Vitale Letter #255, February 14, 2003

Anne Vitale PhD, Editor

Archives of back issues
Notes on Gender Transition
 
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Olympia Washington : Stonewall Youth announces formation of LBGT support group
Call for Submissions!
Casting Call for film
Press For Change request response to Government proposals
 
GENERAL INFORMATION
Bangkok : Cosmetic surgery --Doctors slam council bid to regain control
New Delhi --Eunuchs take up role of consumer champions
UK: THE GODMOTHER --Sex swap gangster freed after telling court he's going straight as a woman
CANADA --Federal prisons ordered to pay for sex changes
USA: INTERSEX SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA Opens New Office in Seattle
Australia - Re murdered T* Adele Bailey: Ombudsman finds noevidence of police corruption
UK: Brighton & Hove Church Slams Transgender Shop
Hong Kong: Prisoners of gender
Japan--Transsexuals, sex-change advocates fight on against social, registry snub
USA-- Portland OR.--Police step up efforts for on-job respect

 

 MEDIA WATCH
Son's clothing raises crossdressing issues--Mothering Matters
Crossing sport's sex divide
Cross-dresser's unveiling startles wife
Tranny" Santa Cruz mailman retires after 23 years..
UK: Fans of Footballers' Wives are in for a big shock.
 
LEGISLATIVE ACTION
USA: Houston lawmaker files pro-gay bill...
Group wants gender identity in Nunavut human rights law
UK: Press For Change 's response to Government announcement 
  
IN THE COURTS
USA: California--$1.68 million bail posted in Araujo killing
USA: California--"Gwen" Araujo case draws renowned attorney
USA: California-Supporters offer picture of suspect in teen's death

 

BOOKS Etc...
A Girl Called Georgina
 
COMMENTARY
NATC Urges Minnesota citizens to oppose threat to human rights
Metropolitan Community Churches Responds To Vatican Condemnation of Transgender Persons
Transsexual people issues need to be tackled
 
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Re: Incident at Seaworld Theme Park 19/1/2002

From: Samantha Scafe

 
Why use male name? Name trivialized homicide victim

From Julie Davids

 
Re: Who the Hell is Mother Cybil?

From--Alessa Adamo

 
Re: Vatican's declaration regarding transgendered people

Richard Adams

 
Confused on sex

Georgina Somerset Hove, E. Sussex

 
 
=========///========///======///======///==========///==========

ANNOUNCMENTS

Olympia Washington : Stonewall Youth announces formation of LBGT support group

Top

Youth Watch / Communities -The Olympian
http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20030210/communities/25692.shtml
 
The Olympian, Olympia Washington
Monday, February 10, 2003
 
Communities
Youth Watch
 
(SNIP)
 
- Stonewall Youth is an organization dedicated to providing support and
information for bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgender youths ages 21 and
younger. It is led by trained adult and youth peer facilitators. Dances,
video nights, bowling and other social activities are scheduled
periodically. Call 360-705-2738.
Top
Call for Submissions
Top

 

[thanks to Joshua Mira Goldberg via TAS-news Tue, 4 Feb 2003]
 
From: SFSunday@aol.com
Date: Mon Feb 3, 2003 3:09:52 PM US/Pacific
To: SFSunday@aol.com
 
 
Call for Submissions
 
Contributions wanted for Without a Net, an anthology of writing by
females & transpeople of all racial/ethnic backgrounds who grew up
poor or working class, to be published by Seal Press in January of
2004. First-person narratives that read like short stories preferred
over academic-style theories or essays. Ideas for topics include:
Food, housing, neighborhoods, relationships with other poor/w-c
people, relationships with people from upper classes, intersections of
race & class, class & gender, class & sexuality, etc., fashion,
education or lack thereof, jobs, playing lotto, sex work, family,
welfare. How you got by, how you didn't get by, how you get by now.
Any subject large or small that works as a starting point to tell a
part of your story. Pieces are not required to be about childhood.
Contributors must have grown up financially disadvantaged, regardless
of how much or little cash you have as an adult. Essays should be
1,500-3,000 words in length and submitted via email as a Word
attachment.
(If this is not possible, other arrangements can be made.)
 
Deadline for submissions: May 1, 2003
Length: 1500-3000 words
Editor: Michelle Tea
Essays should be submitted via email as Word attachments (If this is
not possible, other arrangements can be made) to Sfsunday@aol.com
Payment: Fee and two copies of the book on publication
Top
Casting Call for film
Top

 

Backstage.com
http://www.backstage.com/backstage/casting/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_i
d=1813240
 
Casting West
Film and TV February 07, 2003
 
"OH, BABY"
 
Steven Rothblatt and Olivier Roland (prod.) are accepting submissions for
Oh, Baby, a feature-length Super 16/digital romantic comedy about a young
man who falls in love with a transgender girl. Dir. Steven Rothblatt. Shoot
starts late June. Copy, credit, and meals provided. There is possible
deferred pay.
 
Breakdown--Alexis: male, Latino, 18-27, feminine, transgender (pre-op),
gorgeous, easily passes as a woman, speaks Spanish, streetwalker, strong
actor, dances; David: 25-32, 5'8" or shorter, small build, Jewish, strong
actor, kisses, dances.
Note: Seeking non-union actors only at this time.
 
Send pix & resume to Steven Rothblatt, 1033 1/2 Sanborn Ave., L.A., CA
90029. INTENDED CONTRACT: SAG LIMITED-EXHIBITION.
 
 
© 2003 VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
Top
Press For Change request response to Government proposals
Top

 

Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2003
From: "stwhittle <stwhittle@yahoo.co.uk>" <stwhittle@yahoo.co.uk>
 
 Press For Change has responded to the Government's proposals for
legislation for transsexual people
the response can be seen at http://www.pfc.org.uk/campaign/pfcresp.htm
 
We hope you will see that we have tried to respond positively, yet
provide clear ideas as to get the government could get things moving.
What we need now is for other people i.e. YOU, to focus on the bits
that are relevant to them as individuals and to write to the LCD's
department and your MP's to promote the ideas.
 
The addresses you should write to are:
 
Secretariat to the Interdepartmental Working Group on Transsexual
People
Constitutional Policy Division
Lord Chancellor's Department
1st floor, Southside
105 Victoria Street
London SW1E 6QT.
 
For your MP: Name, MP, House of Commons, London WC1A 1AA
Top

GENERAL INFORMATION

Bangkok : Cosmetic surgery --Doctors slam council bid to regain control
Top
 
Bangkok Post Monday 10 February 2003 - Doctor...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/10Feb2003_news15.html
 
From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D.
 
Monday, February 10, 2003
 
Bangkok : COSMETIC SURGERY
Doctors slam council bid to regain control
 
Operations may be limited to specialists
 
Aphaluck Bhatiasevi
 
A group of doctors representing several medical colleges has spoken out
against a move by the Medical Council to limit the number of clinics
offering cosmetic surgery to those manned by professionals trained as
specialists in their fields.
 
A draft announcement of the council's plan, to be considered by its new
board on March 13, ran counter to the 1982 Medical Occupation Act permitting
all doctors to carry out cosmetic surgery, said Dr Cholathit Sinvachatanan,
secretary general of the Medical Association.
 
According to the draft, doctors trained in ophthalmology would be allowed to
perform only cosmetic eye surgery, while ear, nose and throat specialists
could conduct cosmetic nose surgery.
 
Under current regulations, all forms of cosmetic surgery may be carried out
by any general practitioner.
 
The announcement was drafted by representatives of the Plastic Surgeons
Association, the Dermatologists Association, the Royal College of Plastic
Surgery, the Royal College of Ophthalmology and the Royal College of
Otolaryngology.
 
Although some 50 doctors gathered yesterday to form a consensus against the
draft, most agreed it was necessary to regulate those carrying out cosmetic
surgery.
 
``We've witnessed increasing problems with cosmetic surgery leading to
unexpected medical complications, and in some cases, even death,'' Dr
Cholathit said. ``It is important to wrest some control and protect the
public.''
 
Dr Paiboon Jitpraphai, of the Urological Association, agreed with the plan
to regulate cosmetic surgery, saying many under-qualified doctors were
conducting operations purely for financial gain.
 
``Private hospitals are cashing in on cosmetic surgery as it becomes more
popular,'' he said. ``Cosmetic surgery, especially sex-change operations,
should not be promoted for commercial purposes.''
 
Dr Niwat Polnikorn, of Ramathibodi Hospital, said cosmetic surgery would
improve if it was carried out only by qualified doctors.
 
However, he disagreed with the Medical Council's proposal allowing all
plastic surgeons to carry out any form of cosmetic surgery.
 
--
 
© Copyright The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 2003
Top
 
New Delhi --Eunuchs take up role of consumer champions
Top

 

From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D.
 
Ananova - Eunuchs take up role of consumer ch...
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_748738.html
 
Saturday 8th February 2003
 
Ananova:
 
Eunuchs take up role of consumer champions
 
A group of eunuchs in New Delhi are helping to right faulty telephone lines
by taking up complaints on behalf of consumers
 
They collect complaints from subscribers and present them before telephone
company officials the next day.
 
The eunuchs reportedly adopt direct and unorthodox line of actions like
threatening to expose themselves to get cases heard.
 
They lay siege to telephone company offices and refuse to move until faults
are repaired.
 
A leader of a group of eunuchs, who is known only by her first name
Jameelajaan, told the Hindustan Times: "We have less polite ways of dealing
with those who wish to fob us off.
 
"Our motives are not mercenary. While people do offer money as a thank-you
gesture, financial transactions are not encouraged."
 
Telephone users have reported a "remarkable" improvement in services since
the eunuchs took up cudgels on their behalf
 
Resident Rashmi Sharma said: "The local linesman used to fleece us on one
pretext or the other. Now he knows that a wrong move can get the eunuchs
after him."
 
A telephone exchange official said: "Efficiency among the field staff has
improved and faults are often rectified without much ado. It is the customer
who ultimately gains."
 
Deputy Commisioner of Police U K Katna said: "In our country everyone is
free to protest verbally or stage a sit-in. Eunuchs are no different. As
long as there's no damage to property, physical assault or disruption of
work, they can take whatever action they feel necessary."
 
--
 
Story filed: 15:23 Saturday 8th February 2003
 
© 2003 Ananova Ltd
Top
 
UK: THE GODMOTHER --Sex swap gangster freed after telling court he's going straight as a woman
Top
 
sundaymail - THE GODMOTHER
http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/page.cfm?objectid=12621715&method=full&site
id=86024
 
From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D.
 
Sunday, February 09, 2003
 
THE GODMOTHER
Sex swap gangster freed after telling court he's going straight as a woman
 
Norman Silvester
Exclusive
 
A GANGSTER nicknamed The Godmother escaped a jail sentence last week after
telling a sheriff he is having a sex change.
 
William Wotherspoon, who once walked free on a murder charge, said he now
wants to be known as Lisa- Anne Docherty.
 
The 5ft 8in scrap dealer told Sheriff Hugh Neilson he was trying to go
straight as a woman and has given up his wild, hardman days.
 
Wotherspoon, 30, turned up in court wearing a long red wig, black gloves,
bracelet, short black skirt, cream blouse, dark stockings, stiletto-heeled
shoes and a mid-length cream coat.
 
He wore make-up and earrings and was accompanied by his partner, Lisa
Barraclough, who is heavily pregnant.
 
Wotherspoon, of Holytown, Lanarkshire, stunned Hamilton sheriff court
officials and members of the public when he appeared in the dock.
 
Some thought a woman had walked in by mistake.
 
One official said: "We were astonished to realise it was a man.
 
"He was immaculately dressed and groomed and many of the men thought it was
a woman when he walked in.
 
"In fact, he turned a few heads in the court room. Even when he spoke, the
voice was soft and feminine."
 
Sheriff Neilson deferred sentence for six months after hearing the proposed
sex change would make a jail term inappropriate.
 
He said he hoped that Wotherspoon would use the time to overcome the various
medical problems he was experiencing.
 
The sheriff warned Wotherspoon he would be sent to prison if he reoffended
in the meantime.
 
He also agreed to Wotherspoon's request that his latest conviction be
recorded under his new name of Lisa- Anne Docherty.
 
Wotherspoon pled guilty on January 14 to charges of perverting the course of
justice, disorderly conduct, breach of the peace and resisting arrest during
an incident at his home in Sunnyside Avenue, Holytown.
 
The court heard then that he was undergoing treatment for a sex change and
wanted to be known as Lisa-Anne. He blamed his violent behaviour on problems
he was experiencing in undergoing the change from man to woman.
 
Wotherspoon has been undergoing counselling for his sex change for the last
four years.
 
He has had his tattoos removed and hormone treatment.
 
The court also heard the convicted thug had been told he was a suitable
candidate for a sex change and had already met with a surgeon.
 
Wotherspoon was acquitted on a legal technicality of murdering a man in a
flat in nearby Bellshill in 1995. The victim, 26- year-old Francis McMillan,
a father of two, died from burns after petrol was poured over him and he was
set alight.
 
Wotherspoon's co-accused, Kevin Hendry, of Mossend, was found guilty and
sentenced to life.
 
Two years later Wotherspoon was jailed for 18 months after attacking James
Hunter with an axe in Main Street, Holytown.
 
The attack fractured Mr Hunter's skull and has left him with long-term
speech and concentration problems.
 
Wotherspoon refused to comment as he left the court clutching his handbag.
 
Top
 
CANADA --Federal prisons ordered to pay for sex changes
Court ruling: Procedure available if doctors deem it is 'an essential service'
Top
 
From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D.
 
NATIONAL POST
http://www.nationalpost.com/national/story.html?id=%7B76C65BBA-EDF5-4BD2-931
8-EA53933B43A4%7D
Janice Tibbetts
Southam News
 
Friday, February 07, 2003
 
OTTAWA - Canada's federal prisons will be forced to allow sex-change surgery
for transsexual inmates as a result of a court ruling that concluded a
blanket ban is discriminatory.
 
"If the medical opinion is that sex reassignment surgery is an essential
service for a particular inmate, it follows that it should be paid for by
Correctional Services Canada, as would any other essential medical service,"
wrote Madam Justice Carolyn Layden-Stevenson of the Federal Court of Canada.
 
Corrections Canada will revise its policy because of the decision,
spokeswoman Michele Pilon-Santilli said.
 
But she warned that sex-change operations will not be available for all
transsexual inmates.
 
The decision upholds a 2001 decision from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal
in the case of convicted murderer Synthia Kavanagh.
 
The tribunal said that it was discriminatory for prisons to have a blanket
ban on sex-change operations but not on "non-essential" services such as the
removal of tattoos.
 
The Corrections and Conditional Release Act requires prisons to provide
essential health care to inmates.
 
Kavanagh, a 41-year-old transsexual, alleged discrimination based on sex and
disability after prison officials refused to allow her to undergo a
sex-change operation that had been pre-approved before she was imprisoned
for the 1989 Toronto murder of her transvestite friend, Lisa (Leo) Black.
 
Kavanagh, who began life as Ricky Chaperon, began hormone therapy and lived
as a woman as a teenager.
 
When she was convicted, she had been been conditionally approved for sex
reassignment surgery.
 
She ended up paying the $14,000 for her operation because of the prisons'
ban. After spending more than a decade in various men's prisons, she was
transferred more than two years ago to Joliette Institution, a
medium-security women's prison north of Montreal.
 
The ruling is expected to affect less than a dozen transsexuals in Canadian
prisons. In 2000, the most recent year for which statistics are available,
10 of the 2,500 inmates in federal penitentiaries were "pre-operative"
transsexuals, but not all of them wanted surgery.
 
Sex-change surgery is considered an essential service that is covered by
medicare in most provinces when a patient has been diagnosed with gender
dysphoria, the medical term for people who believe they are the wrong sex.
 
It should be no different in Canadian prisons, said Justice
Layden-Stevenson.
 
"The right of government to allocate resources as it sees fit is not
unlimited," said Justice Layden-Stevenson in a judgment released yesterday.
 
"A human rights tribunal enjoys a broad discretionary power to award
remedies to redress a discriminatory practice."
 
Ms. Pilon-Santilli said that Corrections Canada allowed the operations
decades ago -- often with sad results.
 
"There have been a lot of tragedies of people who went through it but just
could not adjust," Ms. Pilon-Santilli said.
 
Prisoners are permitted to dress as women and take hormone replacement
drugs.
 
Kavanagh's lawyer could not be reached yesterday to say whether Kavanagh
would seek reimbursement in light of the court decision.
 
The decision agreed with the human rights tribunal that candidates for sex
changes would need medical assessment from one of five medical specialists.
 
--
 
© Copyright  2003 National Post
Top
 
USA: INTERSEX SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA Opens New Office in Seattle
Top
Intersex Society of North America (ISNA)
Press Release
 
 
Also Brings on New Board Member Vernon Rosario and Plans Launch of Medical Education Video in 2003
 
For Immediate Release: February 5, 2003
 
For additional information, contact ISNA Office at 206-633-6077.
 
Seattle - The Intersex Society of North America (ISNA), an advocacy and policy group for people with atypical genital and reproductive anatomies, has moved its office to Seattle, Washington from Petaluma, California. In addition, Dr. Vernon Rosario, a physician and medical historian, has joined the Board of Directors.
 
"We hope to reach out to our many allies in the medical and bioethics communities in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, as well as pursuing our social change agenda nationally and across North America," stated ISNA's Executive Director, Dr. Monica Casper, Ph.D.‰ Among other initiatives, we will be launching an educational video that will offer the medical community a real alternative to unnecessary surgeries on babies with intersex conditions."
 
Dr. Casper was referring to FIRST, DO NO HARM: TOTAL PATIENT CARE FOR INTERSEX, a documentary film which presents a patient-centered approach to the health needs of people with intersex conditions. New evidence and advances in medical ethics have led to the need for revision in the standard of care for intersex. Critiquing current medical practices and exploring a more ethical and humane approach to treatment, the film is compelling, hard-hitting, and deeply moving.
 
The video is currently available for purchase on ISNA's website and will be introduced this year to medical schools and medical institutions across the country. ISNA is releasing it in conjunction with a medical reform „package‰ that includes information about textbook revision, clinical guidelines for teaching intersex issues in medical schools, and a parent‚s handbook. ISNA will also establish a national Medical Advisory Committee in 2003.
 
Dr. Vernon Rosario‚s addition to the Board of Directors will strengthen ISNA‚s ties to the medical community. A child psychiatrist in Los Angeles working in private practice and with LGBTI foster children, Dr. Rosario received his Ph.D. in the History of Science from Harvard University, and his M.D. from the Harvard Medical School--M.I.T. Program in Health Sciences and Technology. He is a widely published scholar whose current research focuses on transgender and intersex children and adolescents.
 
For additional information, please visit ISNA's website at http://www.isna.org/about/board.html or contact us at:
 
4500 9th Avenue NE, Suite 300
Seattle, WA 98105
Phone: (206) 633-6077 or (206) 683-8832
Fax: (206) 633-6049
Email: info@isna.org
Top
 
________________________________________________________________________
 
 
Australia - Re murdered T* Adele Bailey: Ombudsman finds noevidence of police corruption... [The Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Top
 
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 2003 13:50:39 -0000
From: "Claire Ashton" <claire@c-ashton.fsnet.co.uk>
 
ABC News - Ombudsman finds no evidence of pol...
http://abc.net.au/news/australia/vic/metvic-5feb2003-9.htm  
 
Posted: Wed, 5 Feb 2003 17:32 AEDT
 
Ombudsman finds no evidence of police corruption
 
Victoria's police ombudsman says he has investigated corruption allegations
by a senior detective and found no evidence to support them.
 
Senior Detective Gerry McHugh is threatening to sue Police Commissioner
Christine Nixon and other officers, claiming the allegations have been
covered up.
 
The allegations relate to an affidavit which linked him to former policeman
Denis Tanner and the death of transsexual prostitute Adele Bailey in 1978.
 
Ombudsman Barry Perry says his investigation has now been taken over by
Federal Police.
 
"My view was that there were serious discrepancies but I believe that they
were not sufficiently of the nature that would warrant charging detectives
for falsely preparing an affidavit,'' Mr Perry said.
 
Victoria Police says an independent review by the Australian Federal Police
has investigated Senior Detective McHugh's allegations and found no evidence
of criminal behaviour involving Victoria police members.
 
But the force is seeking legal advice in relation to the findings.
 
--
© 2003 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Top
UK: Brighton & Hove Church Slams Transgender Shop
Top

 

Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2003 22:42:29 -0500
From: tgnews_moderator <tgnews_moderator@yahoo.com>
 
Source: Gay.com UK
URL: http://uk.gay.com/headlines/3659
Date: 4 February, 2003
 
 
A shop in Brighton and Hove which caters for transgendered and
cross-dressers has been slammed by the local church.
 
A petition against Lacies, in Portland Road, Hove, has been signed by 57
worshippers at Holy Cross Church in Tamworth Road. The petition has been
handed to the city council by councillor Heather James.
 
It reads: "We believe Portland Road is an unsuitable place for such a
shop. There are schools nearby and it is a family and residential area."
 
Owner Sue Sheppard, a transsexual who has a similar shop in Kent had
defended her right to run a shop in the area, stressing that it is not a
sex shop.
 
She told the Argus: "I'm lost for words. I sell glamour wear. I have a
corset and a wig in the window. There is nothing offensive and nothing
which could upset children.
 
"People in the city are very accepting. These people should be
protesting about something serious like war with Iraq or drugs and kids.
There are far more serious things to be worried about."
 
A council official has visited the shop and written to neighbours saying
he did not think the business qualified as a sex shop and, therefore,
did not require a licence.
 
 
Hong Kong: Prisoners of gender
Top
Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2003 23:20:47 -0500
From: tgnews_moderator <tgnews_moderator@yahoo.com>
 
Source: South China Morning Post
Author: Shirley Lau
Via: TransgenderASIA via Willow Arune
URL:
http://web.hku.hk/~sjwinter/TransgenderASIA/miscellaneous_prisoners_of_gender.htm
Date: 25th January, 2003
 
 
When it comes to legal recognition of their sexual status, Hong Kong's
transsexual community are trapped in a heartbreaking Catch-22 situation.-
 
MOST PEOPLE DON'T think twice about their right to marry. But for
37-year-old transsexual Miranda, it is not so straightforward. Miranda
was born male and had sex reassignment at 33. Now a graceful woman of
medium build and a fair complexion, she wears her hair fashionably
shoulder-length and straight, and accentuates her features with make-up.
 
Two years ago, she was deeply in love with a man who planned to marry
her. However, her adopted sex is not recognised under Hong Kong law
because it is not possible to change the sex on birth certificates. Had
she tied the knot with her boyfriend, it would have been treated as a
marriage between two men, which is unlawful. Worrying he might leave her
if she spilled the beans, Miranda made a painful decision. "I dumped
him," says Miranda, who is now single. "He didn't know I was a
transgendered person. I did not know how to tell him."
 
Miranda is among the estimated 100 or so transsexuals in Hong Kong
frustrated by the lack of legal recognition of their new genders. Their
plight has been highlighted by academics following the British
government's announcement last month of a long-awaited reform to legally
recognise the adopted gender of the country's 5,000 transsexuals.
 
The change had been forced on the British government by a ruling in July
2001 by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg that deemed its
failure to recognise the new identities of two male-to-female
transsexuals a breach of human rights. Under the measure expected to
take effect next year, the transsexuals will be given the right to
change their birth certificates to their new sexes, which effectively
gives them the right to marry.
 
Britain is one of only four European countries - the others being
Albania, Andorra and the Republic of Ireland - that refuse transsexuals
permission to alter their birth certificates. In the United States, all
but three states allow the change. In Asia, however, only a handful of
countries provide legal recognition, including Singapore, some parts of
Australia and New Zealand.
 
"Hong Kong is way behind other developed and enlightened societies in
this regard," says Sam Winter, a psychologist at the University of Hong
Kong (HKU), who specialises in gender identity development and
transgender issues. "It's very unfortunate."
 
Winter estimates Hong Kong is home to fewer than 100 transsexuals but
believes one in 500 people grow up with transgender feelings, and the
majority of these suppress such feelings.
 
In 1981, the first sex reassignment surgery in Hong Kong was performed
by an ad hoc group of doctors at the Princess Margaret Hospital. In
1986, the sex clinic of Queen Mary Hospital founded the gender identity
team to offer comprehensive assessment and treatment of transsexual
patients seeking a sex change. From 1986 to 2000, the team assessed 82
cases and 38 people received sex reassignment.
 
Despite a lack of legal recognition of their adopted sex, few
transsexuals in Hong Kong have challenged the status quo for fear of
exposing themselves to social discrimination. Winter says a few years
ago, one contacted the government pressing for a change in the law. Some
medical experts have also called for a legal review. But the voices have
never been strong enough to trigger public debate or government action.
 
Miranda says this lack of legal recognition of her adopted gender makes
it difficult for her to develop a relationship. "This is always a
problem for us: should we tell our boyfriends who we are?" she says,
adding that although she doesn't want to lie, she believes few men could
handle the truth. "If the law is changed, then I wouldn't have to think
about all that."
 
Ironically, marriage is not entirely off-limits for Hong Kong's
transsexuals. Because the law recognises a person's biological sex only,
a male-to-female transsexual could marry a woman and a female-to-male
could marry a man - although Winter says such relationships are rare.
 
Nonetheless, there is a host of other legal issues that confront
transsexuals. According to Robyn Emerton, assistant professor at the
HKU's faculty of law, a transsexual such as Miranda is open to
prosecution for using a female toilet, although Miranda has not run into
any trouble so far. Were she sentenced to jail for committing a crime,
she would be sent to a male prison. In theory, Miranda cannot be a
victim of rape because rape of male-to-female transsexuals is not
covered by the law. "But a female-to-male transgendered person would
still be regarded as woman by law and so could be raped. Yet there has
been no court case to test the issue," Emerton says.
 
After Miranda's sex reassignment, she had her identity card changed,
with the new one showing her new sex and name. But there is a "B" after
the identity number to indicate either the sex, birthday or place of
birth is different to that on the holder's birth certificate. According
to Emerton, the "B" flags the holder's transsexuality to those in the
know, such as the police and immigration officials, because there are
few instances in which the other two criteria are changed.
 
Miranda, whose lawyer made sure she understood her rights before she
went under the knife, says with contempt: "I found it ridiculous that I
could be arrested for going to a female washroom . . . It's like we're
being treated as the third sex."
 
Miranda is frustrated because she believes too many things do not make
sense, including the fact that her operation in 1998 was fully paid for
by the gender identity clinic at the Queen Mary Hospital run by the
government, which ultimately does not recognise her new identity.
 
Winter points to the government's half-hearted stance. "It seems so
ironic that the government should help transgendered people to change
their sex even to the point of providing surgery at its own expense, and
at the end of all this, doesn't give them the legal status they deserve."
 
According to the Immigration Department, correction of any personal
information on one's birth certificate is possible only if the holder is
under the age of 11 or if it can be proven an error had been made. Asked
whether there is any prospect of the adopted sex of transsexuals being
recognised legally, a spokesperson responded in a written reply: "The
existing arrangement has been operating well."
 
Winter calls for the government to respect the rights of the minority
and initiate changes. "By changing the law, you would make the lives of
a small but significant number of people a lot easier," he says. "What
we are looking at are people who suffer fear, social isolation,
depression, and many have attempted suicide."
 
Such experiences are not new for Miranda. Before she had the operation,
she made four attempts to kill herself (two of them before the age of
20) by slashing her wrist or overdosing. Having suffered from depression
for years, she still entertains suicidal thoughts.
 
"I had feelings of gender confusion when I was six or seven," she says,
explaining that she didn't understand what she was experiencing at the
time. She says it was only around the age of 20 that she heard about
"sex reassignment". "Before the operation, every second of my life was
torture," Miranda recalls. "I hated my body every morning I woke up. I
wanted to damage it because I hated it."
 
Answering the needs of her feminine side, Miranda began dressing like a
woman at 15, but she remembers the unfriendly attention she attracted
from strangers. Once a woman approached her on the MTR and said: "Why
are you dressed like a woman?" Miranda responded by asking her the same
question.
 
"I was discriminated against for 20 years. It was to do with the way
people looked and stared at you," Miranda says, closing her eyes as if
to shut out the pain. "You haven't done anything wrong, but people
spread rumours about you and that scars you."
 
Although she chose to wear women's clothes in her free time, at work
(she is wary of revealing her profession), Miranda dressed and acted
like a man. But that did not stop people from gossiping about her, she
says, which aggravated her depression. After her fourth suicide attempt,
she was introduced to the gender identity clinic that offered her two
years of counselling before she decided to undergo the operation, to her
mo-ther's dismay. But Miranda refused to reconsider. She says: "I
thought, if I died, my mother would lose a child. If I didn't die, she
had lost me [as a son] already. But if I had the operation, at least I
would be happy myself."
 
Miranda had three operations totalling 29 hours over three months,
during which she suffered tremendous physical pain brought on by breast
augmentation and surgery that involved using part of the colon to form
the vagina. "We have to suffer so much to get what other people take for
granted," she says. "Right after the operation, I asked myself, `What's
next?'"
 
Wanting to start a new life with a new identity, Miranda transferred to
a different department at work after her operation, trusting only a few
colleagues with her secret. She still sees her mother, who struggles to
accept Miranda's new identity.
 
While she keeps in touch with a few former workmates, she stopped seeing
her transsexual friends, a reaction Winter says is typical of
transsexuals. "I missed them sometimes, but we all wanted to have a
fresh start," Miranda says, referring to her and her friends.
 
Although she felt "totally relaxed" after the operation, she still is
susceptible to black moods. "I don't like this world," she says
matter-of-factly, explaining she has learned to protect herself by
putting up the barricades. "I try to act tough, speak tough. But I don't
want to be tough."
 
Winter says many transssexuals' emotional problems are largely a result
of how society treats them. "Some [medical experts] claim that
transsexuality is a disorder," he says. "But you might say that it's
society that has a mental disorder, not the people concerned.
Transgendered people are ordinary people but their adopted sex is not
legally acknowledged. That is an injustice."
 
Emerton says she and Winter are trying to bring the issue to the
government's attention. "We're very much at the beginning. We hope to
form a concern group with the transgender community to discuss the
issues that most concerns them and to try to effect change," she says.
"We may raise the issue with the Equal Opportunity Commission or the
Immigration Department."
 
Miranda says she has never contemplated coming out to fight for her
right because the community is too small and, most importantly, she
can't risk having her identity exposed. "But I do agree that changing
the law would give us something good," she says. "Even if all else
fails, we would still have the law that gives us rights. You can get
married and you have a choice. But we don't. That's what we want: the
choice and the right."
 
 
Top
Japan--Transsexuals, sex-change advocates fight on against social, registry snub
Top

 

The Japan Times Online
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20030206b7.htm
 
Thursday, February 6, 2003 
Transsexuals, sex-change advocates fight on against social, registry snub
 
By KEIJI HIRANO
Kyodo News
 
Transsexuals and their supporters have teamed up to seek public
acknowledgment of those who suffer from gender identity disorder and to
pressure the government into allowing sex changes to be recorded in official
documents.
 
The NAO group, which stands for No Assignment of Opposite Gender, takes its
name from a character in a popular TV drama focusing on a junior high school
student with gender identity disorder.
 
The group has set up a Web site that provides information on transsexuals
and the discrimination they suffer.
 
It has also tied up with lawmakers from both the governing and opposition
parties to address the challenges faced by transsexuals, said Masae Torai, a
member of the group.
 
Torai had a sex-change operation from female to male in the United States in
the late 1980s. He said that having changes of gender officially recorded in
family registers is one of the group's goals.
 
Six people who have undergone sex-change operations, including Torai, filed
civil suits in 2001 seeking to have their new gender recorded in their
family registers. Three have had their requests rejected, while rulings on
the others are still pending.
 
"I believe many other transsexuals in Japan are now struggling to gain legal
approval to have their gender change listed in their family register,
although I have not yet had any contact with them," said Torai, a freelance
writer in Tokyo.
 
Although courts have turned down several requests, Torai said, "I have been
employed as a male part-time lecturer at the state-run Mie University, and
another state-run university also plans to accept me as a male lecturer."
 
Because their new gender goes unrecorded in official documents, many
transsexuals can only get part-time jobs because such employers do not
require them to submit residence certificates, Torai said, and they also
cannot enjoy the social benefits afforded to ordinary married couples.
 
Aya Kawakami, a NAO member who lives as a woman, said, "As an association, I
hope we will be able to push lawmakers and administrative bodies to allow us
to register gender changes on official documents, such as family registers
and medical records."
 
Satoru Ienishi, a member of the Democratic Party of Japan with a seat in the
House of Representatives, said, "The government should allow people to alter
their registered genders if they are medically identified as (having gender
identity disorder) and undergo a sex-change operation.
 
"As a lawmaker, I intend to ask the Justice Ministry and others where they
stand on this issue and how they plan to tackle it."
 
Ienishi led a group of plaintiffs in a lawsuit concerning HIV infection from
tainted blood products.
 
Transsexuals are predisposed to identify with the opposite sex, often feel
at odds with their bodies, and sometimes harbor a desire to undergo surgery
and hormonal treatment to change their gender.
 
The Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology introduced guidelines for
sex-change operations in May 1997, recommending that patients receive
psychiatric counseling and hormone therapy before undergoing the procedure.
 
Experts estimate that there are anywhere from 7,000 to 70,000 people with
gender identity disorder in Japan.
 
The association is planning to hand out light blue ribbons bearing the NAO
logo and ask people to wear them as a show of understanding for
transsexuals.
 
Ryoko Wakatake, a member of the group, said, "I want people to wear the
ribbon to show they stand by those with (gender identity disorder)."
 
Wakatake, a municipal assembly member in Koganei, western Tokyo, worked for
the adoption of a written opinion by the assembly in September seeking
official recognition of gender changes. She said, "The color of the ribbon
symbolizes our hope that people with (the disorder) will be able to live
under a blue sky."
 
The written opinion, which the Koganei assembly unanimously adopted, was
submitted to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, as well as the public
management and home affairs minister.
 
"As long as transsexuals face unfairness, they feel gloomy even under clear
and sunny skies," Wakatake said.
 
The Japan Times: Feb. 6, 2003
(C) All rights reserved
 
Top
 
USA-- Portland OR.--Police step up efforts for on-job respect
Top
 

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/portland_news/104445033312511.xml

 
Police step up efforts for on-job respect
 
02/05/03
 
MAXINE BERNSTEIN
 
The Portland Police Bureau, which cites respect as one of its core values on
the bureau's letterhead, is taking steps to promote respect in the workplace
after staff rated it low in an employee survey.
 
Led by Assistant Chief Lynnae Berg, six officers and an administrative clerk
have been named to a workplace environment assessment team.
 
Each team member is interviewing co-workers to find out what problems exist
and seek ideas on how to avoid them. The team has the task of developing a
plan to improve the culture of the Police Bureau.
 
"We're looking at 'How do we treat each other in the workplace?' It could be
things we say or certain kind of talk that's been allowed," Berg said. "We
want to intervene at the earliest possible moment instead of allowing
problems to fester and become more serious."
 
In recent years, problems have festered, leading to stress-related
disability claims or lawsuits filed by officers who have contended they were
mistreated, harassed or sexually harassed by other officers or supervisors.
 
The bureau's poor response at Central Precinct to an officer's sex change,
for example, and to the sexually explicit initiation skits performed by
members of the Special Emergency Reaction Team were subjects of recent
disability stress claims, lawsuits and investigations.
 
In a 2002 employee survey, "fairness" on the job and "workplace culture"
received the lowest ratings.
 
"This is unacceptable, and we must work together at bringing these numbers
up," Berg wrote in a Jan. 23 memo to staff. The team will evaluate
interactions among officers, among nonsworn staff members and between both
groups and their managers.
 
Bureau puts up posters In addition to the team's proposed plan, the bureau
also recently distributed "Respectful Work Environment Policy" posters that
boldly state, "We all deserve a respectful place to work."
 
With figures of people holding hands as they stand on bridges linking
buildings, the poster also says the bureau won't tolerate harassment,
offensive or discourteous behavior, demeaning statements, threats or
intimidation, unprofessional and discourteous actions, and any behavior that
fosters an abusive work environment.
 
The team will reconvene Feb. 14 to share the information members have
gathered and to develop ways to improve the bureau's work environment.
Training on interpersonal communication, intervention and mediation for
officers as well as supervisors is one idea being considered, Berg said.
 
Some officers have embraced the effort more than others.
 
"I know I got a poster," Traffic Cmdr. Mike Garvey said, when asked what he
thought about the new workplace team. "I'm respectful . . . but truthfully,
I haven't paid much attention to it. We've got too much going on on the
streets."
 
Joanne Johnson, who has worked for the bureau for 81/2 years and is the
tactical operations division's administrative clerk, said she agreed to
serve on the team. If a colleague contacts her, she will arrange to meet
with them. Personally, she said she has had positive experiences at work but
wants to help others feel as comfortable.
 
"I think it's a really good idea and important that all employees have a
chance to give their input in a more informal way," Johnson said.
 
Berg said she has conducted several interviews.
 
"People are really open, wanting to share personal experiences," Berg said.
 
Mixed response from officers Some officers said privately they find the idea
foolish and chuckle at the new posters that have gone up in the bureau and
its precincts.
 
Officer Kurt Nelson, a 18-year bureau veteran; Detective Peter Simpson, a
9-year bureau member and police union representative; and Sgt. Neil
Crannell, an 18-year bureau veteran, were more diplomatic.
 
"Will it do any good? It takes more than a committee. It takes 'walking your
talk,' " Nelson said, suggesting that supervisors lead by example.
 
Crannell said respect is an attitude that must permeate the bureau. "You
can't legislate respect," he said.
 
Simpson said, "I guess anything to make people feel like they're being
listened to is going to be helpful."
 
But he added, "It's a committee, ya know? It's Portland at its best. Can't
we all just get along? That's really the bottom line here."
 
Maxine Bernstein: 503-221-8212; maxinebernstein@news.oregonian.com
 
--
© 2003 OregonLive.com. All Rights Reserved.
Top
 
MEDIA WATCH
   
Son's clothing raises crossdressing issues--Mothering Matters
   Top
   
   From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D.
   
http://www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20030211/localregional/958318.h
tml
     
Tuesday, February 11, 2003
 
Son's clothing raises crossdressing issues
Mothering Matters
   
By ELIZABETH BAUCHNER
   
Last spring, I wrote a column about my son and his penchant for wearing
girls' clothing. At the time, he was 3 1/2 and very fond of his new red
bikini. 
   
This year, he's discovered makeup and plastic high heels, and he's more into
Princess dress-ups than he was last year. I think it's all perfectly
innocent, but unfortunately, many others seem to think he's some sort of
deviant creature. 
   
Hogwash. His taste in clothing is as innocent as his sisters' tastes in
clothing. I don't see why he should feel ashamed of his choices when his
sisters are free to wear dresses and skirts whenever they want. The only
crisis here is that he can't just be himself without someone trying to label
him a deviant or trying to shame and embarrass him.
   
My father-in-law argues that it's best if he learns to accept society's
gender dress codes early on because, like other aspects of life, there are
just certain rules we all must follow. We all must wear shoes in the grocery
store, for example, and not taste-test all the produce. He also argues that
adults can decide whether or not to conform to society because they possess
the ability to predict and weigh the consequences, but we shouldn't let
children break societal norms because they will be judged too harshly.
   
I agree with him for the most part, and I'm sure he's just as concerned
about his grandson's well-being as I am. But my son seems able to handle the
criticism. He knows he is in a minority, and he still chooses to dress like
his sisters. I could pass it off as stubbornness, but the truth is, he just
likes dresses. It's part tactile, part visual. He simply likes the way
feminine clothing looks and feels.
   
Both my son and I have caved in to pressure on this issue, and I feel sorry
for him. He's the middle child between two sisters who get to wear dresses
whenever they want, and he doesn't understand why he can't. I imagine it's
hard for him to watch his sisters wear dresses without worry or shame when
he has to ask permission every time. I imagine he feels similar to the first
women who attended law school, or joined a carpenter's union, or made any
unconventional choice that wasn't acceptable to society.
   
Out of curiosity, I performed an online search at google for "effeminate
boys" just to see why this issue affects people so deeply. Far from gaining
any insight into the matter, I found some rather disturbing information
about how badly these boys are treated by society. They are often labeled
"sissies," "wimps," "weak" or worse, and they are apparently despised by
segments of both the gay and straight communities, to say nothing of
religious zealots of all stripes.
   
It's worth mentioning that not all adult cross-dressers are gay. It's also
worth mentioning that my son isn't even all that effeminate, which
supposedly is a character trait in boys that leads to all kinds of problems.
   
I hesitate to call him a cross-dresser because he's 4, and really, can
4-year-olds reasonably be labeled as such? (Does a little girl pretending to
be a pirate yield so much anxiety?) Yet reading some of the psycho-drivel I
found online could lead me to believe that he's suffering from a
gender-identity crisis requiring years of intensive therapy to save him from
a life of drugs, promiscuity and probable suicide.
   
The fact is that there's nothing wrong with him. Any confusion he may feel
is caused by the fact that he's torn between wanting to belong to society
and wanting to be himself; it's not caused by anxiety over wanting to be
someone else. He's a happy, free-spirited boy who loves to think for
himself. I can only hope that if he changes, it's because the change came
from within himself and not because he felt forced to conform to society's
shallow, gender-specific dress codes. In the meantime, I remind him that I
love him for who he is, not because of what he wears or how he looks.
   
Elizabeth Bauchner lives in Ithaca. Write to her at P.O. Box 806 Ithaca, NY,
14851 or visit http://www.elizabethbauchner.info.
   
--
   
© 2003 Ithaca Journal. All Rights Reserved.
   Top
   
   

   Crossing sport's sex divide
   Top
   
   Times Online
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-570490,00.html
 
February 08, 2003 
   
Crossing sport's sex divide
   
By Andrew Clennell
   
THE caricature of beefy women athletes who seem more like men than women
will soon be beyond a joke &emdash; some women competitors could really be men.
   
Under a ruling that is set to change sporting barriers for ever,
transsexuals will be able to choose the gender under which they compete and
which changing room to use.
   
And the lack of a sex change operation may not be a hindrance to men who
prefer to be women, according to advice being sent to 330 sports governing
bodies by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. "One can be declared
a different sex after two years, even if you haven't had the operation," a
spokesman said. 
   
The Government's consultation is in preparation for legislation to be
introduced after a European Court of Human Rights decision that Britain was
failing to give transsexuals "full legal recognition in their acquired
gender". 
   
"In line with the proposed changes, we have obviously checked with the
sports clubs to check with what their rules are and how they might cope with
the proposed changes," the ministry spokesman said.
   
He would not be drawn on whether the Government expected controversy over
whether men who became women would have an advantage over women who had
always been women. But many organisations are concerned that such rules will
have an impact on the detection of hormones and doping tests, and there may
also be problems in the changing room.
   
Until now, the most celebrated transsexual to cross the gender line is the
tennis player Richard Rashkind who, after a court battle against the Women's
Tennis Association, became Renee Richards and played against the likes of
Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova.
   
--
   
Copyright 2003 Times Newspapers Ltd.
   
   Top
   

   Cross-dresser's unveiling startles wife
   Top
   
   TheStar.com - Cross-dresser's unveiling start...
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Artic
le_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035777497938&call_pageid=973280119494&col=9690488677
76      
     
Feb. 6, 2003. 01:00 AM
   
Cross-dresser's unveiling startles wife
   
ELLIE
   
Q... My husband of 10 years (second marriage for both) revealed he's been a
cross-dresser for as long as he can remember though he's dressed on very few
occasions. He wants my support and understanding, and I don't know what to
do. At my request he showed me some pictures, and "she" is quite believable;
he doesn't want me to meet "her" until I feel ready.
   
He's always been a good husband, and we love and trust each other very much.
He's heterosexual and says he has no interest in becoming a woman. Now he
wishes that "she" and I can be occasional "girlfriends." I know nothing
about this subject.
   
Janice
   
--
   
A... Forget sharing chick chat until you know more. And why his sudden
desire to confess. The deception may be more of an issue than the behaviour;
you two need to talk about this, possibly with the help of a professional
counsellor. As for your reaction to "her," get informed, then decide. Yale
University psychotherapist Amy Bloom, author of Normal: Transsexual CEOs,
Crossdressing Cops and Hermaphrodites With Attitude, raises the issue that
wives of straight cross-dressers end up dealing with "a marriage they did
not foresee and would not have chosen." But insiders say some of the wives
not only tolerate but participate in the "presentation." If you still love
him/her after the shock subsides, whatever works is your business.
   
Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health gender identity clinic
offers counselling for cross-dressers, and can refer interested spouses to
specialists in the field. Tel. 416-535-8501; http://www.camh.net, click on
"About mental health," scroll to "Gender identity clinic."
   
For background research papers, see the Renaissance Transgender Association
Inc.: http://www.ren.org
   
Ellie appears Wednesday to Sunday.
E-mail: ellie@thestar.ca. Fax: 416-814-2797. http://www.ellie.ca.
   Top
   
   
"Tranny" Santa Cruz mailman retires after 23 years..
   Top
   
   Mercury News | 02/05/2003 | `TRANNY' SANTA CR...
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/5109562.htm
   
Posted on Wed, Feb. 05, 2003
   
`TRANNY' SANTA CRUZ MAILMAN RETIRES AFTER 23 YEARS
COLORFUL CARRIER DEFINED HARBOR AREA FOR MANY
   
By David L. Beck
Mercury News
   
How do you say goodbye to a neighborhood you've nurtured and nannied for 23
years?
   
Postman Dennis Allen said it to the people on his Santa Cruz harbor-area
route -- people he's known through all the cycles of their days -- with a
potluck party and a good-timey band. They said it to him with laughs, hugs,
fond memories, a few outrageous gifts and maybe a tear or two.
   
"He is that harbor area," said Donna Ruiz, watching with approval as Allen
worked the room in midnight purple velvet and a piled-high black wig.
"That's what it's all about: Diversified. Open. Full of fun."
   
She described him in terms that blended ``Cheers'' with small-town America.
"He's the barber who knows your name, the doctor who knows your history. In
a dress."
   
As fellow letter carrier Marcy Cayton said, "Things are definitely quieter
around the post office without him. He kept things lively."
   
Allen turned 55 in mid-December and hung up his blue shorts and brown
leather bag in early January. "I couldn't believe it when I found out how
old he was," said Cayton. "I guess he's young at heart. I had just assumed
he was much younger because of the way he acts."
   
"And dresses," added her daughter, Sarah Evans, 11.
   
Halloween and his final day aside, Allen walked his route in regulation
shorts, moving efficiently, delivering the mail and spreading the gossip.
"It's amazing to me that he could get the mail out on time to everybody,"
said Ruiz, "because he always stopped and talked.|
   
He did more than talk, neighbors say. "He looked out for us in the
neighborhood here," said Bev Dyc.
   
He called that area "the office" -- as in, "a nice day at the office."
   
Commitment to service
   
He left your packages with neighbors, paid your postage-due for you and came
to your parties alone or with a girlfriend, almost always in drag. He was
close enough to his customers to convince one woman that she ought to cancel
her subscription to Vogue when the magazine grew too ad-heavy. He threw an
annual birthday party for himself and the women on his route at the Crow's
Nest, a harbor-side watering hole.
   
"Well, you know," said Allen, "it's kind of an old-timey thing. When we were
growing up, we had, like, the milkman, the paperboy and the mailman, and
they were always the same. You don't get that continuity in life anymore.
   
"At the risk of sounding corny, I thought it was real important to represent
a stable thing in everyone's life: `It must be noon, here comes Dennis.'
Someone brings you something every day, and while you may throw 90 percent
of it away as soon as you get it in disgust, I think it's still one of the
last bastions of public service left that people can count on.
   
"And then," he adds, "I was friends with a lot of those people, too,
personal friends. I've seen people be born on that route, grow up, move
away, come back . . . I think I've been a constant in those people's lives
for 23 years."
   
Allen knows about "goodbye." Son of an Army officer, he had a peripatetic
childhood, born in Maine, schooled in Japan, Germany, France and "one really
weird foreign country, Alabama." He said his principal memory of those days
is waving goodbye to places through the rear window of a car.
   
He dropped out of Auburn University in his sophomore year and hitchhiked to
San Francisco, where the Summer of Love had started without him.
   
Drafted, he ended up in a helicopter over Vietnam. Among his souvenirs of
those days are a cheap Chinese assault rifle, a black 1st Air Cavalry hat
and a chestful of medals, including a Silver Star -- the Army's
third-highest decoration for gallantry in action -- which he wore one
Halloween on a women's Army uniform.
   
Glad to be a `tranny'
   
He's been married twice. "I always tell everybody, there's plenty of women
who love trannies. And I had a relationship with both of them."
   
He prefers "tranny" to the term cross-dresser, which he calls stodgy, and
says the wearing of women's clothes is his second-favorite hobby, after
backpacking in the Sierra. In T-shirts and jeans he may be a "dowdy little
man," said Allen. But when he dresses up, he can have a little fun, with his
collection of wigs, thrift-shop chic and size-11 pumps.
   
Why? His short answer is, why not? "Put it this way," he said. "I don't know
any trannies who have quit and are happy -- who aren't miserable. It's a
little easier for younger ones to come out. Back in my generation, we'd have
purges -- get disgusted, throw everything away, say, `That's it!' "
   
All you were doing, though, was "making yourself miserable. And you've
thrown away your whole wardrobe.
   
"I did that twice. But around 1979, '80, I decided, `You know what? This is
what I . . . am.' "
   
Allen joined the post office in Los Angeles in 1970, and moved to Santa Cruz
two years later. He got his own route, the one he kept until he retired, in
1979.
   
"I always told people I answer to five things," he once said. "Dennis, Dish,
Snake, Sarge and `Hey, mailman!' But I don't answer to `Hey, mailman!'
anymore."
   
For his retirement party, he chose what he called his "Goth princess look --
aging Goth princess" and hired the Road Hogs for the dancing pleasure of his
guests, who numbered between 150 and 200.
   
Ruiz smiled at Allen's party mix. On the dance floor were men with women,
women with women, women in what used to be thought of as men's clothes, men
in women's clothes, even a 3-year-old in full Barbie princess regalia.
   
"You've got beach bums," said Ruiz. "You've got hippies who are still
smoking pot and probably growing it. You've got multimillionaires,"
dot-commers who got out while the getting was good.
   
"It's Middle America," she said. "Only weird and eclectic."
   
Contact David L. Beck at dbeck@sjmercury.com or at (831) 423-0960.
   Top
   
   
   

   UK: Fans of Footballers' Wives are in for a big shock. 
   Top
   
   From Brenda Lana Smith R.af D.
   
Britain - Georgina [ne George Tuttle] Somerset 80, was born a
hermaphrodite... ["best" magazine... 4 February 2003 issue]
   
BLS' OCR'd text pages 6 & 7...
   
EXCLUSIVE: It's in the news &emdash; so what does it mean to you?
   
Fans of Footballers' Wives are in for a big shock. Jackie's baby &emdash; being
raised, of course, by Kyle and Chardonnay &emdash; is a hermaphrodite...
   
How dare Footballers' Wives show a baby with both sex organs like me?
   
Georgina Somerset 80, was born a hermaphrodite, living as a man for 34 years
before becoming a woman. She is furious with the Footballers' Wives
storyline which she fears may cheapen people like her
   
When I was born my parents discovered I was a hermaphrodite with an
underdeveloped penis and some female sexual organs. My parents debated what
to put on my birth certificate for weeks before finally deciding they wanted
me to be their son.
   
Physically, I grew up as neither boy nor girl, with neither male nor female
secondary sexual characteristics. 1 didn't go through puberty, and never
developed pubic hair or breasts.
   
But strangely, ever since childhood, I had felt that I was a woman. I longed
to wear a pretty dress and hated being expected to like getting into scraps
and play in the dirt.
   
I tried hard to fit in as a male, and on the surface I was very successful.
I went to Reigate Grammar School For Boys in Surrey, played rugby and
learned to smoke a pipe.
   
At the age of 17, I saw a boy in the nude for the first time at the showers
at school. He was very well developed and I knew that I looked nothing like
that at all. I was very frightened and confused. I wondered why I wasn't the
same.
   
After school, I trained in dentistry and joined the Navy as a dentist in
1944. With my short-back-and-sides haircut, I convinced the navel surgeon
there was no need for physical examination and joined up as a surgeon
lieutenant. Had I been forced to undergo an examination I'm sure I would
never have got in.
   
Because I had no facial hair, I just pretended to use a razor and I washed
in private so that no one would ever discover my secret.
   
I had never talked to anyone about the way I felt. It was a different world
then. Sex was completely taboo. And I was asexual. I never had any sexual
feelings for either men or women.
   
By the time I was in my mid-30s, the strain of fitting in as a man was
becoming too much. I finally sought professional help and started living as
a woman in 1957.
   
All my life, people have misunderstood my condition. I am not a transsexual
and I didn't have a sex change. I had corrective surgery to make me the sex
that l really was.
   
One psychiatrist even advised me to have electric shock treatment because he
thought that my need to live as a woman was all in my mind.
   
But when I finally went to see a sexologist at the age of 32, I discovered
the truth. The specialist told me I was biologically female and needed
oestrogen 'like a baby needs milk'.
   
He prescribed a course of hormones to make my undeveloped breasts grow, and
suggested a corrective operation on my genitals.
   
It was not an easy transition and for a while I went back to living as a man
because of the social and family pressure. Some people disapproved of what I
was trying to do. But every bone in my body cried out to be the woman I
really was.
   
I didn't feel I could truly be a woman until it said 'female' on my birth
certificate, but getting it changed was a real struggle. When I finally won
my battle in 1960, I was delighted. I became the first person in the UK to
have their birth certificate altered from male to female.
   
In the same year I moved to Hove, East Sussex, to make a new start - and
that was where I fell in love for the first time. The feeling amazed me.
   
When I met Christopher, it was love at first sight. There is no other way to
describe it. If anyone asks, "Are you really in love with so-and-so?" you
know if your heart hasn't leapt out and hit the ceiling that you're not.
When I saw him, l felt like my heart actually exploded.
   
The feeling was magical. It was just chemistry. He was my Prince Charming
then and he still is now. He accepted me for what I was and didn't worry
about what I had been. It's never been an issue that I was born a
hermaphrodite.
   
We married in St Margaret's Church, Westminster, in 1962. I wore a white
dress and a beautiful tiara that made me feel like a princess
   
Last year we celebrated our ruby wedding anniversary. Although we couldn't
have children because my uterus wasn't developed properly, we have had a
wonderfully happy life together. I didn't feel as though I really started
living until the day I met Christopher.
   
I have faced a great deal of prejudice in my life, so the Footballers' Wives
storyline seems to me like an insult. I think that making a fictional
account of something as serious as this completely cheapens the whole issue.
It makes someone like me seem like a laughing stock.
   
I wouldn't mind if they did it decently, but not if they make up a lot of
nonsense. They can't know what it feels like to be born like that or how
profoundly it affects your life.
   
• A spokeswoman for Footballs' Wives denied that the series was cheapening
the issue.
   
She said, "The intersex storyline is an issue that writers wanted to address
and they hope they have done it in a sensitive and informative manner within
the format of a drama.
   
"It has been researched properly and is supported by various organisations.
This is a medical condition. If we had addressed any other medical condition
no one would be asking any questions.
   
"The writers don't feel the issue should be seen as taboo and they hope to
raise awareness and enable people to talk openly about it"
   
--
   
What is a hermaphrodite?
   
The simple definition is 'a person born with both male and female
genitalia'.
   
True hermaphrodites have both ovary and testicular tissue, sometimes in the
same organ. Some can still give birth or father children. Those born with
ambiguous genitals have tests to discover which sex they should be assigned
to.
   
This condition is extremely rare - there are only around 450 known cases.
More common are female or male pseudo-hermaphrodites .
   
Female pseudo-hermaphrodites are born with ovaries and a uterus, but with
masculine genitalia. The most common cause is an overproduction of
testosterone. About one in 14,000 babies is born with this condition.
   
Male pseudo-hermaphrodites are born with ambiguous or female external
genitalia but with testes, usually in the abdominal cavity.
   
--
   
Is it common?
   
Dr Jay Hayes-Light, director of the UK Intersex Association says
hermaphrodites or intersex people, often conceal their condition.
   
About one in 2000 babies in the UK is born with indeterminate sex organs
each year as a result of one of around 24 different conditions.
   
Sex is determined by several factors, including chromosomes hormones and
internal and external sex organs. In fact, The British Journal Of Sports
Medicine claims one in 500 athletes would fail as 'male' or 'female' if
their chromosomes were tested.
   
Dr Hayes-Light says, "It is possible for most intersex people to remain
anonymous. 
   
"Many intersex people have suffered considerable trauma, often at the hands
of doctors and their own families.
   
"There is no typical lifestyle adopted by intersex people. Most who are
aware they are intersex prefer to lead 'ordinary lives'."
   
Hermaphrodites around the world
   
•Native American Navajos recognise three sexes - male, female and nadle.
Nadles were often consulted for their wisdom and skills and would hold
important positions in the tribe.
   
•In India there is a third gender caste, the hijra. Hijra translates as
'sacred erotic female-man', and the caste has a 2500-year history.
   
•For intersex people born in Papua New Guinea, life can be very harsh or
very grand. Some of the 'kwolu-aatmwol' are killed at birth, while others
are given special status and become shamans or war leaders.
   Top
   
   

   LEGISLATIVE ACTION
   Top
   
   USA: Houston lawmaker files pro-gay bill...
   Measure that would outlaw discrimination against gays, transgenders is the
first pro-gay bill this year
   
Houston Voice: Local
http://www.houstonvoice.com/houston/030207legislature.php3?pub=hou
   
Friday, February 07, 2003
   
By PENNY WEAVER 
   
AUSTIN &emdash; State Rep. Jessica Farrar (D-Houston) has filed the first pro-gay
bill to be proposed before the current session of the Texas Legislature.
   
Farrar's House Bill 574, submitted to the Texas House of Representatives on
Jan. 27, would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation or gender identity.
   
Farrar's District 148 includes the heavily gay Houston Heights and Near
Northside neighborhoods north and northwest of downtown Houston.
   
"This is an extremely important issue," Farrar said. "Employment
discrimination strikes at a fundamental American value: the right of each
individual to do his or her job and contribute to society.
   
"Gay, lesbian and transgender people face pervasive discrimination across
the state of Texas," she added.
   
No federal law prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or
gender identity. According to the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas, it is
legal to fire someone based on their sexual orientation in 37 states,
including Texas. In 48 states, it is legal to do so based on gender
identity. 
   
Farrar's bill would extend employment discrimination protection currently
provided based on race, religion, gender, national origin, age and
disability to sexual orientation and gender identity.
   
"The far right wants you to believe that this bill would give special rights
to gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people, and that is simply not
the case," Farrar said. "This bill is about fair employment practices for
all Texans. 
   
"These policies are good for business and for Texas," she added. "The closer
a company is to the top of the Fortune 500 list, the more likely it is to
have such a policy. Seventy-nine percent of the Fortune 100 companies have
policies that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and over
88 percent of the Fortune 50 companies have such policies."
   
This week, leaders at the Houston GLBT Community Center praised Farrar's
proposal and announced that they will help sponsor transportation from
Houston to Austin in order for gay rights activists to lobby state lawmakers
in support of House Bill 574 and other gay-friendly policies.
   
"Jessica Farrar has been a friend to the GLBT community since her days as a
council aide at City Hall," said center President Clarence Burton Bagby.
"Jessica's non-discrimination bill raises the important issue of equal
employment opportunity and draws attention to the fact that GLBT Texans face
discrimination every day at work."
   
Farrar pointed out that a number of cities &emdash; including Houston &emdash; already
have non-discrimination laws that include sexual orientation and/or gender
identity as protected statuses.
   
"In recent years many local governments and state agencies have implemented
non-discrimination policies that have included sexual orientation," Farrar
said. "I will be the primary author of this bill and I will seek co-sponsors
to help." 
   
A similar bill was proposed and backed during the last legislative session
by gay-friendly lawmakers such as Debra Danburg, Glen Maxey and Harryette
Ehrhardt. Since those sponsors are no longer representatives at the state
Capitol, Farrar said she will lead the way on this issue.
   
"I will be working closely with the Lesbian Gay Rights Lobby of Texas as
well as Houston advocacy groups like the Houston Gay & Lesbian Political
Caucus, GLBT Community Center and PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of
Lesbians and Gays) to push forward this piece of legislation," she said.
   
According to Farrar, a new House leadership in the Republican-dominated
Texas Legislature means many issues will be handled in a much different way.
   
"I will find innovative ways this time around to push legislation forward,"
Farrar said. 
   
According to a press release from the Houston GLBT Community Center, the
facility's Public Policy Program is working with the HGLPC and PFLAG Houston
to organize a bus trip to Austin on Sunday, March 16, for LGRL's March on
Austin. One bus will stay through Monday afternoon in order for the group to
lobby state legislators for equal rights for gays.
   
Bagby said the groups will be lobbying for H.B. 574 and against H.B. 194,
the anti-gay foster care bill.
   
"While thousands of Texas children in state custody need stable caring
families until permanent homes can be found, extremist lawmakers are making
anti-GLBT legislation a top priority," Bagby said. "They need to focus their
energies on solving the state budget crisis and not on finding new ways to
discriminate against GLBT Texans.
   
Filed in November in advance of the current legislative session, H.B. 194
would disqualify gay men, lesbians and bisexuals in Texas from serving as
foster parents. State Rep. Robert Talton (R-Houston) is author of the bill.
   
On Thursday, H.B. 194 was referred to the Juvenile Justice & Family Issues
Committee. No other lawmakers have signed on as co-authors or co-sponsors.
   
The anti-gay H.B. 38 was referred to the State Affairs Committee on Jan. 30.
   
A number of state lawmakers have signed on as joint authors and co-authors
of bill, originated by Rep. Warren Chisum (R-Pampa). The bill is also known
as the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
   
Last week, Chisum circulated a memo inviting fellow House members to sign on
as co-authors, and at least 22 did so. Another four signed as joint authors
of the bill, which would prevent the state