Government wants to hear from trans community

The Government Equalities Office (GEO) has set up a monthly Trans bulletin and a survey. The initiative seeks to find out the needs of trans people and what progress they are making in "progressing the agenda".

You can download a pdf version of the bulletin by clicking here

NHS and GIRES Trans Workshop

A workshop covering 'Sexual orientation, Trans and the NHS' has been announced. The conference, which will cover the latest legislation on trans rights and involves the Government Equalities Office and GIRES, will be held in London on April 18th.

Time: Monday 18th April
Date: 10:30am-3:30pm
Location: Avonmouth House, London, SE1 6NX
For more information and to reserve a place please contact healthylives@stonewall.org.uk

Click on the image for more details.

Trans women golfers can compete

The US Ladies Professional Golf Association L.P.G.A. players have voted to eliminate the tour’s requirement that players be “female at birth” and to allow transgender athletes to compete, less than two months after a transgender woman sued the tour in federal court, arguing that the rule violated California civil rights law.

The L.P.G.A. was sued in October by Lana Lawless, a retired police officer who had sex reassignment surgery in 2005 and who won the 2008 women’s world championship in long-drive golf. Lawless sought to play in L.P.G.A. qualifying tournaments after Long Drivers of America changed its rules to match the L.P.G.A.’s.

Read the full article in the New York Times here.

12th International Transgender Day of Remembrance

November the 20th will mark the 12th International Transgender Day of Remembrance and many cities and towns in the UK are participating by holding events. The London ceremony will be at the Cruciform building, University Street, WC1 at 3.

179 trans women were murdered worldwide last year.

To find out more go to www.transgenderdor.org

Sonia Burgess Dies

Sonia Burgess
1947 - 2010

The civil rights campaigner and immigration lawyer, Sonia Burgess has died aged 63 after falling under Tube train. The death is being investigated by the police. Sonia was known as David professionally.

Read the Guardian's obituary here and an obituary by Prof Stephen Whittle here.

Participants attacked at third European Transgender Council

Two Turkish delegates to the Third European Transgender Council in Malmoe, Sweden, were attacked as they left a restaurant Sept. 30.

They were physically assaulted and pelted with eggs by five to seven attackers, they said. They also were allegedly later mistreated by police, who asked them offensive questions, questioned their right to be in Sweden and referred to them with incorrect pronouns. The police interrogations made them feel "intensely violated and humiliated," the activists said.

The conference brought together more than 200 trans activists from 35 nations.

New Service to Report Trans Hate Crime

www.TCrime.net

info@gires.org.uk

The Home Office has awarded GIRES a grant to fund a national system for reporting transphobic crime. Appended below are examples of the crimes that trans people have experienced. It appears that only a few victims of such crime report it to the police. One young trans person we know has experienced 60 criminal incidents in the past six months, which include being beaten up and a death threat. Yet she hopes by suffering all this persecution with dignity she will teach the perpetrators to behave better without involving the police. There are other reasons for not involving the police: the fear of being outed in Court; the lack of confidence that the police will deal sensitively and properly with the incident. Yet we know from our work with police forces throughout the UK that many are fully aware of the needs of trans people and very keen to support them.

TCrime.net enables crimes to be reported confidentially and leaves it the individual to decide what information should be passed on to the police.

Sparkle Manchester this weekend

Sparkle! The biggest trans event in the world is held this weekend in Sackville Gardens, Manchester.
For full details go to www.sparkle.org.uk.

Chief sponsors of this year's Sparkle are Pink Punters of Milton Keynes, owners of the Rainbow Bus. Pink Punters' Joe McMahon said: " – The main event – Sparkle in the Park will be held in Sackville Gdns near Canal Street where there is a fantastic statue of Alan Turing. I am hoping to address the attendees at some point to highlight the Enigma Ball in November and to make reference to the Statue (just 50m from the stage) and the fantastic work carried out at Bletchley Park during WWII.

The Enigma Ball is another huge trans event; this one to be held in Pink Punters at Milton Keynes.

Trans Support Group Gets a Gong

The work of the Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES) has been acknowledged in The Queen's Birthday Honours list, published on 12 June 2010. Two of the charity's trustees, Bernard and Terry Reed, have been awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in recognition of their services to the charity.

Tony Fenwick said, "We are delighted that this long-running support and campaign group for the trans community has won the recognition it deserves".

Is The Malawi Couple Sentence A Trans Issue?

Yes, according to Natacha Kennedy. Writing in the Guardian's Comment is free section, Kennedy claims that Tiwonge, who lives as a woman when at liberty, is transgender, possibly intersex, and that failing to mention this is implicitly transphobic.

Read the full article in the Guardian here.

Protest for Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga

You probably have heard about the perceived gay couple in Malawi (Tiwonge identifies as female) who have just been sentenced to 14 years in jail simply for being in love. This is a protest to support them. Come along to the protest in London and bring your friends.

Date: Saturday, 29 May 2010
Time: 13:00 - 14:30
Location: outside the Malawi High Commission London
70 Winnington Road, London N2 0TX
Facebook event

Middle C: A Year-Long Transition from Woman to Man

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation presents the first person documentary Middle C, in which Tristan R. Whiston chronicles his year-long gender transition from woman to man - through the change in his singing voice.

Tristan first performed as solo soprano at the age of six. Years of hard work led to an accomplished singing career.

But two years ago, Tristan decided to give up the most precious thing a singer has — the voice.

For a year, Tristan kept audio diaries, including milestones like the his first testosterone shot and the first time he shaved.

This documentary (made for Outfront) won the Premios Ondas award for International Radio and a silver medal at the New York Festivals.

Tristan has worked in Toronto’s independent theatre community for almost two decades. As an amateur boxer, he fought in over 40 bouts, competing provincially, nationally and internationally.

The documentary is available to listen and for download on the BBC World Service website here.

Greek TV Watchdog fines show for interviewing trans woman

The Greek National Council for TV and Radio has fined a programme for interviewing a trans woman and demanded that Tv does not upset and confuse young people by giving coverage to homosexuals and transsexuals, describing them as 'beyond the normal'.

The GreekTransgendered Support Association has attacked the National Council of Radio and Television (NCRT), for its new decision by which it imposes a 20.000 Euro fine on the Star Channel show, "Fotis and Maria Live", which hosted the transsexual writer and actress, Betty Vakalidou.

In that show, Mrs Vakalidou spoke of her work as a writer, referred to her part as an actress in a film and spoke of her personal experience as a transgendered woman, in a dignified manner while, as the NCRT itself recognises: "we note that [Mrs Vakalidou] herself was very discreet and serious and without being provocative in what she said".

According to the rationale of the decision of the NCRT: "one wonders whether the contents of her interview, because she referred to her personal experiences and the reactions of her family and people in general concerning her change of sex and transsexual women, was not hard to conceive and understand for the underage spectators, given that this issue was alien, maybe even unknown to them, or at least to most of them, and for this reason could have influenced them in a negative manner."

Later on we can read that: "... the issue of homosexuality (the sexual preference for individuals of the same sex) and of sex change with or without surgical intervention that was presented by the show being examined constitutes a social issue and a reality that pertains to a small group of people. It constitutes a condition that is beyond the normal and for that reason it sounds strange to a great degree to the underage spectator... The presentation of information about the love life of homosexual individuals or transsexuals, about the sex change procedure and the feelings and experiences of the woman being interviewed, could possibly influence negatively the underage spectators..."

The Greek Trangendered Support Association say that the NCTVR is failing in its duty to promote equal opportunities and is supporting sexism, homophobia and transphobia.

France strikes transexualism from list of mental illnesses

France has become the first country in the world to remove gender identity disorder, also known as transexualism, from its list of officially recognised mental illnesses. This is huge news but seems yet to have been picked up by English language news sources.

The news was reported in the French national daily Le Figaro and by the AFP newswire in French and English, so my details are from the Spanish language report (e.g. this report in Colombian national El Tiempo).

My translation of an excerpt from the Spanish-language AFP newswire report:

The Minister of Health, Roselyne Bachelot, had announced on 16th May 2009, before the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, that transexualism would not be not considered a psychiatric disorder in France.

On that occasion, numerous personalities from the world of politics and science had signed an article that appeared in the press to petition the World Health Organisation to stop "considering transexuals as affected by mental illness".

"France is the first country in the world that does not consider transexualism as a mental illness" said Joël Bedos, French representative of IDAHO (International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia), to AFP on Friday. "It's historic", added Philippe Caste, spokesperson for the 'Interasociativa lesbiana, gay, bi y trans'. "It was something very important and was greatly anticipated since the promise was made" added Roselyne Bachelot.

This move will likely be widely supported by the transgender community. However, the prospect of the diagnoses being removed in all countries might be a double-edge sword for some. Although the fact that being diagnosed as mentally ill is a requirement to obtain sex-reassignment in some places has been resented, the removal of the diagnosis could raise fears that the procedure may become less accessible.

Simply being transgendered or having trangender desires itself does not currently qualify for the diagnoses, as it requires significant psychological distress to also be present. However, campaigners argue that this distress is largely caused by discrimination and stigma, to which the diagnosis contributes.

The move by France, however, does not de-list the diagnoses from the World Health Organisation's ICD-10 classification or the American Psychiatric Association's DSM and, in fact, the draft DSM-V only slightly modifies the criteria for the diagnoses in children and adults although does rename it 'gender incongruence'.

Nevertheless, this will put pressure on both the World Health Organisation and the American Psychiatric Association to remove the diagnoses which have a long-standing target of criticism from the LGBT community.

Original article on Mind Hacks

An officer and a gentle woman: the sex-change aristocrat

He led a life of privilege — game hunter, Guardsman and gentleman farmer. But Rhodri Davies had only one desire: to be a woman. So he changed his gender, lost his family, and found a new career as a nurse.

Read the full article in The Times here.

Miranda was also interviewed on BBC Radio 4's The Choice on Tuesday 5 November. The programme is available to listen online for the a week here.

Sun and Mail Show Transphobia is Alive and Well

The case of the child who has begun secondary school in her new gender has clearly whetted the appetites of the hacks in the right wing press who are looking for their marmalade droppers.

Schools OUT believes that forcing a child to go through puberty and adolescence when s/he is clearly unhappy in her/his body is child abuse. Furthermore, children are very receptive and understanding about sexual orientation and gender variance from primary school onwards.

Further, we believe that the pernicious influences on children’s understanding and ability to empathise comes from the wider culture, peers and, sometimes from parents themselves. And once again we would emphasise that children coming home and discussing what they have learned at school is what should be expected within a functionally successful family.

Tony Fenwick, co-chair of Schools OUT, said: “This child is under risk of being traumatised by media intrusion. The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) will be publishing guidance for schools on transphobia this autumn and cases like this demonstrate how vital good advice is. Frankly, it won’t come a day too soon.”

The guidance should be on the DCSF website and TeacherNet soon. It is hoped that its official launch will be at the LGBT History Month 2010 Pre-Lanch at the British Museum on Thursday November 19th.

Methodist Minister Comes Out as Trans after 27 years

Just months after telling his own children that he was not their biological father, The Rev. David Weekley, who is in his late-50s, came out to his congregation of 221 members at the Epworth United Methodist Church in the Sunnyside neighborhood in inner Southeast Portland, on Sunday, Aug. 30, Weekley.

Until now, there has been just one openly transgender Methodist clergyman in the U.S. to retain his ordination (That man, Drew Phoenix, 50, had his ordination challenged by members of the church after coming out publicly in 2007 to his congregation in St. John’s of Baltimore United Methodist Church in Maryland.)

Read the full article in the Westlinn Tidings here.

The 5 Genders of the Bugis

The Bugis are the most numerous of the three major linguistic and ethnic groups of South Sulawesi, the southwestern province of Sulawesi, Indonesia's third largest island.

As shown in the National Geographic clip below, they recognise not two but five different genders, some of them endowed with magical powers. In addition to men and women, the bissu, calabai and calalai can also be found.

'Just Plain Sense' Interviews

A selection of recent LGBT-themed interviews of note in Christine Burn's podcast, Just Plain Sense.

- Half an Hour with Peter Tatchell

- Adopting – A trans perspective

- Half an Hour with Dr Stuart Lorimer

- Fascinating Adele: Part One and Part Two

A Meeting with Kate Craig-Wood

In an article titled "'I'm lucky, many men would never pass for a woman'", the award winning businesswoman Kate Craig-Wood talks about her transition from Robert to Kate.

Read the full article in the Telegraph here.