Italy - M2F gender variant politician Vladimir Luxuria heads for celebrity island... [2008-08-10 Sunday Herald]

http://www.sundayherald.com/international/shinternational/display.var.2421896.0.0.php
   
August 10, 2008

Nation’s first transgender MP takes up next challenge: reality television
Left-wing campaigner heads for celebrity island

From Philip Willan in Rome

THE ANNOUNCEMENT that Italy's first transgender MP will participate in a Survivor-style reality television show in September has surprised her many admirers. Vladimir Luxuria - whose real name is Wladimiro Guadagno - was one of many left-wing MPs to lose their seats after Silvio Berlusconi's crushing electoral victory last April.

An actor and campaigner for homosexual rights, Luxuria, 43, was viewed with suspicion by many when she was first elected to parliament two years ago for the Communist Refoundation Party. The parliamentary controversy for which she is best remembered concerned her right to use the ladies' toilets in the Chamber of Deputies, a right that was fiercely contested by the former TV showgirl Elisabetta Gardini, who was beginning her parliamentary career with Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia party.

Luxuria served as a member of the parliamentary committee for culture, science and education and her intelligence, sense of humour and tireless campaigning for the rights of sexual minorities left a favourable impression on most observers.

An online poll showed recently that of all the MPs who had lost their seats, she would be the most missed by the Italian public. Many Communist Refoundation supporters were therefore dismayed when she announced her participation in The Island Of The Famous, a version of Celebrity Big Brother filmed on a tropical island off the coast of Honduras, where she will compete with assorted showgirls, a TV conjuror and the former football player, Antonio Cabrini.

The fear is that Luxuria will dissipate the credit accumulated in two years of high-profile contribution to the national political debate.

The Big Brother experience of Westminster MP George Galloway, of the Respect party, might also serve as a cautionary tale. Intending to get his political message across to the widest possible audience, "Gorgeous George's" television antics ended up costing him respect - with a small "r".

That seemed to be the consensus among the party faithful, who wrote in to the party newspaper Liberazione to warn against the move.

Paola Nardi from Vicenza said: "She will earn the equivalent of 300 years of wages for a worker who may have voted Communist Refoundation and contributed to her election." Others castigated the show as "the ultimate in trash TV".

Luxuria has accepted the criticism with good grace, saying she intended to set out for the island equipped with goggles for snorkelling, her Buddhist prayerbook, and tweezers, to ensure that her eyebrows remain elegantly plucked. Known for her stylish dress sense, Luxuria said she would be packing simple bathing costumes and sarongs - "No suits, or I'd have the toucans in hysterics."

The tweezers and a razor were essential, she pointed out: "In that tropical climate, I don't want the fur to be growing as abundantly as the vegetation."

She has prepared for the experience by learning to swim and recently had a breast enhancement operation, which should guarantee she looks her best on the beach.

"The struggle for survival is nothing new for me," she told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. "Parliament too is full of sharks and barracudas." Experience of the debating chamber would also come in useful for reality TV, she said.

"When I first sat at my bench there were photographers with their telephoto lenses ready to catch me if I yawned or immortalise me if I put my fingers in my nose."

Luxuria says she views the castaway experience as an opportunity for professional growth - she has already appeared in nine films - and to express her ideas, as well as "to put myself to the test once again".

TV presenter Daria Bignardi said in an interview published last week that she would be cheering for Luxuria. The participation of the transgender former MP in a television programme aimed at families was a good way of combating the prejudice that still existed in Italian society, she said.

Most commentators who wrote in to Bignardi's blog took a similar view, saying Luxuria's decision was understandable "in a country famous for the osmosis between showbusiness and politics" and that it would bring the former MP into contact with sectors of the public that were ideologically far removed from Communist Refoundation.

The party did not manage to return a single MP to parliament at the last election.

Angela Azzaro, the managing editor of Liberazione, agreed. She wrote: "These are the programmes that create consensus and establish a direct contact with those citizens who have turned their backs on us."

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Add Comment:

Posted by: Wullie on 10:39pm Sat 9 Aug 08
Who cares? I don't!

Unless he/she bothers other people we should just let him / her get on with it.

There is worse than people who beleive that they are trapped in the wrong body.

--

©2008 newsquest (sunday herald) limited. all rights reserved

US - Angie Zapata (nee Justin Zapata) - Friends, family gather to say goodbye to slain woman... [2008-08-10 Greeley Tribune]

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20080810/NEWS/865256674/1001&parentprofile=-1

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Friends, family gather to say goodbye to slain woman

Andrew Villegas

Monica Zapata reflected Saturday night in front of 200 people about her sister's life and death and could not keep from leaning on her family an arm's length away.

"We never knew how dangerous this world is," Zapata said, remembering her sister Angie Zapata, a transgender woman killed in Greeley in mid-July. "You are who you are and you should never be ashamed."

Officials say Angie Zapata was the target of a hate crime after a man she was on a date with beat her to death with his fists and a fire extinguisher after learning she was biologically male, according to police. The man, Allen Ray Andrade, faces first-degree murder charges in connection with the death and charges of a bias-motivated crime -- a felony.

Angie Zapata would have celebrated her 19th birthday last week.

"She always knew she was supposed to be a girl. And we knew it too," Monica Zapata said. "Don't remember her as transgendered but remember her as a beautiful, loving woman."

Others shared their memories of Angie Zapata and stood in solidarity against hate crimes. Many transgender people came to remember Angie Zapata and to mourn with the Zapata family.

The message from people who spoke was that hate will not be tolerated in Greeley.

Kelly Costello, director of victim services for the Colorado Anti-Violence Program, said everyone has a responsibility to make sure people who are different can live without fear and that they have the same rights everyone else does.

"We must call out hate in all its forms and at all times," Costello said.

The vigil also attracted Rep. Jim Riesberg, D-Greeley, and other lawmakers and community activists.

Rhonda Solis of Greeley said the issue of murder of a transgender woman isn't about being different, it's about bigotry and intolerance for other people.

"I challenge all of us to take the next step to end intolerance," Solis said. "We all deserve dignity, we all deserve respect and we are all enough."

One person read a note from Judy Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard, who was killed near Laramie, Wyo., in 1998 because he was gay.

Before everyone in attendance lit candles to remember Angie Zapata, transgender activist Donna Rose said Angie Zapata didn't ask to become a martyr or a symbol.

"It takes courage to live in a world that tries to force you into a box," Rose said. "It's a shame that we have to die to see our community loves us."

END

Chile - Gay rights group outraged over transphobic comments directed at Transvestite Trade Union President Zuliana Araya... [2008-08-11 Valparaiso Times]

http://www.valparaisotimes.cl/content/view/413/25/

GAY RIGHTS GROUP OUTRAGED AT ‘TRANSPHOBIC’ COMMENTS

by Natalie Hart
   
Monday, 11 August 2008

“Transphobic” comments by a candidate for a city alderman’s position in Valparaiso sparked outrage this week from Chile’s leading gay rights group – the Chilean Movement for Sexual Minorities (MOVILH).

MOVILH on Wednesday expressed its “deep discomfort” at the “transphobic” comments made by Independent Democratic Union Party (UDI) Valparaíso city council candidate Jaime Barrientos, who described transsexuality as “a sin that goes against nature.”

The comments emerged during a fiery debate between evangelical lawyer Barrientos and Transvestite Trade Union President Zuliana Araya, a city council candidate for the Party for Democracy (PPD). Barrientos arrived at the meeting, organized by Valparaíso daily La Estrella, bearing the gift of a Bible, which Araya initially refused to accept while voicing her distress at his comments.

“You can’t attack me in this way,” Araya told Barrientos. “Don’t you know how many votes you are losing by treating me like this? I was born and bred in Valparaíso, and here we have a more open mentality. We accept everyone how they are.”

“I do not regret what I said to you,” Barrientos responded. “I respect you as a person, but I cannot change my life’s doctrine or the Bible, which clearly states that God made man and woman and that your condition is a sin. If my stance on valuing the word of the Bible means losing votes, then I will lose them, as I have no intention of winning votes by transgressing my values.”

MOVILH lamented Barrientos’ comments, which they said display a profound ignorance of transsexuality. According to scientific studies, transsexuality is a gender identity in which a person’s sexual identification lies entirely with the opposite sex, MOVILH explained. “A gender identity that a person does not choose and that does not result in any danger for anybody cannot be a sin,” the organization said.

“With his outrageous ignorance, even confusing homosexuality with transsexuality, he defends the idea that there are first and second-class citizens – an assessment typical of neo-Nazis,” MOVILH said. “We have to hope that these arbitrary differences and inequalities that he promotes will be rejected in the Valparaíso elections this October.”

In an interview with blog La Auto Rebelde last year, Araya clearly defined her identity as transgender. “Transvestites are those who do shows, and transsexuals are those who have the operation, but I don’t what to cut anything off. I’m fine as I am,” she said.

SOURCE: LA NACION

By Natalie Hart ( editor@valparaisotimes.cl )

--

© 2007, The Santiago Times.

Jamaica - Cases of violence directed at homosexuals are far fewer than the gay lobby would have the world believe... [2008-08-12 Jamaica Observer]

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/editorial/html/20080811T200000-0500_138942_OBS_THE_GAY_LOBBY_SCAM.asp

Editorial

The gay lobby scam

Lloyd B Smith

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

We'll give the benefit of the doubt to United States immigration judge Irma Lopez-Defillo who last week decided against deporting a Jamaican-born lesbian on the grounds that, because of her sexual orientation, she might be tortured here.

For quite frankly, Judge Lopez-Defillo's ruling would have been informed by the picture being painted of Jamaica by the international gay lobby.

So when Judge Lopez-Defillo is reported as saying, "the general atmosphere in Jamaica is a feeling of no tolerance towards homosexuals in general and, as such, the respondent's life is definitely at risk", we really can't blame her. Because, as we said, that's the impression that the world has of Jamaica, courtesy of gay rights activists who are meeting resistance in their efforts to force their lifestyle upon Jamaicans.

What is becoming clear to us, however, is that homosexual Jamaicans are using this argument to legitimise their immigration status in North America and Europe.

And this most recent case of this 29-year-old lesbian is a perfect example of the scam being perpetrated by gay Jamaicans on the authorities abroad.

In fact, we are sure that every Jamaican who read this story last week had a good chuckle, mostly for the fact that Jamaicans have, over the past decade at least, demonstrated a higher level of tolerance for homosexuality among women.

So, her 33-year-old brother, who was reported in the story as telling the court that she would be ostracised if sent back to Jamaica, was really being disingenuous. And the court bought it, hook, line and sinker.

We are not here denying that gay men have not been attacked and beaten in Jamaica. We have reported on some of these atrocities and have condemned them in this space.

However, no one can challenge the fact that many gay men and women in Jamaica are generally ignored by the populace. In fact, the cases of violence directed at homosexuals are far fewer than the gay lobby would have the world believe.

And in many of those cases we have found that it was the public display of homosexual men and their physical response to public criticism that led to them being attacked.

The nonsense spewed by Mr Robert Carr at the just-concluded International AIDS Society XVII Conference in Mexico does not help the gay lobby either.

Mr Carr, the executive director of the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition, in relating an incident in Half-Way-Tree when gay men were mobbed, chose to ignore the reported fact that the mobbing took place after one of the men splashed liquid on a woman who found their behaviour distasteful and said so.

He also neglected to point out that the men were rescued by the police, offering only that, "in a context where people denied homophobic violence, the police show up armed and the media show up to take pictures".

That the Jamaican police patrol the streets armed is not an aberration. Neither is the fact that media cover events in public, including disturbances.

As we have argued before, people who regard homosexuality as sinful and repulsive will more easily bristle at the gay lobby's push to force acceptance of their lifestyle.

And that resistance is strengthened when homosexuals are quick to cry homophobia when one of their own is murdered, even in the face of evidence suggesting that the homicide was committed by a jealous lover.

We'll repeat a suggestion we offered to the gay lobby three months ago. Instead of trying to sully Jamaica's name, allow Jamaicans to adapt to changing perceptions of people's lifestyles and the fact that individuals of all kinds can coexist.

--

© 2000-2001 Jamaica Observer.

Britain - Children--Young people: 'My body is wrong...' [2008-08-14 The Guardian]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/aug/14/children.youngpeople

'My body is wrong'
Should teenagers who believe they are transgender be helped to change sex? And if so, what about the four-year-olds who feel the same way? Viv Groskop meets the parents and doctors in favour of intervention

Viv Groskop
The Guardian, Thursday August 14 2008

'She was our first child," recalls Sarah (not her real name), a mother of two who lives in the south of England. "But from age three we knew something was wrong. She was very introverted, isolated. When she started school at four she came home and said she was a freak. It seemed a strange word for a four-year-old to use. She was always quite a sad little person."

Sarah's daughter was born and grew up as a boy. Now 19, she is far happier in a woman's body as a post-operative transsexual. It took two years for the family to get used to calling her "she". Her mother says her daughter experienced her childhood as mental torture, especially during puberty. "Looking back, we could never find any tape in the house. It was because she was taping her genitals up every day. She said to us later that she thought it would all go right for her at puberty, that her willy would drop off and she would grow breasts. She said she was going completely crazy because she knew in her head that she was a girl."

One day, when her daughter was 14, Sarah walked in on her in her bedroom. "She was there in front of the mirror with her genitals tucked away. She was very embarrassed. I said, 'I don't know what's happening here but if you want to talk to me, you can.' About 10 minutes later she came and lay on the bed next to me and said, 'I want to be a girl. I'm not a boy. My body is wrong. Everything is wrong.'" For Sarah, this was more than shocking: "I had watched programmes on transgender, I'm very interested in people, it's part of who I am to find out about these things ... But you never imagine it's going to happen to you."

Sarah sought help from her GP - who laughed. Eventually, her daughter got a referral to the one London clinic that deals with gender identity disorder in children and adolescents. But obtaining treatment on the NHS in her daughter's mid-teens was slow and difficult. Several suicide attempts followed and the family remortgaged their house to pay for private hormone treatment. Once Sarah's daughter was 18, they also paid for an operation abroad.

The plight of children with gender identity disorder has made headlines this year. In February an inquest was held into the death of Cameron McWilliams, a 10-year-old boy from Doncaster, who hanged himself. The court heard that he had asked permission to wear makeup and girls' underwear. "It was apparent he was unhappy and said he wanted to be a girl," his mother said. "He did like girls' things." Later the same month Lawrence King, 15, from Oxnard, California, who described himself as "gender non-conforming" and was a victim of school bullying, was shot to death in a science laboratory by another pupil.

Internationally, there is controversy over medical treatments that could be used to help children in this situation. In May, Dr Norman Spack, the US's leading authority on "gender-confused" children and a paediatric endocrinologist at the Children's Hospital in Boston, revealed on US National Public Radio that he has at least 10 paediatric transgendered patients who are receiving puberty-blocking hormone treatment. He says that the procedures allow children to buy time to make a decision about gender reassignment surgery. Once they have gone through puberty - and fully developed the body of the gender they don't want - it is much more difficult.

Awareness of transgender children is growing. Earlier this year a book called The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals (Cleis Press) was published. "Thousands of families face raising children who step outside the pink or blue box," says the blurb.

But their stories rarely cross into the mainstream because families don't want their children to be identified. Even adult transsexuals risk ridicule (and sometimes physical abuse) when talking about their past. The Oprah Winfrey Show first featured an 11-year-old girl who wanted surgery to become a boy in 2004. Last year, a very cute six-year-old girl, Jazz, appeared on the Barbara Walters show in the US. She had been born as a boy but she identified so strongly as a girl that her parents decided to let her be who she wanted to be. She and her parents appeared on television under assumed names. "We'll say things like, 'You're special. God made you special.' Because there aren't very many little girls out there that have a penis," said her mother Renee. They were comfortable with identifying their child as transgender.

Gender issues can appear as young as four (although the parents of the aforementioned Jazz insist that their son made it clear he wanted to wear a dress from the age of 18 months). "It usually becomes more evident when they go to school," says Simona Giordano, a senior lecturer in ethics and psychiatry at the University of Manchester who is conducting an international study into gender identity in children. "There have been reported cases of kids who won't drink for the duration of the school day so that they don't have to go to the toilet, and who don't want to sleep in a bedroom with their peers."

In Britain, there is only one place where children who feel this way can be treated: the Gender Identity Development Service at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust in London, run by Dr Domenico di Ceglie, author of a 1998 ground-breaking study on transgender children, A Stranger in My Own Body: Atypical Gender Identity Development and Mental Health (Carnac). He became aware of the needs of the children with gender-identity issues when working as a child psychiatrist in Croydon in the 1980s. His colleague Polly Carmichael, a consultant psychiatrist, explains: "We get 60 to 80 referrals a year and our referrals are going up. We see children from as young as six up to aged 18."

Not every child diagnosed will go on to have gender reassignment surgery. Ultimately, about a quarter do. Others may experience discomfort about their gender for reasons connected to traumatic events in their life. In Di Ceglie's case notes, he recalls the story of a five-year-old boy whose grandmother died. She had been his main carer. He identified with her so strongly that after her death he began to play with dolls, dress up in his mother's clothes and play wedding games, in which he was always the bride. Once he had counselling and was able to express his grief about losing his grandmother, his behaviour changed.

Linda (also not her real name) is the mother of a child who experienced gender identity disorder and now helps run Mermaids, which was set up in 1994 and remains the only UK support group for children with gender identity disorder. (Pete Burns raised funds for the organisation when he appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2006.) It has some members as young as seven and a special mailing list for adolescents aged 12 to 19.

Linda receives a couple of inquiries a week: "We get a lot of calls from parents who have five- to nine-year-olds. There seem to be more boys than girls affected at that age," she says, "Which is probably because it's more acceptable for girls to be tomboys. If you have a little girl who wants to cut her hair short or play football, that is seen as normal. But if you have a boy who wants to draw mermaids or dress up as a princess, they get made fun of." Once puberty hits, the numbers even out and there are as many girls as boys seeking help. For some children, it is a passing phase, she says. "For others it is likely to go on for some years and will cause a lot of problems." This is something of an understatement.

A conference to discuss gender identity disorder in adolescents will be held in October at the Royal Society of Medicine. Some parents whose children have gender identity issues are already angry about the fact that few professionals have been invited from abroad. They see the UK as lagging behind developments in other countries. Treatment centres in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and the US all offer medication to suspend puberty. Not enough is known about this in the UK, according to the Gender Identity Research and Education Society (Gires), and only two of the 15 presenters at the conference are from overseas.

Terry Reed, a trustee at Gires and the mother of a transgender adult, says that many British specialists are "transphobic". "As far as they're concerned, a trans outcome is bad. They are hoping that during puberty the natural hormones themselves will act on the brain to 'cure' these trans teenagers. What we do know is what happens if you don't offer hormone blockers. You are stuck with unwanted secondary sex characteristics in the long term and in the short term these teenagers end up suicidal."

Reed has a transsexual daughter who had reassignment surgery at the age of 19. "The only indication I did have when she was a child was that she showed an interest in female clothing - not wearing it, but just having some in her room. I said, 'You mustn't take your sister's clothes,' and then forgot about it. I was completely amazed, shocked and frightened when I did find out some years later what was happening. But I have always felt that people have a right to be who they are. I felt that whoever this person was, I was her parent and I wanted to support her." She and her husband set up Gires in 1997: "We have run 11 family workshops and seen over 200 individuals in family situations. I like to think that we have helped an enormous number of people to get over that first shock of rejection and, sadly, sometimes, revulsion."

Part of the organisation's mission is to break down resistance to the idea that gender identity confusion is a problem. "We call it gender variance - not gender identity disorder," explains Reed, "because that is pathologising it." She also wishes people would understand that it is not something transgender people choose. "When you live with it, it is so obvious and so extreme. Some of these children are saying from a very early age, 'This is what I am. Why doesn't anyone understand that my name is Bob and I am not a girl.' Sometimes it's as soon as they can talk - at age two or three."

But Gires' current fight is to make the puberty-blocking drugs more available to this minority of desperate children who, they argue, show obvious signs of needing them. At present, these drugs are usually prescribed at 16 at the earliest in the UK (in the Netherlands, for example, they are given as young as 12 or 13). Dr Giordano says: "The UK stance on puberty-suppressing drugs is completely unreasonable. In other countries they are provided as soon as puberty has commenced. But obtaining this treatment - which suppresses oestrogen in girls and testosterone in boys - is very difficult in this country." From the late 1990s the Dutch have been monitoring a group of around 350 adolescents with "gender divergent identity": a small number of these have had access to puberty-suppressing drugs and are planning to go on for surgery. In Dr Giordano's opinion these drugs are safe: "It is a temporary, reversible intervention. If the child changes their mind, they can be interrupted. They are entirely benign with no known side effects."

Parents who want the puberty-blocking treatment argue that their children's lives are at risk if they don't get it. Some are already seeking help abroad. Although some doctors are concerned that the complicating factor with gender identity disorder is that it shows up in different ways in every individual, advocates of the treatment say it is possible to draw up clear guidelines so that the right people are identified early and quickly. Giordano explains: "At puberty the problem becomes more distressing." Once transgender children start going through puberty and acquire secondary sex characteristics, their reassignment surgery will be much more complicated - and less likely to be wholly satisfactory. There is a challenge in identifying those who need treatment, she concedes, "but there are cases that are very clear where the disorder is strong and persistent".

Dr Carmichael of the Gender Identity Development Service argues that the Dutch trial is far from complete. "The Dutch data looks promising. But they have not been doing it for so many years that you have long-term follow-up.The data is not over a long enough period of time and that concerns endocrinologists." There is also concern in the medical comm-unity that not enough evidence exists on the effects of puberty-blocking treatment on bone mass or on the brain. "The question is, if you halt your own sex hormones so that your brain is not experiencing puberty, are you in some way altering the course of nature?"

There is also fierce debate about the origin of gender identity disorder. Understandably, many parents of transgender children, as well as many transsexual adults, are convinced it is innate. Studies such as The Praeger Handbook of Transsexuality by Rachel Ann Heath (Greenwood) explore a potential biological basis for the condition. Others are yet to be convinced. "There is a small amount of evidence for differences in the brain," says Dr Carmichael. "That is a very interesting finding but it is not robust enough to say that it is definitely the only reason and that it is an innate condition. It is most likely multifactorial." She acknowledges, however, the strength of feeling that these children experience: "Feelings are very intense and it is very difficult for families and young people to cope with the uncertainty. They are very strong in their conviction that they are in the wrong body."

Because of the misunderstanding and stigma surrounding gender identity, children are often horrifically bullied, even in their own families. Another of Di Ceglie's case studies is Mark, 16. He identified as a girl from the age of three. At the age of seven, he was raped by his father - which confirmed his belief that he was female. He has just gone into therapy. The doctor advised waiting until he was 18 to decide on a course of action.

When Sarah's daughter started dressing as a girl for the first time at the age of 16 on her walk to school, people would shout from their cars: "Girl with a cock!", "Tranny!" and "Man-beast!". "At her school they were shocked but they were wonderful," remembers Sarah. "It was explained to all the year groups that it was a condition and not a choice. They explained the effect it had on her and that bullying would not be tolerated. The kids were great. It was the parents saying they didn't want a freak in school with their child."

Sarah believes that anyone watching a teenager go through this process would want them to have the drugs as soon as possible. Her daughter was denied them until the age of 16, by which point she already had an adam's apple, a deep voice and facial hair. She understands all this is hard for people to take in; at the age of 11 her second child had to process the fact that his brother was becoming his sister. Family friends still forget what has happened and ask, "How are the boys?" "It takes a long, long time to come to terms with. It took us about two years to stop crying for our loss and also for the pain that we knew our child was going to have to go through. No one would choose this. It's too hard. I've asked my daughter, 'If this condition was known about in 1989 when I was pregnant and there was an option to have a termination, would you have wanted me to?' She said yes. And I agree. If I had known what it would be like for her, I would have done it. That's how bad it is."

Her daughter eventually got the outcome that felt right - but she is still getting over the events of the last six years. "She is still young and everything is raw for her. She hates the label 'transsexual'. She is just a girl who happened to need the surgery to make her genitals right".

• Mermaids: Family Support Group for Children and Teenagers with Gender Identity Issues can be reached at http://www.mermaids.freeuk.com/

• The Gender Identity Research and Education Society is at http://www.gires.org.uk/

-

Society:

Children
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/children

Young people
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/youngpeople
   
Health
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/health


Life and style:

Family & relationships
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/familyandrelationships

Health & wellbeing
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/healthandwellbeing


World news
Gender
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gender


More features
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tone/features

-

Related:

Jul 07 2008
Scientists warn that biological clock affects male fertility
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jul/07/health.children

Jun 27 2008
Zoe Williams on the trials of The Well Baby Clinic
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/jun/27/healthandwellbeing.health

Jan 12 2008
Skateboarding and sandwich making - new skills for Scouts
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jan/12/healthandwellbeing.health

May 23 2007
Julie Bindel talks to Claudia, who was rushed through a sex change and quickly regretted it
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/may/23/healthandwellbeing.health

--

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2008

Britain - LGBT Health Summit To Be Held 2008-09-04/05 In Bristol... [2008-08-14 Medical News Today]

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/118153.php

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual And Transgender Health Summit To Be Held In Bristol

14 Aug 2008

On September 4th and 5th the national Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) health summit will be held in Bristol. The third annual summit aims to raise the profile of LGBT people in the UK and the health inequalities they face. The event is being hosted by Terrence Higgins Trust and Equality South West.

The conference is aimed at anyone with an interest in health issues, especially those wishing to contribute to and influence public policy.

Paul Dunn, Chief Executive of Equality South West, said: "For too long, LGBT issues have been given less favourable treatment than other areas of equality.

"With the introduction of legal protection for LGBT people in the provision of goods and services, this event will provide a great opportunity for both service providers and individuals to discuss and influence future policies and outcomes."

This year's summit will build on the success of previous summits, held in London and Manchester, and will offer delegates an interesting mix of speakers, workshops and activities.

Additional information and an on- line application form can be found on the Summit website at http://www.lgbthealth.co.uk

http://www.tht.org.uk

--

© 2008 MediLexicon International Ltd

Britain - Kellie Telesford (nee Kayiode Dexter Telesford) - Teenager cleared of transsexual murder... [2008-08-14 Croydon Guardian]

http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/local/croydonnews/3595425.Teen_cleared_of_transsexual_murder/

CROYDON

Teen cleared of transsexual murder

5:11pm Thursday 14th August 2008

By Court reporter

A teenager accused of strangling a pre-op transsexual in her bedroom after discovering she was still a man was today cleared of murder.

The Old Bailey jury was told Shanniel Hyatt, 18, garrotted 39-year-old Kellie Telesford with a brown furry scarf after taking her out for a date.

The pair had met just hours before after bumping in to each other in Norbury and agreed to go for a drink.

The beautician was found three days later lying on the floor of the bedroom of her Leander Road, Thornton Heath flat, still in her underwear with a white sheet pulled across her body.

Hyatt, from Thornton Heath, admitted being with her on the night of her death and stealing her mobile phone, freeview box and DVD player. He also used her Oyster card to catch the bus home but he denied murder.

The teenager had said he had left Miss Telesford “fit and well” and had not attacked her.

His barrister Joanna Greenberg QC told the court the victim had a habit of “taking men to her flat and engaging in intimacy” and was “quite good” at concealing her gender from them.

She suggested Miss Telesford could have died during a “kinky sex game” with another man after Hyatt had left the flat.

Hyatt was cleared of murder and an alternative of manslaughter by the jury after four hours of deliberations.

But he now faces being kicked out of the country as an illegal immigrant.

Judge Paul Worsley QC said: “Shanniel Hyatt you have been found not guilty of being involved in the killing of Kellie Telesford.

“You are discharged in respect of this matter although I understand you will remain in custody in respect of other matters.”

Jamaican illegal immigrant Hyatt will now remain in custody facing deportation.

Prosecutor Sally O'Neill QC said: 'When police broke in to the flat they saw her lying on the floor on the left side of the bed and a bay window, covered by a white throw.

When he was later interviewed by police it was put to him that he had reacted violently after discovering she was a pre-op transsexual during the date, but the teenager denied this.

Miss O’Neill told the court Hyatt said he discovered Kellie had been a man an hour before the police interview and had not known she was a biological male while he was with her.

“He said he ‘felt p*ssed about finding out’ and said he would have left straight away. He denied he made the discovery at the flat and became violent as a result.”

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