[Africa]
On Transgender Human Rights Issues in Africa
In most African states, homosexuality is illegal. Juliet Victor Mukasa writes that in Africa, transgender people are punished and ostracised for being who they are. "While still with my parents, I was always beaten by my father for "behaving" like a boy. In school, the same story. While peeing one day my neighbour's daughter found me peeing while squatting and she screamed like she had seen a monster."

[El Salvador]
El Salvador Trans Attacks
A vicious and violent police attack on Monday, four transgendered youth in El Salvador, which hospitalized one of them with serious injuries, is only the latest in an unending wave of violent attacks that continues to inundate the Central American nation's LGBT community.
PHOTO: William Hernandez, head of Entre Amigos, El Salvador's national LGBT group, describes an ongoing wave of anti-gay violence, including the recent vicious beating of four transgendered youth.

[Guatemala]
Murders of Transgenders in Guatemala
Two trans-women were shot repeatedly and killed in the middle of the day on November 22 in Guatemala City's Villanueva district.

[China]
Transsexuals in the Chinese media again
The woman pictured here is the formerly male Liu Xuanyi from Guangxi. She is wearing a dress and top made from condoms. As the China Daily puts it, the purpose of the condom clothing was to "arouse AIDS awareness" for World AIDS day on December 4.
There's more information and photos of Ms Liu at Netease here (in Chinese), and the China Daily (source of image) here .

[USA]
Transcending Gender Lines
Excerpt: "But, glancing at his birth certificate, you would probably look at Mr. Carannante and do a double take. Looking at this quintessential male who lives in an upscale neighborhood on New York's Upper West Side, you would be surprised to learn that he was actually born a she, and the proof is on the paper."

[USA] [REVIEWS]
THE FIRST MAN-MADE MAN: The Story of Two Sex Changes, One Love Affair, and a Twentieth-Century Medical Revolution
The revealing story of an Oxford graduate named Laura Dillon, who secretively transformed herself into a man several years before Christine Jorgensen made "transsexual" a household word.

[TN,USA]
State rejects transgender firefighter's claim
The Tennessee Human Rights Commission has found no support for a claim of discrimination by a Knoxville firefighter who had a sex change.

[CT,USA] [Commentary]
Gender Identity A Non-Issue For Young Kids
There is much debate over the recent trend of giving gender-identity rights to very young children. Children as young as five years old who more strongly identify with the opposite sex are being allowed and encouraged in some areas to express those feelings, particularly through their style of dress. For example, a boy who identifies more strongly as a girl might be allowed to come to school in a skirt as reported last week by The New York Times. Five years old is far too young for a child's gender identity to be a concern.

[HI,USA]
Education board sworn in, includes transgender member
Five new state Board of Education members were sworn into office on Wednesday, including the highest-elected transgender official in the country.

[MI, USA]
Council committee: Transgender persons should have choice of restroom
The Lansing City Council's General Services Committee agreed on language today that would permit transgender persons to use the restroom of their choice in restaurants and all other public accommodations.

[CA,USA]

Death of transgender person in sheriff's custody sparks lawsuit

Excerpt: Diane Facen, mother of the decedent, filed suit on Nov. 20 against the county of San Diego, Sharp Grossmont Hospital, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department and their respective employees thought to be complicit in the events preceding Facen's death.