[Portugal]
Alteração de datas: Workshop Trans Formação
Com o objectivo de dar visibilidade à temática da transsexualidade, o GRIP – Grupo de Reflexão e Intervenção do Porto da Associação ILGA Portugal – e a Rede Ex-aequo vão organizar um “workshop” subordinado ao tema Perspectivar a Transsexualidade no Activismo LGBT, a ter lugar na cidade do Porto, e que estará aberta aos movimentos associativos de todo o país. Serão abordadas as diferentes percepções da transsexualidade, o percurso histórico da comunidade, estereótipos e preconceitos, as problemáticas da vivência transsexual, e as reivindicações legais, clínicas e sociais da comunidade. A workshop dirige-se a tod@s @s que integrem os movimentos associativos portugueses, e a participação é livre.

[Japan]
Saitama Medical University stops sex-change operations
Japan's leading hospital in sex-change operations has stopped offering its services, leaving a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the treatment of patients suffering from gender identity disorder.

[USA] [Films]
Alexis Arquette: She's My Brother
Little is learned either about transsexuals or Alexis Arquette herself in Matthew Barbato's maddeningly unrevealing "Alexis Arquette: She's My Brother." Conceived as a video diary/docu tracing Arquette's decision to undergo sex reassignment surgery, concept is kyboshed by her hot-and-cold attitude not just to filming but to the operation itself -- so after grandly publicizing her decision, she suddenly declares her privates are no one's business. Absolutely true, but why demand the spotlight at the start? Docu is slated for broadcast in late 2007, with possible fest pickups before then.

[CA, USA]
Making Way for Change
It's no surprise that the Bay Area is considered one of the most liberal regions in the nation. After all, San Francisco is one of the few cities in the nation that includes sex change operations in its health benefits. Six years later, Berkeley has finally followed suit. The city council recently voted unanimously to investigate if such operations can be incorporated into their healthcare plans, a benevolent move that reflects Berkeley's dedication to building an open and tolerant community.

[DC, USA]
Susan Ashley Stanton makes her debut
Weeks before she plans to live full time as a woman, Susan Ashley Stanton will be in Washington trying to get lawmakers to understand transgender issues.
Introducing Susan Stanton
She couldn't sleep. She lay for hours in the dark. In the morning, she would pose for her first portrait, at age 48. All her life, she had dodged and wavered and contemplated every avoidance, even suicide. Now, 12 hours to go.
[Times photo: Douglas R. Clifford] Susan Ashley Stanton is the name Steve Stanton chose for his new identity. Susan was the name his mother would have picked for a girl, and Steve says he never met an Ashley who wasn't sweet and kind.
'Waiting for the rest of my life to begin'

[USA] [News/Commentary]

A bustling hate-crime industry

Excerpt: The federal hate crime law enacted in 1968 enhanced punishments only for crimes against persons engaged in a federally protected activity, such as voting. H.R. 1592 would extend special federal protections to persons who are crime victims because of their race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability.

[CA,USA]
Transgender Advocate Elected as President of San Francisco Police Commission

The San Francisco Police Commission elected openly-transgender Commissioner Theresa Sparks as its new president late last week. Sparks, who joined the commission in 2004, has a long history of advocating for the transgender community, including working on a set of transgender- specific policy reforms adopted by the Police Commission in 2003. With this election, Sparks becomes the city's first openly transgender president of a major commission and likely the city's highest ranking transgender official.

[USA]
A free collection of articles about transsexuals published in The New York Times
http://topics. nytimes.com/ top/news/ health/diseasesc onditionsandheal thtopics/ transsexuals/ index.html? 8qa

[Thailand] [News/Photos]
2006 Miss Tiffany Universe beauty pageant
Contestants at the 2006 Miss Tiffany Universe beauty pageant in Pattaya, Thailand.
Miss Tiffany Universe 2007, Thanyarasmi Siraphatphakorn
Thanyarat Jirapatpakorn (L) reacts after winning the Miss Tiffany's Universe transsexual beauty pageant 2007
Thanyarat Jirapatpakorn (L) reacts after winning the Miss Tiffany'sUniverse transsexual beauty pageant 2007
Thanyarat Jirapatpakorn shows her trophy after winning the MissTiffany's Universe transsexual beauty pageant 2007