[Portugal]
La historia de la primera mujer lesbiana transformista de Portugal en el Festival Zinegoak
La primera vez que Margarida Baptista vio a Betty Santos, foto de ambas, en el escenario se quedó muy sorprendida. No es de extrañar: se trata de la única mujer transformista en activo en Portugal. Acostumbrada a la exuberancia de los trajes de los Drag Queens, sus lentejuelas, sus poses atrevidas y su descaro, se le hizo extraña la figura de esta mujer con rasgos masculinos que sobre el escenario era capaz de convertirse en los más diversos cantantes y estrellas mediáticas.

[UK] [Blog/Commentary]
Pope Attacks Trans!
OK, Pope Benedict XVI didn’t actually maim anyone, but I needed a catchy headline.
El Vaticano dice que excluir a transexuales y homosexuales se hace por “el bien común”

[UK] [Blog/Commentary]
Male in the Philippines, but Female in Germany: The curious case of Jenny T. Ramsey
You may remember Sass Rogando Sasot’s moving speech at the UN, “Reclaiming the lucidity of our hearts”, which I linked to here in December last year. She’s now forwarded the following email with approval to repost, which I do.

[UK]
Discrimination law bid dropped
The Government will not push through proposals that churches argue would restrict their ability to deny jobs to gay people and transsexuals, Equality Minister Harriet Harman has confirmed.

[UK/Malaysia]
My transsexual love forced me to move jobs
A caretaker who married a transsexual has been transferred from the school he was working at following complaints from parents.
Ian Young worked at St Chad's Infants school for more than two years, but has been switched to a junior school after parents said they were "very uncomfortable" about his relationship with Malaysian bride Fatine.

[Sweden]
Lesbian love ad banned by Swedish newspapers
Two Swedish newspapers have deemed that an advertisement which features a trio of half-naked women is inappropriate for publication, much to the surprise of the ad’s creators at a sexual health organisation.

[Albania]
Gays content with rights law
Albania's new anti-discrimination law defends gays and minorities and meets European standards, its sponsors said on Friday, but warned that homophobia is rife and winning over the public will be slow.
[Blog/Commentary] Albanian Parliament unanimously passes broadly inclusive anti-discrimination law

[Turkey]
Bawer Çakır from Bianet Receives Baki Koşar Award
Lawyer Doğanoğlu and bianet journalist Çakır received the "Award for Struggle against Hate Crimes" awarded by the Black Pink Triangle LGBTT organization in Izmir on behalf of murdered journalist Baki Koşar.

[Uganda] [Opinion]
Anti-Homosexuality Law Sets Off Firestorm in the West
Ugandan MPs probably didn't know what a firestorm David Bahati of the ruling National Resistance Movement would raise when he first presented his proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill in October 14, 2009.
Uganda gay bill 'will be changed'
Obama condemns Uganda anti-gay bill as "odious"

[Malawi]
Malawi man arrested for posting gay rights posters
Malawian police have arrested a man for allegedly putting up posters supporting homosexuality, which is illegal in the southern African nation.

[Pakistan]
Pakistan's 'third gender' seek greater rights
Taunted at home, Sanhya ran away at age 12, searching for acceptance as she sees herself - neither male nor female, but a member of a third gender.

[Bangladesh] [News/Film]
“Call Me Salma”: Life and times of a transgender teen
The premiere of "Call Me Salma", a documentary on a transgender teenager, was held on February 4 at the auditorium of University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB). ULAB and Bandhu Social Welfare Society organised the premiere.
Directed by Canadian filmmakers Sébastien Rist and Aude Leroux-Lévesque, the film is a story about "love and loss." (Photo)

[China/Taiwan] [News/Commentary]
Apple Daily: Brassieres and transsexuals

The blog of a female designer nicknamed "Bosslady" who sports big breasts and an attractive figure, has become a hot spot on the Internet, receiving 1.3 million hits in a year because of her comments on 23 brassieres available on the market and her tips on keeping the breasts the pride of women and the joy of men.

[China]
Cult of Venus
Forty three years ago, a chromosome took the wrong road.
By the age of five, Jin Xing knew she felt different from other little boys, but it was not until she was 28 that she smashed the gender barrier by changing sex, in a series of operations that almost crippled her, but fulfilled her deepest desires.
Jin, whose name in Chinese means "gold star" or Venus, has a singular profile. But the first Chinese "out" transsexual modern dancer and choreographer prefers to be known as a serious artist, rather than a celebrity. And like her celestial namesake, the earthbound Venus has spun the other way for most of her life. (Photo)

[Canada] [Sports/Commentary]
The gender police are back again
Prior to the Vancouver Games, the men who run international sport have been scrambling to determine who qualifies as a woman athlete

[USA]
That way, madness lies
On February 10th the world of psychiatry will be asked, metaphorically, to lie on the couch and answer questions about the state it thinks it is in. For that is the day the American Psychiatric Association (APA) plans to release a draft of the fifth version of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V). Mental illness carrying the stigma that it does, and the brain being as little-understood as it is, revising the DSM is always a controversial undertaking. This time, however, some of the questions asked of the process are likely to be particularly probing.
[Blog/Comentary] The GID Debate, Take 3

[USA] [News/Commentary]
Tax Incentives for Body Mutilations: Transsexual Wins Deduction for ‘Sex-Change’ Operation
Folks, America’s rapid descent into post-Christian chaos continues. The 11-5 U.S. Tax Court decision below now gives a (sizeable) monetary incentive for men and women steeped in gender confusion to go through grotesque and horrifying, body-disfiguring “sex-change” operations. I’m saying this as someone who attended a “female-to-male” “transgender” conference where I witnessed young, early-twenties women showing off their newly-flattened chests — after their healthy breasts were surgically removed in their quest to be like men.
[Blog/Commentary] Tax Deductible
[Blog/Commentary] A Tax Break Isn't Worth Having the Government Treat Being Trans as a Disease
[Blog/Commentary] The Real Life Experience of Rhiannon O'Donnabhain: "It's such an affirmation."
Tax court allows deduction for woman's sex change
Tax court allows deduction for woman's sex change
La cirugía de reasignación de sexo será deducible de impuestos en Estados Unidos
U.S. Tax Court registers pro-trans decision
[Blog/Law/Commentary] Tax Court Rules for Transsexual Taxpayer on Surgical Expense Deductions
[Blog/Commentary] A Taxing Question of Medical Necessity

[USA]
Health-care providers discriminate, survey shows
Excerpt: According to the results, almost 56 percent of lesbian, gay or bisexual respondents had at least one of these experiences; 70 percent of transgender and gender-nonconforming respondents had one or more of these experiences; and nearly 63 percent of respondents living with HIV experienced one or more of these types of discrimination in health care.

[USA] [Commentary]
Where Are The Transgenders In Obama's Gay Army?
Yesterday's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy on gays and lesbians in the military was a pro-homosexual love fest among most of the Senators and the two panelists who spoke.

[USA] [Blog/Commentary]
Heroes of the Month: Amanda Simpson and Dylan Orr
Choosing Amanda Simpson and Dylan Orr to be part of the administration are two of the better LGBT decisions that President Obama has made while in the White House. It is an all-too-rare display of the kind of vision and decisive leadership we had been hoping for. Even though Simpson and Orr are not the very first trans people a president has appointed, they may be the first open ones.

[USA] [Blog/Commentary]
Equal Rights are a Catholic Concept, Too
For more than three decades, New Ways Ministry has been working to advance equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Catholics within the Church. That work has involved compiling lists of LGBT-friendly parishes, LGBT-friendly universities, lobbying on behalf of LGBT civil rights, and calling the Catholic Church to reach out compassionately for the inclusion of gay and lesbian people.
[News/Commentary] Christians claim hate crimes law an effort to ‘eradicate’ their beliefs

[CA, USA]
Conference to educate counselors and educators about LGBTQI issues: A room with a lot of views
Tomorrow, over a hundred K-12 school counselors and educators from around the country will descend upon San Diego to take part in the first ever conference to educate them as to the myriad of issues surrounding LGBTQI youth.

[CA, USA]
Prostitution becoming an increasing problem in Vallejo
Excerpt: Clark estimates that the department splits its priorities "50-50" between going after prostitutes, at least two of which include transsexual males, and their customers.

[FL, USA]
UWF policy includes transgender students
The University of West Florida has made it loud and clear: equality for transgender students and staff.

[IN, USA]
Fort Wayne to consider transgender protections

Transgender residents in Fort Wayne could get new protections under a proposed amendment to the city's anti-discrimination ordinance.

[MA, USA]
Inmate accused of flinging blood on guard
A Level 3 sex offender awaiting trial at Middleton Jail has been charged with flinging blood onto a corrections officer.
Debbie Moccia, 55, a transgendered woman who is also known as Paul Charbonneau, was arraigned yesterday in Salem District Court on a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, her own blood, on the officer in December.

[MI, USA]
Hate Crimes Prevention Act is getting attention
The Hate Crimes Prevention Act is getting attention as one local pastor questions its Constitutional rights.
President Barack Obama signed the bill into law last fall.

[OH, USA]
Pastor offers support, sanctuary to area's transgender community

Some secrets are so big, there is no safe place to tell them.
The Rev. Cheri Holdridge is hoping to change that by turning her Village Church in Toledo into a safe place.

[TX, USA]
Transgender Houstonian’s murder remains unsolved
A transgender Houstonian’s murder last month is the latest in a series of unsolved homicides against the city’s gender-variant residents.
[Blog/News] Myra Ical Update: TFA, HPD and a Friend

[Latin America]
Diversidad sexual: entre avances y retrocesos
Aunque algunas iniciativas legislativas han ido mejorando su situación en América Latina, la vida de lesbianas, gays, bisexuales y transgéneros sigue permeada por la discriminación y la intolerancia.

[Puerto Rico]
El estado de situación de las comunidades LGBT
El estado de situación de las comunidades lésbica, gay, bisexual y transgénero (LGBT) en Puerto Rico es uno de desigualdad y discriminación. Mientras el gobernador Luis Fortuño ofrecía su mensaje del estado de situación del País, las personas LGBT seguíamos viviendo con ciudadanías de segunda categoría, sin los mismos derechos y la misma igualdad que tiene la gente heterosexual. De hecho, Fortuño ni tan siquiera mencionó algo específico para las minorías sexuales, como por ejemplo, hacer valer su promesa de campaña de prohibir el discrimen en contra de las comunidades LGBT.

[Puerto Rico] [Opinion]
Procesemos al criminal, no a la víctima
Esta semana comenzó la vista preliminar para determinar si hay causa probable para juicio en contra de Juan Martínez Matos, el asesino confeso de Jorge Steven López Mercado, un joven gay de sólo 19 años de edad que fue brutalmente asesinado en un crimen de odio por homofobia. Ya han salido algunos detalles que much@s desconocíamos, pero que a la hora de la verdad no son determinantes a la hora de procesar este crimen de odio, uno de los crímenes de odio más atroces en nuestra historia como pueblo.

[Mexico]
Aumenta homofobia en el Istmo
Los crímenes como los de los últimos días, producto del odio homofóbico en la región del Istmo están en aumento, por lo que las voces homosexuales se han levantado para exigir respeto a sus derechos.

[Ecuador]
Grupos GLBTI difunden sus derechos
Campaña pretende capacitar a funcionarios públicos sobre real situación de minorías.

[Republica Dominicana]
Alto discrimen policial contra los gays
Integrantes de organizaciones de trabajadoras sexuales, transgéneros, travestis, transexuales, usuarios de drogas, hombres que tienen sexo con otros, gay, inmigrantes y personas privadas de la libertad denunciaron que son sometidos a altos niveles de discriminación cuando demanda al Estado servicios de salud, educación o seguridad policial.

[Venezuela]
Venezuela Diversa: Continúan operativos policiales arbitrarios en la ciudad de Caracas

Venezuela Diversa Asociación Civil sin fines de lucro, que trabaja por los Derechos Humanos de las personas Lesbianas, Gays, Bisexuales, Trans e Intersexuales, fomentando el desarrollo de iniciativas y mecanismos de participación social que permitan el involucramiento de la sociedad civil, las individualidades y el Estado venezolano en la lucha contra toda forma de discriminación, hace de conocimiento público lo siguiente:

[Chile]
Comunicado de prensa del MOVILH desmiente acusaciones de transfobia
El texto “reconoce, en todo caso, que durante la reunión, y en un momento cuando sólo estaban presentes OTD, GAHT y MOVILH, se generó discusión en torno al tema de considerar la discordancia entre sexo físico e identidad de género como un trastorno (o enfermedad), sin embargo, esto se debió a interpretación equívoca de los argumentos”.
Editorial: Cuando el activismo pierde el norte
Informe Ministerio Chile si consta que hubo discusión MOVILH; OTD y GAHT de "enfermedad"

[Argentina]
Alma Catira, mujer transexual argentina y su lucha porque el Estado le reconozca identidad
Alma Catira, foto, es una mujer en tránsito. Antes, mucho antes de que dejara de representar con torpeza al hombre que jamás sería y diera la bienvenida a la joven indomable que resultó ser, intuía que cualquier camino que tomara hacia su identidad sería un peligroso desfiladero. Y en eso está, atravesándolo, levantándose cada vez que se cae. A los 40 años y tras dedicar 30 años a pelearse consigo misma, no quiere perder un minuto más en el viaje sin retorno a su destino transexual.