Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Violence Against the Transgendered Only Getting Worse

by Joseph Erbentraut
EDGE Great Lakes Regional Editor
Tuesday Sep 29, 2009

Nearly a month has passed since the Aug. 26 murder of Ty’lia "NaNa Boo" Mack, a 21-year-old transgender woman, in Washington, D.C. But the violent crime remains on the top of the minds of transgender advocates nationwide.

In its wake, many are left wondering whether crimes like the one against Mack are given the sort of national media attention they should. While no one disputes the horror of a death like the one of Matthew Shepard the Wyoming college student left to die on a fence, some do question whether more societally "marginal" people--often transsexuals and the transgendered-- received less scrutiny by the media or sympathy from the general public.

Mack’s death, in broad daylight on a sidewalk near the Transgender Health Empowerment (T.H.E.) office is the latest in a series of high-profile killings of transgender people in recent memory.

Some of the more notorious incidents include Lateisha Green, killed last November in Syracuse, N.Y. Angie Zapata was murdered last July in Greeley, Colo.

While these cases did, indeed, receive media coverage from both mainstream and LGBT media, others, such as Paulina Ibarra’s murder last month in East Hollywood, Calif., appear to have been largely overlooked.

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Sunday, September 20, 2009

Hormone 'blockers' could be offered to under-16s seeking sex change

By Victoria Richards

Sunday, 20 September 2009

Sex-change experts are considering reviews to current UK guidelines that could see treatment with "hormone blockers" extended to under-16s and transgender surgery to under-18s.

The moves, if approved, would be taken as a positive response to campaigning led by Kim Petras, currently the world's youngest transsexual, who at 16 succeeded in lobbying the German government to allow her to undergo a sex change.

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"Person of Interest" Wanted in Transgender Killing

KTLA News

2:02 PM PDT, September 17, 2009

LOS ANGELES -- Detectives are searching for a man they are calling "a person of interest" in the murder of Paulina Ibarra, a transgendered person, who was stabbed to death in her East Hollywood apartment.

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THEATRE TheStar.com | Theatre | A transgender twist on Secrets A transgender twist on Secrets

All-male cast lived the theme of a new play about black guys who keep it all inside
Sep 19, 2009 04:30 AM
Ashante Infantry
Entertainment Reporter

Darren Anthony has always taken his big sister's lead, following her into social work, sketch comedy, acting and now playwriting. As it's said in their family: "Darren does what trey does."

He could do worse.

trey anthony is the creator of the award-winning `da Kink in My Hair, which was the first Canadian production staged at the Princess of Wales Theatre and has also been mounted in San Diego and London and adapted for television.

Now, she's producing Darren's first play, Secrets of a Black Boy, which opens at The Music Hall on Friday. With its focus on male angst and similar use of dramatic monologues, the show is being touted as "the male answer to `da Kink," which examined the lives of black women.

Forthright, plain-spoken trey also gets billing as dramaturge and contributing writer. "I'm the younger brother, so I do a lot of listening," says easygoing Darren of heeding her script suggestions: less cursing, and more vulnerable characters.

But last spring, in the midst of one of the dramedy's early table reads, Darren would have been within his rights to wonder if trey had finally led him astray. He'd agreed with her and director Kimahli Powell to cast a transgender man, and not to inform the other actors until that individual was ready.

Now he was.

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Friday, September 11, 2009

Iran set to allow first transsexual marriage

Woman wins court battle for father's approval to marry schoolfriend who has undergone sex-change operation

Robert Tait
guardian.co.uk, Friday 11 September 2009 15.53 BST

Iran is set to allow what is believed to be its first transsexual marriage after the would-be bride asked a court to override her father's opposition to the match.

The woman, named only as Shaghayegh, told Tehran's family court that she wanted to wed her best friend from school, who had recently undergone a sex-change operation to become a man, but was unable to obtain her father's blessing, as legally required.

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Saturday, September 5, 2009

The transgender rights deficit

"Across Europe transgender rights lag behind those of other groups. We're working to change that."

Thomas Hammarberg - the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 5 September 2009 09.00 BST

The human rights situation of transgender persons has long been ignored and neglected, although the problems they face are serious and often specific to this group alone. Transgender people experience a high degree of discrimination, intolerance and outright violence. Their basic human rights are often violated, including the right to life, the right to physical integrity and the right to health.

During my official visits to the 47 member States of the Council of Europe, I have been struck by the lack of knowledge about the human rights issues at stake for transgender persons, even among political decision-makers.

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Friday, September 4, 2009

Transsexual wins prison transfer

The refusal to move a transsexual prisoner from a men's jail to a women's prison is a violation of her human rights, rules the High Court.

Deputy Judge David Elvin QC quashed Justice Secretary Jack Straw's decision to keep the 27-year-old, who cannot be identified, in a male prison.

Referred to as "A", she is serving a life sentence for manslaughter and attempted rape, committed when a man.

London's High Court heard the prisoner should be moved within a few weeks.

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