Canada: House Of Commons Advances Transgender Nondiscrimination Protections 

ThinkProgress reports:

Canada has once again taken a step forward for LGBT equality ahead of the United States. In a vote of 149-137, the Canadian House of Commons approved a bill (C-279) that would make it illegal to discriminate against people who are transgender, and it would also add hate crime protections for transgender people. The bill would not have passed without 16 votes from conservatives, despite arguments from opponents that it was a “bathroom bill” and would somehow endanger children. It’s unclear how the legislation will fare in the Senate.

USA: Trans Beauty Queen kylan Wenzel To Compete In Miss California 

Joe.My.God. reports:

Transwoman Kylan Arianna Wenzel, 26, will compete in this weekend’s Miss California pageant. Karen Ocamb reports at Frontiers: 

In April, following international fallout when pageant officials disqualified 23-year-old Miss Canada Jenna Talackova after learning she was a transgender woman, Donald Trump and his Miss Universe Organization announced a significant rule change to allow trans women to compete for any of their pageant titles. Because of that rule change, 26-year-old Kylan Arianna Wenzel of Century City left her job as a shift manager at Jamba Juice, moved her sex reassignment surgery up six months and decided to pursue her life-long dream of confidently entering the Miss California beauty pageant. “The first time I watched a beauty pageant was when I was 11, in 1997, when Miss USA won Miss Universe. And ever since then, it’s kind of been implanted in my brain,” Wenzel told Frontiers during a Jan. 3 phone interview. “I wasn’t sure how it would happen for me, but it was something I put out there.

Saturday’s preliminaries will feature 229 contestants. Only 20 will go on to compete in the televised finals on Sunday night.

Activists, White House Mark Transgender Day Of Remembrance

BuzzFeed reports:

More than two dozen activists gathered at the White House Tuesday to mark the Transgender Day of Remembrance to honor transgender victims of hate crimes, the first time such a formal commemoration of the day has happened at the White House.
Vigils were held across the country and globe on Tuesday in commemoration of transgender people killed due to anti-trans violence. This is the 14th year the transgender community and allies have held a day of remembrance.
Office of Personnel Management director John Berry, who is gay and one of the administration’s highest-ranking out LGBT officials, led the group in a moment of silence recognizing victims.
Among the attendees were Diego Sanchez, the first out trans Hill staffer, who works for retiring Rep. Barney Frank; Babs Siperstein, the first out trans member of the Democratic National Committee executive committee; Kylar Broadus, the first out trans person to testify before the Senate; and National Center for Transgender Equality executive director Mara Keisling.
“To have a senior Administration official like John leading us in commemorating transgender victims of violence is a really good thing,” Keisling said. “But to have President Barack Obama’s commitment to solving anti-transgender violence affirmed in today’s meeting is a great thing.”
The trans leaders and White House officials discussed “policies that make transgender lives safer” at the meeting, NCTE officials stated in a news release.

Mexico: Muxes, A Third Gender Embraced By The Zapotec People In Oaxaca

Germany: Cool Dad Nils Pickert Wears Skirt In Solidarity With His 5-Year-Old Son 

The Huffington Post reports:

When it comes to supporting his son’s unconventional wardrobe, Nils Pickert talks the talk and walks the walk.
The German dad explains in Emma magazine that he wears women’s clothes (including nail polish) to help his 5-year-old son feel good about going out in dresses and skirts.
A picture of Pickert and his little boy, sporting matching red clothes — dad in a long skirt, son in a spaghetti-strap dress — has been making the Internet rounds, inspiring enough positive feedback to cancel out a thousand sideways looks and gender marketing fails.
Pickert says that in the small town where he lives, his son’s dress choices are seen as everybody’s business — and when it comes to standing up for his son, he’s determined to show, not just tell. He writes (according to Tumblr user steegeschnoeber’s translation):
Yes, I’m one of those dads, that try to raise their children equal. I’m not one of those academic daddies that ramble about gender equality during their studies and then, as soon as a child’s in the house, still relapse into those fluffy gender roles: He’s finding fulfilment in his carrier and she’s doing the rest.
Thus I am, I know that by now, part of the minority that makes a fool of themselves from time to time. Out of conviction.
Pickert is not the only parent to speak up for a child whose dress preferences stand out from the norm. American mom Cheryl Kilodavis, who wrote a picture book called “My Princess Boy” about her son Dyson, went on The Today Show in January 2011 to discuss the importance of accepting children for who they are — no matter what they wear. “Sooner or later my hope is that the world will embrace the uniqueness that is really within all of us,” she told Meredith Vieira.

In Emma, Pickert says that he chose to become the “role model” he knew his son needed. Chances are his actions will set an example not just for kids, but for parents, too.

United Kingdom: Transman Wins Big Brother UK

Joe.My.God. reports:

Yesterday transman Luke Anderson was named the winner of this season’s edition of Britain’s Big Brother.

Luke left the house to huge cheers and was presented with the £50,000 prize money by Brian Dowling, as fireworks went off above the Elstree compound. “It’s great to feel acceptance,” Luke said of his win. “I don’t think it’s sunk in yet. A big part of it was about acceptance. All my life I’ve been an outsider. Thank you so much.” Speaking of the divide in the house, he added; “It was pretty traumatic when it was at its worst. You did feel alone in the house and that’s how [Deana, Adam and I] found each other. Without Adam and Deana I would have been alone all the time.”

(Tipped by JMG reader Jeremy)

“Moron Of The Week” Inductee Pope Benedict XVI: Gender Theory Could Lead To Self-Destruction Of Human Race

The BBC News reports:

Pope Benedict XVI has suggested that the need to save mankind from a destructive blurring of gender roles is as important as saving the rainforests.
He explained that defending God’s creation was not limited to saving the environment, but also about protecting man from self-destruction.
The Pope was delivering his end-of-year address to senior Vatican staff.
His words, later released to the media, emphasised his rejection of gender theory.
Speaking on Monday, Pope Benedict XVI warned that gender theory blurred the distinction between male and female and thus could lead to the “self-destruction” of the human race.
The speech has provoked anger from campaigners, who have interpreted the remarks as a call to save mankind from homosexuals and transsexuals.
Gender theory
Gender theory explores sexual orientation, the roles assigned by society to individuals according to their gender, and how people perceive their biological identity.

Gay and transsexual groups, particularly in the United States, promote it as a key to understanding and tolerance, but the Pope disagreed.

When the Roman Catholic Church defends God’s Creation, “it does not only defend the earth, water and the air… but (it) also protects man from his own destruction,” he said.
“Rainforests deserve, yes, our protection, but the human being … does not deserve it less,” the pontiff said.
It is not “out-of-date metaphysics” to “speak of human nature as ‘man’ or woman’”, he told scores of prelates gathered in the Vatican’s sumptuous Clementine Hall.
“We need something like human ecology, meant in the right way.”
The Catholic Church opposes gay marriage. It teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are.
Rev Sharon Ferguson, chief executive of Britain’s Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, described the Pope’s remarks as “totally irresponsible and unacceptable”.
“When you have religious leaders like that making that sort of statement then followers feel they are justified in behaving in an aggressive and violent way,” she said.
‘Rock festival’
The pope uses his traditional end-of-year speech to offer his Christmas greetings and say a few words about what he considers the important issues of the day.
This year, Pope Benedict also deplored the tendency to depict the Catholic church’s World Youth Day, which he attended in Sydney earlier this year, as mere spectacle.
He stressed that the event should not be considered a “variant of modern youth culture, as a kind of ecclesiastical rock festival with the Pope as the star,” but as the fruition of a “long exterior and interior path”.
This article has been amended to make it clear the Pope made no direct reference to homosexuals or transsexuals. 

Song Of The Day: Pet Shop Boys - Winner

Warren Beatty’s Transgender Son Speaks Out

Pink News UK reports:

The transgender son of actors Warren Beatty and Annette Bening has spoken about his life and experiences.
Stephen Beatty, 20, who was born physically female, began transition at the age of 14. He has made a video for WeHappyTrans.com.
In the video, Stephen says: “I identify as a trans man, a faggy queen, a homosexual, a queer, a nerd fighter, a writer, an artist and a guy who needs a haircut.”
He also spoke about the advantages of transitioning, saying: “It’s rare that my gender is misread [now that I’ve transitioned] based on my fem presentation, which I really appreciate.
“And that’s totally a privilege, being on hormones and being perceived, being read that way – as male, even though I’m presenting in a fem way. It’s totally a privilege.
“It’s nice to finally have my identity be legible to people.”
Stephen, who is a student at the Sarah Lawrence College in New York, added: “My friends have accepted me, my peers who I’m lucky to have relationships with a lot of, ever since high school, when I came out and transitioned socially when I was 14 or so.”

France: Concern As Senate Approves Protection For “Sexual” Not “Gender” Identity

Pink News UK reports:

Hopes that the election of a Socialist President and Assembly might usher in a new era of inclusivity in France took a blow last week, as Socialist Senators faced up to a first opportunity to legislate protections for the country’s trans minority but declined to do so.
Their actions were instantly condemned by France’s National Transgender Association (ANT), who speculated that this may be just the first betrayal by newly elected President Francois Hollande, who gave assurances during his election campaign that he would seek to place trans rights on an equal footing with those of other minorities.
The issue arose as the Senate discussed changes to the French law on sexual harassment – Article 225-1 of the penal code. That provides protections on 18 different grounds, including gender, race, and disability, as well as criteria hitherto not regarded by Anglo-Saxon law, such as physical appearance or “customs”. It also includes “sexual orientation”.
Last Friday, the Senate voted to add to this list not “gender identity” – as ANT had demanded and as two Socialist Senators, Madame Michelle Meunier and Madame Maryvonne Blondin, attempted – but the much vaguer “sexual identity”.
ANT object to this terminology because it is not currently defined in law, and will be open to France’s judges – not universally known for their progressive tendencies – to interpret it.
They also point out that in April, in response to a direct question as to whether he would add “gender identity” to France’s list of legally protected characteristics, M Hollande gave a categoric and unambiguous “oui”.
At the time, he wrote: “I am going to fight unequivocally against ALL discrimination. I am in favour of looking at gender identity as a protected characteristic in laws on discrimination.” He further points out that an amendment of this sort was put forward in 2004 by members of the socialist party, but rejected by the Right.
Singling out the leader of the socialist group in parliament, M. Bruno Le Roux for sabotaging attempts to add “gender identity”, ANT speculate that the watering down of the amendment may have been done deliberately in order to achieve consensus with right-wing parliamentarians.
Rejecting this, they call, instead, on socialist senators and deputies to respect the undertaking given by their President,and to give unambiguous support to trans rights. In a statement issued this week, they write: “Failure to include gender identity in the law will prevent effective action not only against transphobia, but also against sexism.
“We call on LGBT organisations, feminist groups and on all citizens to lobby our deputies to ensure that “gender identity” is included in the law and not some undefined “sexual identity”, which will prove difficult to enforce in the courts.
“To draw a line under the current confusion, we call on the Socialist Party to insert “gender identity” as a protected characteristic within article 225-1 of the penal code today.”

Canada: Toronto Trans Community Pays Tribute To Suicide Victim Kyle Scanlon 

Pink News UK reports:

Tributes have been paid to a Canadian transgender community leader who killed himself last week.
Kyle Scanlon, who was the education, training, and research coordinator at the 519 Church Street Community Centre in Toronto, died on July 3rd. Reports said he had suffered long-term chronic depression.
He was described by friends and colleagues as valued, gifted and selfless, the Torontoist said.
His friend Alaina Hardie said: “Kyle knew what needed to be done when it came to social justice, and he did it.
“He didn’t seek accolades, and was happy to be either right on the front line or helping quietly in the background, with really no thought given to being recognised. He was selfless to an extent you rarely see. He just wanted to get the work done.”
Toronto’s Trans PULSE project said in a statement: “For the past ten years, Kyle worked at The 519 Church Street Community Centre, first as the Trans Programs Coordinator and then as the Education, Training, and Research Coordinator.
“In these roles, Kyle trained thousands of service providers around the province to make their services accessible to trans people…He served on countless boards and committees, and despite his many responsibilities, he responded with an open heart to the needs of members of the trans community on a daily basis.”

Sweden: Court Rules Trans Rape Victim Wasn’t Raped Because She Is A “Man”

The Local’s Sweden News reports:

A man who attempted to rape a woman has been cleared of the charges by a Swedish court after it turned out that the woman he tried to rape was actually a man.

“The intended crime never had the possibility of being fulfilled,” explained judge Dan Sjöstedt of the Örebro District Court to local newspaper Nerikes Allehanda.
When the 61-year-old man had tried to commit the rape in Örebro, he had no idea that the intended victim was actually a man in women’s clothes, who had been taking hormonal treatment to reach the “right” identity, wrote the paper.
After following the woman for some time, the would-be rapist was “brutally violent” in the “attempted rape”, tearing off the victim’s pants and grabbing at the victim’s crotch, according to the paper.
The incident occurred in front of the victim’s ex-boyfriend’s house, and it was him who came rushing to intervene. When police arrived, they arrested the attacker.
However, the court has ruled that the 61-year-old had intended to rape a woman, as he had been following her before the attack, making a conscious decision to rape her specifically. The man also referred to his victim as “she” throughout the court case.
As this “woman” was actually a man, his intentions were impossible to commit as the rape could never be completed.
“We believe that he wanted to rape this woman in particular. But as she turned out to be a man, the crime never was actually committed,” said Sjöstedt, adding that the case against rape was “invalid”. 
“There are different theories about how this should be handled, and so we’re looking forward to seeing the verdict from the Court of Appeals,” he said, adding that he would appeal the decision if he were the prosecutor or the defence.
The 61-year-old is now convicted for assault. The punishment is four years prison and 15,000 kronor ($2,161) in damages to the woman.’

Argentina: President Cristina Kirchner Delivers New ID Cards To Transgender Individuals, Celebrates Decree Improving Adoption Rights 

Via Blabbeando:

“Today is a day of tremendous reparation. Today we do not shout for liberation but instead we shout for equality, which is just as important as freedom. I do not want to use a word that bothers me greatly: Tolerance. No. I do not believe in ‘tolerance’. To tolerate is to say I’ll allow you to be because I have no other choice. I want to talk about equality and I want to talk about all of you who will now have the same rights I have enjoyed from the moment I was born and the rights that so many millions of Argentinians have enjoyed from the moment they were born. This is the society we want.” says President Kirchner at an event marking the new right of transgender citizens to officially change their gender on official documents without proving they’d undergone surgery.

Blabbeando’s Andrés Duque notes the following details of the event, for those who don’t speak Spanish:

If you see lots of children in the room it’s because the Argentinean president also signed a presidential decree yesterday which put an end to a legal loophole that kept same-sex parents who began raising children before the 2010 marriage equality law passed from registering as co-parents of those children.  If I understand correctly, the decree gives same-sex parents that weren’t covered by the marriage equality law a full year to legally register their children as their own.
During her speech and before an image of Eva Perón, the president seemed to tear up a couple of times as she repeatedly invoked her husband Nestor Kirchner’s name as having been key in securing passage of the marriage equality law.  Her husband, a former Argentinean president himself, died in October of 2010.
“Today is a day of tremendous reparation,” the president said at the start of her speech, “today we do not shout for liberation but instead we shout for equality, which is just as important as freedom.”
Referring to Kalym Adrian, who was sitting in the front row holding the flag of the Argentinean LGBT Federation (FALGBT), the president then stated that Mr. Adrian had known he was a man as early as when he was four years of age and said that it was only now at 42 years of age that he was finally being recognized for who he was. “He has waited all his life!” someone shouted from the audience which the president acknowledged by repeating “All his life”.
Noting that the average age at which transgender individuals die in Argentina is 32, the president argued that part of it was due to the stress of being repressed and ignored and being denied legal rights. She said she hoped this law would change all that.

She later added “There is nothing new under the sun and let’s see if we all can agree on that.  All these issues we are acknowledging today in a legal way are nothing new. They stem from the history of humanity and it’s time for us to accept that reality is not how we’d like to be if I think in a certain way or someone else wants it to be but that reality is what it is.”
The President then alluded to the days of the dictatorship when children were taken away from families and the Mothers of the Plaza began their silent protests to get their children back and championed a history of peaceful protests in Argentina in demand of human rights.  She compared it to the history of non-violent demonstrations by the Argentinian LGBT community and began thanking the LGBT activists and organizations present in the room until Alex Freyreshouted out “And those who are missing as well!”
Alex and José Maria Di Bello, who became the first same-sex couple to marry in all of Latin America when a court in Tierra del Fuego granted them a license in December of 2009, were sitting in the audience wearing their trademark red-ribbon sashes in memory of all those lost to HIV and AIDS.
The president took note and recognized that the fight for human rights sometimes left people feeling worn out but said that she was grateful for the altruistic efforts by some to not only fight for their rights but also the rights of others.
“It’s better to have lived a worn out life than to always live like a flower or a butterfly without having achieved a thing,” she said.
She finally closed by apologizing to people like Mr. Adrian for having had to wait for almost forty years to finally be recognized.

In the room, along with Alex and José, Kalym and members of the FALGBT were also Marcela Romero, Coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Trans People (RED LACTRANS), Alejandro Iglesias, who revolutionized how people in Argentine felt about transgender individuals through his participation in the hugely popular Argentinean edition of “Big Brother”, members of the Argentinean Association of Travesti, Transsexual and Transgender Individuals (ATTTA), Husbands César Cigliutti and Marcelo Suntheim who lead Comunidad Homosexual Argentina (CHA) who laid some of the groundwork for the gender identity law in the during the last decade, Diana Sacayan who leads the Anti-discrimination Movement for Liberation (MAL) and who was a recipient of one of the ID’s handed out by the president, Maria Rachid, Esteban Paulón, María José Lubertino and so many other individuals who have played such integral parts in getting these laws passed.

So, Argentina is now the most progressive country in the world on LGBT Rights overall. Not only legalized same-sex marriage in 2010, but now they’ve passed a law that allows transgender people to change their legal documents without to having to prove they’ve undergone sex-change surgery, but also signed a law that gives more rights to same-sex couples regarding fully adopting children as co-parents, for those who are not the biological parents.

Viva Argentina! 

United Kingdom: Trans Activist April Ashley Honored By Queen Elizabeth II

Joe.My.God. reports:

Transgender activist April Ashley, 77,has been awarded an MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire). According to some accounts, Ashley was the first Briton to undergo sexual reassignment surgery.

The recognition in the Queen’s Birthday Honours has thrilled the 77-year-old. “It’s unbelievable and wonderful and especially fantastic to receive it in the year of Her Majesty’s Jubilee,” she said yesterday, at home in Fulham, south-west London. She declined to speak until she had finished watching the Trooping of the Colour. Duncan Fallowell, her biographer, said: “It makes me proud to be British. Proud of an establishment that can make such an award, perhaps a rather eccentric award.”

Unsurprisingly, Britain’s tabloids are going wild, publishing numerous leering accounts of Ashley’s younger days, includingone story about her seducing late INXS frontman Michael Hutchence

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