Anne Vitale PhD, Editor
****************
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- [1]USA: Job Announcement--Executive Director for Intersex Society of North America
- [2] USA: Secession (San Fernando Valley from Los Angeles) would jeopardize gay rights, activists claim
- [3]USA: NTAC Mourns the Loss of a Transgendered Leader and a Friend
- [4] INDIA: Sexual minorities retie umbilical cord
- [5] USA: TG facing prison had SRS 30 years ago but not fully transitioned
- [6] JAPAN: Red Tape Emerges As Woe for Transsexuals
- [7]INDIA: Jail in Karnal opens separate wing for enuchs after women protest
- [8]AUSTRALIA: Two Women Plead Not Guilty to Murdering a Crossdressing Truck Driver
- [9] USA: Lesbian, gay, bi, trans rights--What a difference a movement makes!
- [10]USA: Interview with Nova Gyna, author of "Occasional Woman"
- [11]USA: Transgender breakthrough--People in the United States have a surprising understanding and acceptance of transgendered lives, a major new survey shows
- [12] USA Is that a boy or a girl? Life in high school
- [13] UK:A new ruling will have far-reaching implications for transsexuals at: work,explains Kate Hilpern
- [14] USA: Couple seeks ruling reverse in Ohio TG marriage case
- 15]USA: California Governor Vetoes Pro-Homosexual Foster Care Bill
- [16a] UK: Transsexual sues police force over 'job bias'
- [16b] UK: Sex-change woman sues police
- [17] US - Public hearing set for Nov. 18 on Lopez misconductcharges
- [18] MALTA: TS wins right to change name and sex marker on birth certificate
- [19]USA: Supreme Court Won't Meddle In Transsexual Estate Dispute
- [20] Book Review--Hidden In Plain Sight
- [21a]Books: The Gender Blender Author: Jeffrey Eugenides-- Reviewed by By David Gates,NEWSWEEK
- [21b]Book Review-- The Gender Blender-- Author, Jeffrey Eugenides Reviewed in Guardian Unlimited Books
- [22] USA: WASHINGTON - W.W.J.D. at the F.D.A.?
- [23]UK: DIY Alternative to Breast Implants
- [24] USA: Silicone and Safety: Once-Banned Filler May Offer Permanent Wrinkle Solution
- [25] Bad Hair Days: Baldness Treatment Claim Raises Eyebrows
- [26] USA: PCB Exposure in Womb May Affect Behavior
- [27] UK: The dotty potter: The weird works of Grayson Perry
- RE: Do FtMs have to register with the Selective Service?"
- RE: US Supreme Court's Refusal to Hear the Gardiner Case
- Re:Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Gardiner Case
- RE:Question for Ian Duncan Smith - Caring? Please explain away shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin's distasteful trivialization
- RE: Using "Transsexual" for sensationalism in newspaper picture
- RE: New Vitale Letter format
- RE: New Vitale Letter format
[2] USA: Secession (San Fernando Valley from Los Angeles) would jeopardize gay rights, activists claim Top L.A. Daily News http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200%7E20954%7E919032,00.html October 12, 2002 By Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer A group of gay, lesbian and transgender advocates came out against San Fernando Valley and Hollywood cityhood Friday, saying secession could jeopardize many of the city benefits they won over the years. Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, said benefits she fought for when she was on the Los Angeles City Council would face an uncertain future if voters approve secession in the Nov. 5 election. She cited city-paid benefits for domestic partners of municipal employees, and pointed to a requirement that firms doing business with the city must provide such domestic-partner benefits if they provide benefits to spouses of married employees. "We do know the second that secession takes place, all those things are gone and you have to have the political will to get them re-enacted," Goldberg said. She was joined by Pam Cooke, president of the Stonewall Democratic Club, and representatives of other groups. Under the cityhood plan crafted by the state Local Agency Formation Commission, the ordinances of the city of Los Angeles would stay in place for 120 days in the new Valley or Hollywood cities after their incorporation on July 1, 2003. After that, it would be up to the new city council to continue the ordinances. Secession supporters said those benefits would depend on the people elected as mayor and council members in the new city, just as they do in Los Angeles, and they urged people who care about this issue to vote for the appropriate candidates. Laurette Healey, co-chairwoman of the Valley Independence Committee and an activist on gay and lesbian issues, said she agrees that Los Angeles has treated its gay and lesbian employees well. "If nothing else, this is a call to action for all the residents and citizens of the Valley who are interested in fairness and equality in their elected officials," said Healey, adding that she would personally lobby the new council and mayor for gay and lesbian issues, among others. "This is a testing ground for those individuals to get involved, as I am." © 2002 Los Angeles Daily News Top
[3]USA: NTAC Mourns the Loss of a Transgendered Leader and a Friend Top For Immediate Release: Dated October 9, 2002 From: The National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) Contact Person: Vanessa Edwards Foster; Houston, Texas Contact Email: ntacmedia@aol.com media@ntac.org Contact Phone: 832-483-9901 Website: http://www.ntac.org NTAC MOURNS THE LOSS OF A TRANSGENDER LEADER AND A FRIEND
[4] INDIA: Sexual minorities retie umbilical cord Top Source: Brenda Lana Smith R.af D. Sexual minorities retie umbilical cord http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=32204 Sexual minorities retie umbilical cord Georgina L Maddox Mumbai, October 11: RECLAIMING their local identities, sharing tales of oppression, of hope and hot cups of tea, the speakers all had a story to tell, at the lectern and also during the break. On the first day of the three-day, first ever International Lesbian and Gay (ILGA) Asian regional conference A to Z - The Other Asia, 80 delegates registered, with a significantly higher attendance of women's groups than in other mixed conferences. Organised by the Humsafar Trust and Aanchal, the delegates have come from countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand Nepal and India. The agenda for the conference is to help groups and individuals remain rooted in their local cultures while enhancing their visibility. being a historical event for Asian lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) groups, it was unfortunate that many Indian organisations did not attend. Said Betu Singh, a founder member of Sangini, a support group for lesbian and bisexual women in Delhi: ''I was hoping more groups from India would participate. But I'm happy with the way things are going at the conference so far.'' Rosanna Falmer-Calder, a female representative of ILGA Asia and co-ordinator for Women's Support Group in Sri Lanka, was very positive. ''Our very presence at this conference marks a turning point for the Asian scenario,'' she asserted, adding that the scenario in Sri Lanka is not very different, be it law or health issues. Most discussions underlined the importance of relocating one's identity in the regional. ''We are quite envious of India, since it has retained its rich culture and diversity,'' said Anna Leah Saradia De Leon, Secretary General of ILGA. She added, ''In the Philippines, so many skilled persons are economically dependent on the West. Western culture permeates so much of our local environment that many people have migrated for lucrative jobs.'' Anna Leah, who has visited India several times, emphasised that despite their cultural richness, there are multiple stigmas that Indian and Asian LGBT groups face. ''Which is why this conference is so important. We hope to be able to talk more about AIDS-related issues so that the stigma associated with it is addressed. Being a woman already means that you are a second class citizen. One has to first clear that hurdle before talking about being an Asian lesbian who needs health care,'' she said. Shelly Kaw of the UNIFEM Global Programme on Gender, HIV and AIDS agreed with her. Shyam, an HIV-positive patient from Tamil Nadu, pointed out that the level of social ignorance of the disease is high. ''People expected me to have sores and falling hair. A common comment was that I don't look like an AIDS patient. The divide between the north and the south is so high that it is very difficult to network or get help,'' he said. Laxmi, a hijra from the Dai Welfare Society, spoke about reclaiming the word 'hijra'. ''Western terminologies like 'transgendered' do not echo my communities' sentiments. In fact, this community has existed since mythological times when they were known as kinaras. Being a hijra is being part of Indian soil.'' Sakira a transgendered male to female from Malayasia, also pointed out that the dominant religion in Malayasia is Semitic, so the acceptance level of trasgendered people is high. NRI Sandeep Roy, editor of the Trikone magazine, spoke of many Asians seaking asylum in the USA. ''But it's like cutting the umbilical cord. Post 7/11, even that option is being lost. Interrogation, deportation and violence have risen for most LGBTs who once had a safe space.'' © 2002: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All rights reserved Top
[5] USA: TG facing prison had SRS 30 years ago but not fully transitioned Top Date: Wed, 09 Oct 2002 Source "Mrs. Petra Henderson" <petrahenderson@yahoo.com> and transgender_news The Union-Leader (New Hampshire) October 8, 2002 http://tinyurl.com/1vb2 http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_show.html?article=14735 Murderer's pre-sentence plea: I am a woman By STEPHEN SEITZ Union Leader Correspondent NEWPORT ? Admitted murderer Joseph Shanley may be unique in the annals of New Hampshire criminal history: when he is sentenced later this month, he may also be declared to be a woman at the same time. In September, Shanley admitted to killing his sister, Ann Cavanaugh, on Oct. 4 last year. Under an agreement with the state, the admission may lead to a sentence of 22 years to life in prison. But just before that plea, Shanley filed a motion to have himself declared a woman. That motion, and the state's objections to it, were placed under seal. The documents were released yesterday. Shanley's motion was to have been heard Friday, but Sullivan County Superior Court Judge Robert E.K. Morrill decided to postpone the hearing until Shanley's sentencing later in the month. According to court documents, Shanley now calls himself "Jo" Shanley. His motion asks that he be declared a woman and be sent to a women's prison, such as the state prison for women in Goffstown, for reasons of preference and personal safety. He is currently being held alone in the Special Housing Unit in the Concord men's prison. According to Shanley's motion, at "a very young age he was convinced he was a girl and that nature had made a mistake in giving her the outward appearance of a boy. She was later inspired by the story of (transsexual) Christine Jorgensen to take steps to alleviate the anguish caused by her gender dysphoria." Shanley, according to the document, went to Casablanca in 1969 for sexual reassignment surgery. On return to the United States, Shanley dressed as a man and worked as a machinist to maintain his job and income, and dressed and acted as a woman the rest of the time. According to the document, Shanley has been examined by a doctor and found to have the genitals of a woman. Attorneys for the state objected to the motion on procedural and jurisdictional grounds. "The defendant points to no statute or case law which purports to vest the superior court with the authority or jurisdiction to declare that Joe Shanley is a woman," state attorneys wrote. Also, according to the brief, it is up to the state Department of Corrections, not a superior court, to determine where a prisoner is housed. Ann Cavanaugh, 68, died after having been shot five times, according to police. The siblings had moved from Billerica, Mass., to a home they had bought on Ledgewood Drive in Claremont. Almost immediately, they put the house up for sale. Police said at the time of the shooting they were already packing to move again. According to police, on Oct. 4 three real estate agents and two prospective buyers came to look at the house at about 4:30 p.m. Shanley was said by one of the witnesses to be intoxicated. One of the witnesses noticed someone lying face down on a bedroom floor. Empty beer containers were seen in the kitchen. Police found Cavanaugh lying face down on a bedroom floor; there was blood on her shirt in the back and a hole in her right side, and bloody droplets on the floor near the body and across the room. Shanley's case will be decided Oct. 22. Copyright © 2002 Union Leader Corp. All rights reserved. Top
[6] JAPAN: Red tape emerges as woe for transsexuals Top Source Brenda Lana Smith R.af D. asahi.com : ENGLISH http://www.asahi.com/english/tenjin/K2002101000360.html Thursday, October 10, 2002 Whether one is a man or a woman does not matter for most people. In other words, they live without doubts about their sexual identity. Not so with those who suffer from gender identity disorders. They suffer because their self-perception does not identify with their physical gender. ``It feels as if you were forced to wear a stuffed animal you cannot take off,'' a person said of the identity gap. Up until 1998, gender identity disorders tended to be confused with homosexuality. In that year, the nation's first transsexual operation was performed at Saitama Medical School along the guidelines set by the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology. The surgery served to enlighten the public about the syndrome. Surgeons at the college and the Medical Department of Okayama University have about 700 people on their waiting lists. Transsexual surgery is a real blessing for those accustomed to painful attempts to force their minds to accept their physical gender. It makes a patient's body what his or her mind wants. It has opened the way for the patient to live with a different name. A case in point is female speedboat racer Chinatsu Ando, who has made a second debut with a male name, Hiromasa Ando. Looking quietly happy and satisfied, Ando cut an unforgettable figure at a news conference the racer gave to break the news. Despite the benefits of surgery, transsexuals are far from being secure in their social lives. This is because their gender remains unchanged in passports and other official documents. Last year, six transsexuals filed with family courts across the country for injunctions that would change their gender as recorded in their family registers. A verdict has just been handed down in one of the earliest cases. The court turned down the plaintiff's request. Among the six transsexuals is Masae Torai, 38, editor of ``FTM Nippon,'' a mini-periodical for those suffering from gender identity disorders. She lives as a man. She passed up a chance to become a regular employee when she refused to submit a resident registration card showing her gender as a female to her company. For the same reason, she hates to use her health insurance certificate, which forces her to buy an over-the-counter drug when she falls sick. The American movie ``Robert Eads,'' now showing in Tokyo, is about the last one year of a woman-turned-man cancer patient who dies after being denied medical treatment. For some people, to be true to their desires to live as a man or a woman is so important that they are prepared to give up their lives for the prize. --The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 9(IHT/Asahi: October 10,2002) (10/10) Top
[7]INDIA: Jail in Karnal opens separate wing for enuchs after women protest Top Date: Tue, 08 Oct 2002 06:03:29 -0000 Source "Mrs. Petra Henderson" <petrahenderson@yahoo.com> and transgender_news October 5, 2002 http://tinyurl.com/1ukq http://news.sify.com/cgi-bin/sifynews/news/content/news_fullstory_v2.jsp?ar= = ticle_oid=12006109&category_oid=-20611&page_no=1 Separate cell for jailed eunuchs Karnal, Oct 5 In a strange incident in Karnal jail, a special and seperate wing had to made in the jail here for the arrested eunuchs in a `casteration' case. It was reported that the ward was created after the women prisoners strongly objected to eunuch Chandni, in judicial custody, being kept with them. The arrest of Asha, another eunuch in the casteration case who was sent in 14-day judicial custody, became all the more problematic for the jail authorities. The issue was resolved with the opening of an 'eunuch ward.' Eunuch Asha, alias Moli, alias Dalbir, of Machra Mandi, Bhattu Kalan, had reportedly confessed of having casterated Bashir, Shambhu, Negdhu and an unidentified person and in return got Rs 10,000 for each such case. Chandni, who was arrested earlier, had confessed to performing ''surgery'' on the casterated persons to bring them into the eunuchs' fold. She along with her drum-beater Gyan, was arrested earlier. A local court has added Section 307 of the IPC in the case. © Copyright Satyam Infoway Ltd, 1998 Top
[8]AUSTRALIA: Two Women Plead Not Guilty to Murdering a Crossdressing Truck Driver Top Source: Brenda Lana Smith R.af D. Herald Sun: Transvestite truckie: not guilty ... http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,5247118%255E1702,0 0.html Tuesday, October 08, 2002 BREAKING NEWS This story is from our news.com.au network Source: AAP [Transvestite truckie: not guilty plea 08oct02 TWO women have pleaded not guilty to murdering a transvestite truck driver whose mutilated body was found buried in a strawberry patch in an Adelaide backyard last year. Nicole Therese McGuinness, 34, and Donna Lee Casagrande, 32, have been charged with murdering Joanne Lillecrapp, also known as John, on or about October 31 last year. Lillecrapp's mutilated body was found buried in a strawberry patch in the backyard of a house in Angle Park, in Adelaide's north-west, on November 9 last year. The women pleaded not guilty during a brief appearance in the South Australian Supreme Court today. Justice Thomas Gray adjourned the case until November 22. © Herald and Weekly Times Top
[9] USA: Lesbian, gay, bi, trans rights--What a difference a movement makes! Top Workers World Oct. 10, 2002: What a differenc... http://www.workers.org/ww/2002/martha1010.php Monday, October 07, 2002 By Martha Grevatt Excerpts from a talk at the Sept. 21-22 Workers World Party conference. What a difference a movement makes! With a few exceptions, the hateful anti-sodomy laws that criminalized same-sex love are in the trashcan of history. Eleven states and numerous cities have passed laws against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Workers at numerous companies have won domestic partner benefits and anti-discrimination language. We can even go to Vermont and get a civil union, with all the benefits of marriage. Or we can travel to heroic Venezuela and get an actual marriage license. Transgender people, who led the Stonewall Rebellion, have less protection and benefits, but now there are a number of cities and workplaces, and one state, that do prohibit anti-trans discrimination. The AFL-CIO labor federation has an official lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender constituency group, Pride At Work. Can LGBT people relax, confident that the state and the ruling class are now sufficiently enlightened and are going to do the right thing? Yes, says the Human Rights Campaign: "Corporate America is the unlikely hero" in the push for LGBT equality, it claims. No, say revolutionary Marxists--dialectical materialists who understand politics by analyzing its contradictions. Despite these stupendous achievements, how safe are we when the bigots can use Sept. 11 to launch a new wave of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate crimes, and when GIs are coming home from Afghanistan and murdering their female companions? How safe are we, in the current climate of intense political repression under the guise of "homeland security"? And how safe are we, when even as we speak Iraq could once again be bombed by the Pentagon death machine, which is no friend of LGBT people? The religious right is mobilizing to overturn the laws that give us some protection; they are even trying to bring back the anti-sodomy laws. They are spreading racist, sexist, homophobic and now anti-Islamic hatred. Let us not repeat the errors of the German movement of the early 20th century. For decades they had built a movement for the abolition of a hated law that sent gay men to jail. They lost momentum and direction when they supported their government in the first imperialist world war, strengthening the very forces of reaction that had held them down for so long. Fast forward to a hot New York evening in June of 1969, when the love that dared not speak its name became the love that roared and thundered and rocked the patriarchy and class society. In its early days, this movement opposed the Vietnam War and defended the Black Panther Party, whose support was reciprocal. The National Liberation Front of Vietnam was the inspiration for the name Gay Liberation Front in the U.S. Fast forward to 1981, when the Reaganites threatened to invade Central America. A march on the Pentagon had the first openly gay speaker at an anti-war protest. Fast forward to the Martin Luther King Day holiday, 1991. As bombs fall on Iraq, a march of 100,000 brings out a huge contingent of people screaming, "We're here, we're queer, we're not going to war." Fast forward to this year's LGBT Pride marches with contingents from Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. Class society destroyed the honor and esteem that trans people, same-sex-loving people, and also women enjoyed in traditional societies. Dialectics recognizes a law, however, called the negation of the negation. The brutality of the capitalist state made the Stonewall Rebellion and these 30-plus years of heroic struggle inevitable. This struggle, if it stands in solidarity with every movement against war, racism, sexism and economic exploitation, will reach its final and liberating conclusion: the unconditional equality, dignity and freedom for every gender expression and every expression of human love and affection. We call this socialism. Reprinted from the Oct. 10, 2002, issue of Workers World newspaper (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@wwpublish.com. Subscribe wwnews-on@wwpublish.com. Unsubscribe wwnews-off@wwpublish.com. Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
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MEDIA WATCH [10]USA: Interview with Nova Gyna, author of "Occasional Woman" Top Date: Fri, 04 Oct 2002 From: transgender_news <transgender_news@lycos.com> and Rica Ashby Fredrickson <rica@netaxs.com> Phoenix New Times (alternative weekly, Arizona) October 3, 2002 http://tinyurl.com/1s1y http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/2002-10- 03/speakeasy.html/1/index.html New Woman Cross-dresser Nova Gyna gets off on earrings and Steven Seagal movies BY ROBRT L. PELA (photo by)Kevin ScanlonHe said, she said: Nova Gyna, the name says it all. I figured I wouldn't like Nova Gyna. I confess to being creeped out by the whole he/she thing, which Nova Gyna (pronounced "no vagina," and Latin for "new woman") writes about in her new book, The Occasional Woman. I expected to find a scary drag queen, maybe even one of those militant cross-dressers who would want to give me fashion tips. But the 53-year-old Columbus, Ohio, native surprised me with her boyish candor and utter lack of guile. We lounged at A League of Our Own, where, surrounded by cigar smoke and several big- screen TVs blaring a baseball game, I tried not to cringe while Nova talked about guys who get their dicks cut off.
New Times: So Nova Gyna is your real name.
Nova Gyna: It is now. I had a different name before.
NT: You claim, in your book, that you were aware of your transgendered nature at age 8.
Nova: When I was 7, I was asking my mother when I was going to get to be a girl. She was a single mother in Kentucky in the '50s, but she let me grow my hair long, and she curled it for me. There were a lot of kids who weren't allowed to play with me. Which is probably a good thing, since I always ended up having sex with all the boys who did play with me. I matured early. NT: You write that your family sent you to a seminary as a "remedy for your condition." Nova: Yes. They thought it would help. So they took a gay transsexual and sent him to a place full of puberty-aged boys from all over the world. It was an international buffet of boys. Whoopee! I was there for two and a half years, but they sort of figured out that the priesthood was not the place for me.
NT: You feel better in a dress and some falsies. Why?Nova: These aren't falsies! I do hormones. These are mine. But I think I can answer your question: A transvestite gets a thrill from wearing lingerie, but for me, it's more about being perceived in a certain way. I'm more comfortable in the middle zone: I'm not very feminine, I don't change my voice. I know heterosexual men who are far more feminine than myself. My point is that gender doesn't work.
NT: Yet you live as a woman.Nova: I'm more comfortable this way, but I prefer to be perceived as a biological male living as a woman. I'm not trying to fool anyone, though, and I couldn't if I tried. Normally, I'm mistaken for a big, ugly woman. I don't have fine features, I'm not all that effeminate. Nothing will make me a woman; I'm still functional as a male.
NT: But what if you did go all the way? You know, have it cut off?Nova: I'd still be male. You can take a Volkswagen and put a dune buggy body on it, but it's still a Volkswagen. I'm biologically a male, but I'm also biologically blended. I know transsexuals who have no business having any male parts at all. They were born female inside. I am not. I still like Steven Seagal movies!
NT: Maybe those hormone shots aren't working.Nova: They are! But they're not for everyone. In my book, I caution about hormone use, because it's easy for a biological male to become sexually dysfunctional on hormones. I write, "Be sure you know what you're asking for."
NT: So you have no plans for gender reassignment.Nova: No. I like my penis. But my body is changing because of the hormones. I've got bumps, and my hips are getting bigger. I'm going to get plastic surgery to make me look more feminine, although mostly because of vanity. I gave up a lot of years to my children with no regrets, but now I'm ready to have some real fun.
NT: You have kids?Nova: I have three sons and a daughter. I raised them as Dad. My oldest is 34, and he's stationed in Kabul, Afghanistan. Here's a picture of him firing a French assault weapon. One of my other sons is put off by me. He has issues. But my daughter still calls me "Dad." She lived with me for awhile, and she would borrow my lipstick.
NT: So what's the difference between you and a garden-variety drag queen?Nova: One's a parody, the other's a necessity. This is a proclamation of who I really am, whereas a drag queen is a guy in a dress lip-synching to a Dolly Parton record. I need to look in the mirror and see this. I like it when someone refers to me as "she." I love to dress up in glam clothes. But I'm not a drag queen. It's not my goal to be the prettiest thing. In slang terms, I'm a he/she and not a gender-bender.
NT: You look like a guy with boobs. Nova: I'm uncomfortable with that. I'd rather be perceived as a chick with a dick. NT: What's the difference? Nova: I'm more comfortable being dealt with as a strong woman, not as an effeminate man. NT: When you're out in public, which restroom do you use?Nova: Usually the women's. The only time I've ever had a problem was when I tried to use the men's room at the airport. Someone called airport security. I figured I was in for an unpleasant orifice check, but the cop just said, "You can't be in here." I told him I'm a transsexual, and he said, "I don't know what to tell you." I said, "I know what to tell you: I have to pee!"
NT: Where do you buy shoes?Nova: I'm not a big spender, but I do like Macy's. I'm not above shopping at Payless. But I don't wear dresses and gowns that much. I'm a tomgirl. I'm a rock 'n' roller. I just came back from Ozzfest.
NT: In your book, you recommend that heterosexual cross-dressers come out to their wives and girlfriends.Nova: If wearing women's clothing is important to you, the close people in your life need to know. It's not the kind of information you can keep from your wife and still have an honest relationship with her. Besides, where are you going to keep your gowns?
NT: You also write that earrings are a cross-dresser's most important accessory. Nova: In many ways, absolutely. NT: But you're not wearing earrings right now. Nova: Well, tonight I'm not accessorizing. No glam stuff tonight, because I'm wearing a sit-down-and-talk-about-myself outfit. NT: Of course not. I read with interest the section in your book about creating a set of birdseed boobs.Nova: It's a trashy way to go, but it works. You basically just fill a pair of pantyhose with bird chow and then cut them off and stick them in your bra. I knew I'd become a famous writer when I started getting letters from prison. Transsexual convicts write to me to ask how to make boobs out of birdseed.
NT: Explain this one to me: Some men have surgery to become women . . . but then they date women. What's that about?Nova: For some men, it's easier to have surgery to become a woman than it is for them to say, "I'm gay." Which is what they're doing if they take a male lover, even after they become a woman.
NT: What about you? Do you date men or women?Nova: Right now I have a boyfriend and a girlfriend. My relationship with my girlfriend is more intimate. We do girl things together; we hang out. We shop. We make jewelry together. We get drunk together.
We get cut off at bars together. You know, girl things.
NT: So if a friend of yours gets married, do you go the bachelor party or the bachelorette party?Nova: I tend to get invited to the bachelorette party. I'm not all that comfortable in stripper clubs, which is where bachelor parties usually end up. I went to one once in Australia, and the girls were wearing nothing but smiles and shoes. And someone thought it was real funny to buy me a private dance. The girl came over and tried to sit on my lap. I said, "Honey, just sit down here next to me, and let's talk about those false eyelashes."
©2002 New Times All rights reserved Top
[11]USA: Transgender breakthrough--People in the United States have a surprising understanding and acceptance of transgendered lives, a major new survey shows Top [thanks to transgender_news via transgendernews] and Rica Ashby Fredrickson <rica@netaxs.com> Date: Tue, 01 Oct 2002 The Advocate October 15, 2002 issue http://tinyurl.com/1q5q http://www.advocate.com/html/stories/874/874_minter.asp people (section) By Mubarak Dahir >From The Advocate, October 15, 2002Transgendered people have been featured in several network TV shows and have been the subject of an Academy Awardˆwinning film. But just how deep is the average American's understanding of transgender issues?
Deeper than you might think, according to the results of a first-of-its-kind national survey released September 21 at the Southern Comfort transgender conference in Atlanta. In fact, seven out of 10 people included in the report, "Public Perceptions of Transgender People," say they are familiar with the word transgender. And a majority of respondents believe it is "all right" to be transgendered.
"This report is groundbreaking," says Mara Keisling, a transgender activist and marketing consultant in Harrisburg, Pa., who worked on the poll with the Washington, D.C.ˆbased gay advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, which commissioned the study. "It is really the first opportunity to hear from the public what they think of us and our struggle." While there have been two or three regional polls on the public's view of transgendered people, Keisling says she knows of no other survey of a national scope.
The paucity of polling data is actually what prompted HRC to commission the $70,000 survey, says spokesman David Smith. "Two years ago, HRC incorporated transgender equality issues into its mission," he says. "Since then, in working on transgender issues, we've found an abysmal lack of research. We decided we needed some hard data that showed the public's attitudes and education level on this issue."
Perhaps the most surprising finding from the survey is that "a lot more people than we had anticipated are aware of" what it means to be transgendered, says Celinda Lake of Lake, Snell, Perry and Associates, the Washington, D.C., firm that conducted the polling. Furthermore, she adds, there is an "overwhelming belief" that people can be born one sex but feel inside as if they are the other sex. Two thirds of the people surveyed agree with such a statement. (The report was based on six focus groups held in Baltimore and St. Louis and on a national phone survey of 800 registered, likely voters.)
Another surprise is the respondents' attitude toward transgendered people in public schools. Even after being read a description of what it means to be transgendered, a whopping 77% of respondents said they feel transgendered children should be allowed to attend public schools. The description reads:
"A transgender person is someone who is born as one gender but feels they are the opposite gender. This person may do certain things so that their outward appearance fits who they feel they are on the inside. They might dress as a person of the opposite gender, get medical treatment such as hormone therapy, or have surgery to change their appearance so they look like the gender that they feel they are. This could be a man changing to a woman or a woman changing to a man."
This support was strong even among demographic groups that otherwise hold generally unfavorable attitudes toward transgendered people. For example, 71% of Republicans and 69% of born-again Christians agree that transgendered kids should be allowed to attend public schools. Even 57% of those who say they believe being transgendered is "morally wrong" agree that transgendered kids should be allowed in public schools.
Support erodes significantly, however, when it comes to transgendered adults who are teachers. Fifty percent of those surveyed believe transgendered adults should be allowed to teach in high schools, but only about 40% believe they should be allowed to be elementary school, gym class, or day care teachers or scouting leaders.
In the areas of workplace discrimination and hate crimes, public attitudes toward the transgendered are also remarkably favorable: 74% say they would be OK working with a transgendered person; 61% favor laws to prevent workplace discrimination; and 68% support hate-crimes laws that cover transgendered people. "Those figures show very high general-public support against job discrimination and for hate-crimes laws," Lake says.
Other parts of the survey, however, display what Lake calls "a warning sign" about the difficulties that may lie ahead in swaying the public on a broader range of transgender issues. Generally, the more information and education the public has about a particular minority, the more positive their attitudes, she says. That's been clearly demonstrated in polls about gay and lesbian people. But this survey suggests the same may not necessarily be true for the transgendered. In fact, the report says that "in the short run, dialogue on this issue does not increase support."
After respondents were given the definition of what it means to be transgendered˜an exercise that is considered an abbreviated form of education˜they had a somewhat less favorable attitude toward transgendered people. Before being read the definition, 23% of respondents described their overall attitude toward transgendered people as "favorable"; 24% classified themselves as generally "unfavorable"; and 32% described themselves as "neutral." After they were read the definition, the percentage of those who ranked themselves "favorable" remained fairly constant, registering at 26%. But the proportion of those feeling "unfavorable" rose by more than a quarter, to 31%.
Similarly, before hearing a definition, 26% felt that being transgendered is "morally wrong," and 42% felt being transgendered is a choice. After hearing the definition, those numbers rose to 33% calling it "morally wrong" and 47% believing it is a choice.
The results are an important sign to activists that "they need to find the right language and means of education to get themselves heard in a positive way by the public," Lake says.
But perhaps the study's biggest implication, according to some activists, is that the public may be more accepting of efforts to include protections for transgendered people in hate-crimes and nondiscrimination laws than previously expected. In the past, many gay and lesbian activist groups˜HRC among them˜have promoted civil rights legislation that excluded protections for the transgendered, arguing that including those provisions would make it more difficult to pass the proposed laws. Transgender advocates now say these poll results are strong ammunition to undercut such an argument.
"The data should have a tremendous impact on gay and lesbian political leaders," says Shannon Minter, 41, a transgender activist and legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco. "There's less and less room for justification of keeping transgender people out of civil rights legislation because we would `hold it back.'"
"This data delivers a mortal blow to that argument," he adds. "The time is right to move forward aggressively with legislation that includes transgender protections."
Keisling shares Minter's hope. "I think this could be an amazing tool for changing attitudes among gay and lesbian activist groups" about including language addressing transgender issues in proposed civil rights laws. "The survey shows that the public is way ahead of the activists."
But HRC's Smith is hesitant to draw the connection. "Public opinion is important, but it's not everything," he says. "Public opinion doesn't always translate into political support." He points to the long battle in Congress over the Employment Non-Discrimination Act˜which does not include protections for transgendered people but would make it illegal to discriminate against gay men and lesbians in the workplace. "ENDA's enjoyed tremendous public support for years, but we've still not been able to get it passed," he says.
The survey results "will inform" HRC's upcoming legislative strategy but "will not guide it," Smith explains. "This isn't a green light to proceed full steam ahead. It's more of a yellow light. We need to proceed with caution."
Dahir also writes for Self, Business Traveler, and Good Housekeeping. © 2002 by Liberation Publications Inc. All rights reserved Top
[12] USA Is that a boy or a girl? Life in high school Top Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2002 03:51:21 -0000 From: Terisa Gibson <terisa_gibson@hotmail.com> and Rica Ashby Fredrickson <rica@netaxs.com> Queue Press (glbt monthly, Minnesota) September 2002 http://tinyurl.com/1ko4 http://www.queuepress.com/2002%2009/Boy%20or%20girl.htm by Lisi Balto-Bongard "Is that a boy or a girl?" all the new kids ask while pointing at me like I'm some sort of freak show. "It's a girl," responds one of my classmates who's been through the drill. "No way!" they always say "Yes, way. Lisi is a girl. Look, she has boobs." (Yes, my boobs are noticeable, I must admit.) "Oh, yeah. Wow, that's weird," all the new kids usually repond. This is what it's like being out and being a butch dyke in high school.When I first walked into Sobriety High, a school with about 40 students in Edina, I had no intentions of letting anyone know my sexuality. I could feel the thick layer of ignorance. My year started off rough. A girl had to actually poke my boob because she didn't believe that I was a girl. I wanted to crawl into a hole and die my first month or so there. Things finally died down and I started to make friends. I'd talk to a few of them on the phone at night.
One not-too-special evening I was talking to a girl from school. We got on the topic of boyfriends. Uh oh˜I can't even fake having a boyfriend or even having an atraction for them. I don't know how. I felt that it would be okay to tell her my sexuality, so I did, and I made her promise not to tell anyone else, and she promised not to tell a soul.
Life went on for the next few weeks until the dreaded day came when I found out that she outed me to the whole school. I was mortified. I became so depressed. I didn't want everyone to know because I knew of their ignorance and I didn't want to get judged by it. In a sense that moment was the worst moment of my life, but it was also my best. Luckily everyone at Sobirety High at least seemed accepting of my sexuality.
I must admit that being a dyke at Sobriety High is by far easier than being a fag. Many of the students' opinion, at least all of the boys', are as follows: Lesbians are the most beautiful thing in the world. I mean hell, it's two women. But two men is disgusting and wrong, and fags just shouldn't exist. I fear the day that a gay boy enters Sobriety High. I've heard more than one boy say, "If I ever met a fag, I'd beat the shit out of him." Hearing things like that, knowing that people think like that˜especially at my school˜terrifies me.
I don't even wonder if my fellow students would actually beat up a gay person for being gay. I just wonder how they could have thoughts like that in their heads and be able to look me in the eye every day?
I'm the only out gay person at that school, so I feel as though it is my duty to try and educate those that are too ignorant to see that we are all equal people. But one cannot educate those who do not want to be educated, and most of the homophobic people in my school are too damn stubborn to want to be educated.
Dating in school: one of the most difficult tasks to accomplish. I dated a girl in school once. It lasted a long time, surprisingly enough, but the baggage that came with it was what ruined it, I think. You see, Sorbirety High is a small school. When you date someone in school, so does the school. They want to know everything that's going on in your relationship, especially if it's two girls.
The boys are always saying, "Hey, will you two make out for us?" or "Can we watch you guys have sex sometime?"
I don't regret staying at that school. It's been a learning experience and I hope that I'll get stronger as a person by going through the things that I've gone through at that school. The teachers are great there˜that's one big reason I stay˜and the class sizes are small.
It may sound like a bad school, but it's really not. There's just some things that could improve. I have met some of the greatest friends there, I've fallen in love there, I dated the greatest girl that I never would've met if I didn't attend high school there, and I've been taught by the best teachers I've ever met. When I graduate from there, I hope that I can leave something behind: the gift of teaching my peers that there isn't anything wrong with being a homosexual. I hope when the next little butch dyke walks through those doors that she doesn't have to go through what I've had to go through.
Source Brenda Lana Smith R.af D. Hard copy courtesy of GIRES <BernardGi@aol.com> The Guardian Monday September 30 2002 BLS' OCR'd text "2|Officehours..." [13] UK:A new ruling will have far-reaching implications for transsexuals at: work, explains Kate Hilpern Top Change of attitude Consider your reaction to the following scenario. A male colleague pulls you aside in a tea break and tells you that from next month, he expects to be treated as a woman. He will undergo medical procedure, start wearing dresses and make-up and change his name. This is a situation you could find yourself in as more transsexual people than ever before are coming forward in the workplace. Although there are no definitive figures, the Department for Education and Employment estimates that more than 5,000 people have undergone or are undergoing gender reassignment. But this number is set to rise following a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) last July, says Dianah Worman, equal opportunities adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. "The ruling found the [British] government had violated the privacy of a transsexual person, Christine Goodwin, by not letting her change the gender on her birth certificate. As a result, the government has to change the law to allow other transsexual people to alter their birth certificates to show their preferred gender." This is a major breakthrough for people who have what is, after all, a recognised medical condition in which they experience a deep conflict between their physical sex and their mental gender. Indeed, before this ruling, some felt it futile even to bother going through surgery to switch to their mental gender. "I've always felt that unless I'd be legally recognised as male, there is no point in altering my body to live in the outside world as a man," says Chris Dibben, a 35-year-old office administrator. "That's been very sad for me. I have felt that I'm quite literally living a lie. But since this landmark case, it look as if this problem will be overcome." Another reason that more transsexuals are standing up and being counted in the workplace is that the ECHR ruling will increase employers' support for them. Gary Bowker, employment lawyer for HR consultancy William Mercer, explains: "Transsexuals are already protected in law by the sex discrimination regulations. But many employers are unaware of this. Now that transsexuals are getting far greater - and more publicised - rights, employers will be forced to wake up to the issue." Christine Timbrell is chairwoman of the charity Gender Trust, which educates employers about transsexualism at work. She has already witnessed a rise in queries about how to develop management guidelines around treatment of transsexual people. Within HR circles, there is even talk of creating specific legislation so that employers know exactly what is expected of them. It's not only the gender switch itself - known as being 'in transition' - that employers need to start thinking about how to handle," she says. "The recent rulings will also, for the first time, allow transsexual people to protect their privacy. "At the moment, if I take a new job, I have to disclose my original gender on a number of issues including pension schemes and insurance for a company car. But in the future, when birth certificates can be changed, employers won't have the right to ask if someone once had a different gender." Companies need to act fast because discrimination is rife. Only half of transsexuals are allowed to use toilets appropriate to their new gender and more than a third experience harassment during transition,' says a recent report, Employment Discrimination and Transsexual People, by the Gender Identity Research and Education Society. A significant number are subjected to verbal and physical abuse during and after transition, and some are encouraged or asked to resign. "Discrimination in the workplace against transsexual people is where discrimination against black, Asian and disabled people was in the past:' says Dr Stephen Whittle, author of the report. Sarah Bloom, 48, knows this all too well. "Wen I was 44, I decided I couldn't be physically male any longer and told family, friends and work that I'd be living full time as a woman, which would ultimately include the operation," she says. "The prejudice at work was immediate everything from overt threats that I would lose my job if I went ahead, to more covert prejudice such as endless disciplinaries around my behaviour. I hadn't had any disciplinaries in all my previous 22 years at the company. Many colleagues refused to call me my new name or said it dripping with sarcasm. I realise it's difficult suddenly to call someone something different. In the end, I felt I had no choice but to leave." Andrea Brown, a 48-year-old civil servant who transitioned in summer 1999, suffered similar experiences. "I was given the cold-shoulder by many colleagues, particularly the women, who said that if I used the female toilets, they'd walk out in protest. Meanwhile, my bosses made overt attempts to humiliate me - including a decision that all my male colleagues should dress up as women one day for charity. I almost had a nervous breakdown through lack of self-confidence and lack of concentration and had to take quite a bit of time off work. I'm still recovering, although thankfully I've managed to get transferred to a new office with supportive colleagues and management." Transphobia, she believes, comes from ignorance of the fact that transsexualism is a recognised medical condition. "People associate transsexuality with sexual perversion just as they used to associate homosexuality with paedophilia in the past." Michael Acton, a psychologist who works in the area of transsexualism at Gateway Clinics in Hove, agrees. "Switching gender is not within our 'life script' that we're given as developing children and adults. So people don't know how to deal with it - and they can't ignore it because it's so visible and also requires a change in our behaviour, if only from changing from saying 'he' to 'her'. In their home lives, people can avoid the issue of transsexualism if they went to, but at work where you don's get to choose who you spend time with, there is no choice." Transsexualism can also remind us that we tend to treat people differently according to their gender, which isn't something that most people like to think they do, he adds. Not all transsexuals have had bad experiences at work. Robyn Lee, a 55-year-old bursar at a public school, started her transition in 1999. "I had originally intended to take early retirement prior to surgery, but when I told the headmaster my plan to switch gender, he was incredibly supportive and my transition was as trouble-free as it could possibly have been," she says. A timetable was drawn up to inform staff through to governors, in full consultation with her, and her bosses helped to educate colleagues by explaining exactly what was happening. Practicalities were also. addressed promptly. Indeed, name badges, lockers . work clothing all need to be changed, as well as the issue of toilet facilities. "I received rounds of applause, good luck cards before my transition and on my first day of wearing a dress at the school, I couldn't have more supported," says Lee. Other employers are just as progressive, such as the banks HSBC Abbey National, the avionics Group BAE Systems, the Department Health and retailer Marks & Spencer. Mark Watson is employment policy developer at Marks & Spencer says: "When I started here a couple of years ago, I got a call from a personal manager in the store saying he'd just been approached by employee who wanted to transition at work. He didn't know what to do. That's how it came about that one of my first projects in my new job was come up with some management guidelines. These have been used several times as there nave been quite a few more cases since." Some co-workers have displayed negative responses, he admits. But education about the condition, as well as guidance in how to best handle it, has worked well in persuading staff not only to accept it, but to go out of their way to make a transsexuals' transition at work as pleasant as possible. Watson says that it wind up being a learning curve everyone in the office - one that ultimately enriches them all. Top
LEGISLATIVE ACTION [14] USA: Couple seeks ruling reverse in Ohio TG marriage case Top Date: Wed, 02 Oct 2002 From: transgender_news <transgender_news@lycos.com> and Rica Ashby Fredrickson <rica@netaxs.com> Tribune-Chronicle (Warren, Ohio) October 1, 2002 http://tinyurl.com/1qy7 http://www.tribunechronicle.com/news/story/1012002_new09couple.asp Couple seeks ruling reverse By JUSTIN POST Tribune Chronicle WARREN - The attorney representing a Howland woman and her transsexual male fiance filed a motion Monday asking Trumbull County Probate Judge Thomas Swift to reconsider his Sept. 20 decision to deny the couple a marriage license. Swift, who could not be reached for comment Monday, ruled that Jacob Benjamin Nash, 37, and Erin Angelina Barr, 30, intentionally withheld information on their marriage license application that was filed Aug. 2. The ruling focused on a Massachusetts divorce certificate the couple presented at a September hearing indicating that Nash had previously been married under the name Pamela Ann Nash-Michalak. That contradicted the couple's Trumbull County marriage license application and sworn statements that neither Barr nor Nash had previously been married. But the couple's Akron attorney, Deborah A. Smith contends that Swift denied issuance of the marriage license Sept. 20 ''based on material mistakes of fact.'' She said that Nash forgot to include the fact that he was married on the original application, but that the mistake was caught before the matter went to court. ''There was a question on the application (that asked whether Barr or Nash had previously been married) but there were several things going on. (Nash) was talking to the clerk and wasn't really paying attention,'' Smith said Monday during a phone interview. The motion states that prior to that hearing, in chambers, Swift told Smith he expected her to amend the original marriage license filed by Nash and Barr to reflect the previous marriage. Smith asked for the amendment, which Swift granted at the beginning of the hearing, she said. ''The previous marriage of Mr. Nash was volunteered under oath by Mr. Nash,'' Smith wrote in the motion. ''Therefore, the court had full and complete information as to the matters and facts required to be disclosed for a marriage license prior to its deliberations. ''These errors constitute material mistakes of fact warranting reconsideration and relief from the court's September 20, 2002 order,'' the document states. The couple's ''explanation that they forgot the previous marriage and divorce when they completed the original application lacks credibility,'' Swift wrote in his Sept. 20 ruling. ''The Court further finds that the Applicants' omission of said fact was intentional and made with the purpose of misleading this Court,'' the ruling states. Copyright © 2002 Tribune Chronicle Top
[15]USA: California Governor Vetoes Pro-Homosexual Foster Care Bill Top By Daniel Guido CNSNews.com Evening Editor October 02, 2002 www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\200210\CUL20021002 c.html (CNSNews.com) - Conservative family groups are celebrating what one calls "a major victory on behalf of children" - the veto of a California bill that would have injected pro-homosexual policies into the state's foster care system. Calif. Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, quietly vetoed a bill (AB 2651) that would have "encouraged" all foster parents to attend "sensitivity training," to better help them deal with the sexual preferences of the children in their care. Foster parents would have been required to accept and support the homosexuality, bisexuality, or transsexuality of children coming into their homes. The bill also encouraged state and county agencies to recruit homosexual couples to adopt children. "We are pleased that Gov. Davis allowed the interests of California's foster care children to prevail over a radical gay agenda," said Peter Brandt of Focus on the Family, one of the groups that rallied opposition to the bill. "We hope the governor will remember this outcry the next time California's legislators try to force intolerant views upon those who do not believe that homosexuality is normal and healthy," Brandt added. In the wake of strong opposition from concerned citizens, Davis quietly vetoed the bill 38 days after it landed on his desk August 23. Quietly and without fanfare, the governor vetoed AB 2651 on Monday, the constitutional deadline to sign or veto bills passed by the state legislature. The bill had been supported by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups and was vigorously opposed by Campaign for California Families (CCF) and other pro-family organizations. "This is a tremendous victory for children and families," said Randy Thomasson, executive director of CCF, a statewide nonprofit, nonpartisan family issues leadership organization. "Despite Davis' terrible record of undermining marriage and family, he apparently decided that homosexual and transsexual foster care was too hot to handle in the midst of a tight race for governor." On September 1, gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon announced his opposition to AB 2651, stating, "I oppose legislation imposing sexual orientation training guidelines for foster parents." "We're glad that Governor Davis used his veto pen to put this bill six feet under," said Thomasson. "It's a horrible idea to put transsexuality and homosexuality into the minds of children, especially foster children who have already suffered abuse and neglect. Shame on the 65 Democrat legislators who voted for this bad bill. This dangerous idea needs to go away and never come back." CCF fought against AB 2651 through a statewide campaign of news conferences, radio spots and committee testimony. Numerous pro-family organizations opposed the bill and multiple thousands of Californians deluged the state capitol with phone calls urging Davis' veto. AB 2651 had generated heated debates on the assembly floor, passing both houses of the legislature with only the votes of Democrats. "AB 2651 was a bold-faced attack on religious freedom," said Verne Teyler, executive director of Hosanna Homes, a private foster care agency, who spoke at CCF's eight news conferences. "This bill was unnecessary since foster youth who don't like the values of their foster parents can already request to be placed elsewhere." "The transsexual foster care bill was one of the most controversial issues of the year," said Thomasson. "AB 2651 was intolerant of good-hearted foster parents. It would have harmed the minds and bodies of vulnerable foster children. The system doesn't have enough foster parents. We're glad Gray Davis sensed the outrage from ordinary people and departed from his usual practice of signing every gay agenda bill that lands on his desk." TopLEGAL ISSUES
[16a] UK: Transsexual sues police force over 'job bias'
Source--Brenda Lana Smith R.af D.
Yorkshire Today
http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticleMore.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=211211&Page=2&ReturnUrl=NewsFrontMore.aspx
Wednesday, October 09, 2002
Transsexual sues police force over 'job bias'
A transsexual is suing a Yorkshire police force for sex discrimination after it refused to recruit her as a constable. The woman, who had sex change surgery in 1996 and now has no outward male characteristics, completed a police assessment course but her application to join West Yorkshire Police was rejected in 1998. She was told that the force operated a blanket ban on transsexuals because they posed difficulties when asked to carry out intimate body searches, and therefore could never be fully operational. Laura Cox QC, who is representing the woman at the Court of Appeal, told Lords Justices Kennedy, Buxton and Keene they had to decide whether her client should be recognised as a woman. The woman took her case to an employment tribunal which, in 1999, upheld the complaint of discrimination, ruling that if she was accepted as a woman "nobody would be any the wiser". Later the same year an employment appeal tribunal said it was not discrimination if an employee or potential recruit may be called on to carry out body searches. It went back to an employment tribunal, which again found there was discrimination because British law was not consistent with European directives on equal treatment, and the woman was entitled to some compensation. This was again overturned by an EAT and the case was eventually sent to the Court of Appeal. West Yorkshire Police said there would be no obstacle to her recruitment but for the fact that legally she is male. Under British law, gender is assigned at birth and cannot be altered. Miss Cox said West Yorkshire Police were acting unlawfully in maintaining a legal test of sex that did not take account of current reality. She said several police forces, including North Yorkshire and Essex, had serving transsexual police officers. 09 October 2002 © 2002 Johnston Press New Media.
[16b] UK: Sex-change woman sues police Top BBC NEWS | England | Sex-change woman sues po... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_news/england/2310583.stm Tuesday, 8 October, 2002, 15:52 GMT 16:52 UK Sex-change woman sues police Police say the woman is legally a male A transsexual is suing West Yorkshire Police after it refused to recruit her as a constable. The woman, whose indentity is being protected, underwent sex change surgery in 1996. She successfully completed a police assessment course. But her application to join the West Yorkshire force was rejected in 1998. Blanket ban She was told by the force that it operated a blanket ban on transsexuals because they posed difficulties when asked to carry out intimate body searches. Laura Cox QC, who represents the woman at the Court of Appeal, said the question the judges had to decide was whether her client should be recognised as a woman. "Is the appellant, who presents herself to the world and lives as a woman and has no male characteristics, entitled to be recognised as a woman in her quest to serve as a police officer? "Or is the chief constable able to regard her as male?" she asked. Serving officers The court was told that West Yorkshire Police consider there would be no obstacle to her recruitment but for the fact that legally she is male. Under British law, gender is assigned at birth and cannot be altered. Miss Cox told the judges the UK and Ireland are the only EU countries where this is the case. She said several police forces have no objection to recruiting transsexuals. In Essex and North Yorkshire there are serving transsexual police officers. The case continues. -- See also: 12 Jul 02 | Archive Transsexual Rights http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/archive/2124905.stm Top
[17] US - Public hearing set for Nov. 18 on Lopez misconductcharges.
Source--Brenda Lana Smith via Claire Ashton to TNUKdigest]
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 13:24:20 +0100
From: Claire Ashton <claire@c-ashton.fsnet.co.uk>
Public hearing set for Nov. 18 on Lopez misconductcharges... [The Boston Herald]
From: Brenda Lana Smith R.af D. Public hearing set for Nov. 18 on Lopez misco... http://www2.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/lope09192002.htm Public hearing set for Nov. 18 on Lopez misconduct charges by David Weber Thursday, September 19, 2002 The public hearing for the judicial misconduct charges against Superior Court Judge Maria I. Lopez has been scheduled for Nov. 18 at the Edward W. Brooke Courthouse on New Chardon Street. The Commission on Judicial Conduct has charged that Lopez developed a bias against the prosecution in the notorious case of Charles ``Ebony'' Horton, a then-21-year-old transsexual man who pleaded guilty to kidnapping and attempting to rape an 11-year-old Dorchester boy. On separate occasions, Lopez berated Suffolk County prosecutors David Deakin and Leora Joseph for portraying Horton's crimes as more serious than Lopez believed them to be. Lopez eventually imposed a sentence involving probation, but no jail time, for Horton at a hearing on Sept. 6, 2000. The Supreme Judicial Court appointed former judge E. George Daher, retired chief justice of the Housing Court, to preside over the hearing, which essentially will be conducted like a civil trial, with both sides having the opportunity to call witnesses and present evidence. At the hearing's conclusion, Daher may recommend that the SJC impose a sanction against Lopez. The SJC may accept or disregard Daher's recommendation. Lopez's lawyer, Richard Egbert, who defended Providence Mayor Vincent ``Buddy'' Cianci against corruption charges this summer, could not be reached for comment. Attorney Paul Ware of Goodwin Procter is prosecuting the case for the Commission on Judicial Conduct.[18] MALTA: TS wins right to change name and sex marker on birth certificate
Top Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2002 From: Petra Henderson [mailto:petrahenderson@yahoo.com] With thanks to Terisa for posting in Eurotransgender http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eurotransgender/ TS wins right to change name and sex marker on birth certificate The Independent (Malta daily newspaper) October 6, 2002 (Web posted on October 3, 2002) http://tinyurl.com/1t5h http://www.independent.com.mt/daily/newsview.asp?id=12754 Local News (section) Transsexual wins right to change her name officially (by) Michael Carabott A transsexual has won the right to be officially recognised as a woman on her birth certificate. Yana Camilleri, formerly known as George, filed a case against the director of the Public Registry and the Attorney General, claiming that having her sex officially listed as male and her name as George led to her suffering degrading, embarrassing and inhumane treatment. She also said Maltese law did not provide for the needs of transsexuals. Yana underwent sex change surgery and made a request for the name on her birth certificate to be changed to Yana and her sex to female. The request was refused, so she filed a constitutional court case asking the court to order changes to her birth certificate. Ms Camilleri said a refusal to do this would amount to inhumane and degrading treatment which was in violation of the constitution and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights She claimed that being listed as George created emotional and other problems in her life. The European Convention states: "The notion of inhumanetreatment covers such treatment that causes mental or physical suffering which in the particular situation is unjustifiable." Mr Justice Alberto Magri said, in his opinion, the complainant was genuine and she had the operation because of Gender Identity Disorder and not for frivolous or lucrative reasons. In addition, the court said Yana could not have the operation reversed and become a man again. A gynaecologist testified that the surgery was irreversible and she was regarded as "phenotypically female". The court ruled in Ms Camilleri's favour, saying that the European Convention had been violated because the complainant's private life was being violated and Maltese law did not provide for the needs of transsexuals. The court also ordered the director of the Public Registry to alter her birth certificate by replacing the name George with Yana. Mr Justice Magri also ordered for Ms Camilleri's sex to be changed to female on the document. ©2002 Concept and Design by Standard Publications Top
[19]USA: Supreme Court Won't Meddle In Transsexual Estate Dispute
Supreme Court Won't Meddle In Transsexual Est...
http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/021007/1137000518_1.html
Dow Jones Business News Supreme Court Won't Meddle In Transsexual Estate Dispute Monday October 7, 11:37 am ET WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. Supreme Court Monday declined to address this unusual question: What is the legal sex of a postoperative transsexual? The question arose after the Kansas Supreme Court in March ruled in an estate dispute that J'Noel Gardiner's marriage was invalid. The state court said J'Noel, formerly Jay Noel, was male despite having completed a sex change and received a Wisconsin birth certificate reflecting the male-to-female transformation. J'Noel, 44, has been trying to collect a share of inheritance of the late Marshall Gardiner, whom she married in 1998 eleven months before he died at 86. But Marshall's son, Joseph Gardiner III, contested J'Noel's inheritance claim and instead wants all of the $2.5 million inheritance for himself. J'Noel's argument rests on whether the state of Kansas must recognize the Wisconsin birth certificate reflecting the sex change. The Kansas high court ruled the state does not recognize the birth certificate or same-sex marriages in denying J'Noel half of the inheritance. The case is Gardiner v. Gardiner, No. 01-1853. -By Mark H. Anderson, Dow Jones Newswires, 202 862-9230; mark.anderson@dowjones.com © 2002 Dow Jones. All rights reserved. Top
BOOKS ETC...[20] Book Review--Hidden In Plain Sight
Author Leslie Townsend--Reviewed by Andrea Jameshttp://www.tsroadmap.com/early/leslie.html
EDITOR'S NOTE--Thanks to Lynn Conway for bringing this review to my attention.
Transitioning early in life: Leslie's advice
In August 2002, I received the following note from Leslie Townsend, a beautiful model and comedian who lived stealth most of her adult life:
I wanted to tell you about a book I am having published on iuniverse.com called 'Hidden In Plain Sight'. It is autobiographical and tells my story of transitioning at twenty-three and how I lived closeted for the last eighteen years. My experience in the sex industry and my attempts to break free from that part of my past is an undercurrent of my book. Also how living closeted has its' own price to pay. I would love to send you a copy and if you see merit in my story I hope you will consider recommending on your website. Sincerely, Leslie Townsend
I do indeed recommend it, especially for younger readers considering the option of stealth. Below is my review.
Hidden In Plain Sight By Leslie Townsend
Blending into the woodwork: an unvarnished account
I would like to recommend a new book, especially to my younger readers and those who may be contemplating or fantasizing about a life of deep stealth. It's called "Hidden in Plain Sight" by Leslie Townsend. Leslie represents the least-represented public image of our community: the deep stealth, completely assimilated transsexual. There are people within our community who think this is rare or doesn't even exist, but I have received enough correspondence through my website and met enough women in person to know that there are a great many young women living this life. Their invisibility and self-imposed silence leaves them vastly undercounted.
Leslie's story echoes many similar tales I have heard from deep stealth women of extraordinary beauty. The only other book I'm aware of that represents a similar experience is Caroline Cossey's "My Story." While it is possible to live as a professional model after transition for some of us, there is often a big price to pay when we hide our past.
Leslie learned as a child about Renee Richards, and later saw a Donahue episode featuring transsexuals. After her father discovered some informational materials she had sent for, Leslie had a series of humiliating and disappointing encounters with "helping professionals," including the notorious John Money of Johns Hopkins University.
Leslie left home at 19 to begin her transition in Key West. Her journey then took her all over the country as she sought to distance herself from her past. She tells of working as a showgirl at female illusionist clubs, as a sex worker, as a professional model, and as an aspiring actress and stand-up comic.
She is refreshingly frank about difficulties with family acceptance, relationships with men (including an 18-month marriage), as well as the meaningful friendships throughout her life. The book was brought out through a self-publishing imprint, so you'll need to overlook the somewhat unedited prose and scattered errors. Those sorts of minor issues do not take away from the power of Leslie's message, however.
"Hidden in Plain Sight" has a cathartic feel to it-- it's a coming-out story, a confessional. The book is written at a time when Leslie had reached a low point caused by years of low self-esteem and lack of self-acceptance about being transsexual. Sadly, these are frequent problems for those living deep stealth. From these depths, Leslie has an important revelation:
"The energy it took to hide my past always weakened any attempts to become a whole person with the strength and conviction to live free of fear."
I like to think that Leslie's book is the first in a series. This first part ends with the feeling that she's about to start a whole new chapter in her life. I for one am very excited to see where she goes as a woman who is out, proud, and whole. Her decision to be so candid about her difficulties with deep stealth and self-esteem makes this book a real eye-opener for those who wish to live a similar life.
"Hidden in Plain Sight" includes 32 lovely photos, including pictures from her childhood and various modeling assignments. Leslie possesses extraordinary physical beauty and has led a colorful life, but this goes beyond being a simple tell-all book or a mere cautionary tale. She presents the inspirational story of the survivor in all of us, of the self-esteem we all possess once we get over the shame of one of the most important parts of who we are. In telling this story, Leslie reveals that her extraordinary beauty is much more than skin deep.
Purchasing information
Available online at amazon.com or through the publisher, iuniverse.com
Those who can't or won't use credit cards or web-based transactions can send $14 in cash (bills only, please) or a check or money orderfor $13.95 payable to Leslie Townsend at:
Leslie Townsend 8581 Santa Monica Blvd. #198 West Hollywood, CA. 90069She writes, "I believe that the book comes in a padded envelope probably with a return address of either amazon or iuniverse. If this is not an option for your younger readers, they can send a money order to my PO Box and I will send a copy in a plain envelope with no return address. The cost of the book is $11.95 and they should add $2.00 for the mailing."
Those of you who live with friends or family and are concerned about receiving mail at home should contact a nearby Mail Boxes Etc. They will accept certain kinds of packages (US Postal mail, FedEx and UPS for sure) for a one-time fee, but they will need to call to notify you when it arrives. If you're concerned about their leaving a message at home, perhaps you have a friend with a pager or cell phone who can take the call, or perhaps you can make arrangements for them to hold the package without calling, and you can call them. Some younger people have had packages sent to their hair removal practitioner, doctor, or therapist.
Leslie adds: "I am also willing to write to anyone interested in speaking to me, so you may give out my email address at your discretion.
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[21a]Books: The Gender Blender Author: Jeffrey Eugenides-- Reviewed by By David Gates, NEWSWEEK Top http://www.msnbc.com/news/807748.asp Thanks to Brenda Lana Smith R.af D. RETRIEVED: Monday, October 07, 2002 Books: The Gender Blender 'Virgin' author Jeffrey Eugenides's unisexy saga By David Gates NEWSWEEK Sept. 23 issue &emdash; Jeffrey Eugenides must have waited years to exploit a certain sniffy and sinister passage from T. S. Eliot: "Mr. Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant/Unshaven, with a pocketful of currants ... Asked me in demotic French/To luncheon at the Cannon Street Hotel ..." His ingenious, entertaining and oddly moving first novel, "The Virgin Suicides" (1993), about 1970s teenagers in the Detroit suburbs, didn't give him much of an opening. BUT IN "MIDDLESEX," his ingenious, entertaining and&emdash;I hate to say it&emdash;ultimately not-so-moving second novel, he finally plays his metafictional ace. This three-generation saga moves from Smyrna during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire to (again) the Detroit suburbs to present-day Germany. "Smyrna endures today," his narrator, Cal Stephanides, tells us, "in a few rebetika songs and a stanza from The Waste Land." He quotes it, then continues: "Everything you need to know about Smyrna is contained in that. The merchant is rich, and so was Smyrna. His proposal was seductive, and so was Smyrna ..." So crafty. No hint that anyone's speaking to us but this fictive Greek-American expatriate, who happens to be, like "The Waste Land's" Tiresias, a hermaphrodite. "Middlesex" does as well as any book I know at melding self-conscious artifice and real-world history; ambitious novelists can dodge neither the weight of the past nor the intrusive presence of literary convention. Eugenides lets us know he knows what we know about the fictiveness of fiction; he even evokes "Tristram Shan-dy's" digressive account of the narrator's own conception. Yet he also gives us robustly Dickensian set pieces: the Greeks and Turks at war, the Ford assembly line, the 1967 Detroit race riots. Still, novels need people. And while you believe in most of these folks (especially the grandparents, Lefty and Desdemona), Cal eludes us. He/she is more a construct than a character, apparently existing to make a point about gender&emdash;e.g., to the artist it's irrelevant&emdash;and to connect the present day to such mythic figures as Tiresias and the Delphic oracle. Will he/she get the girl/boy? If you end up giving a Smyrna fig, you're a better man/woman than I am. Other books by Jeffrey Eugenides http://search.barnesandnoble.com/BookSearch/results.asp?sourceid=00382844825 997272295&bfdate=10-07-2002+04:07:02&author_last=Eugenides&author_first=Jeff rey © 2002 Newsweek, Inc. Top
[21b]Book Review-- The Gender Blender-- Author, Jeffrey Eugenides Reviewed in Guardian Unlimited Books Top Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Gender bl... http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,804112,00.html RETRIEVED: Monday, October 07, 2002 Guardian Review Gender blender It took Jeffrey Eugenides 10 years to follow his stunning debut, The Virgin Suicides. Middlesex is worth the wait, says Mark Lawson Saturday October 5, 2002 The Guardian "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides 525pp, Bloomsbury, £16.99 Gore Vidal once joked that the advantage of bisexuality was that it doubled your chances of a date on a Saturday night. By extension, hermaphrodites could be said to have the third option of a good night in on their own. But in this epic novel narrated by an American born with twin-set genitals, Jeffrey Eugenides silences such cheap jokes with a rich comedy of his own. Because the condition the writer calls "middlesex" is caused by a recessive gene (one usually negated by the other parent's DNA), it tends to appear only once in several generations. The same was beginning to seem regrettably true of books by Eugenides. This second novel follows almost a decade after his astonishing debut, The Virgin Suicides, in which five daughters from a very correct American family take their own lives in succession. Intriguingly, the only equally praised book-rookie of the same period - Donna Tartt, with The Secret History - has also waited until late this year to get to second base. In American letters, the theme of this fall is the attempt to fulfil high promise. Eugenides, the first to be tested, has. This novel repeats the stand-out achievements of The Virgin Suicides: an ability to describe the horrible in a comic voice, an unusual form of narration and an eye for bizarre detail. Where The Virgin Suicides reflected on connections between sex and death, its successor considers the links between sex, life and inheritance. The basic architecture of Middlesex - an epic about an immigrant American family - is familiar but here gains great freshness by following the progress of a single gene through the Stephanides clan, who flee to America in 1922 after their village is incinerated in the war between Greece and Turkey. The trick of the novel is that the gene which carries the possibility of androgyny becomes, for the reader, like a revolver brandished in the first act of a play. During the long first half of family history before we reach the eventual hermaphrodite - Calliope Stephanides, born apparently female in 1960 in Detroit, later living in Berlin as a man called Cal - we're watching out nervously for that weapon of inheritance to go off as it passes between grandparents and parents. The cleverness of this DNA-trail is that moments which might otherwise be quaint or conventional - courtship, weddings, sex, ancient aunts wondering if the baby will be a "boy or a girl" - become subject to high tension. This is especially true of the sex because Calliope/Cal's grandparents were secretly brother and sister, the very wedding present Alpha-5-Reductase needs, on this occasion, to start its family. The courtship of the grand-daughter/grandson's forebears on the boat to New York is typical of the author's imaginative narrative. The siblings pretend to be strangers until they so convince both the other immigrants and themselves that they are just-met lovers that the captain of the ship presides over their consanguineous marriage. Similarly, in the book's second half, two of the most frequently told stories in literature - a girl at high school falling in love, a young professional man preparing for a date - pulse with nerves and ambiguity because of what the character is wearing to the dance. Throughout Middlesex, genetics rewrites the family epic, which is thematically neat, as DNA is itself an insertion or deletion key, a ghost-writer. Finding new ways of telling the story, though, is clearly central to Eugenides' project as a novelist. The Virgin Suicides was a rare example of a book told by a group narrator: its "we" and "our" being the men of the town, who once lusted after the self-destructive Lisbon sisters. Now, in Middlesex, employing an "I" which is both male and female, Eugenides continues to be the Joyce of the personal pronoun. The narrative tone - best characterised as a sardonic empathy - has possible progenitors in Muriel Spark and John Irving, but bears the individual imprint of Greek America. We never forget that the classical name for the god of love lies inside the medical term for what Calliope/Cal is. An aunt who prefers female partners is coyly described within the family as "one of those women they named the island after". Even the failed 1988 presidential bid of Michael Dukakis - whom Greeks in America dreamed of as their Kennedy - becomes a significant image in the family history. Strangely, in a novel with such a long gestation, occasional phrases seem hasty. You don't expect a writer of this originality to be comparing tightly confined soldiers with "sardines". But, as the fish fried elsewhere are so fresh, such slips can be forgiven. The Virgin Suicides was deliberately mysterious and, in current literary practice, un-American: it avoided any last-chapter psycho-chat in which the reader was told precisely why the family suffered its procession of suicide funerals and how the readers might avoid the problem in their own lives. Middlesex, by contrast, is almost editorial in the foregrounding of its theme. Calliope/Cal envies the ancestors who infected her for living in "a time before genetics, before everyone was in the habit of saying about everything, 'It's in the genes!' A time before our present freedom and so much freer!" The point is that, while his split-narrator really is a victim of her DNA, science (or, rather, our civilian interpretation of it) is at risk of making us all prisoners of inheritance. The favourite schoolboy joke about a hermaphrodite is that it's someone who has come into their own. With these two bitter, complex comedies divided by a decade, Jeffrey Eugenides, in a literary sense, certainly has. © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002 Top
HEALTH AND SCIENCE
[22] USA: WASHINGTON - W.W.J.D. at the F.D.A.?
[via a Christian fe minist list] and Rica Ashby Fredrickson <rica@netaxs.com>
Tribulation Worketh Patience
October 9, 2002
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON - W.W.J.D. at the F.D.A.?
We may soon find out, if W. David Hager becomes chairman of the powerful Food and Drug Administration panel on women's health policy. His résumé seems more impressive for theology than gynecology. "Jesus stood up for women at a time when women were second-class citizens," Dr. Hager says. "I often say, if you are liberated, a woman's libber, you can thank Jesus for that." A professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Kentucky, he has a considerable body of work about Jesus' role in healing women, and last summer he helped the Christian Medical Association with a "citizens' petition" calling on the F.D.A. to reverse its approval of RU-486, the "abortion pill," claiming it puts women at risk. (RU-486 or RU-4Jesus?) Karen Tumulty reports in Time that the F.D.A. senior associate commissioner, Linda Arey Skladany, a former drug-industry lobbyist with Bush family ties, has rejected doctors proposed by F.D.A. staffers and is pushing Dr. Hager. The policy panel, which helped get RU-486 approved, will lead the study on the hot issue of hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women. As Time notes: "Some conservatives are trying to use doubts about such therapy to discredit the use of birth control pills, which contain similar compounds." Dr. Hager wrote "As Jesus Cared for Women," blending biblical accounts of Christ healing women with case studies from his own practice. "Jesus still longs to bring wholeness to women today," the jacket says. He writes about a young patient named Sparkle who gets a job at a strip joint in Kentucky and becomes promiscuous and gets several sexually transmitted diseases. Sparkle reminds him of "a woman Jesus met who was generally known in her town as a sinner, but whom Jesus saw through eyes of love." With his wife, Linda, he wrote "Stress and the Woman's Body," which puts "an emphasis on the restorative power of Jesus Christ in one's life" and recommends Scripture readings to treat headaches (Matthew 13:44-46); eating disorders (Corinthians II, 10:2-5) and premenstrual syndrome (Romans 5:1-11, "Tribulation worketh patience.") To exorcise affairs, the Hagers suggest a spiritual exercise: "Picture Jesus coming into the room. He walks over to you and folds you gently into his arms. He tousles your hair and kisses you gently on the cheek. . . . Let this love begin to heal you from the inside out." Dr. Hager is also an editor of "The Reproduction Revolution: A Christian Appraisal of Sexuality, Reproductive Technologies, and the Family." One of the pieces, "Using the Birth Control Pill is Ethically Unacceptable," says scientific data show that the pill causes abortions. Dr. Hager said he disagreed with that piece. He says he prefers not to prescribe contraceptives to single women, but will if they insist and reject his advice to abstain. He says he does not do abortions, will not prescribe RU-486 and will not insert IUD's. "I am pro-life," he says. "I believe sex outside of marriage is a sin. But I am not against medication. The fact that I'm a person of faith does not deter me from also being a person of science." But unlike C. Everett Koop, who did not let his evangelical beliefs influence his work as surgeon general, Dr. Hager has written that it is "dangerous" to compartmentalize life into "categories of Christian truth and secular truth." Once again, the Bush administration seems to be sowing skepticism about science for the sake of politics. It has smothered the promise of stem cell research to extend and improve life with the right wing's reverence for "life." A Washington Post article last month reported that the Bush crowd was restructuring scientific advisory committees on patients' rights and public health, "eliminating some committees that were