“I’m fully respecting this and myself by not walking and/or attending the ceremony at all,” Garcia said, in a post Wednesday on Facebook, in which he thanked his supporters and said the school refused to amend its decision.
…
The University of New Mexico’s LGBTQ Resource Center will host a graduation ceremony for Garcia on May 30o 7 p.m. May 30.
(via Transgender student skips graduation rather than wear female gown – LGBTQ Nation)
![The TGEU map [above] shows countries in blue that require no sterilization, orange for countries that require sterilization and red for countries where trans people can not legally change their gender.
More at the source link.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/0b1a53e8df7deb979bb208c343b9ba08/tumblr_mn5x8xdK7T1qgo5q0o1_500.jpg)
The TGEU map [above] shows countries in blue that require no sterilization, orange for countries that require sterilization and red for countries where trans people can not legally change their gender.
More at the source link.
![From a Boy Named Issak by Issak Wolfe:
“The school has agreed to let me wear the boys’ cap and gown, but won’t budge on anything else. They refuse to promise to do anything to help other kids like me, as if pretending I’m the only transgender student they’ll ever have at their school will make it so. They refuse to apologize to me, even though they know the principal’s actions were mean-spirited and hurtful.
And they insist on reading my female name at graduation, even though I’m working on getting my name legally changed and most people have been calling me Issak for almost two years now.
Reading my male name at graduation wouldn’t hurt anyone, but they KNOW that reading my female name only serves to hurt me more. [my emphasis]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/9609f36ba6a9aee0398798ff6e924b85/tumblr_mn5o97hCre1qgo5q0o1_400.jpg)
From a Boy Named Issak by Issak Wolfe:
“The school has agreed to let me wear the boys’ cap and gown, but won’t budge on anything else. They refuse to promise to do anything to help other kids like me, as if pretending I’m the only transgender student they’ll ever have at their school will make it so. They refuse to apologize to me, even though they know the principal’s actions were mean-spirited and hurtful.
And they insist on reading my female name at graduation, even though I’m working on getting my name legally changed and most people have been calling me Issak for almost two years now.
Reading my male name at graduation wouldn’t hurt anyone, but they KNOW that reading my female name only serves to hurt me more. [my emphasis]
| — |
78 trans murders in 2013, mutilation common | Gay Star News TW: violence, murder |
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A transgender student at a Catholic high school in Albuquerque, N.M., says he is has been told he must wear female student gown at his graduation procession, or not walk at all.
Damian Garcia is a senior at St. Pius X High School, where at the graduation ceremony, the girls wear white gowns and the boys wear black.
Damian, who identifies as male and had a legal name change last year, said he’s been told by the school that he must wear the white gown reserved for females, or not participate in the ceremony.
The St. Pius Superintendent told KRQE-TV that that the school goes by what the student’s birth certificate says if there’s any question on what gender-color they wear at graduation.
“I just want to walk in my black robe, nice and proud and have that memory to look back on with my family and friends,” said Damian. “I would rather not walk than to embarrass myself by wearing a female robe.”
Watch a report from KRQE-TV:
Damian’s father calls the school’s decision heartbreaking.
“All you want in life is to see your kids happy and healthy. You never want to see them suffer or being ridiculed or be made fun of,” he said.
A petition at MoveOn.org is calling on the school to allow Damian to walk for graduation in the male cap and gown. There is also a Facebook page, “Let Damian Walk.”
The audience award winners from Amsterdam Transgender Film Festival, TranScreen were announced earlier this week with a documentary/artfilm about ‘the smallest drag queen in the world’ taking the top slot.
The German film called One Zero One - the story of Cybersissy & BayBjane directed by Tim Lienhard tells the story of Morrocan-German Mourad ‘the smallest drag queen in the world’ and his partner Antoine. It’s described as ‘part documentary, part camp-style visual fairy tale’.
Runner-up was Orchids - My Intersex Adventure by Australian filmmaker Phoebe Hart in which she travels the country with her sister Bonnie interviewing other intersex people and explores how her own family responded to the condition.
A statement from TranScreen said they are ‘very much aware of the fact that it is not easy for intersex people to be associated with transgender issues’.
The festival organizers invited Juliette Kuling, chair of Dutch support for people with intersex conditions, DSDNederland to discuss the relationship between trans and intersex issues. ‘[It was] a very special connective moment that we hope will happen more in future,’ said TranScreen.
In the short film category four films were tied:
Trans people are still suffering from discrimination, prejudice and persecution in Europe, a new report has found.
Published on the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (17 May), it will expose the ‘bleak’ legal challenges trans people face across 49 countries in Europe.
Transgender Europe (TGEU) will show which of the countries require sterilization in legal gender recognition and which do not provide for any procedures.
The index will present an in-depth overview of the legal human rights situation for trans people.
TGEU will also provide an update on the Trans Murder Monitoring project. There have been over 1200 reported killings of trans people worldwide in the last five years.
On the same day, the Fundamental Rights Agency will publish the results of its survey on the experiences of violence and discrimination by LGBT people in the EU and Croatia. The survey is the largest of its kind with 93,000 respondents.
‘All our collected data is clearly suggesting one conclusion: European countries do not take sufficient action to protect trans people efficiently against violence and discrimination,’ stated Dr Julia Ehrt, TGEU’s Executive Director.
‘Trans people cannot wait any longer for the protection of their human rights. The EU has a crucial role in Europe to champion trans rights’, added Alecs Recher, TGEU Executive Board member.
Transgender Europe (TGEU) is a European Human Rights Organization with members in 36 countries working for equality and inclusion of all trans people.
More than 50,000 people marched for LGBT rights in the Chilean capital on Saturday. (Photo courtesy of JP Catepillán/Movilh)
An LGBT rights march in the Chilean capital on Saturday drew more than 50,000 people.
Chilean folk singer Camila Moreno; presidential candidates Andrés Velasco, Tomás Jocelyn-Holt, Marco Enríquez-Ominami and Marcel Claude and Rafael Dochao, the European Union’s ambassador to Chile, took part in the Santiago event that also commemorated the International Day Against Homophobia. Former President Michelle Bachelet, who is also a candidate to succeed President Sebastián Piñera in this November’s presidential elections, endorsed the march in a letter.
In a landmark decision, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal has ruled that a transsexual woman can marry her boyfriend.
A Hong-Kong-born transsexual woman in her mid-30s, known only as ‘W’ in court, has won a five year battle to win the right to marry the man she loves.
Michael Vidler, a partner of the legal firm representing the case, called the judgment a ‘resounding victory’ and said he was ‘relieved’ and ‘happy’ with the judgement.
Out of the five judges on the bench, four accepted the team’s arguments.
‘The court took both of our arguments,’ Vidler told Gay Star News. ‘That marriage ordinance should be read to include transgender women and also our human rights point was taken, in that it was a breach of her constitutional rights [to marry]. We won on both grounds, which was nice.’
(via Mother’s fight for transgender child who was born a boy to live as a girl | The Courier-Mail)
“She’s my girl,” the mother says. “I want her to be able to go to the girls’ toilets, like all the other girls.”
The crowd cheered as Rohit Singh and her husband approached Saturday afternoon.
“I am damn happier than the day of my wedding,” said Singh. “I never thought this kind of crowd would come to support me here in Saskatoon,” she said.
Many people at the peaceful protest brought signs. One read “transgender rights are human rights,” another read “support transgender rights.”
The protesters also circulated a petition to the provincial government that calls for more human rights protection for transgender people.
According to transgender people like Miki Mappin, who was at the protest, the current language used in Saskatchewan’s human rights law to protect the transgendered is too vague.
Mappin feels it needs to be tailored to address the specific discrimination the gender minority faces and hopes the 150 signatures they got Saturday is a step towards preventing others from being discriminated against in the future.
“I lost my job,” said Mappin. “I wanted to go to human rights, but I was told I had to choose one of the acceptable grounds to file a human rights complaint — I didn’t want to accuse my colleagues of sexual harassment because that is not what they had been doing,” Mappin added.
Other protesters were demanding a boycott of the bridal shop. Peter Garden was there holding a sign that read “let’s leave this bride at the altar — boycott Jenny’s Bridal.”
Garden owns Turning The Tide bookstore in Saskatoon. He said as a business owner he was offended by the way Singh was treated because she was transgender, and he hopes a boycott will teach the store owner a lesson.
“You know, I think that people make mistakes,” said Garden. “I think they have a chance to recognize them and apologize for them. I don’t think that is what the owner of this business has done.”
Protesters remained in front of Jenny’s Bridal for over an hour.
A Saskatoon woman who identifies herself as transgender says a bridal shop in the city refused to let her try on dresses as she planned her wedding.
Rohit Singh says she was looking at outfits in Jenny’s Bridal Boutique but when she asked to try one on, she was refused.
Singh said she plans to file a formal complaint about her treatment with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.
“It might happen to some other transgender that might come to the store and she will hurt the same,” Singh said. “It so embarrassed me and my husband.”
“Discrimination,” Singh said of the experience. “I’m damn sure it’s discrimination.”
The shop owner thought Singh was a man and felt other people in the store were uncomfortable with Singh trying on dresses.
“She said, sorry we don’t allow men to wear dresses here,” Singh recalled. “I said I’m not a man, I’m transgender.”
Singh says she has started the process for a sex change.
When contacted Thursday by CBC News, the bridal shop owner, who declined to provide her surname, said she stands by her decision.
“To me it doesn’t matter,” the owner said. “He looked like a man. There was quite a few brides in the store. If you see a man trying on dresses, you’re going to feel uncomfortable.”
Singh later found a red gown at My Lynh Bridal, on Idylwyld Drive North, where she described the service as excellent. Singh’s marriage took place on Monday.
Twenty-nine countries in Europe are insisting transgender people are sterilized before their true gender is recognized in law.
That represents a major abuse of human rights and must stop, says a new report from the Council of Europe.
In many European countries, sterilization or sex reassignment surgery or both are a requirement for the country to legally recognize a transgender person in his or her new gender.
While gender reassignment surgery may incidentally cause someone to become sterile, some countries also insist on sterilization.
Richard Köhler, policy and capacity officer for Transgender Europe (TGEU) told Gay Star News: ‘Forced sterilization is a reality for a lot of trans people in a lot of countries. Trans people are the only group in Europe who are prescribed by law to go through sterilization.
‘The debates have shown conservatives are really afraid of the “pregnant man” so they want to insist on sterilization.’
While some people want full gender reassignment surgery, others recognize the operations are complicated and can be traumatic and either don’t want to complete that process or are not capable of doing so.
But by insisting on full sterilization before you can be legally registered with your true, new gender identity the rules at present deny people the right to decide what they do with their own bodies.
A transgender student, denied the chance to run for prom king, was allegedly placed on the queen ballot by his principal.
Isaak Wolfe, 18, a senior at Red Lion Area Senior High School in Pennsylvania, says his school principal Mark Shue put his birth name on the ballot for prom queen.
‘If I would have known they would’ve done that, I probably would have opted out,’ Wolfe told the York Daily Record. ‘What bothers me the most if they never told me.
Wolfe says he was ‘humiliated’ because he had handed out prom king fliers campaigning for the title.
‘For a transgender person, it is degrading to have that, and I wasn’t even warned,’ Wolfe told The York Dispatch.
‘I wasn’t given a fair opportunity. I mean, if I don’t win, I don’t win but I’m not a queen.’
Wolfe says he has had nothing but positive interactions with the principal up until that point, but he said: ‘I just think he made a very, very bad decision.’
A Change.org petition now has over 2,000 signatures aiming to get Wolfe’s name on the prom king ballot as well as his chosen name read at graduation.
Gay Star News has reached out to Red Lion Area High School but has not yet received a response.
In a written statement, the superintendent Scott Deisley declined to comment saying it would be best for the safety and well being of Red Lion students to ‘respect our privacy in this matter’.
Voting for the prom has now ended, with the prom king and queen to be announced at the event on Saturday (27 April).
