Em 1570 os navegadores portugueses fundaram a cidade de Nagasaki, na baía do mesmo nome, onde passaram a habitar. Dotada pela natureza de um belo porto natural, esta cidade foi o cenário da ópera "Madame Butterfly" de Giacomo Puccini. Nagasaki só ficou mundialmente conhecida em 1945, por ter sido quase totalmente destruída no dia 9 de Agosto, após sofrer um ataque com a segunda bomba atômica, lançada pelos Estados Unidos. Até hoje, os Estados Unidos ainda não foram julgados por estes crimes contra a humanidade.

Estabelecido em 1955 perto do hipocentro da explosão, o parque da paz relembra o sucedido, tendo na extremidade norte a estátua criada pelo escultor Seibou Kitamura. A mão direita simboliza a ameaça de armas nucleares enquanto a mão esquerda estendida a paz eterna. A cara suave simboliza a graça divina e os olhos delicadamente fechados oferecem uma oração ao descanso das almas das vítimas da bomba. O pé direito dobrado e o pé esquerdo estendido significam a meditação e a elevação espiritual. Instalado na frente da estátua um caixão de mármore preto contém os nomes das vítimas e dos sobreviventes que morreram em anos subsequentes.


[UK]
Messages from Destiny Lauren murder suspect read to court
Technicians pieced together phone records of a man accused of murder from memory cards that had been broken into pieces, a court has heard.
Leon Fyle, 22, is accused of strangling Destiny Lauren, 29, a pre-operative transsexual prostitute at her home in Leighton Crescent, Kentish Town, last November.
Prosecutors told a jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court this week that Mr Fyle’s movements had been partly mapped by his use of a mobile phone.
Strangling accused, Leon Fyle, gives his version of night Destiny died
I left her unharmed, says man accused of murdering Holloway transsexual

[Netherlands]
Are Transsexual's Brains Different?
A structure deep within the brain, where the tangled roots of sexuality are thought to lie, differs substantially between ordinary men and transsexuals who have surgically transformed themselves from men into women, scientists have reported.

[Iceland]
Reykjavik Mayor Opens Pride in Drag
Reykjavik mayor Jon Gnarr appeared in drag Thursday to open the city’s gay pride festival. The popular comedian turned politician won office in June as head of the Best Party, which he founded to satirize politics in Iceland.
According to the BBC, Gnarr appeared on stage in a floral-print dress, blonde wig and bright red lipstick and said, "The mayor unfortunately could not attend himself."
Reykjavik mayor opens gay pride festival in drag (Photo: Jon Gnarr's buxom alter ego said the mayor was too busy to attend the party.)

[Zimbabwe]
Second Zimbabwe gay activist pleads not guilty on porn charges
The second Zimbabwean gay rights activist to be charged with having porn in her office has pleaded not guilty.
Ellen Chadehama, 34, a worker for the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) organisation, was arrested in May with another staff member, Ignatius Muhambi, 38.

[India]
Life of a woman in man's garb
It was a rare moment of meaningful joy for 42-year-old Revathi, a social activist-turned-writer.
The special book launch at Reliance TimeOut on Friday proved it. Tears of joy over the book of her experiences were hard to miss. Revathi, a Class 10 fail from a village in Namakkal, Tamil Nadu, can hardly speak a few words in English. But she understands every single word in her translated autobiography — The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story. It was read out as quick excerpts by theatre personality Kirtana Kumar.
A gender-bender from traffic cops
'My driver's license refers to me as woman who was man'
Inconvenient Sexuality: Our traditional wisdom in gender identification

[India]
Festival to highlight governmental schemes to transsexuals
To sensitise transgenders to their legal rights and various welfare schemes initiated by the Tamil Nadu Government, a Chennai-based organisation run by a transgender,is organising a one day festival here on August 17.

[China]
Hong Kong transsexual launches court bid
A Hong Kong transsexual has launched a landmark court challenge to win the right to marry her boyfriend after city officials blocked the move, a report said Sunday.
The Chinese woman in her 20s -- who was born a man -- was denied the right to marry her male partner by Hong Kong's Registrar of Marriages last year because her birth certificate still identified her as a man, the Sunday Morning Post said.
Sex-change marriage case to challenge Hong Kong law

[USA]
Children’s gives transgender tween new hope
Although born identical twins with matching DNA, Tom* and Ryan were two immensely different children. As toddlers, Tom entertained himself with toy trucks while Ryan fawned over his girl cousin’s Barbies and Little Mermaid dolls. Photo after photo of them at that age show Ryan with a t-shirt wrapped around his head, mimicking long, flowing hair. At age 4, he asked his mom, Cecelia, a heartbreaking question: When do I get to be a girl? A few months later, while assisting his dad, Dennis, with a plumbing job, he told him that he hated his own penis. Dennis choked up. “I cried and he cried, and then his brother came in and we all hugged and cried,” he says.

[CA, USA]
Gender Reassignment Surgery Saves Dog
A Pomeranian puppy born with partially formed male and female reproductive organs has been saved from euthanasia after undergoing gender reassignment surgery.
Dog in San Bernardino Goes Under Gender Re-Assignemnt Surgery (Photo)

[CO, USA]
Angie Zapata's friends, family to throw a party for the murdered transgender teen's 21st birthday
Angie Zapata would have turned 21 yesterday. She died in July 2008, a little more than two years shy of that milestone, at the hands of a man who claimed he "snapped" when he realized that Zapata, a striking Latina beauty, was biologically male. (Photo)

[DC, USA]
Tyra Hunter Death 15th Anniversary
Today marks another sad anniversary.
It's the 15th anniversary of the death of Tyra Hunter on August 7, 1995 at the hands of Washington DC transphobes.
Transphobes who sadly held the titles of doctor, nurse and emergency medical technician.

[GA, USA]
Transgender employee rehired but won't be working
Vandy Beth Glenn has her job back -- with salary, benefits and seniority -- but she won't be returning to work.
An agreement reached Friday mandates the reinstatement of the transgender legislative editor for the Georgia General Assembly, fired nearly thee years ago after disclosing she was transitioning from a man. But Glenn's employer preferred she earn her paycheck from home, arguing that her presence in the office would be disruptive. Though she won't be working, Glenn will be fully compensated.
Fired Transgender Woman Won't Be in Office
Trans woman fired illegally by Ga. legislature will begin receiving pay, benefits Monday
(Photo)

[IN, USA]
Ball Memorial addresses transgender complaints
Ball Memorial Hospital president Mike Haley says the recent allegations that a transsexual woman was mistreated in their emergency room "concerns us deeply and gave us pause."
In a statement released by the hospital on Thursday, Haley said the hospital will now work with two advocacy groups -- Indiana Equality and Indiana Transgender Rights Advocacy Alliance -- to review "BMH care policies, employee benefits and diversity training."
Hospital starts review after transgender complaint
Central Indiana’s Ball Memorial Hospital Denies Care to Transgender Woman

[MA, USA]
Transgender discrimination complaint goes to licensing board
Three years ago, Saugus resident Ashley Bottoms founded the Sisters Family, a social club with the purpose of giving transgender individuals a place to gather and feel accepted, safe and free from discrimination. The group, which has since grown to include five chapters in three different states, typically meets on Friday evenings to unwind after the workweek.

[NY, USA]
Enraged lover attacks man who was about to receive sex act from transgender partner
A sexual tryst turned violent early Friday when a man used a corrosive liquid to douse another man he caught with his transgender lover, police said.
Ruben Olivares, 37, walked into his upper East Side home only to catch his 19-year-old flame about to perform a sex act on Antonio Lara, police and the victim said.
The jilted lover - a porter who works in the building - splashed Lara, 29, with the liquid, which investigators believe to be hydrochloric acid, and high-tailed it away from the scene, cops said.
Cops: Transgender teen's tryst begins on Web, ends in upper East Side acid attack; suspect on run.

[Mexico]
La Heroica se vestirá de rosa
La Heroica se vestirá de rosa el próxima 14 de agosto a las 16 horas, cuando dé inicio la marcha Lésbico, Gay, Transexual (LGT), denominada "Diversidad con Identidad", en donde se esperan más de mil participantes numerosas personas que llegarán del Distrito Federal y Cuernavaca, según lo informó el representante del comité organizador Andrés Salas Salgado, quien aseguró cuentan con los permisos correspondientes del Ayuntamiento de Cuautla.