[Thailand]
Plastic surgery: turn to the Thai scalpel

Bangkok and its shiny new clinics have become the new capital for medical tourism, particularly for plastic surgery - and sex changes. Pattaya beauty clinic in a huge ground floor room with panoramic windows, English patients and Saudi nobility sit back in comfortable sofas with Starbucks coffee in their hands. Welcome to 'Bumrungrad International', the largest private hospital in south east Asia, nestled right in the heart of Bangkok.

[USA/New Zealand]
Wisconsin Law annuls marriage

A New Zealand woman is fighting to stay in the United States after her husband was legally declared a woman.

[AZ, USA]
Scottsdale Passes LGBT Rights Ordinance

In a 4-3 vote the Scottsdale City Council has enacted an ordinance that extends workplace protections to LGBT city employees.

Scottsdale expands anti-bias law

Scottsdale City Council members heard from both sides and voted to extend the city's equal-employment protection for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people.

Sides have their say on gay employment issue

Gay and transgender employees had nowhere to go in Scottsdale City Hall if they wanted to file a workplace discrimination complaint.

Scottsdale, AZ, Approves GLBT Protections for City Employees

In Scottsdale, Ariz., city councilors walked a fine line between establishing protections for GLBT city workers without putting too much stress on businesses.

[IL, USA] [Letters to the Editor]
Letters: Protesting HRC; Calling for a “Con-Con”

Unlike every other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered ( LGBT ) organization, the Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ) was the only LGBT group to support the recently passed Employment Non-Discrimination Act ( ENDA ) ( H.R. 3685 ) that did not provide employment protection based on gender identity. Such policy position appeared to be based on misinformed notions of incremental civil rights protections for some—but not all—of the LGBT community. Illinois Gender Advocates ( IGA ) believes that HRC actively lobbied for a non-inclusive ENDA in Congress while making public statements to the contrary during October and early November of this year.

No Gotham Welcome Wagon For HRC

After repeatedly defending the Human Rights Campaign strategy for passing the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) without protections for transgendered people, a senior HRC staffer said the lobbying group would have employed a different strategy had it known its efforts would result in an angry response.

[CA,USA]
Gay chamber hires transgender ED

With the country's LGBT community embroiled in a debate over protecting transgender people in the workplace, the nation's oldest gay chamber of commerce announced this week it has hired a post-op transsexual woman as its new executive director.

[CA,USA]
SF ID cards to help TGs

Undocumented residents and transgender individuals are among those who will be able to obtain a municipal identification card beginning next August to assist them with accessing city services as well as employment, banking, and other needs.

[USA] [Commentary]
Who ‘counts’ in the GLBT community?

A new poll showing Hillary Clinton with a big lead among GLBT voters raises fundamental questions about who 'we' are and whose voice matters.

[CA,USA] [Commentary]
Government Should Aid in Trans Needs

Some people stock away their entire life savings to buy a home or to save for retirement, others do this for what they feel is rightfully theirs — a sex change.

[GA,USA]
Transgender Ga. Politician Loses Runoff

A transgender city council member lost a re-election bid in a runoff Tuesday after a lawsuit that claimed she tried to fool voters by running as a woman.

[USA]
The View Gets Heated Over Transgendered Children

Sherri Shepard and Barbara Walters looked each other in the eye and I felt tension sitting here in my computer chair. On The View, the cast of ladies were discussing transgendered children, and Sherri said that if her son wants to be transgendered, he can wait until he's eighteen and moves out of the house to be such.

[USA] [News/Law/Commentary]
Trans Library of Congress Suit a Go

In a curiously incomplete opinion, US District Judge James Robertson has again rejected a motion by the Librarian of Congress to dismiss a federal civil rights sex discrimination claim by Diane J. Schroer, a male-to-female transsexual denied employment by the Library.

[DC, USA] [PR/News]
PFLAG Criticizes Congress' Removal of Hate Crimes Legislation

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) condemned a move by Congress today for removing the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (LLEHCPA), also known as the Matthew Shepard Act, from existing legislation, effectively killing the bill.

[Blog/News/Commentary] Democrats Drop Hate Crimes

Hudson: "This is shaping up to be a complete sell out of any campaign promises that Democrats made to the gay community."

Matthew Shephard's rolling in his untimely grave. The House Democrats shucked hate crimes legislation from the defense authorization bill. From The Washington Blade <http://www.washblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=15561>

House nixes hate crimes

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) Thursday morning acquiesced to requests by House Democratic leaders to drop a gay and transgender inclusive hate crimes bill from the National Defense Authorization Act, a knowledgeable Capitol Hill source said.