Five things you can do for your intersex child

I was born with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, an intersex trait that wasn’t discovered until I was a teenager. I’m externally female, meaning I was born with a vagina, so my parents had no reason or way to know that I was intersex. I was a teenager when doctors discovered, because of an unrelated event, that I had XY chromosomes, internal testes, and a blind-ended vaginal pouch.

When doctors told my parents I was intersex, they also instructed them to withhold the diagnosis from me in order to protect the development of my gender identity. My parents went along with the doctor’s recommendation, and a few years after my diagnosis, when doctors determined my breasts were sufficiently developed and I was of a reasonable height for a woman, my testes were surgically removed. At the time of the surgery, I didn’t know that the surgeon was removing my testes, because I didn’t even know I had them.

Given my experience as an intersex person, activist, and sociologist who studies intersex, I offer below a list of five things I hope you do for your intersex child.  Read more via The Parents Project 

Hong Kong: Majority now support anti-discrimination laws for LGBT people

A study commissioned by the Equal Opportunities Commission found that more than half of Hongkongers surveyed are in favour of legislation against sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status discrimination, indicating a visible shift in public opinion over the past decade.

More than half – 55.7% – of the 1,005 surveyed agreed with enacting legislation – almost double the 28.7 percent who agreed in 2005. The shift was even more defined among young people – 91.8 percent considered legislation necessary, and nearly half – 48.9 percent – with religious views concurred. The findings of the Study on Legislation against Discrimination on the Grounds of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Intersex Status were released on Monday.

The study also revealed the prevalence of discrimination against LGBTI in Hong Kong. In the study’s focus groups, LGBTI respondents feel that discrimination frequently takes place in areas of employment, education, provision of services, disposal and management of premises, as well as government functions. They also feel that they have little or no means of redress. They therefore saw legal protection from discrimination as the necessary first step in the protection of basic human rights and dignity. Read more via Hong Kong Free Press 

India: Transgender people say fight will not stop till Sec 36A repealed

Shreeja (name changed), a transgender person who begs on the city streets, has been bullied and dragged by the cops to police stations, often for cases not related to her. Hers is not an isolated case. The police have been accused of committing at least 40 atrocities against transgenders, under the cover of Section 36A of the Karnataka Police Act, alleges the transgender community.

Section 36A is aimed at controlling the ‘objectionable activities’ of ‘eunuchs’. But activists have condemned this section, saying it is a violation of fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution. Akkai Padmashali and other activists met Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs T.B. Jayachandra recently, and he assured them that the government would remove the Section.

Akkai told Deccan Chronicle, “The government is quiet on the issue. We have met several leaders, but it has been of no use. Our fight will not end till Section 36A is fully repealed. I have trust in the present government, and hope that it will remove the offending section.” Read more via Deccan Chronicle 

India: How has the sexual landscape changed?

In the world's largest democracy, homosexual activity is still a crime punishable by life imprisonment. A few weeks ago, the Indian Parliament saw MPs of both major parties scurrying for the exits to evade a debate on this anachronistic ban, introduced by the British Raj in the 19th century.

The occasion was a failed attempt by a maverick backbencher to introduce a private member's bill legalising homosexuality. Indian politicians are in no hurry to debate a reform that would annoy religious extremists. And yet India, always a land of contradictions, allows Gay Pride marches in most major cities, has vibrant gay pressure groups and publications and officially accepts people who are transgender.

When I grew up in India's most cosmopolitan city, Bombay, in the 1960s, the very mention of homosexuality was taboo, and absolutely no one was “out”. Last month, I made a personal journey home for a BBC Radio 4 documentary, to explore how dramatically India's sexual landscape has changed in recent years. Read more via Independent

Africa: “Seeds of hope” for gay rights in Africa, says special US envoy

Southern Africa is moving towards greater acceptance of sexual and gender minorities though there is still a long way to go, the US first special envoy for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people said. Randy Berry, an openly gay senior diplomat, was speaking at the end of a 10-day visit to Malawi, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa.

“I believe in all of these countries, there are seeds of hope,” Berry said, speaking from South Africa.  “With government representatives, I found them to be sensitive to the issues, wanting to engage very clearly... After these consultations, I am quite hopeful.”

Berry said he was encouraged by governments’ willingness to discuss the issue and to give LGBT groups space to operate. “The fact that we can actually have a rational, coherent, quiet conversation is really important,” he said. “The problem we face in a global sense is one of ignorance and non exposure.”

Many Africans, particularly religious leaders, argue that decriminalising homosexuality would be akin to promoting it and that it goes against their traditions and culture. Being gay “is not a learned behaviour. It is not somehow produced by external forces. This is how people are born,” Berry said. Read more via EWN 

How African LGBT activists are risking their lives to bring tolerance to their homes

When Ugandan LGBT activist Clare Byarugaba woke up and turned on her phone on February 28, 2014, she was greeted by the same ominous message over and over: "Have you seen the newspaper?" A few days before, the president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, had signed into law a bill that punished certain sexual acts between two people of the same gender with life in prison and threatened incarceration for those who provided services and support to the LGBT community. In response, a popular tabloid newspaper ran Byarugaba's name and photo on its front page that day with the headline "Top Ugandan Gays Speak Out: How We Became Homos."

"All I could think of was, Oh, my God, my mom!" recalls Byarugaba, whose voice catches as she describes her mother's response: She threatened to hand her daughter over to the police. Byarugaba left town, fearing for her life after receiving death threats on her phone and via social media. She had seen what happened to out gays and lesbians in her country. In 2011 Uganda's most visible LGBT activist, David Kato, was bludgeoned to death with a hammer shortly after another tabloid splashed his photo on its front page under a banner that read, "Hang Them."

As the co-coordinator of the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law, an LGBT advocacy group, Byarugaba worried that something similar might happen to her. Speaking out and organizing against her government's anti-LGBT rhetoric had made her vulnerable. Read more via Essence

US: A fresh gay face is shaking things up in evangelical land

When Matthew Vines burst onto the evangelical scene in 2012, he could have become another one-hit wonder of viral videos. A YouTube video of the 21-year-old outlining a scriptural defense of monogamous, Christ-centered same-sex relationships showed up on LGBT blogs and Facebook timelines all over.

Since then, he has established The Reformation Project, an organization aimed to change Christians minds on same-sex relationships, and he's published God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships. Three years later, Vines is an emerging voice in Christian conversations on the intersections of faith, gender, and sexuality.

When I met Vines in the beginning of this venture with The Reformation Project, he was eager, albeit a bit naïve. He wanted to change the world equipped only with theology that affirmed same-sex relationships: “In 10-15 years, I want to change 2 billion Christians' minds on same-sex relationships,” I once heard him say. While his goals haven’t changed, the timeline has — and so have his methods. Read more via the Advocate 

UK: Transgender baptisms offered at Greater Manchester church

Transgender baptisms are to be offered for the first time in the UK by a church in Greater Manchester. The New Chapel Unitarian and Free Christian in Denton, Tameside, agreed the move at its annual general meeting.

Jean Clements, the church's worship leader, proposed the change after meeting a couple who had a transgender child. The church was moved to make a change in order to help those in the same situation. Mrs Clements said: "I felt saddened by the fact that this family were being shunned by many mainstream churches.

New Chapel stressed it is for other Unitarian Chapels within neighbouring districts "to decide for themselves whether they wish to offer similar services". Read more via BBC 

India's Hijra women are getting happy about trans rights

INDIA has been kicking goals on trans rights recently and the latest news from the subcontinent will leave you feeling happy.

Last year a small town elected the country’s first trans mayor, a trans woman became a prominent TV news anchor and India officially recognised trans as a third gender.  Last night, six singers from India’s Hijra community — the cultural term for its trans women — released an YouTube video covering Pharell William’s worldwide hit Happy.

The 6 Pack Band is India’s first-ever trans girl group made up of six singers and their first single Hum Hain Happy is a celebration of all things trans.  Read more

Gender fluidity went pop in 2015 – and it's not just a phase

Miley Cyrus blurred the lines between boy and girl, Angel Haze came out as agender and cross-dressing rapper Young Thug challenged stereotypes. In the first of a three-part series on the musical talking points of 2015, a look at how pop stars are refusing to be pinned down

don’t call it a trend. Gender fluidity found its way into more headlines than ever in 2015. But regardless of the moment it’s having in both music and pop culture at large, to dismiss it as a passing fad or, worse, gimmickry is a mistake – one with echoes of that damaging and all too familiar phrase that queerness is “just a phase”.

Proclamations that “gender fluidity is the new black” may be well intentioned, but are unhelpful. Instead, the cultural landscape of the last year has afforded a new openness for artists who don’t identify with gender binaries.  Read more

Taiwan: "We Are Not Monsters. We Are Full of Love."

Monster. The words on the medical record, scrawled in a doctor’s messy English script, said “pseudo hermaphrodite.” But what 18-year-old Hiker Chiu read on the paper was monster. 

Hiker’s parents finally told her/him that s/he was born both male and female—the word intersex never came up. Read more via Alturi

Netherlands: Advertising watchdog defends gay hook-up ads at train stations

Adverts for a gay hook-up app will not be banned in the Netherlands, despite a number of complaints. Gay cruising app Squirt had put up the large signs and posters at major train stations across Rotterdam, Amsterdam Utrecht and The Hague. 

Despite a number of complaints, the Advertising Standards Board has ruled in favour of the site – and will allow the campaign to continue.  One complainant claimed that the ad was designed to entice children into visiting the website, while a third said it was “truly sickening and shocking”.
The ASB found that the ads met “the necessary precautions… in the context of good taste and public decency.”

The app’s ads were previously removed from trains in Canada – after the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) claimed they encouraged gay commuters to “break the law”. TTC spokesperson Danny Nicholson said: “The ad was taken down as it promoted sex in public places, which is against the law.” Read more via PinkNews