Queer News Hour #4
UNITED KINGDOM/JAMAICA. A Jamaican woman, sentenced to prison for drug offences in the UK has asked the British immigration authorities to not deport her to Jamaica because she is a lesbian. Jamaica is indeed a dangerous country to be in if you happen to belong to a sexual minority: sodomy can land you a 10-year prison sentence in Jamaica and polls say 70% of Jamaicans are against any rights for gays and lesbians. The police are unwilling to investigate homophobic assaults and side with the attackers. More on the situation in Jamaica here and here.
UNITED STATES. There has been a second hate crime conviction in the US in connection to a killing of a transgender woman. Dwight DeLee was found guilty of killing Lateisha Green. DeLee claimed he wasn’t trying to kill Green when he shot his rifle into the car in which Green was sitting with her brother and a friend. The jury found this believable and DeLee was convicted of first-degree manslaughter and faces between 10 and 25 years in prison.
UNITED STATES. A gay bar was raided in Fort Worth, Texas on the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, June 28. Chad Gibson was injured during this raid and was hospitalized for seven days for serious head injuries. He was originally arrested for public intoxication. In a bar. The police claimed that the injured man was making advances at the officer and fell while resisting arrest and this was the cause of his injuries, while eyewitnesses claimed that the officers slammed the man into the wall and the floor, and also tackled other bar patrons. The mayor of Fort Worth has now issued an apology for the injury but not for the raid. The raid is being investigated.
The Advocate reports that the reason for the raid was the arrest of a man for public intoxication on June 26. The Advocate also reports: “in addition, police recordings reveal that on the night of the raid, an officer called for help after he went inside the Rainbow Lounge. His call was prompted by a bar patron who blew a kiss at the officer.”
UNITED STATES. Same-sex couples lack basic immigration opportunities in the US available to different-sexed couples. A different-sex couple’s US citizen half can sponsor their spouse for a green card if the couple wishes to live in the States, but this is not possible for same-sex couples. Reasons given for the justification for this policy are the usual bullshit excuses about eroding the institution of marriage and so forth. In short, states such as New York may recognise your same-sex marriage as legal but you will be deported if you want to make the state your home, because…. you’re not really recognised as a family unit. If there are queers out there who want to immigrate to the US: make sure that you pick a differently sexed person to fake marry for a green card or you’re out.
GLOBAL. Why are we all so queer? Is it nature or is it nurture? Some scientists say neither! Or… both?
“Researchers sometimes claim we’re hard-wired for things, but when you peel through the layers of the experiments, the details matter and suddenly the evidence doesn’t seem so compelling. The problem is that it’s much more complicated to explain why the evidence is on shaky ground, and often the one-liner wins out over the 10-minute explanation.”
SOUTH KOREA. Choi Han-bit, a transsexual woman, has made it to the semifinals in a beauty pageant in Korea. The pageant’s organisers have stated that they take no issue with Choi Han-bit’s participation in the 2009 Super Model Contest – no rules have been broken as her legal sex is female.
CHINA. China is creating guidelines and rules for the treatment of trans people. There are concerns that the rules will be too strict and will prohibit many from having access to surgery.
AUSTRALIA. Australia’s passport laws have been revised to allow a more flexible approach to gender markers for transpeople. Changing your gender marker has previously required a person to obtain a revised birth certificate which has been impossible without specific surgeries or if the person is married. The new law allows transpeople to obtain a limited validity passport in their preferred gender for overseas travel for the purpose of gender reassignment surgery without having to obtain a revised birth certificate. Transpeople who can not obtain a revised birth certificate can also apply for a standard issue passport if they are unable to have the mandatory surgeries because of medical issues and can prove this.
Protesters outside Lu's pharmacy
CANADA. A recently opened women only pharmacy in Vancouver denies service to transwomen. The pharmacy owner is of the opinion that womanhood is dependent on birth-assigned sex, and that they do not have the expertise or capacity to provide services to transwomen. Interestingly enough, they will write prescriptions for transmen. Several protests have been held to draw attention to this arbitrary discrimination.
RUSSIA. A man shot his girlfriend after discovering she had undergone sex reassignment surgery.
“The killer, identified as Vladimir F by police, shot Camila several times, deliberately targeting the parts of her body altered during a sex change operation. He had only found out about her previous identity after she turned down his offer of marriage.”
Every third day, a transperson is murdered.
INDIA. The government of Bihar is setting up a program to provide education and employment to its transgender citizens who often live in poverty.
“Transgenders will be provided literacy and vocational training to prepare them for respectable regular employment. It will give them the opportunity to enhance their socio-economic status,” said Masood Hassan, director of the social welfare department. ‘”
More on India’s LGBT community: Swathi and Sneha are two transwomen who wish to be the country’s first legally married same-sex couple. India recently decriminalized homosexuality, but same-sex marriage laws do not yet exist. Sindh Today gives us some stories from the members of India’s LGBT community, and Asian Tribune features a story on Noori, an influential Indian transgender woman fighting for HIV/AIDS awareness.
UNITED STATES. The Progressive discusses the prevalence of sexual assault on transgender prisoners in the US prison system. Transgender women are routinely placed in men’s prisons where they are vulnerable to assault and subject to punishment from the prison personnel. More here.
RUSSIA. An intersex child born in Russia will be operated on based on genetics, not self-identification.
Five days after the delivery, Olga was discharged, and her baby transferred to the pathology department of the Tushino Hospital. Now the medical team is awaiting the results of genetic testing. The parents are praying that the correct decision is made.
“In this case, only geneticists can tell whether this baby is predisposed to either the female or the male end of the gender continuum, ” tried to explain the young father. “We’ll love our baby all the same, boy or girl.”
Here is a paper on the human rights of intersex children.
UNITED KINGDOM. An award-winning businesswoman raises trans awareness.
“We’re not quite there yet in how to deal with transgendered people,” she said. “I could have gone stealth, my surgery was good enough that people wouldn’t have known, but I decided it was more important than my own bit of comfort to use my experience to help other people.”
Buck Angel
GLOBAL. And here’s something nice and juicy to cap off all the depressing and less depressing news: Samesame features an interview with Buck Angel, transsexual porn star extraordinaire.
It wasn’t too long before the industry realised that a huge market that existed for the kind of porn that Buck was making and before long he had amounted a substantial filmography. It was also apparent that he was a brilliant performer. In 2007 Buck Angel was not only nominated for Transsexual performer of the year, but he actually took out the title. It was a proud day for Buck Angel.