[Sweden]
Transvestite prevented from changing name

A transvestite from the village of Tjällmo in south-eastern Sweden has had his application for a name change turned down.

Lennart Widahr had wanted to change his name to Pia but the National Tax Board (Skatteverket) informed him that the only possible way for him to receive a female name was to first have a sex change. Widahr has no plans to do so, according to newspaper Östgöta Correspondenten.

[Italia]
Case per prostitute e "trans" a Mondovì e Savona

Un giro d'affari di 60 mila euro al mese, centinaia di clienti a settimana, un traffico di prostitute (donne e transessuali) internazionale dal Sud America, case chiuse a Mondovì, Savona e Barcellona: questo quanto è riuscito a smantellare l'operazione Alias condotta dalla Guardia di Finanza di Mondovì, agli ordini del Tenente Roberta Catalano.

[India]
The transgendered gather to discuss concerns

Finding jobs `is the biggest challenge the community faces and another is getting a passport'.

[India]
Aravanis' plea to actor

A group of transgendered persons on Tuesday met actor Radhika Sarathkumar and appealed to her to portray them with sensitivity in television serials produced by her company, Radaan Television.

[Australia]
Gender status battle

A woman who was born a man is fighting for her right to change her birth certificate to reflect her new gender.

The 62 year old, known only as AB, has taken her case to the full bench of the Federal Court.

AB was married in 1967 and has never divorced, but has been separated from her wife for six years.

In 2000, AB changer her male given names to female ones on her birth certificate, but the sex was still shown as male.

After sex-change surgery in 2002, she applied to the Registrar of Births, Deaths & Marriages for her birth certificate to be altered to say she was female, but was refused.

Under anti-discrimination laws it is illegal to refuse to provide a service to a person on the basis of their marital status.

While people who undergo sex changes are able to amend their birth certificates if they provide statutory declarations from doctors, AB's request was refused because she was still married.

The Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act states that the registrar can't change the birth certificate gender if the person is married – which AB claims discriminates against women on the basis of their marital status.

The aim of the legislation was to avoid doubt over whether a person was in a same-sex marriage.

Chief Justice Michael Black and Justices Susan Kenny and Roger Gyles reserved their decision.

Herald Sun, Australia - Elissa Hunt Chief Court Reporter Saturday, March 10, 2007

[CA, USA] [News/Commentary]
Savage called transgender murder victim a "psychopath" and a "freak"

On the March 20 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage discussed a San Francisco Chronicle report detailing the murder of a transgender woman whose body was found naked near a freeway outside San Francisco.

[FL,USA]
[Blogs/News/ Commentary] Update on Law Covering Steve Stanton

I last reviewed the Florida state law addressing transgender employment issues in my post of March 1. Since then, I've found two more decisions of the Florida Commission on Human Relations (hat tip to the Daniel Ruth Show Blog. These merit discussion as they complicate the situation somewhat.

Crowd expected for cross-gender city manager's appeal

The Largo city commission chambers are quiet and empty on this morning, but it's the pre-cursor to what may be the longest and loudest public hearing in city history.

Focus shifts to Stanton record

Criticism of his job as city manager is pushing aside his gender change plans as ammunition against him.

[Commentary] A chance for Largo to show its progress

Only a month ago, if you can believe it, the likes of Time, Newsweek and People hadn't taken much interest in the doings of this board of regular folks - a retired teacher, an engineer and a lawn pest control manager among them.

Stanton Explains Why He Should Keep Job

City Manager Steve Stanton has filed a written response to the city commission's decision to begin the process of firing him because he is changing his sex.

To read the brief -- Reply To City Of Largo Preliminary Resolution No. 1924 (PDF File) -- Stanton filed, go to ... http://www.tampabay s10.com/images/ pdfs/stanton_ reply.pdf