[China]
Chinese to check athletes' genders in sex-change crackdown at Beijing Olympics

THE CHINESE have left nothing to chance - not even cross-dressing Olympic gender cheats. Beijing has set up a sex determination lab to test female Olympic athletes they suspect are men.

"Suspect athletes will be evaluated from their external appearances by experts and undergo blood tests to examine their sex hormones, genes and chromosomes for sex determination, " said Union Medical College Hospital's Professor Tian Qinjie.

[OH,USA]
Transsexual fights city of Cleveland over pool locker room

Karen Deamons wants to use the women's locker room, like a normal woman.

Deamons is transsexual - she presents herself and lives as a woman. But because she has not yet had sex-change surgery, Cleveland officials insist that she change clothes in the men's locker room of the indoor pool at Cudell Recreation Center, after they received complaints from a few women who said Deamons made them uncomfortable.

Transsexual fights Cleveland on locker room policy

An embarrassing question from a boy in a locker room inspired Karen Deamons to fight the city: Why was there a woman in the men's room?

Deamons, 53, decided she would no longer abide by Cleveland's rules that she must change in the men's locker room at the indoor pool at Cudell Recreation Center. A transsexual who identifies as a woman but has not had sex-change surgery, Deamons wants to be able to change in the women's locker room.

[VA,USA]
In Transgender Circles, Silicone is a Risky Shot at Womanhood

Excerpt: Vega paid a friend to shoot liquid silicone directly into her legs and hips to make them rounder, more feminine. The procedure is called pumping, and it's well-known among members of the local transgender community.

Pumping is illegal and risky, but it's a cheap alternative to the extensive cosmetic surgery required to turn a man into a woman. Often, people who pump experience no immediate adverse side effects. Yet things can go horribly awry. Vega barely escaped death and is reminded every day of that close call by discolorations along her legs that ended her competition days.

[CA, USA] [Blog/Commentary]
Enda United: We will not be divided

I went to the HRC protest event in San Francisco last night. I will say that I was pretty anti-HRC before it was cool. I mentioned in my last post that they don't represent a good value proposition in attaining full equality. There are other more efficient and effective groups. But, the failure of HRC to support an inclusive version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) was the breaking point for many others. And by failing one part of the LGBT community, they fail the entire community.