Vitale Letter #242, November 11, 2002 Anne Vitale PhD, Editor
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- Notes on Gender Transition
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- LEAD STORY -- Media Follow up on beating death of Gwen Araujo
Shadows of art and death. With teen's strangling, play about Laramie hate crime hits home Play About Gay Murder Victim Opens in San Francisco Suburb Shaken by Death of Cross-Dresser Teen's slaying brings message of `The Laramie Project' home to young cast Slain transgender teen honored in Novato Parallel Haunts H.S. Production
- ANNOUNCEMENTS
- [1]CYBERSPACE: Dr. Rebecca Auge announces new page to her web site.
- [2] USA: California--Support/Social/Discussion group for transgender, transexual, genderqueer,
- intersex & questioning (TGIQ) young folks 20 & younger
- GENERAL INFORMATION
- [3] USA: Georgia --Trans Woman First Member of New Panel
- [4] UK--Sex change nurse speaks about experiences
- [5]USA: San Francisco--Transgender residents still face bias, report says
- [6] INDIA--Boy forced to become eunuch
- [7]ITALY--Man has legal "sex change" to be who he has always been
- [8]MEXICO:Tecate--Mexico's transvestite ban draws gay protest
- [9]UK: Sex-change woman wins police case
- [10] MALAYSIA --Authorities bust transvestite beauty pageant
- 11] UK: TImes Online--Revealing truth just a nip and tuck decision
LEGAL ACTION [12a] UK: A.vs Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police [12b] A v Chief Constable of the West Yorkshire Police [13] USA : Man Found Guilty of Slaying of Transsexual [14] USA: Brandon Tina's mother seeks more money [15]USA Judge sued for jailing TG man over marriage licenses HEALTH AND SCIENCE [16] USA: Estrogen linked to more efficient regulation of a woman's heartbeat [17] UK: Sheep study poses sexuality questions ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT [18] USA: Gender Bender--The divas aren't always in dresses in HGO's avant-garde Ariodante [19] THAILAND : Champ to play role of 'lady boy' COMMENTARY
- Gwen Araujo --A sad, familiar tale
- Rosalyne S. Montgomery
- Gwen Araujo ---All we need to know about gender
Boston Passes Historic Transgender Equal Rights Legislation The National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) RE: "The Human Rights Commission wants to force its ideas of morality on the community of Eugene". By Kelly Stevens
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LEAD STORY-- Media Follow up on beating death of Gwen Araujo
Shadows of art and death With teen's strangling, play about Laramie hate crime hits home Top newsobserver.com : features http://newsobserver.com/features/story/1901365p-1885455c.html Sunday, November 10, 2002 12:00AM EST Shadows of art and death With teen's strangling, play about Laramie hate crime hits home By MICHELLE LOCKE, The Associated Press NEWARK, CALIF.--Sara deMelo stands on her high school stage, bathed by a spotlight's cold glow. She is delivering the monologue of a cyclist who found battered gay college student Matthew Shepard tied to a fence outside Laramie, Wyo. "I-I just thought it was a scarecrow," she says, her voice trembling as she nears the end of the speech. "But when I saw hair, well, I knew it was a human being." Sara's part in "The Laramie Project," the groundbreaking drama based on the Shepard case, is much more than a role. In October, deMelo and her fellow players at Newark Memorial High School were caught in a haunting coalescence of art and life when a teen from their own small suburb was beaten and strangled, allegedly by three men who were angry that the beautiful blonde they knew as Lida was biologically male. "It's like life imitating art imitating life," deMelo says. "It made everything just real." "The Laramie Project" is an account of the reactions in Laramie, Wyo., to the murder of Shepard, a University of Wyoming student. Shepard, who was gay, died Oct. 12, 1998, after he was lured from a bar, kidnapped, tied to a fence and beaten with the butt of a gun. Two men are serving life in prison for the murder. The script comes from more than 200 interviews playwright Moises Kaufman and his Tectonic Theater Company conducted in Laramie. The words are presented verbatim, capturing the raw immediacy of the tragedy. Last spring, when the drama department at Newark Memorial decided to perform the play, "tragedy" wasn't a word easily associated with Newark, a bustling city of about 43,000 on the southeast edge of San Francisco Bay. Still, trouble wasn't unknown here. Drama teacher Barbara Williams proposed doing the play, prompted by an incident a few years ago in which one Newark Memorial student beat up another, who was gay. She took it personally; she had taught both. "I said this town needs it. We have to do this show." In September, a newspaper article announced the coming performance. Within days, anti-gay preacher Fred Phelps, who taunted gays outside Shepard's funeral and thus became a character in "The Laramie Project," sent a fax announcing his followers would protest the play. Some students were afraid; some thought it was "kind of cool," recalls cast member Kate Lyness. None considered switching to a safer topic. "Never," says Williams. Rehearsals began. Then, in early October, a rumor started going around. Eddie Araujo, who went to another Newark high school but was friends with a cast member, was missing. Araujo, who liked to call himself "Gwen" or "Lida," had last been seen at a party in Newark, dressed in a miniskirt. On Oct. 16, police said they had found a body in a shallow grave in the Sierra Nevada foothills, about 150 miles east of Newark. The next day, the news was out. Three men -- one 19, two 22, all of whom attended Newark Memorial -- were in jail, charged with murdering Araujo on Oct. 3. Most of the cast went to Araujo's funeral, listening as the dead teen's family spoke with an unrehearsed poignancy that echoed the uncensored emotion of "The Laramie Project." "The night of the funeral -- I think that's when everything hit me," says deMelo, who saw her gay cousin there. "When this first happened, he was the first person I thought of. I was, you know -- 'That could be him.' And then, when I saw him, I totally broke down." Echoes of art and life "There was nothing I could do. I mean, if there was anything ... I would've done it, but there was nothing." -- "Laramie Project." Like Laramie, the day the Araujo story broke, reporters swooped into Newark. And there are other reminders of the link between the plains city of Laramie and the mini-malled suburb of Newark. "Every day I hear a line from the show," says cast member Joe Magdalena. One came from a family member who wondered aloud whether Araujo had somehow been asking for trouble, partying as a girl. Maybe, he theorized, it was a 50-50 thing. In the play, a Laramie resident talks about a defendant's claim that Shepard made a sexual advance, rationalizing, "You know, maybe it's 50-50." "I pulled out the play and I showed him that line," Magdalena says. "I said, 'This is not one of the good lines of the play.' And he apologized." Characters in "The Laramie Project" frequently struggle to explain the unexplainable. In Newark, student actors at least have a script to go by. "For the people in Laramie, it was more than a play. It was about a dialogue. And now for this community, again it has become a dialogue," says playwright Kaufman. "I think there is something kind of good about a play being able to play that role in a community. Theater has the power to do that." "The Laramie Project" was cited by Time magazine as one of the 10 best plays of 2000. It opened in Denver to critical acclaim and was made into an HBO movie. Kaufman estimates there are 350 productions this year just counting nonprofessional productions. He planned to attend Friday's sold-out opening in Newark. Seeing the play set against a backdrop of another killing is "so devastating," Kaufman says. "You think, 'How many more kids are going to have to die before all of this is over?' " 'What just happened?' "What would he have become? How could he have changed his piece of the world to make it better?" -- Dennis Shepard at the sentencing of one of his son's killers. In the Araujo case, police say the teen was killed after his biological identity was uncovered at a party at the home of one of the defendants. Police say Araujo, a slender 5 feet and 7 inches, was knocked to the ground by his alleged 6-feet-tall attackers, dragged semiconscious to the garage and strangled with a rope. One defendant in the Araujo case has pleaded not guilty. Shepard was gay; Araujo has been referred to as "transgender," which does not mean gay but includes cross-dressers, transvestites, transsexuals and those born with the physical characteristics of both sexes. For the students putting on "The Laramie Project," the last few weeks have been a blur. "I still think that once this is all over, we're going to be like, 'What just happened?"' says Kate Lyness. Against the backdrop of the unfolding legal case, cast members have learned their lines, blocked their moves, practiced costume changes. In an impressive bit of staging, students took $3 landscape timbers and lashed them together to make a buck-and-rail fence that stretches across the auditorium, just below the stage. Mundane yet menacing, the wooden structure looms at the edge of the audience's perspective. It was at a fence like this where Shepard was pistol-whipped with a .357-magnum revolver and tied for 18 hours in near-freezing temperatures, begging for his life. At a recent rehearsal, there were some mesmerizing moments despite businesslike interruptions of, "Further to the LEFT!" and "I can't HEAR you!" Tears came readily. One of deMelo's lines in the play comes from Laramie resident Marge Murray who wonders how "two absolutely human beings cause so much grief for so many people." Is she thinking about Araujo's killers? "Oh, yeah." There's catharsis in her monologue as Aaron Kreifels, the cyclist who found Shepard. "It's like he hadn't really dealt with it. He's almost totally reliving it and going through it again to just cope with it and let the emotions go through him. And that's what I find so great about it is that it's totally raw," she says. "At this point," says deMelo, "there's so many emotions that go through us when we're on stage. It's added more feeling and more passion ... because we have the emotions and we have the feelings." END © Copyright 2002, The News & Observer Publishing Company. Top
Play About Gay Murder Victim Opens in San Francisco Suburb Shaken by Death of Cross-Dresser
TopABCNEWS.com : Play on Gay Victim Opens in Calif.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Entertainment/ap20021109_193.html Play on Gay Victim Opens in Calif. The Associated Press NEWARK, Calif. Nov. 9 &emdash; A play about a murdered gay college student has taken on new significance in a town shaken by the death of a 17-year-old boy who dressed as a girl. "Everything that's gone on has brought a completely different perspective of life in general, I think, to all of us and how we treat each other," said Kate Lyness, one of the student actors in "The Laramie Project" at Newark Memorial High School. Students planned months ago to put on "The Laramie Project," which tells the story of Matthew Shepard, the young gay man who died in October 1998 after he was beaten and tied to a fence outside Laramie, Wyo. Two men are serving life in prison for the killing. The Newark student players ran into controversy in September when anti-gay pastor Fred Phelps, who picketed Shepard's funeral and is one of the characters in the play, sent a fax declaring his followers would picket the play. In October, the student production was back in the national spotlight with the death of Eddie "Gwen" Araujo. Police said Araujo was killed by three men angry that the person they knew as "Lida" was anatomically male. One of the men accused in Araujo's death, Jaron Chase Nabors, 19, has pleaded innocent. The others, 22-year-olds Jose Antonio Merel and Michael William Magidson, appeared briefly in court Friday but did not enter a plea. Their lawyers, who said they need time to go over evidence in the case, got a new hearing date of Dec. 13. Outside the courtroom, Michael P. Thorman, who represents Magidson, said comparisons between Araujo's slaying and the Shepard case are off-base. "Eddie Aruajo unfortunately was killed, but he was not singled out because of his sexual orientation or his gender," Thorman said, declining to elaborate. At a rainy candlelight vigil before the play Friday night, Araujo's mother, Sylvia Guerrero, spoke tearfully of her loss and said she hoped her son's death would bring a new understanding of the importance of tolerance. "He had a lot of pain as he was growing up and in his death he had a lot of pain," she told about 200 people at the vigil. "I only wish I could have been there that night so that I could have protected him because I loved him with all my heart." Guerrero has tried to stay in seclusion since the murder but said she felt moved to speak out in support of tolerance. Playwright Moises Kaufman attended the Friday night opening of the play, which had a packed house of about 300 people. "It was about Laramie, but it was about here," Kaufman said. "It was about now." For students in Newark, "The Laramie Project" has put words to grief. "The play is so close to the reality," said drama teacher Barbara Williams, who produced the play. "It comes out of the heart." END Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. © 2002 ABCNEWS Internet Ventures. Top
Teen's slaying brings message of `The Laramie Project' home to young cast Top Mercury News | 11/08/2002 | Teen's slaying br... http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/4472794.htm Posted on Fri, Nov. 08, 2002 By Dana Hull Mercury News High schools throughout the country are mounting productions of ``The Laramie Project,'' the play based on the brutal 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming college student. But perhaps nowhere is the play's message of tolerance more poignant than at Newark Memorial High School, where it will premiere tonight, barely a month after a transgender teenager from Newark was killed and buried in a shallow grave near Placerville. Eddie ``Gwen'' Araujo's slaying -- and the arrest of three young local men accused of the crime -- has focused nationwide attention on the Newark Memorial production, which is sold out as people from Los Altos to Los Angeles snapped up the $8 tickets. State Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Fremont, bought $500 worth of tickets so low-income students could attend. Moises Kaufman, the playwright, is flying in and will take part in a panel discussion involving the young actors and the audience tonight. ``One of the kids told me that `we are Laramie' and that really moved me,'' said Kaufman, a native of Venezuela and founder of the Tectonic Theater Project in Manhattan. ``When I heard about Araujo, it was eerily like when Matthew was murdered. The irony of it all is both devastating and heartbreaking.'' 400 productions The critically acclaimed play, recently released for amateur productions, explores the impact of Shepard's murder on the people of Laramie, Wyo. The dialogue is taken from extensive interviews with residents of the town. Kaufman said that 400 productions of ``The Laramie Project'' are being staged across the country this year, and most of them are at high schools and colleges. Locally, Gunn High School in Palo Alto and Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland are among the schools staging productions this month. Barbara Williams, one of two drama teachers at Newark Memorial, decided that she wanted to stage ``The Laramie Project'' after she saw it at the Berkeley Repertory Theater last spring. ``As soon as I saw it I knew that we had to do it,'' said Williams, who has taught in the Newark Unified School District since 1965. ``The play is not just about a gay person. It's about having tolerance and compassion for all human beings.'' Newark Memorial's cast was already rehearsing ``The Laramie Project'' when rumors swirled through the courtyards that Araujo, a transgender 17-year-old who had dropped out of the city's schools, had been found dead. Araujo, who was living as a woman and wore women's clothing, was beaten and strangled to death, and the case is being prosecuted as a hate crime. Newark residents are grappling with many of the same questions that once faced the people of Laramie, nearly 1,000 miles away. ``You sort of feel guilty in a way because you don't really deserve all of the attention,'' said senior Samantha Sass, 17. ``But we're living the play.'' ``It's been kind of hard to concentrate,'' said senior Kevin Williams, 17, who portrays Matthew Shepard's father in the production. ``Everyone's feeling the stress.'' Supporting cast Hundreds are expected to show up at the school on each night of the performance for candlelight vigils designed to honor Araujo and support the cast for putting on the play. Rev. Fred Phelps, a fundamentalist preacher from Kansas who picketed Matthew Shepard's funeral, has said that he will go to Newark to protest the play next Friday. His presence will probably draw hundreds of counter-demonstrators, and at least 20 Newark police officers will be on hand to provide security. Through the emotional whirl of recent weeks, Barbara Williams has been the play's director and an anchor for the cast, which has dealt with everything from anti-gay slurs from other students to last-minute lighting problems. Not to mention stage fright. Oscar Wilde famously said, ``Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates life.'' Oct. 25, the day of Araujo's funeral, was an example of art imitating life imitating art. When Phelps picketed Matthew Shepard's funeral, activists from Laramie donned white angel costumes to block his view of the proceedings -- an event vividly portrayed in the play. At Araujo's funeral, student actors wore their own angel costumes and quietly sang ``Amazing Grace'' to a sobbing crowd. At first, the seven Newark actors held hands and stood in a small circle. But the circle eventually swelled to include more than 100 people. ``Going to the funeral really brought the play to life,'' Kevin Williams said. ``When I saw Gwen's family, it really tore me up. After that I was able to make myself cry on stage.'' As the opening curtain approached this week, the cast stayed at school for dress and technical rehearsals until 7 p.m. and often later each night. They were nervous about the big crowds and, like any other cast, concerned about how their work will be received by the audience. ``A lot of adults are coming, but we're really doing the show for the high school,'' said senior Jeff Bryant. ``That's who is on the front lines. I hope this play will make a mark on society.'' Stephanie Baumann, another cast member and one of Araujo's friends, often wept during rehearsals. ``When I'm up there on stage and they're talking about how Matthew Shepard was beaten, it makes me wonder if Eddie had to go through this too,'' she said. ``I'm dedicating my performance to him.'' --- Contact Dana Hull at dhull@sjmercury.com or (510) 790-7311. Top
Slain transgender teen honored in Novato, California Top Marin IJ - Slain transgender teen honored in ... http://www.marinij.com/news/stories/index9002475.html Thursday, November 07, 2002 By Jane Futcher High school students from Novato held a candlelight march last night to remember 17-year-old Eddie Araujo, a transgender youth brutally murdered in Newark on Oct. 3. More than 40 students and supporters walked somberly the roughly six blocks from Tully's on Grant Avenue to the Novato Teen Center, where they talked about how to ensure that such a crime could never happen in Marin. "It struck me really hard because he was my age," said march organizer Sheera Duerigen, a Novato High School senior and president of the school's Gay Straight Alliance. Novato "has the potential to be safe, and that's what we keep working for." Two students drove all the way from Rohnert Park to honor Araujo. "I felt it was really important, said Danielle Silk, a junior at Rancho Cotati High School. "The environment in Sonoma isn't terrible but it could be better." The president of San Marin High School's Gay Straight Alliance, Laura Kopp, said her goal was to raise community awareness of hate crimes and correct misinformation about Araujo's killing. She said she had heard students blaming Gwen for "hitting on" guys at school. "No matter how it happened, it happened and it was wrong, and I do think it could happen in Novato if we don't start education," Kopp said. A number of parents and community members congratulated the teens for their bravery and courage in marching, including a woman wearing a martial arts uniform, or "gi." She told the group that hate crimes stem from bullying and urged Novato to adopt a "zero tolerance" approach to name-calling and harassment. The coordinator of the Novato Teen Center, Orlando Macias, offered the space to the group for a "Zero Tolerance Ball." "This place is for teens. Use your resources the resources you have in Novato," Macias said. "You're the us of tomorrow. You do have support. I love the fact that something like this is going on. You guys are great." END
Parallel Haunts High School Production Top WorldNews: Parallel Haunts H.S. Production http://cgi.wn.com/?action=display&article=16616313&template=worldnews/search .txt&index=recent Thu, 7 Nov 2002 The Associated Press NEWARK, Calif. (AP) &emdash; Sara deMelo stands on her high school stage, bathed by a spotlight's cold glow. She is delivering the monologue of a cyclist who found battered gay college student Matthew Shepard tied to a fence outside Laramie, Wyo. ``I-I just thought it was a scarecrow,'' she says, her voice trembling as she nears the end of the speech. ``But when I saw hair, well, I knew it was a human being.'' Her part in ``The Laramie Project,'' the groundbreaking drama based on the Shepard case, is much more than a role. Earlier this month, deMelo and her fellow players at Newark Memorial High School were caught in a haunting coalescence of art and life when a teen from their own small suburb was beaten and strangled, allegedly by three men who were angry that the beautiful blonde they knew as ``Lida'' was biologically male. ``It's like life imitating art imitating life,'' deMelo says. ``It made everything just real.'' ``The Laramie Project'' is an account of the reactions in Laramie, Wyo., to the murder of Shepard, a University of Wyoming student. Shepard, who was gay, died Oct. 12, 1998, after he was lured from a bar, kidnapped, tied to a fence and beaten with the butt of a gun. Two men are serving life in prison for the murder. The script comes from more than 200 interviews playwright Moises Kaufman and his Tectonic Theater Company conducted in Laramie. The words are presented verbatim, capturing the raw immediacy of the tragedy. &emdash;&emdash;&emdash; ``We've become Waco, we've become Jasper. We're a noun, a definition, a sign.'' &emdash; ``The Laramie Project.'' &emdash;&emdash;&emdash; Last spring, when the drama department at Newark Memorial decided to perform the play, tragedy wasn't a word easily associated with Newark, a bustling city of about 43,000 on the southeast edge of San Francisco Bay. Still, trouble wasn't unknown here. Drama teacher Barbara Williams proposed doing the play, prompted by an incident a few years ago in which one Newark Memorial student beat up another, who was gay. She took it personally; she had taught both. ``I said this town needs it. We have to do this show.'' In September, a newspaper article announced the coming performance. Within days, anti-gay preacher Fred Phelps, who taunted gays outside Shepard's funeral and thus became a character in ``The Laramie Project,'' sent a fax announcing his followers would protest the play. Some students were afraid; some thought it was ``kind of cool,'' recalls cast member Kate Lyness. None considered switching to a safer topic. ``Never,'' says Williams. Rehearsals began. Then, in early October, a rumor started going around. Eddie Araujo, who went to another Newark high school but was friends with a cast member, was missing. Araujo, who liked to call himself ``Gwen'' or ``Lida,'' had last been seen at a party in Newark, dressed in a miniskirt. On Oct. 16, police said they had found a body in a shallow grave in the Sierra Nevada foothills, about 150 miles east of Newark. The next day, the news was out. Three men &emdash; one 19, two 22, all of whom attended Newark Memorial &emdash; were in jail, charged with murdering Araujo on Oct. 3. Most of the cast went to Araujo's funeral, listening as the dead teen's family spoke with an unrehearsed poignance that echoed the uncensored emotion of ``The Laramie Project.'' ``The night of the funeral &emdash; I think that's when everything hit me,'' says deMelo, who saw her gay cousin there. ``When this first happened, he was the first person I thought of. I was, you know &emdash; 'That could be him.' And then, when I saw him, I totally broke down.'' &emdash;&emdash;&emdash; ``There was nothing I could do. I mean, if there was anything ... I would've done it but there was nothing.'' &emdash; ``Laramie Project.'' &emdash;&emdash;&emdash; Like Laramie, the day the Araujo story broke, reporters swooped into Newark. There are other reminders of the link between the plains city of Laramie and the mini-malled suburb of Newark. ``Every day I hear a line from the show,'' says cast member Joe Magdalena. One came from a family member who wondered aloud if Araujo had somehow been asking for trouble, partying as a girl. Maybe, he theorized, it was a 50-50 thing. In the play, a Laramie resident talks about a defendant's claim that Shepard made a sexual advance, rationalizing, ``You know, maybe it's 50-50.'' ``I pulled out the play and I showed him that line,'' says Magdalena. ``I said, 'This is not one of the good lines of the play.' And he apologized.'' Characters in ``The Laramie Project'' frequently struggle to explain the unexplainable. In Newark, student actors at least have a script to go by. ``For the people in Laramie, it was more than a play. It was about a dialogue. And now for this community, again it has become a dialogue,'' says playwright Kaufman. ``I think there is something kind of good about a play being able to play that role in a community. Theater has the power to do that.'' ``The Laramie Project'' was cited by Time magazine as one of the 10 best plays of 2000. It opened in Denver to critical acclaim and was made into an HBO movie. Kaufman estimates there are about 350 productions this year just counting nonprofessional productions. He plans to attend one, the sold-out Nov. 8 opening in Newark. Seeing the play set against a backdrop of another killing is ``so devastating,'' says Kaufman. ``You think, 'How many more kids are going to have to die before all of this is over?''' &emdash;&emdash;&emdash; ``What would he have become? How could he have changed his piece of the world to make it better?'' &emdash; Dennis Shepard at the sentencing of one of his son's killers. &emdash;&emdash;&emdash; In the Araujo case, police say the teen was killed after his biological identity was uncovered at a party at the home of one of the defendants. Police say Araujo, a slender 5 feet and 7 inches, was knocked to the ground by his alleged 6-feet-tall attackers, dragged semiconscious to the garage and strangled with a rope. One defendant in the Araujo case has pleaded innocent. Shepard was gay; Araujo has been referred to as ``transgender,'' which does not mean gay but includes cross-dressers, transvestites, transsexuals and those born with the physical characteristics of both sexes. For the students putting on ``The Laramie Project,'' the last few weeks have been a blur. ``I still think that once this is all over, we're going to be like, 'What just happened?''' says Kate Lyness. Against the backdrop of the unfolding legal case, cast members have learned their lines, blocked their moves, practiced costume changes. In an impressive bit of staging, students took $3 landscape timbers and lashed them together to make a buck-and-rail fence that stretches across the auditorium, just below the stage. Mundane yet menacing, the wooden structure looms at the edge of the audience's perspective. It was at a fence like this where Shepard was pistol-whipped with a .357-magnum revolver and tied for 18 hours in near-freezing temperatures, begging for his life. At a recent rehearsal, there were some mesmerizing moments despite businesslike interruptions of, ``Further to the LEFT!'' and ``I can't HEAR you!'' Tears came readily. One of deMelo's lines in the play comes from Laramie resident Marge Murray who wonders how ``two absolutely human beings cause so much grief for so many people.'' Is she thinking about Araujo's killers? ``Oh, yeah.'' There's catharsis in her monologue as Aaron Kreifels, the cyclist who found Shepard. ``It's like he hadn't really dealt with it. He's almost totally reliving it and going through it again to just cope with it and let the emotions go through him. And that's what I find so great about it is that it's totally raw,'' she says. ``At this point,'' says deMelo, ``there's so many emotions that go through us when we're on stage. It's added more feeling and more passion ... because we have the emotions and we have the feelings.'' END ©2002 WN.com Top
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Top
[1]CYBERSPACE: Dr. Rebecca Auge announces new page to her web site. http://members.aol.com/rebecaauge/Conflict.html Rebecca Auge, Ph.D. Top
[2] USA: California--Support/Social/Discussion group for transgender, transexual, genderqueer, intersex & questioning (TGIQ) young folks 20 & younger Top TRANSMISSION - NEW! Support/Social/Discussion group for transgender, transexual, genderqueer, intersex & questioning (TGIQ) young folks 20 & younger Co-facilitated by Youth Gender Project and The Pacific Center for Human Growth Thursday evenings, 7:00-8:30, starting November 7, 2002 @ the Pacific Center for Human Growth in Berkeley 2712 Telegraph Avenue @ Derby Street across from Andronico's Market, on the #40 bus line For directions, call the Pacific Center @ 510-548-8283 Questions? Call Youth Gender Project at 510-665-9234 or 415-865-5625 or check out our NEW website www.YouthGenderProject.org Top
GENERAL INFORMATION
[3] Trans Woman First Member of New Panel
TRANS=ACTION PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Monica F. Helms, transaction1@prodigy.net
Atlanta, GA - On November 7, 2002, leaders and members of the GLBT community of the greater Atlanta area met with the new community liaison from the Atlanta Police Department, Sgt. Connie Locke. At this meeting, a seven-member panel was formed to become the community‚s link to the Atlanta PD. Dee Dee Chamblee, the President of LaGender, Inc., was the first person to volunteer to be on this panel, representing the Transgender Community.
Seven areas of the GLBT community were initially identified as needing representation on this panel. They were, 1) Transgender community, 2) People of Color, 3) Homeowners, 4) Bars/Businesses, 5) Youth, 6) Non-profit groups, 7) Events. Since this is a new entity being formed in Atlanta, this list is by no means finalized.
"I am proud that Ms. Chamblee stepped up to take on this challenge," said Monica Helms, Executive Director of Trans=Action. "LaGender is a support and out-reach group for transgender people with HIV and AIDS, and Ms. Chamblee brings a wealth of experience to this panel. With her strong voice and convictions, the concerns of the transgender community will be addressed quickly and completely."
The seven-member panel will meet once a month with Sgt. Locke to discuss any problems that may have come up. Sgt. Locke and the new Liaison Unit of the APD have the full and complete support from Atlanta‚s new Police Chief, Richard Pennington.
Top
[4] UK--Sex change nurse speaks about experiences Top Date: Thu, 7 Nov 2002 http://www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/the_north_east/news/NEWS10.html Sex change nurse speaks about experiences A NORTH-EAST nurse who has undergone a sex change has told a national conference of her experience of becoming a woman while working in the NHS. Clare Morgan, a former male nurse at James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, addressed delegates at the conference in London last month. The one-day symposium was organised by the Royal College of Nursing in a bid to draw attention to the subject of gender reassignment. There are currently an estimated 5,000 people - both male and female - awaiting surgery in the UK. But someone hoping to undergo a sex change operation on the NHS faces a wait of up to 20 years before receiving surgery, as there are only 48 centres capable of carrying out the operation. According to the RCN, up to 80 per cent of those people on the waiting list either work in the care industry or aim to do so after they have the surgery. A special career advice service set up by the Nursing and Midwifery Council is receiving a growing number of calls regarding transgender issues, especially with regard to treatment by colleagues. The council believes transgender issues could become a concern for several reasons, including bullying, whether or not they should be registered as male or female nurses, and the issue of discrimination against sex change staff who apply for training. Ms Morgan told delegates about her experiences of undergoing gender reassignment. Last night, her colleagues said she had their full support. Steve Moore, of the Royal College of Nurses (RCN), gave his full support, saying: "The RCN recognises that transexualism is a genuine medical condition. "The RCN also expects work colleagues of transgender persons to treat them appropriately." A spokesman at James Cook University Hospital said: "We employ anyone on their ability to do the job. Top
[5]USA: San Francisco--Transgender residents still face bias, report says Top Contra Costa Times | 11/06/2002 | S.F. transg... http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/news/4456658.htm Posted on Wed, Nov. 06, 2002 ASSOCIATED PRESS SAN FRANCISCO - Despite efforts the city of San Francisco has made to protect the rights of transgender people, they still faces housing, workplace and health care discrimination, a report has found. The Board of Supervisors on Monday heard the final report by the San Francisco Transgender Civil Rights Implementation Task Force. The report looks at how transgender people have done in San Francisco since 1994, when the city added "gender identity" to anti-discrimination laws. It comes two weeks after the funeral of Eddie "Gwen" Araujo, a 17-year-old boy who lived as a girl and was beaten and strangled when his attackers found out he was male. The 32-member task force, made up of doctors, activists, social workers and transgender people, noted San Francisco's gains in protecting the community, such as providing insurance coverage for city employees' sex-change operations, requiring sensitivity training for police officers and making sure jails provide protective housing for transgender inmates. But the task force said transgender people in the city still face hurdles such as being denied housing and access to homeless shelters, as well as losing custody battles and having difficulty getting proper medical care. The task force recommended the city create a nonprofit job training and development agency for transgender people who have difficulty getting jobs, and it asked supervisors to provide a $50,000 grant for the new Transgender Law Center to hire a full-time staff person to help people changing their sex. Top
[6] INDIA--Boy forced to become eunuch Top http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=16199 From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D. RETRIEVED: Thursday, November 07, 2002 Boy forced to become eunuch Press Trust of India Ludhiana, October 25: In a shocking incident, "some acquaintances" forcefully performed a surgery on a 22-year old boy in an attempt to make him an "eunuch". The matter came to light when the boy, who was held under captivity for about five months in the Haibowal locality, escaped from his acquaintances on Friday and told his misery to reporters in the Civil Hospital in Ludhiana, where he was examined by doctors. Though the victim reported the matter to the police, no formal case has been registered so far. The surgery to convert him into an "eunuch" was performed after making him unconscious, he alleged. © 2002: Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd. All rights reserved Top
[7]ITALY--Man has legal "sex change" to be who he has always been Top Dispatch from Italy Luciana Buonocore is a 28-year-old guy. But somebody with bad handwriting, or a misunderstanding of human anatomy, used the feminine form of his name on his birth certificate. Throughout school, his teachers dutifully replicated the mistake because Luciana was his "official" name. Because his obvious masculinity contradicted the femininity of his name, he couldn't get a national identification card or a driver's license, and he couldn't join the army. Seven years ago he'd had enough. He launched a sustained invasion of Italy's constipated legal and administrative system -- only to face setback after setback. Then he discovered he couldn't get married because Italy doesn't recognize same-sex marriages. Finally desperation drove him to a unique tactic: he appealed to have his sexual identity overturned under Italy's sex-change law. Which worked. Here's the story of the sex-change operation that changed everything, and never happened, on the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51403- 2002Nov1.html <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51403-2002Nov1.html> Stephen L. Braveman, M.A., L.M.F.T., C.S.T. Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist Certified Sex Therapist 494 Alvarado Street, Suite A Monterey, CA 93940 Phone: (831) 375-7553 Fax: (831) 375-7553 www.bravemantherapy.com <http://www.bravemantherapy.com> stephen@bravemantherapy.com Top
[8] MEXICO:Tecate--Mexico's transvestite ban draws gay protest Top BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Mexico's transv... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2402571.stm From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D. Tuesday, 5 November, 2002, 00:36 GMT Tecate's transvestites will not be allowed to cross-dress Gay rights activists are set to converge on a quiet Mexican border town in the wake of moves to criminalise cross-dressing. Tecate's new town ordinance, scheduled to go into effect in mid-November, bars men from wearing women's clothes. Men who flout the rule could be arrested and fined. Transgressors would not face a jail term, although officials said that in practice it may mean imprisoning people at least overnight. "The majority of votes for this was to avoid Aids, and prostitution if possible," Tecate councilman Cosme Cazares said. "That's why we're focusing on men who dress like women. This is for health reasons. It's not to bother these boys." The new law has sparked outrage on both sides of the border, and gay rights protestors plan to hold Tecate's first ever Gay Pride march on Tuesday. Conduct code The law is one in a series of measures in a "good conduct" code being taken up by the five municipalities in the Pacific coast state of Baja California, which borders California. Tecate was the first to enact it. The ban on cross-dressing is one item in a 130-article ordinance that also bans everything from public urination to graffiti. Tecate has already come under fire for imposing a 22:30 curfew on everyone under 18. In Tijuana, council members pledged this week not to enact the ordinance - after transvestites threatened to publicise the names of officials who have solicited gay prostitutes. The state's other three municipalities have not taken up the ordinance yet. Targeted crackdown Town hall spokesman Jose Luis Rojo said the crackdown on transvestites targets those "who cause - how can I say this - who whistle and yell things at you while you're walking. A lot go out in the night looking for customers and they take advantage of children." The town of 100,000 is said to be concerned over a rise in the number of transvestites who have moved to Tecate in recent years to escape Tijuana's violence. "We are not classifying this as a crime," Mr Cazares said. "It's an infraction just like you get for driving the wrong way down the street." -- See also: 04 Sep 01 | Americas Living in America's shadow http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1525429.stm 07 May 99 | Education Cross-dressing 'helps boys read' http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/337745.stm 20 Jul 02 | Country profiles Country profile: Mexico http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/country_profiles/1205074.stm END © MMII
[9]UK: Sex-change woman wins police case Top BBC NEWS | England | Sex-change woman wins po... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2405335.stm From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D. Tuesday, 5 November, 2002, 14:58 GMT The woman wanted to join West Yorkshire Police A transsexual has won her case against a police force which refused to recruit her as a constable. The Court of Appeal ruled that for employment purposes, the transsexual was a woman and the chief constable cannot resist her application to join the force. She had successfully completed a police assessment course but her application to join West Yorkshire Police was rejected in 1998. She alleged that she had been discriminated against on the grounds of sex, but the police said they were discriminating against her because she was a transsexual and that was not unlawful. Blanket Ban The woman, known as Miss A during the court proceedings to protect her identity, underwent sex change surgery in 1996 and now has no male characteristics. She was told by the force that it operated a blanket ban on transsexuals as they posed difficulties when asked to carry out intimate body searches and could never be fully operational. Her barrister, Laura Cox QC, told Lords Justices Kennedy, Buxton and Keene that the question they had to decide was whether her client should be recognised as a woman. European Directives The case reached the appeal court after several employment tribunals came to different conclusions as to whether she had been discriminated against, under both English law and European directives on equal treatment. West Yorkshire Police said there would be no obstacle to her recruitment but for the fact that under English 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 still the case and that several police forces have no objection to recruiting transsexuals. Essex and North Yorkshire each have serving transsexual police officers. -- See also: 08 Oct 02 | England Sex-change woman sues police http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2310583.stm 20 Jul 01 | UK Police force reveals transsexual officer http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1449485.stm 17 Jul 01 | UK Transsexual loses marriage case http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1442941.stm 24 Sep 98 | Lib Dem Conference 'Give transsexuals their rights' http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/lib_dem_conference/179202.stm 21 Oct 98 | Politics Transexual demands 'respect' http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/198434.stm 20 Oct 98 | Politics MP praises 'The Street' http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/197239.stm -- © MMII Top
[10] MALAYSIA --Authorities bust transvestite beauty pageant Top From: Brenda Lana Smith R.af D. Authorities bust transvestite beauty pageant http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2002/10/30/nation/jhpondan&sec=na tion Wednesday, October 30, 2002 By HAMDAN RAJA ABDULLAH MUAR: Dressed in satin and black gowns complete with chokers, the 200 guests and contestants, some holding bouquets, were gathered at a lounge before the start of a beauty contest. Except for the din of squeaky coarse chatter, they looked every inch women. The contest, held here for the first time to pick the "Queen of PaperDolls 2002," was supposedly the largest gathering of transvestites in this small town also known as the furniture hub in the country. Police and state religious officers broke up the gathering when they raided the lounge at Jalan Arab here at 9.30pm on Monday. The nearly 200 transvestites ran helter-skelter. About 80 of them were arrested by the raiding team headed by religious officer Abdul Rahim Mahmud. The transvestites came from various states and they knew of the contest through their networking. Some tried to escape arrest by climbing up the ceiling of a toilet while others hid inside a secret compartment behind a cabinet. The team also booked four lounge workers found hiding inside the compartment and seized contest prizes such as hampers. The transvestites will likely be charged with wearing female clothes and acting like women at a public place, an offence under Section 7 of the Syariah Criminal Enactment 1988. If convicted, they can each be fined up to RM1,000 or jailed six months or both. Police said the organiser did not have a permit to hold the contest. END © 1995-2002 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd (Co No 10894-D) Top
MEDIA WATCH [11] UK: Times Online--Revealing truth just a nip and tuck decision Top From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D. Times Online http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,27-474061,00.html Football November 09, 2002 Revealing truth just a nip and tuck decision By Danny Baker THE cliffhanging Eric Cantona piece published elsewhere on this page is a very distant echo of the great Hancock's Half Hour episode entitled The Missing Page, so it is almost spooky that this week I met, for the first time, Alan Simpson, half of the mighty Galton and Simpson scriptwriting team who wrote that timeless work. Bizarre, too, that before I can embarrass him with hosannas about his great influence over so many of us contemporary TV midgets, he almost grabs me by the throat and forces me to reveal just who is the former first division superstar now living in the United States as a fully (post) operational woman. Do you know I had almost forgotten about chumming that teasing line a few months back? I think I had been coy about naming names because I was unsure of the legal standing on the fingering of former defenders as transsexuals. However, I have now received so many e-mails and letters containing the person's name complete with documentation and websites that confirm the condition, that I am in danger of looking like somebody who thinks he could scoop the world by revealing that Elton John wears a wig. So here goes. It is Tony Powell, of Norwich City. Well, formerly of Norwich City and, I suppose, of "Tony" Powell too. At least that is who the story centres upon. There are a fair number of websites, too, that have Tony &emdash; now apparently a motel manager in Hollywood &emdash; enjoying the myth of his nip and tuck and feigning confusion as to how it all started. That said, the overwhelming balance of evidence, including a standing appeal for info lodged by the Norwich Evening News in the pages of the San Francisco Examiner, leans towards Tony really being an ex-pro who is today, thanks to a surgeon's skill, just that little bit easier to nutmeg. Not that there is anything too remarkable in that, were it to be true. The list of top-flight players who have embraced women's clothing either during their careers or, as seems more popular, in the years immediately after retirement, is growing by the season. Gary Lineker, Paul Gascoigne, Cantona and David Beckham are just four of the cross-dressing fraternity that I can think of simply off the top of my head. Now while nobody is suggesting that they will inevitably see the thing through into surgery, I don't think we could all pretend to be shocked out of our lives if at least a percentage of them did. After all, we are constantly told that transvestism has no correlation with homosexuality. Therefore it would be foolish to leap to conclusions about changing sex also. Indeed, going the whole medical hog might be seen as the only truly professional way to get to grips with such a lifestyle if that be your determined path. Tony Powell, if he is half the man I have heard he is, probably sneers at Becks and Co as mere gutless day-trippers, scared of laying their ultimate cards on the table. Whatever. That's who the story was about and you and I were possibly the last people in the world to hear of it. Finally, and it is no bad punchline, you might wish to know that Alan Simpson, the genius who begged me to reveal here who it was that had called in "the removal men", is the real-life chairman of Hampton & Richmond Borough Football Club. Fact. And I feel sure that's something Sid James would have enjoyed a great deal . . . Copyright 2002 Times Newspapers Ltd. Top
LEGAL ISSUES [12a] UK: A.vs Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police Top http://www.lawreports.co.uk/civnovc0.1.htm From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D. Sunday, November 10, 2002 DISCRIMINATION &emdash; Sex &emdash; Employment &emdash; Genuine occupational qualification &emdash; Transsexual rejected for appointment as police constable on ground of inability to carry out personal searches &emdash; Whether exception applicable &emdash; Whether supplementary genuine occupational qualification &emdash; Sex Discrimination Act 1975, ss 7, 7B(2)(a) (as inserted by Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999 (SI 1999/1102), reg 4(1)) &emdash; Council Directive (76/207/EEC) A v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police and another CA: Kennedy, Buxton and Keene LJJ: 5 November 2002 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A male who had undergone gender reassignment to adopt life as a female transsexual should be treated as a female for the purpose of employment in conformity with European Community law. The rejection of her application for employment as a woman police constable on the basis that she could not carry out intimate body searches infringed the Equal Treatment Directive. For the purpose of equal treatment in employment law, European Convention jurisprudence was introduced into the domestic law by vitue of its status in Community law as from the date of the Directive, not by the Human Rights Act 1998, and therefore covered the acts complained of which took place in 1997. The Court of Appeal so held when allowing an appeal by the claimant, A, from the decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal [2002] ICR 552, allowing an appeal by the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police from the decisions of an Employment Tribunal sitting at Leeds, who on 18 March 1999 held that the Chief Constable had discriminated against A contrary to Pt II of the 1975 Act, and on 1 December 1999 held that s 7B(2)(a) of the 1975 Act, as inserted by the Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999, was inconsistent with Council Directive 76/207/EEC on equal treatment. The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 provided by s 7(2) that "Being a man is a genuine occupational qualification for a job only where ... (b) the job needs to be held by a man to preserve decency or privacy because (i) it is likely to involve physical contact with men in circumstances where they might reasonably object to its being carried out by a woman..." S 7B(2) as inserted by the 1999 Regulations provided that "there is a supplementary genuine occupational qualification for a job only if&emdash;(a) the job involves the holder of the job being liable to be called upon to perform intimate physical searches pursuant to statutory powers ..." The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 provided by s 54(9) that a "constable carrying out a search shall be of the same sex as the person searched". KENNEDY LJ said that in dealing with a complaint of sex discrimination in the context of employment the focus had to be on s 7(2)(b) of the 1975 Act and not on s 54(9) of the 1984 Act, although the consequences of the decision upon the duties spelt out in the latter statute could not be ignored. In the light of Goodwin v United Kingdom (2002) 35 EHRR 447 it was no longer possible, in the context of employment, to treat the claimant as other than female except perhaps in circumstances where public interest was an overriding consideration. If when dealing with the claimant's application for employment the Chief Constable was bound to treat her as female, then it was not open to him to discriminate against her on the basis that she was transsexual, or to invoke the exception in s 7(2)(b) of the 1975 Act. BUXTON LJ, concurring, said that as a matter of human rights law the court had to apply the law as it was now developed by the Convention organs. The Convention jurisprudence entered the domestic law in this case because of its status in Community law. It had always been assumed in Community jurisprudence that decision on the meaning of the treaties applied from the date of the treaty and not from the date of the decision. It was a fallacy to contend, as did the Chief Constable, that a person should in law be a man or woman for all purposes. The question, rather, was whether the individual met the criteria of the particular rule in issue. In the present case, because of the date at which the acts complained of took place, the Convention jurisprudence was introduced into the domestic law not by the medium of the Human Rights Act 1998, but by the medium of the Equal Treatment Directive. KEENE LJ agreed with both judgments. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Appearances: Sarah Cox QC and Stephanie Harrison (Winstanley Burgess) for A; David Bean QC and David Jones (West Yorkshire Police Solicitors) for the Chief Constable; Rabinder Singh QC (Treasury Solicitor) for the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Reported by: Ken Mydeen, barrister. Top
[12b] A v Chief Constable of the West Yorkshire Police Top A v Chief Constable of the West Yorkshire Pol... http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2002/1584.ht ml RETRIEVED: Thursday, November 07, 2002 From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D. Tuesday, November 05, 2002 England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions A v Chief Constable of the West Yorkshire Police & Anor [2002] EWCA Civ 1584 (05 November 2002) -- Neutral Citation Number: [2002] EWCA Civ 1584 Case No: A1/2001/2397 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION) ON APPEAL FROM EMPLOYMENT APPEAL TRIBUNAL Royal Courts of Justice Strand, London, WC2A 2LL 5th November 2002 B e f o r e : LORD JUSTICE KENNEDY LORD JUSTICE BUXTON and LORD JUSTICE KEENE ____________________ Between: 'A' Appellant - v - (1) Chief Constable of the West Yorkshire Police and (2) The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Respondents ____________________ Ms Laura Cox QC and Ms Stephanie Harrison (instructed by David Burgess, Winstanley Burgess, City Road, London) for the Appellant Mr David Bean QC and Mr David Jones (instructed by West Yorkshire Police Solicitors) for the Respondent (1) Mr Rabinder Singh QC (instructed by Treasury Solicitor) for the Secretary of State for Trade & Industry as Respondent (2) and Intervener. Hearing dates : 8th & 9th October 2002 ____________________ HTML VERSION OF JUDGMENT : APPROVED BY THE COURT FOR HANDING DOWN (SUBJECT TO EDITORIAL CORRECTIONS) ____________________ Crown Copyright © Lord Justice Kennedy: 1. This is an appeal and a cross-appeal from a decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal which on 2nd October 2001 allowed the appeal of the Chief Constable from a decision of the Employment Tribunal sitting at Leeds, and remitted the matter to the same Employment Tribunal for re-hearing. History. 2. The appellant is a male to female transsexual. She was registered as male at birth, but in May 1996 underwent gender re-assignment surgery. She changed her identity, moved to a different location, and made new friends who were unaware of her medical history and status. That was considered to be essential to enable her to socialise and become accepted in her community, which was of great importance if her treatment was to have a successful outcome. 3. On 4th January 1997 the appellant applied to become a police constable in the West Yorkshire Police. In a covering letter she raised the question as to whether there would be any problem in a transsexual carrying out searches. She received a reply indicating that the police had considered the point she raised, and were happy to give further consideration to her application. She was assessed and tested in the normal way, and was told that she was successful at each stage. References were taken up, and then on 9th March 1998 she received a letter from the Assistant Chief Constable which stated that since the time of her application the issue of transsexual applicants had been further considered, and it had been decided "that transsexuals will not be appointed to the Force". The letter went on to explain the reason for the decision namely &endash; "Candidates will not be appointed unless they are capable of performing the full duties of a Police Constable. Unfortunately, as you are already aware, legislation affects the carrying out of searches on persons in custody by transsexuals and, therefore, you would not be able to undertake full duties." The appellant alleged that she had been discriminated against on the grounds of sex, and in a letter dated 30th April 1998 the police accepted that they did discriminate against her on the grounds of her transsexuality, but asserted that the discrimination was not unlawful. 4. On 12th May 1998 the appellant began these proceedings by submitting her application to the Employment Tribunal complaining of sex discrimination. On 10th September 1998 she applied to the Employment Tribunal for and obtained an order that "nothing shall be done by way of publication in any newspaper, periodical or other publication or in any media broadcast or transmission to identify the applicant or which is likely to lead members of the public to identify her as the person affected by the subject matter of these proceedings." On 21st September 1998 the Tribunal gave its reasons for making the order, which in paragraph 3 gives a description of the appellant's history since being diagnosed transsexual. I have drawn on that paragraph earlier in this judgment, and part of it reads &endash; "Her ability to find employment, make relationships and integrate with the wider community so that she can live a full life, depends very much on her personal medical details remaining confidential. The social and personal relationships formed since moving to her new community have allowed her to live a normal life as a woman, without fear of assault, abuse or damage to her home and possessions. It has taken her a number of years to get to know people, form friendships, become accepted and valued within the community and to have the confidence to participate in local functions and charity events." The Tribunal's decision goes on to refer to examples of unpleasant media attention directed at transsexuals, and then refers to the appellant's efforts to prevent disclosure of her identity in these proceedings because "she was concerned that such disclosure might lead to unwarranted attention affecting her private and personal life." Before the Employment Tribunal 5. Over a period of four days in February 1999 the Employment Tribunal, with the same chairman, heard the appellant's complaint. The Chief Constable admitted that he had discriminated against the appellant on the ground that she had undergone gender re-assignment, but contended that legally she was male although she presented as a female. The Chief Constable contended that in that situation she would not be able to carry out the full range of policing functions required of a police officer. He contended that conformity of legal and apparent gender was, in the words of section 7 of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 "a genuine occupational qualification" for that job. For the appellant it was argued that such conformity was not a genuine occupational qualification within the meaning of the section, and if it was then the Chief Constable could make other arrangements without undue inconvenience to accommodate the appellant. 6. The relevant part of section 7 reads &endash; "(1) in relation to sex discrimination &endash; (a) section 6(1) .... (c) [which renders it unlawful to discriminate by refusing to offer employment] does not apply to any employment where being a man is a genuine occupational qualification for the job ..... (2) being a man is a genuine occupational qualification for a job only where &endash; (b) the job needs to be held by a man to preserve decency or privacy because &endash; (i) it is likely to involve physical contact with men in circumstances where they might reasonably object to its being carried out by a woman, or (ii) the holder of the job is likely to do his work in circumstances where men might reasonably object to the presence of a woman because they are in a state of undress or are using sanitary facilities. (3) (iv) paragraph ... (b) ... of sub section (ii) does not apply in relation to the filling of a vacancy at a time when the employer already has male employees &endash; (a) who are capable of carrying out the duties falling within that paragraph, and (b) whom it would be reasonable to employ on those duties, and (c) whose numbers are sufficient to meet the employer's likely requirements in respect of those duties without undue inconvenience." Section 2 of the 1975 Act provides that the provisions relating to sex discrimination against women are to be read as applying equally to the treatment of men, and for that purpose have effect with such modifications as are requisite. It follows that if this were a case of a man other than a transsexual alleging discrimination against him in circumstances where discrimination was admitted but section 7 was relied upon the word "man" would have to be replaced by the word "woman" in those parts of the section which I have quoted. 7. Having given careful consideration to the evidence presented to it, the Employment Tribunal in its decision of 8th March 1999 found "that searching is an intergral part of being a police constable" and further "that it would objectively be unreasonable to require the (Chief Constable) to employ the (appellant) as a police constable if in law and fact she could not carry out the full range of a police constable's duties". 8. The Employment Tribunal then examined the relevant statutory and case law material, including section 54(9) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 which has been in the forefront of the submissions made to us on behalf of the Chief Constable and which, under the section heading "Searches of Detained Persons" reads &endash; "(9) the constable carrying out a search shall be of the same sex as the person searched". For the Chief Constable it was argued that failure to comply with that obligation would give rise to serious consequences, and that as the appellant was still legally a man she could not take part in searching women. In relation to section 7(2)(b) there was evidence from a senior police officer that "a Muslim woman prisoner assisted with shower or toilet facilities by a transsexual would be offended if she discovered that the officer in question was such". The Employment Tribunal recorded that evidence, and continued&endash; "We accept that and acknowledge that there are many people in our society who would have religious, cultural or moral objections to being searched by a transsexual. While respecting those objections we do not think that they are contemplated by the expression 'might reasonably object'. Instead we think that is a reflection of the embarrassment which many people feel in the circumstances outlined in section 7(2)(b). It is embarrassment to which Code A makes express reference. Given the application of the principle of equal treatment, we cannot see that there is any obligation upon the (Chief Constable) to disclose to anyone that the (appellant) is transsexual. The (Chief Constable) employs a transsexual as a civilian worker. It would be a violation of her right for the (Chief Constable) to disclose that she is a transsexual. For it would expose her to curiosity and from some quarters even opprobrium and yet have nothing to do with her conduct or her ability to do her job." After a reference to the employment of homosexuals the Employment Tribunal continued &endash; "Thus we have in the (appellant) a person who presents as a woman. If she is treated, as she wishes, in all respects as a woman, nobody will be any the wiser. We do not ignore the possibility that in particular circumstances the fact of her transsexualism may come out into the open. In those circumstances, the (Chief Constable) will have to manage the situation". In paragraphs 35 and 36 of its extended reasons the Employment Tribunal dismisses as negligible the risk of the Chief Constable facing civil or criminal proceedings if the appellant were to carry out a search, or of evidence obtained as a result of a search by her being excluded from a criminal trial, and in paragraph 37 the Employment Tribunal said &endash; "We return then to the principle of proportionality. We are required to reconcile the principle of equal treatment as far as possible with the requirement of full operational policing. In our judgment the risks to the (Chief Constable) in permitting the (appellant) as a transsexual to carry out the full range of duties including the searching of women are so small that to give effect to them by denying the (appellant) access to the office of constable would be wholly disproportionate to the denial of the (appellant's) fundamental right to equal treatment." After the Tribunal Decision. 9. On 1st May 1999 the Sex Discrimination (Gender Re-Assigment) Regulations 1999 came into force. Those regulations introduced new material into the 1975 Act, including section 7B(2)(a). At a hearing in November 1999 the Employment Tribunal, under the same chairman, found that section 7B(2)(a) was not consistent with the European Communities Equal Treatment Directive (207/76). Thus in July 2001 the Employment Appeal Tribunal had before it two appeals relating to the appellant, and the Secretary of State was represented in relation to the second appeal. As to the second appeal the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that section 7B(2)(a) is not inconsistent with the Directive, and before us there has been no challenge to that decision, but the existence of the second appeal does account for the fact that the Secretary of State has been represented before us. Before the Employment Appeal Tribunal. 10. As to the first appeal, in the light of the concessions already made the Employment Appeal Tribunal accepted that under the unamended Act discrimination on the grounds of transsexualism was discrimination on the grounds of sex, and that the police did discriminate against the appellant on the grounds of transsexualism. Subject to section 7 there was therefore discrimination which was unlawful, and, as was pointed out, it is not easy to discern how section 7(2)(b)(i) is to be read on the premise that the unamended Act contemplated discrimination on the grounds of transsexualism. 11. The Employment Appeal Tribunal went on to point out that the Employment Tribunal never answered the question of whether in law the appellant is male. The Employment Appeal Tribunal gave careful consideration to the authorities in relation to that issue up to and including the decision of this Court in Bellinger v Bellinger [2002] 2 WLR 411, and concluded that as the domestic authorities speak with one voice and no decision of the European Court of Justice bound the Employment Appeal Tribunal to ignore those domestic authorities the appellant had to be recognised as male in law. That gave rise to the question of whether the Chief Constable could properly hold out such a person to act as a constable as if she were female. The Employment Appeal Tribunal found that it would be wrong to do so, and went on to consider whether the Chief Constable would "get away with it". That involved some consideration of police powers, beginning with section 54(9) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, and other provisions relating to searching. The Employment Appeal Tribunal found that the provisions were concerned with what was the police constable's sex at law, and went on to reject the suggestion that the Chief Constable, knowing that a police constable was in law male, could condone a system under which she was held out as female. If the Chief Constable gave instructions that a transsexual police constable was not to conduct searches of the kind that would normally be undertaken by a female police constable that would be become obvious to her immediate colleagues and, as the Employment Appeal Tribunal said, it would be likely to come out that the appellant was not what she seemed. The Employment Appeal Tribunal continued &endash; "The destructive effect that would have on her private and social life does not need to be imagined as affidavits sworn in connection with her applications to ensure the anonymity of these proceedings make it plain." So the Employment Appeal Tribunal rejected the Employment Tribunal's conclusion that if the appellant were to be held out to be a woman no one would be any the wiser on the grounds that it would either involve the Chief Constable in deception or destroy her privacy. The Employment Tribunal had recorded that the appellant is willing to disclose the fact of her transsexualism "to those who need to know it for whatever purpose" but the Employment Appeal Tribunal continued &endash; "Read consistently with the evidence adduced on her part at earlier stages of the proceedings, that cannot be understood to mean that she could tolerate her work-a-day colleagues or, still less, persons who she searches or declines to search, should know of her transsexualism. The (appellant) cannot be heard to blow hot and cold as to the need for her transsexualism being kept secret barring the few in senior police circles who would inevitably need to know of it." The Employment Appeal Tribunal therefore allowed the appeal, but was not confident that there was no unlawful discrimination so it remitted the matter to the Employment Tribunal for further consideration of section 7(2)(b) on the basis &endash; (1) That the religious, cultural or moral objections which they held that many would have cannot be dismissed without careful study and without full reasons being given: (2) That in relation to searches it would not be open to the police to hold out the appellant as a female police constable: (3) That if proportionality falls to be considered it must be considered against the background that at least in relation to searches a concealment of the appellant's transsexuality as a constable would be neither proper nor practicable. (4) Consideration needs to be given to section 7(4), which the Employment Tribunal had not directly addressed. After the EAT Decision. 12. Since the Employment Appeal Tribunal delivered judgment in October 2001 there have been two developments of considerable significance to this case. First, on 11th July 2002 the European Court of Human Rights gave judgment in Goodwin v UK [2002] 35 EHRR 447 and, secondly, but only in the course of submissions made by Ms Laura Cox QC in reply, it has been made clear on behalf of the appellant that she is prepared to risk her transsexuality becoming known to colleagues and possibly to others if that is an inevitable consequence of her service as a police constable, something which was not fully understood by the Employment Appeal Tribunal, nor by this court until a late stage in the hearing. The Primary Question. 13. I agree with the Employment Appeal Tribunal that in order to decide this case it is necessary to decide first what is the appellant's legal gender. The Employment Appeal Tribunal considered the domestic authorities and came to the conclusion that they spoke with one voice. That is right, but in the light of Goodwin it is necessary to consider whether the voice can still be heard in the field of employment law. So what needs to be ascertained is the appellant's legal gender in that field. The Authorities. 14. In Corbett v Corbett [1971] P 83 Ormrod J held that a marriage between a male and a male to female transsexual was void on the basis that in law the gender of the latter remained as it had been at birth, but the judge was careful in the way in which he articulated the question which he had to decide, saying at 106 C &endash; "The question then becomes what is meant by the word 'woman' in the context of a marriage, for I am not concerned to determine the 'legal sex' of the respondent at large." It was that question which he answered when he said at 106 F &endash; "My conclusion, therefore, is that the respondent is not a woman for the purposes of marriage but is a biological male and has been so since birth." 15. In R v Tan [1983] QB 1053 the Court of Appeal Criminal Division held at 1064 that Corbett v Corbett should apply for the purposes not only of marriage but also to a charge under section 30 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 or section 5 of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 (both offences concerned with living on the earnings of prostitution). Giving the judgment of the court Parker J said at 1064 &endash; "It would in our view create an unacceptable situation if the law were such that a marriage between Gloria Greaves (one of the appellants) and another man was a nullity, on the ground that Gloria Greaves was a man; that buggery to which he consented with such other person was not an offence for the same reason; but that Gloria Greaves could live on the earnings of a female prostitute without offending against section 30 of the Act of 1956 because for that purpose he/she was not a man and that the like position would arise in the case of someone charged with living on his earnings as a male prostitute." 16. More recently in Bellinger v Bellinger [2002] 2 WLR 411 in this court a male to female transsexual who had gone through a ceremony of marriage with a man who supported her was refused a declaration that the marriage was valid. In the majority judgment of the President and Robert Walker LJ it was said at paragraph 105 &endash; "It seems to us that two questions arise. The first question is for the court. What is the status of the petitioner? Is she male or female? That question should, in our judgment be answered by assessing the facts of an individual case against the clear statutory framework. The second question is for Parliament. At what point would it be consistent with public policy to recognise that a person should be treated for all purposes, including marriage, as a person of the opposite sex to that to which he/she was correctly assigned at birth? The second question cannot be properly decided by the court." The court then referred to the importance of courts not deciding matters which Parliament should resolve. We understand that an appeal against the decision of this court in Bellinger is soon to be heard by the House of Lords. But at present the position in domestic law of transsexuals in relation to marriage and in relation to certain criminal offences is clear. 17. Turning now to employment, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 was quickly followed by, and is said by the UK Government to give effect to its obligations under, the Equal Treatment Directive (76/207/EEC). The Directive required Member States to give effect to the principle of equal treatment but Article 2(2) provided &endash; "This Directive shall be without prejudice to the right of Member States to exclude from its field of application those occupational activities and, where appropriate, the training leading thereto, for which, by reason of their nature or the context in which they are carried out, the sex of the worker, constitutes a determining factor." 18. In Johnston v Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary [1987] QB 129 the European Court of Justice considered the decision to arm only police officers who were male, thus reducing the demand for women police officers. It pointed out at page 151 that Article 2(2) "being a derogation from an individual right laid down in the Directive must be interpreted strictly" but accepted that "the context of certain policing activities may be such that the sex of police officers constitutes a determining factor for carrying them out." In such a case there was a need for periodic monitoring of the need to maintain the derogation, and the principle of proportionality had to be observed. 19. In Webb v EMO Air Cargo (UK) Ltd [1993] 1 WLR 49 the House of Lords considered the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Equal Treatment Directive in the context of a temporary employee dismissed because she was pregnant. At page 59 Lord Keith of Kinkel said &endash; "The Directive does not have direct effect upon the relationship between a worker and an employer who is not the state or an emanation of the state, but nevertheless it is for a United Kingdom court to construe domestic legislation in any field covered by a Community Directive so as to accord with the interpretation of the Directive as laid down by the European Court of Justice, if that can be done without distorting the meaning of the domestic legislation." 20. In P v S [1996] ICR 795 the European Court of Justice considered the position of a manager of an educational establishment who was dismissed when he gave notice of and underwent gender re-assignment. At page 807 the Advocate General said &endash; "It is necessary to go beyond the traditional classification and recognise that, in addition to the man/woman dichotomy, there is a range of characteristics, behaviour and roles shared by men and women, so that sex itself ought rather to be thought of as a continuum. From that point of view, it is clear that it would not be right to continue to treat as unlawful solely acts of discrimination on grounds of sex which are referrable to men and women in the traditional sense of those terms, while refusing to protect those who are also treated unfavourably precisely because of their sex and/or sexual identity." At page 810 he said &endash; "First, transsexuals certainly do not constitute a third sex, so it should be considered as a matter of principle that they are covered by Directive (76/207/EEC), .... Secondly, I note that the Directive is nothing if not an expression of a general principle and a fundamental right. Here I would point out that respect for fundamental rights is one of the general principles of Community law, the observance of which the court has a duty to ensure, and that 'there can be no doubt that the elimination of discrimination based on sex forms part of those fundamental rights'." That was echoed by the judgment of the court, which states at page 814 &endash; "The scope of Directive (76/207/EEC) cannot be confined simply to discrimination based on the fact that a person is of one or other sex. In view of its purpose and the nature of the rights it seeks to safeguard, the scope of the Directive is also such as to apply to discrimination arising, as in this case, from the gender re-assignment of the person concerned." There was found to be no material before the court to justify the dismissal under Article 2(2). 21. In Chessington World of Adventures Ltd v Reed [1998] ICR 97 the Employment Appeal Tribunal considered the situation of an applicant who was harassed by fellow employees after announcing a proposed change of gender from male to female. The employers knew of the harassment but failed to act. On their behalf it was argued that the Sex Discrimination Act could not be read consistently with P v S without doing impermissible violence to the language. The Employment Appeal Tribunal rejected that submission, and accepted at page 104 counsel for the respondent's submission that it was possible to distinguish "legal sex" in the context of marriage. 22. Sheffield and Horsham v UK [1998] 27 EHRR 163 I need only mention in passing. In that case the applicants were male to female postoperative transsexuals who relied on Articles 8,12 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights to support their complaint that the respondent refused to give legal recognition to their status as women. The European Court of Human Rights did not find any violation of the Articles relied upon. 23. In the context of the present case it is important to recognise that the Human Rights Act 1998, which incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights into English law did not come into effect until October 2000, long after the decision of the Chief Constable which is now complained of. 24. That brings me to the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Goodwin, to which I have already referred. The applicant was a postoperative male to female transsexual, who experienced considerable difficulties as a result of the respondent government's refusal formally to recognise her postoperative state. Paragraphs 90 to 91 of the judgment in part read &endash; "In the 21st Century the right of transsexuals to personal development and to physical and moral security in the full sense enjoyed by others in society cannot be regarded as a matter of controversy requiring the lapse of time to cast clearer light on the issues involved. In short, the unsatisfactory situation in which post-operative transsexuals live in an intermediate zone as not quite one gender or the other is no longer sustainable..... the Court does not underestimate the difficulties posed or the important repercussions which any major change in the system will inevitably have, not only in the field of birth registration, but also in the areas of access to records, family law, affiliation, inheritance, criminal justice, employment, social security and insurance." But the Court was not persuaded that the change should not be made, and in paragraph 93 it said &endash; "The Court finds the respondent Government can no longer claim that the matter falls within their margin of appreciation, save as regards the appropriate means of achieving recognition of the rights protected under the Convention. Since there are no significant factors of public interest to weigh against the interests of this individual applicant in obtaining legal recognition of her gender re-assignment, it reaches the conclusion the fair balance which is inherent in the Convention now tilts decisively in favour of the applicant. There has, accordingly, been a failure to respect her right to private life in breach of Article 8 of the Convention." The Court also found that there was a breach of article 12, and in paragraph 120 it said &endash; "It will be for the United Kingdom Government in due course to implement such measures as it considers appropriate to fulfil its obligations to secure the applicant's, and other transsexuals' right to respect for private life and right to marry in compliance with this judgment." The Submissions. 25. In the light of those authorities Ms Cox submits that although the European Convention on Human Rights was not incorporated into English Law at the material time it was indirectly effective because the Sex Discrimination Act gave effect to the Equal Treatment Directive, which in turn had to be read consistently with the Convention. It was clear from P v S that transsexuals cannot be treated as a third sex, and is now clear from Goodwin that a postoperative male to female transsexual is entitled to be regarded for all purposes as female. In the field of employment law the matter cannot simply be left until Parliament decides how to react to the decision in Goodwin because through the medium of the Directive and the 1975 Act that decision has direct effect. 26. For the respondent Chief Constable Mr David Bean QC supported by Mr Rabinder Singh QC for the Secretary of State, submits that we should focus on the police powers of search, and in particular on section 54(9) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act. The Chief Constable, we were told, does not, at any rate now, seek to exclude recruitment of all transsexuals, but only of undisclosed transsexuals, and the reason for excluding those is that in domestic law a male to female transsexual remains male (see Corbett, Tan and Bellinger), so section 54(9) prevents her from searching a woman, and her appearance makes it in practice impossible for her to search a man. Furthermore any attempt to leave searching to others would result in disclosure of her transsexuality. Mr Bean submits that Corbett, Tan and Bellinger are clear authority as to the appellant's legal gender, and the legal gender of a person cannot be different in relation to different areas of the law. Furthermore both Tan and the Police and Criminal Evidence Act are concerned with the criminal law, and in domestic law for the purposes of the criminal law the appellant remains a male. Conclusion. 27. In my judgment as we are dealing with a complaint of sex discrimination in the context of employment the focus has to be on section 7(2)(b) of the 1975 Act, and not on section 54(9) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, although we cannot of course ignore the consequences of our decision upon the duties spelt out in the latter statute. For the reasons given by Ms Cox it seems to me that in the light of Goodwin it is no longer possible, in the context of employment, to regard the appellant as being other than female, except perhaps in circumstances where, as was said in Goodwin, there are &endash; "..significant factors of public interest to weigh against the interests of the individual applicant in obtaining legal recognition of her gender re-assignment ". I have considered whether Goodwin changed the law to such an extent that it could be said that the decision under challenge in the present litigation was right at the time it was made in March 1998. I am not satisfied that can be said, but that decision, and the decision of the Employment Appeal Tribunal in this litigation, might well have been different if Goodwin had been decided earlier. Mr Bean submitted that Goodwin could be distinguished on the basis that it relates to ongoing complaints, whereas the present case relates to a decision at a fixed point in time. Although that distinction can be drawn it does not, to my mind, effect the applicability of the reasoning in Goodwin. 28. If when dealing with the appellant's application for employment the Chief Constable was bound to treat her as female, then it was not open to him to discriminate against her on the basis that she was transsexual, and no possibility of invoking section 7 could arise. That may be why not all Chief Constables appear to have taken the same stance as the respondent in the present case, but the information as to the practice elsewhere is of limited value because we know little about what has really happened. In particular we do not know how transsexuals who have been employed have been deployed, or to what extent they have sought to prevent their transsexualism from being disclosed. In some cases, as explained by Buxton LJ in his judgment, there may be factors of public interest to weigh against the interests of the individual applicant which would entitle a Chief Constable to refuse employment to a transsexual, particularly one who wanted his or her transsexualism to remain undisclosed, but that is not this case. 29. At this stage, and in the context of this case, it seems possible to say that were the appellant to be employed as a police constable no particular problem should arise in relation to section 54(9) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act not only because of the implementation of the Human Rights Act, but also because if the appellant is not required to search females on the basis that for the purposes of the criminal law she remains a male, and if that leads to the disclosure of her transsexuality, that is something which she is prepared to accept. But, as Ms Cox rightly points out, that is not a matter in relation to which we need express a concluded view. All that needs to be said is that in the light of Goodwin it is now clear that the respondent's attempt to invoke section 7 of the 1975 Act cannot succeed. 30. I would therefore allow this appeal and dismiss the cross appeal. As this is a sensitive and difficult matter I should like to record our indebtedness to counsel for the way in which the litigation has been conducted, and emphasise that although in the end the decision has gone against the respondent that should not be taken to be any criticism of him, or of those who have been advising him. Plainly he has been doing his best to satisfy conflicting demands in the context of evolving law. Lord Justice Buxton : 31. I gratefully adopt the account of the history and of the statutory provisions set out in the judgment of Kennedy LJ. I agree with him that the appeal should be allowed and the cross-appeal dismissed. Since the case raises some potentially difficult issues, I venture to add some few words of my own. 32. The case was transformed by the information, vouchsafed for the first time in this court, that Miss A had no difficulty in her work colleagues, and members of the public with whom she dealt, knowing of her transexuality. The Chief Constable's argument was that he could not discharge his obligations under section 54(9) of PACE if searches were made by transsexuals; and that he could not sensibly avoid the problem, by exempting Miss A from searching duties, without revealing the reason for the exemption. If the facts had remained as the Chief Constable reasonably believed them to be, with Miss A as an undisclosed transsexual, then I am by no means certain that, even after Goodwin, Miss A would necessarily have succeeded. It would, however, be wholly artificial to decide the case other than on the correct facts; and for that reason I agree that the Chief Constable cannot in law maintain his resistance to considering Miss A for employment. 33. I should perhaps add that in any event I consider that this case must be determined according to the law as set out in Goodwin. I was not persuaded by Mr Bean's argument that the state of the law as perceived in Goodwin should be held to apply only from the date of that ruling by the Strasbourg court, and that therefore the Chief Constable's decision, which predated the ruling in Goodwin, should be adjudicated upon according to the pre-Goodwin law. That the law at the time at which he made his decision was uncertain is of course another factor that goes towards acquitting the Chief Constable of any actual fault, an aspect of the case that my Lord has already emphasised. However, as a matter of human rights law the court has to apply the law as it is now developed by the Convention organs. And I am fortified in that view by the consideration that, as set out below, the Convention jurisprudence enters domestic law in this case because of its status in Community law. It has always been assumed in Community jurisprudence that decisions on the meaning of the treaties apply ex tunc, that is, from the date of the treaty and not from the date of the decision; the much controverted decision to the contrary in Case 43/75 Defrenne v Sabena [1976] ECR 455 [69]-[75] being the exception that proves that rule. 34. All that said, however, it remains necessary to explain why Miss A's attitude to disclosure made so much difference; and because of the singular way in which the case before us developed I wish also to say something about how the point on which the appeal is resolved emerged, and why the Chief Constable, in my view wholly understandably, continued until a late stage in the appeal to think that he was confronting a case based on undisclosed transsexuality. 35. It is quite true that the Chief Constable's original reaction to A's application to become a constable was that transsexuals, understood as a general category, could not be considered. It is also true that the finding of the EAT, at §28 of its Judgment, was that "the job A sought did need to be held by other than a transsexual to preserve decency or privacy because it was likely to involve physical contact with men or women in circumstances where they might object to its being carried out by a transsexual." But, importantly, the EAT went on to find that that difficulty could not, operationally, be avoided by not using A for such searches, because of what the EAT understood to be A's imperative wish that her transsexuality should not be disclosed. The EAT said: "The Tribunal's second escape-that if the Police held out A as female no one would be any the wiser and hence no one would raise objections- was not open as it would involve the Police in a deception and in any event, if it were sought to mitigate that deception by the giving of special instructions as to searches by A, so far from preserving privacy, it would destroy that of A." These conclusions were based upon a clear understanding of A's position as explained by the EAT in §§ 24-26 of its judgment, the essential part of which has been set out by my Lord in §11 above. 36. It was nowhere said in the Grounds of Appeal; in the Appellant's 19 page skeleton; or in Miss Cox's opening before this court; that, as we are now assured to be the case, the EAT had simply got the facts wrong, and that A was perfectly willing for her colleagues at large, and if needs be the members of the public with whom she dealt, to know of her transsexuality: the necessity of any disclosure to be determined by the Chief Constable. That this was, or might be, A's position only started to emerge in Miss Cox's reply, when she submitted, as I understood it, that the Chief Constable's argument, by limiting itself to undisclosed transsexualism, conceded that there had been unwarranted discrimination, because A had indeed been "open" when applying for the office of constable. That openness had, however, been only with the senior officers assessing her application, as the EAT observed in the passage set out by my Lord in §11. The findings of the EAT therefore directly contradicted Miss Cox's submission. Miss Cox responded to this difficulty by submitting that the view and approach of the EAT had not been available to it, because there was no or no sufficient evidence to support it. In particular, it had been quite unreasonable to use affidavits sworn for the purposes of anonymity in these proceedings, necessarily conducted in public, to draw conclusions as to A's future attitude within the workplace. 37. Miss Cox explained the failure to raise that objection earlier by saying that no issue raised by the Chief Constable required the matter to be addressed. I am perfectly prepared to accept that the nature and thrust of the anonymity point may well not have been as apparent in the proceedings below as it was to us after we had had the benefit of hearing Mr Bean on it; and it was unfortunate that it did not feature in Mr Bean's skeleton argument in this court. But, that said, it is plain from the parts of the EAT's judgment that I have already cited that they had rejected the ET's rebuttal of the practical objections relied on by the Chief Constable under section 7(2)(b) at least in part because A's insistence on anonymity precluded the making of special arrangments in her case. If there was a short answer to that, to the effect that there was no evidence to support the assumption that A insisted on anonymity, then it is difficult to understand why that answer was not immediately given. 38. However, the argument as to lack of evidence having been produced, I am afraid that I was completely unpersuaded by it. In the absence of any other and contradictory material, the overwhelming impression left by the earlier anonymity proceedings was that it was fundamental to A's privacy and ability to function within society that her transsexualism should not be known. And, quite apart from that, it could not possibly be right, in a matter as delicate as the present, for the court to proceed on the basis of a factual case that rested on procedural arguments about the state of the evidence rather than on the real facts. We therefore insisted that Miss Cox took direct instructions on the point from her client, who was present in court. We were told that those instructions were unequivocally in the terms that I have reproduced in the first sentence of 36 above. 39. That revelation transformed the case. Although understandably Mr Bean did not receive instructions to concede the point whilst appearing before us, in opening his argument he had made it clear that the Chief Constable's concern was not in relation to the employment of transsexuals as such, but only in relation to the operational difficulties caused by undisclosed transsexuality. But why the point mattered so much deserves some explanation. 40. I start from the observation that it is a fallacy to contend, as did the Chief Constable, that a person must in law be a man or a woman for all purposes. The question, rather, is whether the individual meets the criteria of the particular rule of law in issue. That approach, and in particular the recognition that it is not for the court to determine criteria upon which a person should be treated as being of one sex or the other for all purposes, is with respect to be found clearly stated in the judgment of this court in Bellinger v Bellinger [2002] Fam 150, at §105, a passage already cited by my Lord. 41. In that context, it is important to be clear that Goodwin decides that it will be a breach of article 8, in cases "where there are no significant factors of public interest to weigh against the interest of this individual applicant in obtaining legal recognition of her gender re-assignment", to refuse to recognise that re-assigned gender [Goodwin, §93]. Accordingly, in any case to which the Human Rights Act 1998 [the HRA] applies, it will in future be necessary to consider whether a failure or refusal to treat a post-operative transsexual as being of the reassigned gender involves a breach of Article 8. Since the application of article 8 is case-specific, and does not confer absolute rights, the court will have to consider in every case whether the subject's interest in achieving respect and recognition for her gender re-assignment is outweighed by countervailing considerations of the public interest. 42. In the present case we have to add the fact that, because of the date at which the acts complained of took place, the Convention jurisprudence is introduced into domestic law not by the medium of the HRA, but by the medium of the Equal Treatment Directive [ETD]. That means that not only is any case subject to the considerations of balance already referred to, but also that the ETD, and thus the potential breach of article 8, does not, as it would under the HRA, potentially arise in connexion with every issue arising in domestic law, but rather only applies in relation to the employment field to which the ETD is limited. 43. Accordingly, even if the Chief Constable is, after Goodwin, under the regime of the ETD at peril of committing a breach of article 8 if he does not treat A as a woman for the purposes of assessing her suitability for employment, it does not follow that in making the assessment appropriate to article 8 the court is precluded as a matter of law from giving weight to difficulties perceived by the Chief Constable as arising from A's transsexualism. That consideration is reinforced by the fact that where, as in the present case, the issue is one of Community law, it seems plain that the decision of the European Court of Justice in Case C-13/94 P v S [1996] ICR 795 that discrimination on grounds of transsexuality amounts to discrimination on grounds of sex for the purposes of the ETD carries with it the corollary that "sex" in article 2(2) of the ETD must also be read as including transsexuality: so, just as the Chief Constable cannot discriminate against transsexuals, equally he can potentially rely on considerations specific to transsexuality under article 2(2). 44. The issue however remains one of balance. Even if the Chief Constable, whether under the ETD or under the HRA, can potentially take into account difficulties perceived as arising from A's transsexualism in relation to section 54(9), any such issues of balance are likely to be conclusively determined by the obligation of the Chief Constable to manage his force in such a way as to avoid situations arising under section 54(9) that would threaten the individual's article 8 interests. If an individual were to insist that her transsexuality remained undisclosed, the Chief Constable might not be able to take such steps. If the transsexuality can be disclosed to colleagues, and thus an explanation be given of why it may be prudent for A not to conduct section 54(9) searches, that difficulty falls away. 45. Accordingly, once it had been made clear that Miss A has no objection to colleagues generally and, if needs be, members of the public with whom she deals knowing of her transsexuality, that destroyed the Chief Constable's defence of genuine occupational qualification based on the difficulties of complying with section 54(9) of PACE if an undisclosed transsexual was a member of the force. There was therefore effectively no issue before us. It was not satisfactory that we were not aware until comparatively late in the proceedings that that was so. 46. I have ventured to explain this point in some detail not only because of its inherent importance but also because Miss A and those advising her may wish to take note of the importance, in connection with her wish to be considered for the office of constable, of her willingness that her transsexuality should be disclosed. Lord Justice Keene: 47. I agree with both judgments and have nothing to add. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ BAILII: Copyright Policy http://www.bailii.org/bailii/copyright.html | Disclaimers | Privacy Policy | Feedback URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2002/1584.html Top
[13] USA : Man Found Guilty of Slaying of Transsexual Top From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D. NYPOST.COM Regional News: BX. MAN GUILTY IN S... http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/25104.htm By DAREH GREGORIAN November 9, 2002 -- Moments after being found mentally fit to stand trial, a Bronx man pleaded guilty yesterday to stabbing a transsexual to death outside of the Port Authority. Dwayne McCuller, 22, admitted to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Rena Uviller that he stabbed Amanda Dyer in the neck after a June 20, 2000, argument at the corner of 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue. In return for the guilty plea, McCuller was promised a sentence of 171/2 years in prison, plus five years supervised release. Copyright 2002 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved. Top
[14] USA: Brandon Tina's mother seeks more money Top Lincoln journalstar.com http://www.journalstar.com/nebraska.php?story_id=2206 RETRIEVED: Friday, November 08, 2002 Wednesday, November 06, 2002 BY JOE DUGGAN Lincoln Journal Star An attorney for the mother of murder victim Teena Brandon made an "off-the-wall" request of the Nebraska Supreme Court on Tuesday: award a respectable financial payment and end the appeals. Lincoln attorney Herbert Friedman appeared before the high court to appeal JoAnn Brandon's lawsuit against Richardson County and its former sheriff, Charles Laux, who badly mishandled the investigation. The justices wanted to know what relief Friedman was seeking. "This is off the wall," he responded. "It seems to me this court could easily pick a figure and be done with this." After the roughly 20-minute hearing, Friedman said there was no legal precedent for the state Supreme Court to award damages in a civil case. "But they do have the power to do what they think is inherently just," he said. At trial, JoAnn Brandon sought $500,000 in damages against the county. A year ago, District Court Judge Orville Coady ordered Richardson County to pay a total of $98,223. Tuesday's appeal centered on two portions of the award: $7,000 for emotional distress Teena Brandon suffered at the hands of the sheriff, and $5,000 for her "intrinsic value" to her mother. Lincoln attorney Richard Boucher argued the high court should allow the judge's decision to stand because it was made after a thoughtful review of the evidence. "The evidence in this case is that the reward is reasonable," Boucher said. The case involves the Dec. 31, 1993, stabbing and shooting of Teena Brandon, 21, in a rented farmhouse south of Humboldt. Her killers also shot and killed Lisa Lambert, 23, of Humboldt, and Phillip DeVine, 22, of Fairfield, Iowa, because they were in the house at the time. The case attracted national attention when it was learned that Brandon had been living as a man and dating women in Falls City, Humboldt and Lincoln. It later inspired the film "Boys Don't Cry," in which actress Hilary Swank won an Oscar for her portrayal of a character based on Teena Brandon. On Christmas Eve 1993, John Lotter and Marvin Thomas Nissen beat and raped Brandon because they were angry she had fooled them into believing she was a man. Juries later convicted the men of rape and three counts of first-degree murder. Lotter is on death row, while Nissen earned himself a life sentence by testifying against his former friend. In the wake of the criminal trials, JoAnn Brandon has won court decisions that held the sheriff and county failed to protect her daughter after she reported the rape. Authorities allowed Nissen and Lotter to remain free even though Brandon told the sheriff they had threatened her life if she reported them. In addition, Laux pursued a crude and demeaning line of questioning of Brandon in the hours after she was raped. In late 1999, Judge Coady ruled in JoAnn Brandon's favor but awarded her only $17,000. On appeal, the Supreme Court found Laux's behavior toward Brandon was "beyond all possible bounds of decency, and is to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community." The court ordered Coady to increase the base award to $86,000 and review the additional claims against the county. In October 2001, Coady found little evidence to support JoAnn Brandon's claim of loss of companionship. In part, he based his decision on the fact that JoAnn Brandon did not pick up her daughter after she was raped to bring her to the safety of Lincoln. As a result, he set the "intrinsic value" of Teena Brandon's life at $5,000. In addition, the judge found the sheriff intentionally inflicted extreme emotional distress upon Teena Brandon. But he said there was no medical evidence to award more than $7,000 -- $1,000 for each day between her rape and murder. On Tuesday, Friedman said that while the Brandon family wasn't the Brady Bunch, JoAnn and Teena had a close relationship. In the several months she lived in Richardson County, Teena called her mother frequently and visited once or twice a week. After the rape, they decided it was not safe for her to return to Lincoln because the rapists knew JoAnn Brandon's address. So the mother made arrangements for the daughter to stay with Lisa Lambert in Humboldt. Regarding a lack of medical evidence that Teena Brandon suffered distress from the sheriff's questions, Friedman said the judge set an impossible standard under the circumstances. "She didn't live long enough for a psychiatrist to look at her and say there was post-traumatic stress disorder," he said. Short of setting their own award in the case, the Supreme Court justices should send the matter to a district judge for a new verdict, Friedman argued. And the judge should be anyone but Coady, he added. In defense of the judge's ruling, Boucher argued there was a limit to the county's responsibility for the inappropriate actions of its former sheriff. He also said it was reasonable for the judge to conclude that mother and daughter had, at best, a tenuous relationship. When Brandon told her mother that she had been sexually assaulted, "no one came to Richardson County to retrieve her. No effort was made to get to Richardson County to help and comfort her in her time of need," Boucher said. The high court's ruling in the appeal could take as long as several months. -- Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com. END © 2002, Lincoln Journal Star. Top
[15]USA Judge sued for jailing TG man over marriage licenses Top From: Mrs. Petra Henderson [mailto:petrahenderson@yahoo.com] --- In transgendernews, "tgnews_moderator" <tgnews_moderator@y...> wrote: Gay People's Chronicle (glbt weekly, Ohio) November 1, 2002 http://tinyurl.com/2est http://www.gaypeopleschronicle.com/stories02/02nov1.htm#story3 Judge sued for jailing TG man over marriage licenses by Eric Resnick Akron--A transsexual man has filed a federal civil rights suit against a judge who had him arrested for allegedly falsifying the gender on his marriage license applications. Sean M. Brookings, 56, of Springfield Township, filed a federal civil rights suit against Stark County Probate Judge R.R. Denny Clunk for wrongful arrest, detention, invasion of privacy, and malicious prosecution without cause. The suit stems from Brookings' arrest on February 6, 2001 after Clunk accused him of misstating his gender on three marriage license applications in 1988, 1990, and 1994. Another judge later dismissed all the charges. Clunk had granted all three licenses, allowing the post-operative female-to-male transsexual to marry women. The suit was filed October 25 in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio, which is located in Akron. Also named in it are Barberton attorney Vincent Alfera, Leslie McKinney of Tallmadge, and three Stark County sheriff's employees. Clunk learned that Brookings was transsexual in 2000 as the result of a Summit County probate court battle over the will of his most recent wife, Lois McKinney, who died that year. Alfera represented Leslie McKinney, who is Lois' son, in the probate matter. The estate's only asset is the mobile home that Brookings and Lois McKinney lived in, and where Brookings continued to live. It is the center of the probate case. "It makes me sick to think that thing is living in my parents' home," Leslie McKinney told the Akron Beacon Journal on April 1, 2001. The newspaper also quoted Clunk, "Every now and then, one [of these transsexual marriages] gets by because there's so many of these surgeries going on." Clunk wrote the landmark 1987 In Re Ladrach opinion denying a marriage license to a post-operative male to female transsexual and a male, saying Ohio law only recognizes a person's gender at birth. On May 4, 2001, Alfera sent a letter to Clunk and Stark County Prosecutor Robert Horowitz which ended, "I urge you to bring charges against Sharon M. Perry/Sean Brookings. Otherwise, this individual will not hesitate to continue frauding [sic] probate courts by making future marriage applications, for same sex marriages that are illegal in the state of Ohio." The prosecution ended when Brookings' attorney Randi Barnabee, who is also transgendered, moved to dismiss the charges, saying the statute of limitations had run out five years earlier for the most recent license. Canton Municipal Court Judge John Poulos agreed April 3, and dismissed the case without hearing evidence. According to Barnabee, the suit's defendants are listed in the order of their culpability. Clunk is listed first, followed by the county, then Alfera, then McKinney, then the three sheriff's employees who will be named once it is determined through discovery who they are. They are alleged to have invaded Brookings' privacy when, following arrest, Brookings was sent to the Stark County jail for processing. Springfield Township and Canton police told the jail that Brookings was transsexual and needed to be segregated for his protection. According to the complaint, two jailers, one male, one female, made Brookings pull down his pants so they could look at his genitals. But the bulk of the complaint centers around the conduct of Clunk and Alfera as attorneys and officers of the court. Brookings alleges that the two violated numerous ethical canons and disciplinary rules. The suit calls it "inconceivable" that Clunk didn't know the statute of limitations had long ago run out, but he used his influence as a judge to get the city of Canton to prosecute the case anyway. Clunk may be personally liable for any award to Brookings, because he made the falsification complaints as a private citizen, not as a judge. © 2002 KWIR Publications
HEALTH AND SCIENCE [16] USA: Estrogen linked to more efficient regulation of a woman's heartbeat Top http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-11/aps-elt110502.php Public release date: 5-Nov-2002 Contact: Donna Krupa djkrupa1@aol.com 703-527-7357 American Physiological Society Estrogen linked to more efficient regulation of a woman's heartbeat Age is the 'equalizer,' according to a study that provides new insights into why women live longer than men October 31, 2002 (Bethesda, MD) &endash; Men die earlier than women. This fact leads scientists and medical r