September 06, 2008
Sex and gender diverse community rights
The Australia Human Rights Commission has launched a "sex and gender diversity forum" to canvass the views and experiences of the sex and gender diverse community. In Australia transsexuals must divorce their partners, regardless of the state of the relationship, and undergo elective surgery before documentation will be re-issued to match new circumstances.
While it is easy to focus on the mechanics around legislation, paperwork and bureaucracy. The Sydney Morning Herald today has a great long article, Love triumphs across the line that looks at the human face of the issue. Life partners openly discuss the requirement to lie and cite 'irreconciliable differences'. A FTM transsexual sets out plainly the outrageous case for requiring him to have a hysterectomy, putting unnecessary strain on the individual and the State for non-essential surgery.
In an age where divorce rates are high as it is, how bonkers is it for governments to demand that certain life partners lie and denounce their relationships just for the sake of procedure. Trannies have always been a thorn in the side of anyone who believes in that rubbish about 'marriage is solely between a man and a woman'. Sex and gender has never neatly fitted into boxes. Yet for us married trannies in long term relationships it is comforting to see our situation and views highlighted in the mainstream press.
The human rights violations that occur daily through petty officialdom may be going under the microscope in Australia but the situation is bleaker in other countries. The Aussie Human Rights Commission have gone out of their way to get consultation and feedback in the lead up to launching this forum. It is heartening to see some of my suggestions incorporated in the wording. Do not be backwards about making your views and experiences known.
June 23, 2008
Parents - the new trans focus
In response to a recent decision by the NSW Family Court to allow a 12-year old FTM to start puberty-blocking medication, the Wellbeing Clinic in Miranda is now running information sessions aimed at parents.
February 15, 2008
New transgendered women's shelter in NSW
The Women's & Girls' Emergency Centre now has a drop service in Surry Hills, Sydney (AU) with a particular focus on transgender women. The deficit of services for homeless transgendered women is being addressed wth safe accomodation, cooking and cleaning facilities as well as access to legal, financial and counselling services.
January 30, 2007
Youngest horm
The Daily Mail is reporting the story of the youngest ever transsexual to receive hormone injections - at 14.
December 31, 2006
Acting in India
I had an email from India this week from a young M2F wanting help with her modelling/acting career. I hope I was able to provide something of use in my reply. I could use some help myself at the moment! But it seems there is already at least one openly transsexual woman acting in India already.
The Telegraph - Calcutta : Metro
June 22, 2004
US National Center for Transgender Equality
The National Center for Transgender Equality is a US-based social justice organization working to make transgender people safe from discrimination and violence. NCTE provides a national voice on fairness and equality for transgender and other gender different people and provides resources and assistance to empower and strengthen localized efforts around the country.
NCTE sends out a free monthly newsletter via email and periodic email alerts. If you would like to receive these, please join our mailing list by going to http://www.nctequality.org/Mailing_List.asp. You can view past newsletters and alerts at http://www.nctequality.org/news.asp.
Feel free to contact Mara Keisling or Caeden Dempsey with any questions at ncte@nctequality.org.
More about NCTE:
The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE)is a social justice organization dedicated to advancing the equality of transgender people through advocacy, collaboration and empowerment. NCTE was founded in 2003 by transgender activists who saw the urgent need for a consistent voice in Washington DC for transgender people. NCTE provides this presence by monitoring federal activity and communicating this activity to our members around the country, providing congressional education, and establishing a center of expertise on transgender issues.
NCTE also works to strengthen the transgender movement and individual investment in this movement by highlighting opportunities for coalition building, promoting available resources, and providing technical assistance and training to transpeople and our allies. NCTE sees this type of assistance as strengthening new and existing transgender organizations and our allies, initiating coalition building, and empowering state and local advocates who can mobilize on the federal level.
NCTE also maintains a federal transgender activists? network. We understand that there are many individuals and organizations working to increase the civil rights of transgender people and providing needed resources and efforts. By maintaining a network of these activists we can connect people who are looking for transgender-related information with the individual or organization that can best assist them. Please contact us if you would like to be added to this network and what information you can provide to those seeking assistance.
Caeden Dempsey
Field Director
National Center for Transgender Equality
1325 Massachusetts Ave, NW Suite 600
Washington, DC 20005
202.639.6332
cdempsey@nctequality.org
April 18, 2004
Transsexual Women Successes
Lynn Conway maintains Transsexual Women's Successes, a site that showcases M2F women getting on with life.
Spread the word. Apparently there is more to life than SRS and make-up!
"Approximately 30,000 to 40,000 postoperative transsexual women live in the United States, and many thousands more are now in the process of gender transition here. These numbers are much larger than commonly assumed by the public because a veil of invisibility hides the true nature and extent of the transsexual condition. Especially hidden are large numbers of highly successful women who have fully transitioned. The reason is that most successful women live in "stealth mode" or are "woodworked". They leave their pasts behind and hide in plain sight in order to avoid social stigmatization and get on with their new lives. Their personal successes insure that they assimilate and blend right into society."
If you know of an equivalent page for F2Ms, please put the URL in a comment here.
October 15, 2003
Larry Wachowski
Wired, TGCrossroads, and other sites have flagged the Matrix co-director as transgender. No wonder the Wachowski deal with Warner Brothers spared them all PR duties.
September 20, 2003
September 15, 2003
London gender diversity
The Mayor of London's office continues to impress with their efforts to acknowledge gender diversity. The latest consultation, which is available online as a questionnaire (with prizes)London Cultural capital, lets you give your gender as Male, Female or Other. Well done Ken.
July 27, 2003
transgenderart.com
transgenderart.com launched recently ("only phase one" we're told). A call has been put out for other transgender artists to contribute work. The site currently showcases the work of Simone, a transvestite artist based in London but her intention is to grow this into a community.
April 28, 2003
Al-Fatiha Statement on UN Resolution
Al-Fatiha Foundation, a US-based organization dedicated to Muslims who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and questioning (LGBTIQ) released the following statement today on the UN resolution on human rights and sexual orientation:
Al-Fatiha applauds the government of Brazil for introducing a resolution on human rights and sexual orientation at the 59th Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR). This historic resolution expresses "deep concern at the occurrence of violations of human rights all over the world against person on grounds of their sexual orientation" and urges other relevant UN bodies to "give due attention" to these abuses.
The resolution builds upon the work of dozens of international, national and local non-government organizations who have worked for a number of years to urge the United Nations and its relevant bodies to adopt language that condemns human rights violations against sexual and gender minorities and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people. The fact that 20 countries co-sponsored this resolution, including the European Union, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, is a testament to the remarkable activism of LGBT and allied people. It is also amazing to see the alliances that have been built across many movements (including gender, sexual orientation and health) that have made it possible to bring this resolution to the forefront.
Al-Fatiha joins international human rights organizations, LGBT and allied NGOs, and other people of conscience in expressing its dismay with the final outcome of this landmark resolution on human rights and sexual orientation. Governments of the world lost the opportunity to finally confront human rights abuses against sexual and gender minorities. And institutions that use the name of religion including the Vatican and the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) seized this opportunity to once again express their homophobia and intolerance towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
While the Organization of Islamic Conference and its member states introduced many amendments to the resolution and joined the Vatican in lobbying governments to oppose the resolution, our overall efforts to hold nation's accountable for their human rights violations at the international level, was not defeated. Both the OIC and the Vatican worked tireless behind the scenes, using political maneuvering, and political threats that played into the current geo-political climate.
The OIC ultimately resorted to calling for a "no vote" and added amendments to the resolution, which stalled the process and the resolution was not voted upon. The good news for those working on this resolution is that it was not defeated. lt will be on the agenda next year and it will be debated and voted upon at the 60th Session of the UNCHR.
Al-Fatiha stands ready to partner with international human rights organizations, LGBT organizations, allied NGO's and other groups to ensure the passage of this landmark resolution. Human rights abuses against sexual and gender minorities can no longer go unquestioned or unchecked. And institutions like the Organization of Islamic Conference and the Vatican can no longer use the name of religion as an excuse to justify their homophobia and intolerance towards LGBT people.
Al-Fatiha is a part of a global grassroots movement of sexual and gender minorities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex Muslims. This international movement currently has member organizations in four countries (South Africa, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States), comprising of more than 1,500 people.
As our movement grows we will be joined by people and organizations in predominantly Muslim countries, where historic grassroots organizing is being conducted every day by LGBT activists and allies.
From North Africa to the Middle East; from Indonesia and Malaysia to the shores of South Asia and the coast of North America, Muslims who are sexual and gender minorities are uniting and standing together under the umbrella of Islam. Our faith teaches us peace, love and social justice. These three core beliefs will ultimately guide our movement for equality and ultimately liberation for all sexual and gender minorities.
November 19, 2002
Intolerance no longer tolerated
Press For Change publishes a guide on discrimination claims.
May 17, 2002
MSN: Transsexual = porn?
Don't expect to find the MSN community "Transsexuals are here to stay" using the MSN search engine.
Protests were called after msn.com made their search engine off-limits to those seeking information resources under the term "transsexual."
Instead you will get the message "You have entered a search term that is likely to return adult content" and a page providing a link solely to 'transsexual' at NightSurf.com, a porn site advertising "Sexy TransSexual" and "Chix with Dix" as its top two sites.
Activists have found that only "transsexual" is being blocked in this way. Terms such as "transgender," "gay," "lesbian" are not affected, nor is S&M.
Effectively msn.com is refusing to run the search because of possible sexual content - and then directing the user to a commercial porn site! Nice one.
As a result, msn.com have created a grotesque situation which both sexually stereotypes the transsexual community and denies those seeking support information about gender dsyphoria a means to obtain it.
Protests to msn.com should be made via http://www.msn.com/feedback.ashx as a comment on the Search facility
Last year, similar actions against e-mail provider V21 and the Internet giant Yahoo! both resulted in climb downs.