Washington; Las Vegas, Nevada; Miami, Florida; Chicago, Illinois; Los Angeles, California; San Francisco, California; Atlanta, Georgia; Denver, Colorado; Phoenix, Arizona; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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Va. Studies Medical Needs of Transgender
By DIONNE WALKER Associated Press Writer 

RICHMOND, Va. — For all the primping, powdering and pumping up many transgender men and women will do to pass as the opposite sex, there's one thing health care experts say too many of them can't stomach: a visit to the doctor.

A health study by the Virginia Health Department and Virginia Commonwealth University is intended to unravel the fears and prejudices hindering transgender people from seeking health care.


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Picket disrupts gay party at Moscow nightclub

Moscow, May 1, Interfax - More than 150 young people shouting nationalistic slogans staged an unauthorized picket outside Moscow's La Guardia nightclub on April 30, disrupting a planned gay party there.

"Representatives of sexual minorities were to gather at the club for a party. But at around 9:30 p.m. over 150 young people and elderly women holding icons blocked the entrance. Some of the young people were shouting nationalistic slogans and ordered representatives of sexual minorities to sit down on the floor," a law enforcement source told Interfax.

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Gay rights march disrupted in Poland
PlanetOut Network


A gay rights march in Poland was disrupted by protesters throwing stones and eggs, and riot police used shields and batons prevent further violence.

About 1,000 people took part in Friday's march through Krakow to promote tolerance and gay rights. A simultaneous and equally large "tradition" march was staged by the far-right All Poland Youth Group, with several participants straying to hurl eggs and rocks at the pro-gay marchers, the BBC reported.

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TRANSSEXUAL & EUNUCH: An Indo-Philippine Theatre Collaboration
by Felimon Blanco

Spices. Exotic foods. Colorful dresses. Interesting but always jam-packed trains. Auto Rickshaws. Beggars. Cows. Elephants. Malls. Bollywood films. Slums. Cricket. Colorful nightlife. Food peddlers. Unfinished roads. Beautiful colonial buildings. Warm and hardworking people. These are just among the tastes, smell and sights of India.

I spent 28 days in Mumbai, India working on a collaborative theatre workshop with Actor’s Cult, a theatre company founded by graduates of India’s National School of Drama (NSD). The project, funded by Arts Network Asia (ANA), was a collaborative theatre workshop working on a play about a transsexual subject from the Philippines and a eunuch from India.