[Nepal]
Transvestites fear the police in Nepal city

Silpa is a 22-year-old transvestite from western Nepal. She is small and soft-spoken, and wears heavy makeup and a tight acrylic shirt. She chose the name Silpa because it means delicate and fragile. In September, as Silpa was leaving her apartment in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, she says she was pulled into a police van, driven to a remote park and gang raped by 12 uniformed officers. Police violence against transvestites in Kathmandu is a growing problem, according to spokesmen for local advocacy organizations, who say it happens about once a week.

[VT, USA] [Letters]
Transgender individuals vulnerable to discrimination

It is time for Vermont to right a long-standing wrong. I address the issue of equality for individuals who identify as transgender — that is an individual whose gender varies from their assigned sex at birth. As an individual who openly identifies as a transgender woman, I have no protection under the existing anti-discrimination laws of the state. As a citizen of Vermont, I am greatly disturbed over my lack of equal status in society. We are supposed to be equal under the law, but I am not, nor are others like me.