IN a summary of the 63-page judgment, the court said Chief Justice Martin and Justice Pullin took the view that the essential question was whether the physical characteristics of the two transsexuals, including their internal and external genitalia, would identify them as a member of the male gender.

“In their (the majority) view, because each individual possessed none of the genital and reproductive physical characteristics of a male, and retained nearly all of the normal external genital characteristics and the internal reproductive organs of a female, they would not be identified as males by reference to community standards, despite the existence of some secondary male physical characteristics,” the summary said.

thewest.com.au: Appeal denies transsexuals gender change

thewest.com.au: Appeal denies transsexuals gender change

The gender reassignment legislation, passed by State Parliament in 1999, allowed certificates to be issued when a person demonstrates a belief in the gender they have been reassigned, has adopted the lifestyle and “gender characteristics” [of] that gender and has had counselling.

During the appeal, lawyer Steven Penglis, representing the transsexuals, argued that the law did not require people to be sterile to have their gender reassigned and such a “fundamental and profound” requirement would have been made clear in the legislation.

But George Tannin, representing the State, said the transsexuals could not be legally recognised as men while retaining the “capacity” to have children.

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A recent study reveals that 80 per cent of transgender respondents have experienced some form of abuse from a partner or ex-partner.

The findings were released by the LGBT Domestic Abuse Project and the Scottish Transgender Alliance, who conducted the research.

Figures show that nearly half of respondents – 45 per cent – had experienced physical abuse from a partner or ex-partner. 47 per cent said they had experienced sexual abuse from a partner or ex-partner.

However only 60% identified these behaviours as domestic abuse.

PinkPaper.com: 80% of trans people suffer abuse at home, says report

PinkPaper.com: 80% of trans people suffer abuse at home, says report

Despite the high figures, 24% of people had told no one about the abuse they had experienced. …

The LGBT Domestic Abuse Project and the Scottish Transgender Alliance are set to launch new research, at the end of the month, that looks specifically at transgender people’s experiences of domestic abuse.

A spokesperson for transgender charity the Gender Trust told DIVA: “We applaud the work that LGBT Domestic Abuse Project, the Scottish Transgender Alliance and GIRES are doing in highlighting the issue of the high levels of violence experienced by trans people – something which we have sadly known to be on the rise for quite some time.”

Author:

Paris Lees

Editorial comment:

THE one big difference between transgender and transsexual people and intersex people is that a great many intersex people are subjected to extreme forms of violence from birth.

From birth, not just when their difference becomes expressed and obvious later in life.

IGM – infant genital mutilation – is an extreme form of violence designed to erase the very fact that intersex exists and that the newborn in question was born intersex.

The extreme violence continues when an intersex newborn is subjected to gender conforming brainwashing to make their behaviour fit the sex that they were forcibly assigned. And the violence continues throughout our lives, at many different hands and in many different forms.

It can be argued that the violence intersex people are subjected to in all its many and various manifestation is far beyond that which transsexual and transgender people are subjected to.

That is why it is distressing to see that intersex people are, apparently, yet again, excluded aka “not included” – for the benefit of those who insist on ideological correctness – from this study.

Yes, Scottish Transgender Alliance, we have read your website and understand that you include intersex in your ambit. But you and we know that intersex is not transgender nor a subset of transgender and that LGBT does not include I for intersex and that none of this effective erasure is doing much if anything to raise public and government consciousness about intersex and the extreme oppressions we are subjected to.

We hope therefore that your coming research helps to compensate for this.

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OII Australia Joins National LGBT Health Alliance

by admin on Thursday, 2 September, 2010

I’M very pleased to confirm that your application for Full Membership of the National LGBT Health Alliance has been approved by the Board of Directors.

The National LGBT Health Alliance is a member-based organisation, providing a framework for members to work collaboratively to pursue our common objectives of improving the health and wellbeing of sexuality, sex and gender diverse people. The Alliance is its members.

On behalf of all members, I welcome you to this rich and diverse alliance. …

OII Australia Joins National LGBT Health Alliance

OII Australia Joins National LGBT Health Alliance

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THE rights of transgender persons are still ignored or violated, but some signs of understanding now begin to appear. One example is the outcome, at long last, of Lydia Foy’s struggle in Ireland. She was registered as male at birth but has lived as a woman since 1992. This summer she finally succeeded in her battle for legal recognition by the Irish state as a woman and for a birth certificate that reflects this reality. …

The Council of Europe Commissioner’s Human Rights Comment: Forced divorce and sterilisation – a reality for many transgender persons

The Council of Europe Commissioner’s Human Rights Comment: Forced divorce and sterilisation – a reality for many transgender persons

Still viewed as a mental disorder

Ireland is not the only country where transgender persons have faced obstacles in obtaining legal recognition of their preferred gender. Some Council of Europe member states still have no provision at all for official recognition, leaving transgender people in a legal limbo. Most member states still use medical classifications which impose the diagnosis of mental disorder on transgender persons.

Even more common are provisions which demand impossible choices, such as the “forced divorce” and the “forced sterilisation” requirements. This means that only unmarried or divorced transgender persons who have undergone surgery and become irreversibly infertile have the right to change their entry in the birth register. In reality, this means that the state prescribes medical treatment for legal purposes, a requirement which clearly runs against the principles of human rights and human dignity.

Some positive legal developments can however be found. The Austrian Administrative High Court ruled in 2009 that mandatory surgery could not be a prerequisite for gender change, and in Germany the Federal Supreme Court indicated in 2005 that operative interventions as a precondition for the change of gender are no longer tenable.

Full right to physical and moral security

All countries need to develop expeditious and transparent procedures for changing the name and gender of a transgender person on official documents, in accordance with the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights.

In 2002, in Goodwin v UK, the Strasbourg Court’s Grand Chamber stressed that in the twenty first century the rights of transgender persons should be effectively protected by states. They should have the same right to personal development and to physical and moral security enjoyed by others in society. One cannot but agree.

There is a strong need for an informed dialogue about the widespread discrimination against transgender persons in Europe today. One contribution will hopefully be a comparative study, the result of which my office will present early next year, on continued discrimination in all parts of Europe on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity.

External links:

Editorial comment:

HERE we go again – intersex is shown once more to be invisible to the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights. When are we going to be included? When is the fact that our rights are so grossly violated each and every day going to be officially recognized?

“Forced divorce and sterilization” – it must never be forgotten that intersex people, too, are subjected to sterilization and sometimes forced divorce.

Intersex people subjected to IGM – intersex genital mutilation – as newborns are often, perhaps usually, forcibly sterilized as a result.

Intersex people assigned the sex they are not at birth who wish to correct that later in life are often sterilized as a side effect whether we want it or not.

While it is true that some intersex people are born sterile, many of us are not and many of us have given birth or have fathered children with or without medical assistance.

Some of us who have done so have offspring who are themselves intersex.

Although the eugenics-inspired medical and legal violence against intersex people is mostly the product of homophobia, there is an element of genocide in this too if we consider intersex as a people who are kept apart and treated as ‘other’ by society.

OII Australia calls on the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights to include intersex in his investigations, deliberations and recommendations from now onwards.

We call on all instrumentalities of the Council of Europe to do the same.

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AMONG the many topics left out of nearly every mainstream newspaper and television report about the lawsuit against Nikki Araguz, are the number of people in Texas and across the U.S. who have had genital reconstruction surgery, and who could potentially be affected by an unfavorable appeals court ruling, if the Delgado v. Araguz lawsuit gets that far. While the number of such people may represent a small fraction of the U.S. population, the numeric totals may surprise many people who are not otherwise informed about the prevalence of people born with intersex and/or transsexual conditions. There are likely hundreds of such married couples living in Texas, some who have married in Texas and some who have married elsewhere, whose marriages exist in a state of legal uncertainly while they remain resident in Texas, because of the confused status of Texas marriage law. …

The Trial of Nikki Araguz: The Lawsuit Against Nikki Araguz Could Impact Many People in Texas

The Trial of Nikki Araguz: The Lawsuit Against Nikki Araguz Could Impact Many People in Texas

Editorial comment:

THE apparently complete lack of support for Nikki Araguz and her attorneys in this trial from LGBT – I for intersex seems to be excluded from most if not all such groups – equality, human rights and justice organizations in the US is quite disgusting.

Does it have anything to do with Nikki being intersex and perhaps to be shunned for it or is it sheer blindness to the bigger picture?

This trial is about more than the right to an inheritance – Nikki Araguz is apparently on trial for being intersex. Intersex people as a whole would seem to be on trial for being born intersex.

There is no question that the outcome of this trial – this witch hunt – will have serious and far-reaching implications for intersex, transsexual and transgender people throughout Texas, throughout the whole of the United States and throughout those other nations, usually English-speaking, that pay particular attention to case law in other English-speaking nations.

Remember how Corbett vs Corbett – the trial of April Ashley that resulted in the dissolution of her marriage – then so adversely affected case law in Australia and other nations.

Remember how the Family Court of Australia’s Re: Kevin positively affected case law in Florida in the Kantaris case.

Remember the butterfly effect – how something that occurs in one part of the world can blow up big in another part.

OII Australia calls on all US LGBT and LGBTI organizations to pull their collective fingers out and to get onside with Nikki Araguz immediately

There are far bigger things at stake here than your apparent, entrenched exclusion of intersex aka “non-inclusion” as we have been warned to use as an alternative phrase for the sake of the ideological correctness.

The only way through all of this is universal marriage equality for everyone.

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Publication:

Psychiatry Research

Title:

Comparing adult and adolescent transsexuals: An MMPI-2 and MMPI-A study

Authors:

Annelou L.C. de Vries, Baudewijntje P.C. Kreukels b, Thomas D. Steensma, Theo A.H. Doreleijers, Peggy T. Cohen-Kettenis

Institutions:

Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Medical Psychology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Psychiatry Research: Comparing adult and adolescent transsexuals: An MMPI-2 and MMPI-A study

Psychiatry Research: Comparing adult and adolescent transsexuals: An MMPI-2 and MMPI-A study

Abstract:

Sex, sexual orientation and age have been shown to be important in relation to psychological functioning in transsexuals. However, only few studies to date took these factors into account and not earlier have adolescent transsexuals participated. In this study the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2 or MMPI-A, respectively) was administered to 293 adults (207 male to female transsexuals (MtFs), mean age 38.04 (range 18.56–65.62) and 86 female to male transsexuals (FtMs), mean age 33.26 (range 18.95–64.30)) and 83 adolescents (43 MtFs, mean age 15.70 (range 13.16–18.70) and 40 FtMs, mean age 15.64 (range 13.05–18.56)) with a gender identity disorder (GID). Of adult MtFs, 33% were categorized as “homosexuals” and 66% as “non-homosexuals”. Of adult FtMs, 77% were categorized as “homosexuals” and 33% as “nonhomosexuals”. Adult FtMs functioned significantly better than MtFs on three clinical scales. Contrary to what is often assumed, no differences in psychological functioning were found in the adult transsexuals with regard to sexual orientation, except on one clinical scale. Most remarkably, significantly more adults with GID scored in the clinical range on two or more clinical scales than adolescents with GID. Therefore, early medical intervention may be recommendable for adolescents with GID.

Editorial comment:

THE same principle applies to intersex people who need to live in their correct sex and not the one that was imposed upon them at birth.

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Publication:

American Journal of Medical Genetics

Title:

A 46,X,inv(Y) Young Woman With Gonadal Dysgenesis and Gonadoblastoma: Cytogenetics, Molecular, and Methylation Studies

Authors:

Giorgio Gimelli, Roberto Giorda, Silvana Beri, Stefania Gimelli, and Orsetta Zuffardi

Institutions:

Laboratorio di Citogenetica, Istituto G.Gaslini, Genova, Italy; IRCCS Eugenio Medea, Bosisio Parini (LC), Italy; Biologia Generale e Genetica Medica, Università di Pavia, Pavia, Italy.

American Journal of Medical Genetics: A 46,X,inv(Y) Young Woman With Gonadal Dysgenesis and Gonadoblastoma: Cytogenetics, Molecular, and Methylation Studies

American Journal of Medical Genetics: A 46,X,inv(Y) Young Woman With Gonadal Dysgenesis and Gonadoblastoma: Cytogenetics, Molecular, and Methylation Studies

Abstract:

Cytogenetic analysis of a young woman with gonadal dysgenesis and bilateral gonadoblastoma shared a male karyotype with a rearranged Y chromosome, interpreted as a pericentric inversion. The breakpoints, defined by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), were located on the very distal short arm on band Yp11.31 and in the middle of the Yq12 long arm heterochromatic region. FISH analysis documented that the short arm breakpoint was 93 Kb distal to SRY and disrupted the CD99 gene, which was transposed to the distal portion of Yq12. The proposita’s phenotype was similar to that of XY individuals with gonadal dysgenesis but without signs of Ullrich—Turner syndrome. There were no mutations in the SRY gene. Cytogenetic analysis in the proposita’s father showed mosaicism of a normal Y chromosome and several different rearrangements, such as deletion of a heterochromatin portion at band Yq12.2, a fragile site at the same band, structural rearrangements between the Ychromosome and other autosomes, Y-chromosome aneuploidies, and ‘Premature Centromere Division’ (PCD) anomaly. The proposita’s inverted Y chromosome appears to have originated from paternal Y chromosome instability. The patient’s female phenotype could be due to SRY CpG methylation-mediated positional effects (PEV). …

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RED, the Pomeranian puppy born with both male and female reproductive organs, has a permanent home.

“It’s wonderful. I’m so happy,” said Sharon Blechinger, director of the Helping Every Animal League, a nonprofit support group for the San Bernardino City Animal Shelter.

“I’m so happy for Red,” she said. “He’s going to have a nice home.”

The Press-Enterprise: Group finds home for hermaphrodite dog

The Press-Enterprise: Group finds home for hermaphrodite dog

Blechinger did not make public the name or home town of Red’s new owner, who she said is shunning attention. The owner did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

Thirteen people from as far away as Maryland and Connecticut applied to adopt the dog. Blechinger said she chose the new owner because she had worked in veterinarians’ offices and has experience with animals.

“She just seemed the right fit,” the HEAL director said. “I met her and she is a very nice person.”

The dog moved into his new home last week.

Red was born with a condition called pseudo male hermaphrodite and was found wandering the streets of San Bernardino.

His condition was so rare that published data do not include an estimated percentage of the pet population that has it. Veterinarians might see it once in a 30-year career, if at all, said San Bernardino veterinarian Marc DiCarlo. In humans, it occurs in three out of 100,000 people.

The dog underwent corrective surgery last month to prevent infection and reduce the risk of developing cancer. Blechinger paid the $1,165 cost of the surgery out of her own pocket.

The dog had been in foster care until he recovered sufficiently to be adopted.

Internal link:

Editorial comment:

HOW utterly grotesque. A stray dog is discovered to be intersex, is scheduled to be killed simply because it is intersex and a ‘benefactor’ comes to the ‘rescue’ to pay a quack veterinary surgeon to cut up the dog’s genitals in a vain attempt to render it no longer intersex but agreeably ‘normal’ instead.

So now its genitals somewhat resemble those of a male dog. It remains intersex of course. No amount of surgery removes the fact that an intersex dog or intersex human being is intersex. Every cell in intersex bodies remains intersex from birth to death.

Was no thought ever given as to whether the dog would have preferred its genitals to stay as they were?

Was no thought ever given as to whether the dog might have preferred its genitals to more resemble female than male?

And as is the case with intersex human beings whose genitals are forcibly and non-consensually cut up as newborns by self-appointed ‘experts’ desperate to erase any visible evidence that intersex exists and is common in man and beast, the usual lies are trotted out as justifications for all this – that it was done to “prevent infection” and to “reduce the risk of developing cancer.”

Lies, lies, lies and more lies.

Human beings, some of us at any rate, simply cannot stand the fact that difference exists in the world and there is more to people and other animals than 100% male or 100% female.

So they whip out their needles, their knives and their big, big lies and get to work.

Well, at least this story is no longer published under the biggest lie that it first appeared under, that the poor little innocent dog is a ‘transgender’ dog.

Intersex is not transgender, folks. Intersex is intersex.

There is no such thing as man dogs and woman dogs – man and woman being genders. Male and female are sexes. Dogs have a sex, not a gender.

There most certainly are intersex dogs and they should be allowed to stay that way and not be cut up to turn their genitals into some bizarre ideal of 100% male or 100% female.

The people who did this should be charged with animal cruelty.

At the very least they should be ashamed of themselves.

Red should have been allowed to stay as it was and be helped to find a home with people who accept that nature is as it is and that intersex naturally exists amongst man and beast.

So, alas, does IGM – intersex genital mutilation – and that is what was done to Red.

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smh.com.au: Lewis lines up Semenya

by admin on Monday, 30 August, 2010

TRIPLE Olympian Tamsyn Lewis is looking forward to racing South African 800-metre runner Caster Semenya, despite joking that the Hawthorn AFL team ought to sign her for the back pocket.

Semenya, the centre of a storm after a gender test last year, finished third in her Diamond League debut in Brussels on Friday night, four seconds slower than her controversial world championship victory. That win was overshadowed by a gender test, the result of which was never officially released. It was said Semenya has a rare medical condition.

smh.com.au: Lewis lines up Semenya

smh.com.au: Lewis lines up Semenya

Some opponents have likened racing Semenya to running against a male. Lewis, the former world indoor champion, said the 800m accommodated strongly built athletes. “I was thinking Hawthorn should recruit her for the back pocket because she’s so strong,” Lewis said. “But you know what, there’s been so many 800m runners who have been built like Caster,” she said. “Maria Mutola [of Mozambique] was so good; I raced against her for most of my career and she was a heavily built athlete. And that’s the beauty of the 800m: you can have all athletic builds meet in that one event.”

External links:

Editorial comment:

OUR standard notes and corrections:

  • Intersex is not rare – it is a common biological variation with some underlying variations being more common than others.
  • Intersex is not a medical condition.
  • One cannot medically test for gender, only sex.
  • Gender is whether one is a man or a woman or somewhere in between; sex is whether one is female or male or somewhere in between.
  • Gender is the behavioural and social role expression of one’s sex.

It is interesting that Tamsyn Lewis has noted how the 800m running event attracts powerfully-built female athletes.

Even more slightly-built female athletes hardly resemble Barbie dolls.

Athletes complaining about Ms Semenya’s build would do well to look about themselves a little bit more.

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MINISTRY of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MoWCSW) and Blue Diamond Society (BDS), an NGO for third gender rights, are jointly working to amend legal provisions to ensure equal rights for the third gender.

Sher Jung Karki, under secretary at the ministry said that third genders suffer violence, harassment, discrimination, exclusion and stigma.

After the Supreme Court (SC) gave legal recognition to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI), we decided to amend the legal provision in the constitution, added Karki. The ministry and BDS will be undertaking a Rs 30-lakh project.

In December 2007, SC had declared that all discriminatory laws against LGBTI people must be repealed and provision made for recognition of the ‘third gender’ in government documents. Nepal is the only country in South Asia that provides such rights.

The Himalayan Times: Project for LGBTI rights

The Himalayan Times: Project for LGBTI rights

“We are reviewing legal documents and trying to ensure equal rights for LGBTI as per the cabinet decision,” said Karki, adding that the Interim Constitution has also guaranteed equal rights for the third gender. “All citizens shall be equal before the law and there shall not be discrimination among citizens on grounds of religion, race, caste, tribe, gender, origin, language or ideological conviction.”

“If we can legally ensure their rights, it will be easier for them to get other social, economic and cultural rights,” said Karki. According to BDS, more than 120,000 LGBTIs are in touch with BDS. The community estimates the LGBTI population to be 900,000 in the country.

Editorial comment:

THE idea of making all of LGBTI a third sex or a third gender is problematic in OII’s opinion.

The Blue Diamond Society (BDS) in Nepal has been working for an official third gender for a while now, despite how the terrible lives of third gender Hijra in India and Pakistan should have informed this strategy.

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XIAODI, a teenage girl who was found to be physiologically a boy at age 15, received a sex change operation at Zhujiang Hospital in Guangdong yesterday.

Xiaodi has white skin, a soft voice and a beautiful appearance. It’s hard to image she is a boy. Her father said Xiaodi’s genitalia were not so clear and all the family members thought she was a girl when she was born. When she was 1 years old, her parent found male genitalia on her body. When they took her to the hospital, the doctor in the small local hospital could not tell either.

People's Daily Online: Male sex chromosome found in Guangdong girl's body

People's Daily Online: Male sex chromosome found in Guangdong girl's body

Last month, Xiaodi and her parent came to Zhujiang Hospital. She was made a definite diagnosis of pseudo-hermaphroditism, which is where a person is born with genitalia that contradicts other physical characteristics associated with a particular sex. According to tests, Xiaodi does not have a vagina, uterus or ovaries. However, testes were found in her abdominal cavity and her sex chromosome is XY, which indicates she is male.

According to Liu Chunxiao, the director of urinary surgery in Zhujiang Hospital, Xiaodi has got a male physiologically sex and a female psychological gender. Her family and her friends also consider her to be a girl.

Finally, Xiaodi decided to be a girl to maintain her socially identified gender.

Editorial comment:

YET another article spouting the false notion that Y = male.

Sex is determined by the interactions of a number of genes on several known chromosomes.

The X and Y chromosomes act like a window through which the others are expressed.
Two essential genes – DAX5 and SOX9 – are not located on either of the so-called “sex chromosomes” however without them sex differention happens in ways not predictable by considering X and Y alone.

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FROGS in the pond have become canaries in the coal mine. As amphibian populations have declined worldwide, concerns have risen about the potential environmental effects of agricultural pesticides and other chemicals. And recent work is challenging existing ideas of what environs and organisms are at risk.

After almost a decade of hot debate over whether atrazine, a common agricultural weed killer (SN: 2/27/10, p. 18), is creating frogs with both male and female characteristics, some scientists have taken a step back to survey such intersex frogs in a wide variety of landscapes, including pristine woodlands, urban areas and suburbia. Ecologist David Skelly of Yale University, for example, has found that — counter to usual assumptions — percentages of mixed-sex green frogs may be higher in the suburbs than on agricultural lands.

[click to read more…]

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