[Sweden]
Castration law for Swedish transgenders

A new proposal to introduce castration as a prerequisite for those undergoing gender reassignment surgery in Sweden has been met with outrage by a leading gay and transgender rights organization.

Swedish castration proposal opposed

Proposed legislation in Sweden that would require gender reassignment patients to be castrated is insulting, a transgender rights group says.

The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights said while the hormone treatments used in reassignment procedures can cause sterilization, mandating castration for all patients is discriminatory, The Local reported Saturday.

The proposal suggests that anyone undergoing gender reassignment surgery be required to have their ovaries or testicles removed to prevent any chance of pregnancy.

[South Africa]
Long and painful journey to womanhood

NATIONAL Women's Day next week will be her third annual celebration of being a woman for Christina Engela, who was born male. And despite being ridiculed, rejected and misunderstood, she hopes to assist others like herself on their tough road to happiness.

[CO, USA]
Death of a Transgender Woman Is Called a Hate Crime

Angie Zapata began living as a woman six years ago even though she was born male and named Justin.

While Ms. Zapata, 18, was accepted by her many friends and five siblings, she was bullied in school and at times was lonely and troubled, an older sister, Monica, said. Eventually, Ms. Zapata dropped out of school and got her own apartment here in Greeley.

It was in that apartment that Ms. Zapata's badly beaten body was found on July 17.

[HI,USA]
Police have no motive in transvestite's death

The stabbing death of a transvestite last month under a highway overpass in Makiki was not a hate crime, Honolulu police Detective Theodore Coons said Thursday.

Coons said that while the motive is still not known, the victim, Jason L. Namauu, and his alleged assailant, Joel Chris Allen, knew each other and appeared to have been living in the same car.