A Few Reasons Why (We Need a Transgender Rights Bill)

[Turkey]
Unexpected Police "Visit" to Lambdaistanbul Cultural Center
On 7 April 2008, during the afternoon around 5.30pm, a group of more than 12 plainclothes police came to the Lambdaistanbul Cultural Center with a search warrant. The policemen were reluctant to let the Lambda members present at the center to read the full text of the warrant, and they did not give satisfactory answers to members' questions on the subject.

[Kyrgyzstan]
Surprise militia visit to Community Centre causes public stir
It has been a little over an hour since the last militia officer left the Community Centre premises today on 8 April 2008. No victims or traumas were left after the unexpected visit of Kyrgyz law enforcement representatives; however a lot of food for thought was.

[South Korea]
Being gay in South Korea
Excerpt: As for the trans community, gender reassignment surgery is only permitted over twenty years of age, and only if one has either undertaken or been exempted from military service, although the South Korean Supreme Court (2003) has ruled that transpeople are entitled to receive alteration of their gender details and names on official documentation.

[Canada]
Summit gives voice to queer aboriginal priorities
Excerpt:"Being two-spirited means that we do have a viewpoint that is both masculine and feminine. We're able to gain strength from having a foot in two worlds," says Adams, who notes that in his travels to hundreds of aboriginal communities, he generally found acceptance of his sexuality.

[CA, USA]
Transsexual mom is held in L.B. meth bust
A transsexual mother of a 16-year-old girl was arrested late Tuesday, capping a weeklong undercover investigation that allegedly saw the suspect sell methamphetamine at home, at work and in front of her child, authorities said.

[MI, USA]
HRC leader stands by non-inclusive ENDA decision
Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign in Washington D.C., told BTL last week that he and his organization stood by their decision to support a non-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act bill on the House floor, but they had underestimated the pain such an action would cause.

[MA, USA]
Kerry and challenger agree on ENDA
The debate over the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) may have caused a schism between the country's LGBT advocacy organizations, but in this fall's Massachusetts Democratic primary race for the Senate both Sen. John Kerry and his challenger, Ed O'Reilly, are on the same page in terms of their positions on ENDA. Both candidates support passing a transgender- inclusive version of ENDA, but in the short term both also support the passage of the version of ENDA that Sen. Ted Kennedy plans to bring up in the Senate, a version that only includes protections based on sexual orientation.

[USA]
ENDA again
Last week Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) told the Associated Press that he planned to bring the controversial Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) up for a vote in the Senate before the year's end - raising the specter of the brutal infighting among LGBT advocates that accompanied the tumultuous debate over ENDA in the House last fall.

[USA] [Blog/Commentary]
Transgender exclusion from ENDA
The Workplace Professor Blog points out that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has taken the position that the ENDA should cover sexual orientation (including gays, lesbians, and bisexuals), but not sexual identity or gender identity.

[USA] [Blog/Commentary]
Translating Solmonese Into Laymen’s Terminology
On the day I was reminiscing about the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., an article came out from an old acquaintance, Eric Resnick of Cleveland's Gay People's Chronicle. In an article entitled "Solmonese: HRC may let TGs be dropped from ENDA again" he detailed an interview with the current ED of HRC, Joe Solmonese.

[MA, USA]
Senators cross over con’s sex change
Following the lead of House lawmakers, the state Senate is upping the pressure on new state prison czar Harold Clarke, urging him to reject a taxpayer-funded sex change for a cross-dressing wife killer.
A bipartisan stew of 19 senators sent Clarke a letter this week asking him to deny a bid by Robert Kosilek, aka Michelle Kosilek, to get the state to pay for sex "reassignment" surgery.

[USA] [Blog/Commentary]
A Trans Man’s Transsexuality 101, Part 1
This essay started out as a reaction to transphobic comments made in an on-line Community. I wanted to confront some of the comments made, and soon realized that in order to make my confrontation comprehensible, I would have to first clarify the issue of "What is Transgender/Transsexuality?"

[TX, USA] [Blog/Commentary]
HRC Calls Police To Stop Houston Dinner Protest
As I noted in a TransGriot blog post, it's my Houston homeboys' and homegirls' turn to protest an HRC dinner.
The HRC Dinner is being held at the convention center hotel across the street from the George R. Brown Convention Center on April 12. The protest is being coordinated by the distinguished stateswoman of the Houston transgender community Phyllis Frye and veteran leaders Vanessa Edwards Foster and Josephine Tittsworth.
But it seems as though HRC has a problem with the Houston transgender community exercising their First Amendment rights. The National HRC office called the Houston Police Department in an attempt to shut down the protest.

[USA]
[Commentary] Pregnant for the Last Time
[Commentary] Beatie not meant to be a mirror