[Spain]
Spanish PM pledges gay rights

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has pledged his Socialist Party would further advance gay rights if he is re-elected in March 9 polls, in an interview with a gay magazine.

[UK]
Boy, 11, in 'copycat' suicide after tragedy of cross-dressing 10-year-old - from same town and with same first name

Police are investigating a 'copycat' schoolboy hanging after an 11-year-old killed himself two weeks after an identical death in the same town. Amazingly both boys had the same name.

[Pakistan]
Dancers Cheer Islamist Defeat In Pakistan Vote

In one of the more unexpected outcomes of Pakistan's election last week, Leila the drag queen scored a big win.

[Nepal]
Gay candidates challenge laws

AT least five Nepali gay men are contesting this year's elections in the hope of shattering taboos in the conservative nation, a gay candidate said.

Nepal Gays Run For Office Despite Law

Buoyed by a recent court ruling condemning Nepal's law against homosexuality press reports show that at least five gay men are seeking election to Parliament.

[CA, USA] [Commentary]
Why the hostility toward differences?

An Oxnard eighth-grader was killed, apparently over his sexual orientation. What causes some people to react to differences?

[SC,USA]
Friends mourn loss of jovial teen killed in shooting

That Adolphus Simmons dressed like a woman was of no consequence to his neighbors at the Bradford Apartments in North Charleston. To them, his shooting death Monday night was a senseless loss of a beloved friend.

Police: Suspect hindered investigation

Police say that a high school student who was at the scene when 18-year-old Adolphus Simmons was slain Jan. 21 hindered the investigation by concealing the murder suspect's identity.

15-year-old charged with murder

A 15-year-old boy has been charged with murder in Monday night's shooting death of Adolphus Simmons at Bradford Apartments in North Charleston.

2 more arrests in homicide

North Charleston police have charged two more teenagers in Monday's slaying of 18-year-old Adolphus Simmons, and they said there could be additional arrests.

[MA, USA]
Sex-change inmate says treatment stopped

A killer who sued to have a sex change claims her body is becoming more masculine again because she's being denied treatment in prison as she awaits a ruling in her bid for the surgery. Michelle Kosilek, formerly known as Robert, said that for months she has not been allowed to have court-approved hair-removal treatment or access to a specialist to discuss her testosterone levels.

[USA] [Blog/History]
Transgender History: Into the Modern Age (1700s - 1932)

As society evolved toward the modern age that we know now, trans expression did not disappear, but did become far more subversive. The last surviving remnants of festival behaviour developed into what we now know as Halloween, Mummer's Dances, and Carnaval / Mardi Gras.

[FL, USA] [Blog/News/Commentary]
A little boy who became a little girl

Two weeks ago, a mother told the Broward County Commission that when her son was two, he started acting like a girl. The child is 7 now, and they've been raising him as a daughter.