India: Meet Prithika Yashini, set to be India's first transgender Sub-Inspector

K Prithika Yashini is set to become the first transgender police officer in India after winning a prolonged court battle to gain eligibility to be recruited to the sub-inspector (SI) post. The 25-year-old, born and brought up as Pradeep Kumar, had undergone gender reassignment surgery. She applied for the SI post in February, but was rejected on the ground that the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB) doesn't have a third gender category.

Unwilling to give up, she moved the Madras High Court, which allowed her in various stages of the selection process, including the written examination, physical endurance test and viva-voice through interim orders. However, she had to approach the court again as the state police recruitment board rejected her citing various reasons.

The First Bench directed the board to recruit Prithika as SI and include transgenders as a "third category" in future recruitment processes. "The social impact of such recruitment cannot be lost sight of, as this would give strength to the case of transgenders. We are thus of the view that the petitioner is entitled to be recruited as SI with the hope that she would carry out the duties with dedication and commitment to advance the cause of other transgenders," The Hindu quoted the Bench as saying. Read more via International Business Times

Colombia elects first openly gay, right-wing mayor

For the first time, Colombian voters have elected a mayor who campaigned as openly gay — proving the Latin American nation is ready to embrace candidates who are honest about themselves. 

Although the South American nation has long welcomed LGBT candidates, Julián Antonio Bedoya, the mayor-elect of Toro, in the western coastal state of Valle de Cauca, is the first mayor to win election after campaigning as an out gay man. This year's election included 72 LGBT candidates nationwide, including Ramón Rojas, a trans politician who was elected for his third consecutive term for the Council of Chaparral in Tolima.

"The challenge is immense for Julián — he should be a very good mayor and represent the LGBTI community," says Angelo Araujo, LGBT leader in the state."This must be done with the best possible administration. There's no point in having an openly gay candidate who has problems of corruption, and leaves things unfinished in their municipality. " Read more via the Advocate

Beyond boundaries: intersex in Hong Kong and China

I am Small Luk, an intersex activist from Hong Kong, and the founder of a project called BBKCI “Beyond the Boundary – Knowing and Concerns Intersex” (藩籬以外-認識及關愛雙性⼈) in 2011. 

I became public about my intersex status in February this year, and that has helped me to educate on intersex issues. I’m the first person to be public about being intersex in Hong Kong. I welcome interviews with media, and I connect with government departments.

I’m asking government to recognise our human rights as ordinary people, and change laws to end intrusive and irreversible treatments. These include forced genital normalizing surgery, involuntary sterilization, unethical experimentation, medical display, “reparative therapies” or “conversion therapies”, when enforced or administered without the free and informed consent of the person concerned. Read more via Intersex Day

Sweden’s Inclusive Rape Care Model

A hospital in Stockholm is understood to be first in the world to set up an emergency department specifically for male rape victims. The clinic at Södersjukhuset opened as part of a strategy to ensure "gender equal" patient care.

Sweden has the highest rape rate in Europe, a statistic that gained global prominence in 2010, when WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was first accused of sex crimes in the Nordic nation, allegations which he still strongly denies.

In 2014, a study by sexual education organization RFSU suggested that in most municipalities across Sweden, men were uncertain where they could get emergency help following a rape. Inger Björklund, a spokesperson for the group told The Local in June that it was looking forward to the opening of Stockholm's new facility.
 
"There are myths about masculinity that make it difficult for men who have been sexually traumatized to talk about their experiences," she said. Read More via Local

US: Gay issues enter the world of philanthropy

When a donor made a $100,000 gift to the Girl Scouts’ Western Washington Council last March, it was time to break out the hand-shaped clappers. One hundred thousand dollars was a big donation for the council, which represents about 25,500 girls in 17 counties in the western part of Washington State.

But in late April, after the funds were in hand, Ms. Ferland received a letter from the donor. "They wanted assurance that their funds would not help support transgender girls participating and if I couldn’t give that assurance they wanted the money returned.” Before she even finished reading the letter, “I thought to myself, ‘The money’s going back.’”

After the money was returned, Ms. Ferland says, a staff member suggested the organization start a crowd-funded campaign to replace the lost donation. 

“Help us raise back the $100,000 a donor asked us to return because we welcome transgender girls." In a little over five hours,  the site had already received over $100,000 in donations. By the end of that first day, the number was up to $243,958 from 4,760 donors. By the time the fund-raising effort was concluded a month later, the organization had raised $365,573. 

 Read more via New York Times

Pope Francis warns bishops against turning people away who do not fit 'scheduled faith'

Pope Francis has warned Catholic bishops against turning away from people who do not fit their "scheduled faith", a day after a divisive synod on the Church's attitude to sex, love and marriage ended in stalemate. Bishops submitted a report to the Pope that fudges the key issue of whether divorced and remarried believers should be allowed to play a full role in the Church, reflecting a stalemate in the battle between the conservative and liberal wings.

The document includes only one brief article on the Church's approach to gay believers, framing the question in terms of how priests can help support families who have "persons with homosexual tendencies" in their midst. The emphasis contrasted sharply with first drafts last year which spoke of recognising the value of loving same-sex relationships, to the outrage of those opposed to any dilution of Church teaching that homosexuality amounts to a kind of disorder.

Pope Francis is free to ignore or implement the document, which leaves him room for manoeuvre should he wish to defy his conservative opponents and push on with his attempt to make the Church more relevant and more welcoming towards believers who find themselves in breach of its rules.

"We are able to walk with the people of God, but we already have our schedule for the journey, where everything is listed: we know where to go and how long it will take, everyone must respect our rhythm and every problem is a bother," he said. Instead he pointed to the Gospel story of Jesus healing the blind man Bartimaeus as evidence that God "wants to include above all those kept on the fringes who are crying out to him".  Read more via Australia Broadcasting Corp 

Nepal: Third-Gender Passports May Be the Future of Trans Travel

The arrival of a transgender activist from Nepal in Taiwan for the 2015 International Lesbian and Gay Association’s Asia conference may seem unremarkable. But it was in fact quite special: The activist, Bhumika Shrestha, is the first Nepali citizen to travel abroad carrying a passport marked O for “other” instead of M  for “male” or F for “female.”

This is a groundbreaking and long-overdue achievement for global travel because it demonstrates that self-identification can and should be the sole factor in obtaining gendered documents.

Nepal’s legal recognition of a third category began with a 2007 Supreme Court case in which the judge ordered the government to create a legal category for people who identify as neither male nor female. Crucially, the judgment dictated that the ability to get documents bearing a third gender should be based on “self-feeling.” That is to say: no tests, expert opinions, or other potentially humiliating adjudication should play a role in the process.

But that concept had at the time only recently been enshrined in the Yogyakarta Principles, the first international guidelines on sexual orientation, gender identity, and human rights standards. And carrying out the court decision proved knottier than the court’s declaration. Read More via the Advocate

Australia: Trans* military officer Cate McGregor named 2016 Queensland Australian of the year

Members of the LGBTI community must first get their internal selves right to achieve happiness and success according to the 2016 Queensland Australian of the Year.

Group Captain Catherine (Cate) McGregor is the world’s highest-ranked trans* military officer and was named Queenslander of the Year by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk at a ceremony in Brisbane on Friday night.

McGregor, 59, won the award for her work as a diversity champion and national leader in trans* issues, which “as a result Australians have gained a greater understanding and acceptance of the transgender community”, according to the National Australia Day Council.

Formerly known as Malcolm, McGregor transitioned in 2012 and has been a public spokesperson for trans* issues ever since. She credits her career success in the Australian Defence Force not with hard work and ambition but as a desperate attempt to fit in “as a man” and would trade in her success to have transitioned at the age of 20.

Read more

France: Recognizes first 'gender neutral' person

A court in central France has officially registered a person as being "gender neutral" rather than either male or female. A 64-year-old born in the town of Tours can now claim to be the only person in France who is neither legally male or female.
 
"During adolescence, I understood that I wasn't a boy," the 64-year-old intersex person told French newspaper. "I never had a beard, my muscles never really developed, but at the same time, it was impossible for me to think I'd ever become a woman."
 
The magistrate noted that the person's birth certificate, which had the person labelled as male, had been nothing more than a "work of fiction". The magistrate stressed that the ruling didn't mean the court had recognized the existence of "some kind of third gender", but rather "acknowledged the impossibility of linking this person to one particular gender". Read More via the Local 

US: Ousted as gay, aging veterans are battling again for honorable discharges

When the Army discharged Pvt. Donald Hallman in 1955 for being what it called a “Class II homosexual,” the 21-year-old was so scared of being an outcast that he burned all his military records, save for a single dog tag he hid away. Mr. Hallman, a coal miner’s son who sang in a church choir in rural Alabama, says he never mentioned his military service again. He married a woman he had met at work, had children and wore a suit and tie to work each day.

But this summer, Mr. Hallman, now 82, retrieved the dog tag from a keepsake box and began working through an application to the Department of Defense, asking that his decades-old discharge be upgraded from “undesirable” to “honorable.”

He is one of a steady march of older veterans who were kicked out of the military decades ago for being gay, and who are now asking that their less-than-honorable discharges be upgraded. By some estimates, as many as 100,000 service members were discharged for being gay between World War II and the 2011 repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Many were given less-than-honorable discharges that became official scarlet letters — barring them from veterans’ benefits, costing them government jobs and other employment, and leaving many grappling with shame for decades. Read More via New York Times 

Israel: 11 police disciplined over Jerusalem Pride attack security failures

Israel’s Police Force is taking strong disciplinary action against a group of officers who were tasked with ensuring a safe 2015 Jerusalem Pride march after intelligence failings allowed religious extremist Yishai Schlissel into the parade area despite his only being released for a similar attack a month before.

Schlissel stabbed three marchers in the 2005 Jerusalem Pride march and was released in early July this year. On 30 July, just weeks after being set free, he carried out a stabbing attack on this year’s parade which wounded six and ultimately resulted in the death of 16-year-old victim Shira Banki.

Reacting to the announcement, the Banki family released a public statement earlier today. ‘The report won’t bring Shira back to her family,’ they say. ‘However, the family hopes that to the degree that deficiencies were found, they will be corrected and the conclusions drawn applied in the most thorough possible fashion to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.’ Read More via Gay Star News