[Portugal]
Commissioner concerned over human rights situation of Portuguese transgender
The Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg published today a letter sent to the Deputy Minister of Justice of Portugal, José Magalhäes. Herein the Commissioner expresses his concern regarding the lack of a uniform and expeditious procedure for changing the name and sex of transgender persons on birth certificates and identity documents:
Press Release
The letter:

CommDH(2010)10

Ref: CommHR/DV/sf 183-2009

Mr José MAGALHÃES
Deputy Minister of Justice
Portugal

Strasbourg, 24 November 2009

Dear Minister,
Further to our meeting in Lisbon on 12 November, I would like to take this opportunity to follow up on the constructive dialogue that I had with you on a number of issues relating to the protection of human rights.

During our meeting I expressed my appreciation with the broad anti-discrimination protection under the Portuguese Constitution and anti-discrimination legislation. In view of this, I seized the opportunity to recommend the ratification by Portugal of Protocol N° 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights, containing a general prohibition of discrimination. This Protocol constitutes an invaluable instrument for the fight against discrimination in Europe. I was encouraged to hear that you would look into the possibility of ratification by Portugal of the above Protocol

A group affected in particular by discrimination is the Roma community. While welcoming the positive measures aimed at integrating Roma, such as the Re-housing Project and the Pilot Project for Municipal Mediators, I have received and been concerned at reports on the housing situation of some Roma communities in Portugal, referring inter alia to segregated areas in Portugal which are inhabited either exclusively or to a large extent by Roma, to widespread discrimination against Roma and their spatial and social segregation.

I have been particularly concerned by information indicating that access to water for Romainhabited settlements is refused and that there are neighbourhoods with only one entrance and exit route, some of them walled and with very difficult access. I invite the Portuguese authorities to examine promptly this situation and provide Roma in need with adequate housing, in accordance with the principles enshrined in the European Social Charter. Relevant action and policies of local authorities should also be closely and effectively monitored by the national authorities. In this respect, your authorities may draw inspiration from the guidelines contained in
the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers’ Recommendation (2008)5 on policies for Roma and/or Travellers in Europe.

As regards human rights of transgender persons, I shared my concerns with you with regard to the lack of a uniform and expeditious procedure in Portugal for changing the name and sex of a transgender person on birth certificates and identity documents. I provided you with a copy of my Office’s Issue Paper Human Rights and Gender Identity in which more background information is provided about this theme.

During my visit, I had the opportunity to meet also with the High Commissioner for Immigration and Interethnic Dialogue (ACIDI) and to visit one of the National Immigrant Support Centres (CNAI). The ‘one-stop-shop’ approach and the availability of all relevant services under one roof for immigrants is to be commended and provides an example of good practice in Europe. However, I remain concerned about the effectiveness of the racial discrimination complaint procedure before the ACIDI’s Commission for Equality and Against Racial Discrimination as reportedly only few decisions have been taken during recent years and there is a significant backlog of cases.

Regarding allegations of ill treatment and excessive use of force by the police, you recognised that this is a serious issue to be tackled and informed me that detailed guidelines on the appropriateness of the use of weapons have been developed for the police force. I look forward to receiving further information on the implementation of these guidelines.

Finally, we discussed the issue of search warrants affecting lawyers’ premises, in view of the need to maintain lawyers’ professional confidentiality in the course of criminal proceedings. While there is a clear obligation under domestic law to cooperate with the authorities in cases of criminal investigations, I believe that a reasonable balance needs to be struck with the need to respect and ensure lawyers’ proper function in the national justice system. I would appreciate receiving any further information you may have on this important issue.

Yours sincerely
Thomas Hammarberg

Comisario Europeo DD HH llama la atención a Portugal por no tener Ley de Transexuales que regule cambios DNI

[España]
"Por la igualdad Trans" será el lema del Orgullo GLTB de Madrid el próximo 3 de julio
Tal como hemos venido informando desde este Diario Digital Transexual, este fin de semana se han celebrado en la ciudad de Alcorcón los XXII Encuentros Estatales LGTB organizados por COGAM y ARCÓPOLI en los que han participado más de cincuenta organizaciones de lesbianas, gays, transexuales y bisexuales del Estado.

[Turkey]
LGBTT s in the streets of Istanbul in order to protest Minister Kavaf
Protest against Turkish Minister Responsible for Women and Family, Selma Aliye Kavaf who declared that homosexuals have biological disorders and should be cured.
We, LGBT Organisations, will file an indictment against the Minister because of her discriminatory statements and organize a public statement.
With the participation of the unions, NGO’s we will gather March the 16th, Tuesday, at 1pm at the Besiktas Squarein Istanbul for the press statement.
We kindly request your participation

Lambdaistanbul LGBTT Dayanisma Dernegi

Tel: +90 (0) 212 245 70 68
Istiklâl Caddesi, Katip Celebi Mah. Tel Sok. No: 28/6 Kat:5
Beyoglu - Istanbul
http://www.lambdaistanbul.org/
lambda@lambdaistanbul.org

[Nepal]
Pink Everest: Nepal appeals for gay tourists
Nepal wants to paint Mount Everest pink.
It wants gay honeymooners trekking through the Himalayas.
It wants to host the world's highest same-sex wedding at Everest base camp.
But mainly, the conservative Hindu nation wants a chunk of the multibillion dollar gay tourist market to help pull it out of poverty.
That quest — brushing aside historical biases in pursuit of economic opportunity — is symbolic of one of the gay rights movement's most stunning successes.
Just five years ago, police were beating gays and transsexuals in the streets.
Now, the issue of gay rights is almost passe here.
(AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe - In this photo taken Friday, Feb. 19, 2010, Sushila, a Nepalese transgender man, smiles at a women's clothes store in Katmandu, Nepal. The conservative Hindu nation wants to host the world's highest same-sex wedding at Everest base camp, to attract the multibillion dollar gay tourist market to help pull it out of its wrenching poverty.)

[India]
Protest against Kolkata Imam for solemnising ‘forbidden marriage’
Accusing the Imam of the city's Tipu Sultan Masjid of solemnising the marriage of a boy with a transgender, a section of Muslims demanded here on Saturday that Maulana Noor-ur-Rahman Barkati step down from his post. They insisted that the West Bengal government take stern action against the Imam.

[India]
City activists take plunge into politics with BBMP polls
This council election will see Veena, a transsexual, and Anil, a former teacher, contesting from Okalipuram (Ward 196) and Hebbal (Ward 21) respectively. Both represent citizen group Praja Rajakiya Vedike.

[Australia/UK]
No sex please, I'm neither a man nor a woman – and that's official
A SCOT looks to have made history after winning the right to be recorded as neither male nor female.
Paisley-born Norrie May-Welby now has a birth certificate that states: "Sex Not Specified."
The 48-year-old, who was born a man and had a sex change operation 20 years ago, now lives in Australia and last week convinced authorities there to create a genderless option on all official documents.
Briton is recognised as world's first officially genderless person (Photo: May-Welby said: 'The concepts of man or woman don?t fit me. The simplest solution is not to have any sex identification')
I’m not a man... or a woman


[Philippines] [Blog/Commentary]
The right to self-determination
Last Saturday, 13 March 2010 was the STRAP forum on the right to self-determination. Our main speaker was STRAP founding member Sass Rogando Sasot (see pic above). The forum was co-sponsored by Task Force Pride (TFP) Philippines and the Metropolitan Community Church Quezon City (MCCQC).

[USA]
Gender issue cancels couple's Reno wedding plans
Reed High School graduate Rebecca Love and her partner were denied a marriage license March 6 by county officials, forcing them to cancel plans the next day in a Reno chapel as Love's family watched.
Her partner is a transgender surgery candidate named Danielle Pauline Severson, but born Dana Paul Severson, who is taking female hormones. The couple had Severson's birth certificate showing she was born a man, divorce papers from a marriage to a woman, her name-change documentation and photo identification.

[USA]
Gay seniors come out late, start second lifetime
On his 75th birthday, Bill Farthing decided to be reborn. In the six years since he'd buried his wife of 45 years, he'd felt as he did long before: Lonesome, different, outcast. He wondered if he was going crazy; he contemplated suicide.
Looking back, the clues leading to this day had been scattered throughout his life, but only made sense just now.
So Farthing dressed in the most basic of blue wool skirt suits he could find on the Internet, with a white blouse and low-heeled, open-toed white shoes, and went shopping. Arms loaded with skirts and blouses from the clearance rack, Farthing approached the checkout.
"Did you find everything you wanted, ma'am?" the cashier asked.
Farthing looked over his shoulder, then realized she was talking to him. He had pulled it off.
He had become a she.

[USA] [Blog/Commentary]
Men in Skirts Use Women’s Restroom at Mass. Marriott Hotel
Excerpt: These photos and videos illustrate the insanity that will descend on all of America . . . unless this sexual radical movement is stopped: Seven-foot men in dresses using the women’s restroom. Hundreds of cross-dressers swarming the hotel, upsetting other guests (who were not forewarned). A transgender rock concert.
This is what protecting “gender identity and expression” really means.

[USA] [Blog/Commentary]
Controversy continues over APA and gender variance
The battle is heating up over how gender variance will be handled in the American Psychiatric Association’s update of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V).

[USA]
Dr. Oz y niños trangéneros: Con subtítulos en español
Dr. Oz Transgender Kids clip with the collaboration of Dr. Robert Garofalo and subtitled in Spanish by Abril Torres

[USA] [Books]
Transgender History
Covering American transgender history from the mid-twentieth century to today, Transgender History takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events. Chapters cover the transsexual and transvestite communities in the years following World War II; trans radicalism and social change, which spanned from 1966 with the publication of The Transsexual Phenomenon, and lasted through the early 1970s; the mid-’70s to 1990—the era of identity politics and the changes witnessed in trans circles through these years; and the gender issues witnessed through the ’90s and ’00s.

[FL, USA]
Drag queen loses nursing job over 34-year-old arrest
In South Florida's gay community, Ray Fetcho is known as drag queen "Tiny Tina."
To the families of elderly dementia patients, he's a godsend, a compassionate caregiver.
But now Fetcho is out of a job and his 35-year nursing career is in jeopardy, all because of a minor arrest — in 1976.

[Guyana] [Commentary]
Toward a Different Understanding
There has been a spate of letters to the press in recent weeks on the question of sexuality in Guyana, following the report that a group of lawyers will be bringing a constitutional challenge to a law that criminalized cross-dressing and under which seven persons were arrested and charged last year.