[UK]
Charity blasts PCT for proposed sex change cuts
A charity representing British transsexuals has expressed dismay at Hounslow Primary Care Trust's proposal to stop funding for sex change operations.

[Austria]
On gender equality, Vienna is skirting the issue
The posters around Vienna's neo-Gothic town hall set tongues wagging: In place of the traditional "Construction Work Ahead" symbol showing a man in pants and helmet, they depicted a ponytailed woman wearing rugged-looking boots and a skirt, and hefting a shovel.

[Kenya]
Sex for shelter
Excerpt: Mudassar ran into a group of zenanas (transsexuals) who offered him food and shelter if he became a sex worker. "I desperately needed a place to stay and decided to go with them. But now I share a room with a friend who is also a sex worker. I don't think I ever want to go back home. When I have enough money I'll start a small business and leave this hateful job," he vowed. He makes Rs 100 ($1.60) for each sexual encounter and has five to six clients a day.

[USA] [Column]
TransNation: Kindred Spirits
For more than two decades, non-trans photographer Mariette Pathy Allen has chronicled the lives of transgender individuals and the emergence of a transgender rights movement. Influenced by Margaret Mead's study of culturally diverse gender roles, Allen shared a hotel with a group of crossdressers in 1978, was immediately captivated by their struggles with gender stereotyping and spent the next 10 years capturing some of their most intimate moments on film.
Holly Boswell. Pic by Mariette Pathy Allen

[USA]
TransNation: A Preview of the Trans Year to Come

Many of the notable trans folks I featured in 2006 are planning even more exciting work in 2007, and the upcoming year promises a plethora of cultural contributions in the fields of music, art, film, publishing and theater.

[TX, USA]
Girls Will Be Boys

In a dark, smoky room echoing with the Euro-pop stylings of girl group T.A.T.U., I look up from my beer to see two hot girls making out. Buxom, blond women really sucking face like they mean it. And in schoolgirl uniforms! But these aren't the half-assed snogs of girls hoping that some frat boy across the room is gonna dig the whole girl-on-girl thing, constantly peeking out of the corners of their eyes looking for somebody who'll put their pictures on LastNightsParty. com. This is not girls gone wild. It's girls gone gay.

[DC,USA]
Shoplifting Leads To Trans-Woman's Murder

A man detained for shoplifting has been charged with the slaying of a Washington transsexual woman.

[DC,USA]
Death Strikes in Transgender Community

In the week since news surfaced about the Jan. 3 murder of Grafton Lee Person, a 42-year-old transgender woman known in the community as Diamond Lee Person, her death has reverberated through the transgender community. Earlene Budd, drop-in center coordinator at Transgender Health Empowerment (THE), has already received several calls from other transgender women who are looking for ways out of domestic abuse.