Canada: Two more communities mourn trans deaths by suicide

September 26, I made a memorial sign containing the names and photos of the 16 trans people reported to have died by suicide so far in 2015; and I took the sign with me to the Second Annual Journey to Hope Walk for Suicide Awareness and Prevention. Della Fergusen, organizer of the event, invited me to join her on stage during the opening ceremonies to read all of their names aloud to the gathered crowd. It was a sobering experience that will stick with me for the rest of my life, as I recall how close I too have come to my own death over the years.

Less than 48-hours later I learned of not one, but two more reported suicides of trans people occurring on September 28, 2015. In Toronto, Ontario, Canada, friends and peers of 29-year-old Ryley Courchene have taken to social media to talk about her passing and comfort one another through their grief. There has yet to be any significant coverage of her passing through online news sites or in any Canadian publications.

Also on the 28th, 16-year-old trans activist, youth leader, and accomplished writer, Skylar Lee,  Wisconsin, scheduled a Tumblr blog post to go live which contained his suicide note. In it, he discussed his longtime struggles with depression and mental health issues, and requested of mourners: “Don’t turn my name into a hashtag”.  Read More via Planet Transgender

Argentina: Iconic trans activist stabbed to death in BA

Trans activist Diana Sacayán — who in 2012 received from President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner a DNI card with her female identity — was found dead with multiple stab wounds yesterday in her apartment in the City neighbourhood of Flores.

Sources from the Attorney General’s Office confirmed that the high-ranking member of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) was murdered. The same source confirmed that Sacayán’s body was found in a pool of blood with her hands and feet tied with rope. 

The building superintendent noticed that the door to her flat on the 13th floor was open. When he entered, he witnesses traces of violence everywhere. Investigators said that the apartment’s door was broken from the inside, meaning that Sacayán likely knew the perpetrator and allowed the murderer to come inside and locked the door, but he was not able to find the key to open the door.  Read More via Buenos Aires Herald 

Morocco takes action against anti-gay attack

Morocco has arrested three people suspected of beating up a man presumed to be homosexual and attempting to blackmail his family with a video. "A suspect was arrested for assaulting a young man, who was undressed, for his assumed homosexuality, and another two were arrested for trying to blackmail the victim's family with a video," Casablanca police said.

Online newspapers posted footage showing individuals beating a young man wearing women's underwear, before undressing him completely while threatening to kill him. From the video, police managed to identify the 17 year old victim. Read More via Your Middle East

Jamaica: Cops save gay man from angry mob

An openly gay man was rescued by police after an angry mob cornered him inside a bank parking lot in Half Way Tree.

Loop News arrived on the scene just in time to see police keeping the crowd at bay. The man said that he was walking with three friends when the mob descended on them and they ran in different directions. He ran into a popular bank's parking lot where a policeman arrived quickly and called for backup. 

"I am gay and they wanted to beat me because I am gay. But I am comfortable with who I am," added the man.

Members of the crowd were unsympathetic towards the man. "Ah lucky him lucky, you saved his life," a man told the cop who arrived first on the scene. Ironically, some members of the crowd praised the policeman for his efforts.  Read More via Loop Jamaica

Belgrade: Lesbians cruelly attacked in Café

After a book-reading public event, Dragoslava Barzut, a lesbian writer and feminist activist went the nearest café with three other lesbian friends from the lesbian football team. They were relaxed & singing in the small cafe with live music, filled with around 40 people altogether. After midnight men came in and started to beat them, screaming and cursing ‘Lesbians Lesbians!’.

Barzut noted a ‘thin and small’ waitress helped the women escape by intervening in the attack and locking the women in a bathroom until the police arrived. 

Representatives from the Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights said they will file the case as a hate crime. Read More via Labris 

UK: Figures reveal a 'shocking' rise in homophobic hate crimes

The number of homophobic attacks reported to police leapt by nearly a quarter last year, Home Office figures have revealed.

Forces in England and Wales recorded 5,597 hate crimes against gays and lesbians in 2014-15, a rise of 22 per cent on the previous 12 months. The spike in violence and abuse based on victims’ sexual orientation emerged in statistics revealing a continued rise in offences which are classified as “hate crimes”. 

Although some of the increase could be explained by victims being more willing to come forward, David Cameron described the latest figures as unacceptable and said more needed to be done to fight hate crime. Read More via the Independent

Kenya: Pervasive homophobic violence in coastal region

Mobs in Kenya’s coastal region have repeatedly attacked people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity, says a new report. In at least six incidents between 2008 and 2015, mobs in the coastal counties of Mombasa, Kwale, and Kilifi have attacked or threatened LGBT people or health workers serving the LGBT community, without sufficient response from authorities.

The 70-page report, “The Issue is Violence: Attacks on LGBT People on Kenya’s Coast,” is based on research conducted in 2014 and 2015 by Human Rights Watch and PEMA Kenya, a community organization in Mombasa that provides support to gender and sexual minorities on human rights, health, HIV/AIDS, and economic well-being. 

Unchecked violence on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity not only constitutes a serious human rights abuse, it also jeopardizes Kenya’s efforts to address an HIV epidemic that is highly concentrated among vulnerable populations. In three of the mob attacks, violence or threats from residents and local religious leaders caused health providers serving MSM to temporarily or permanently close their doors or shut down workshops.  Read More via Human Rights Watch 

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 

Italy: 'Improper' use of transgender photo by Italian political party

A student from Bristol is taking legal action after a picture of her friend was "misrepresented" by an Italian political party campaigning against transgender education in schools. Rose Morelli, 17, said it was "hugely distressing" to see the photo of Alex Elliot on the leaflet by the right-wing Fratelli d'Italia.

She is now taking legal action after her lawyer said Alex's image had been "misrepresented" and may have breached copyright issues.

Italian law does not currently legislate against crimes motivated by the sexual orientation or gender identity of the victims. On its website, the Trentino branch of the Italian gay rights group, Arcigay, described Fratelli d'Italia's use of Ms Morelli's photo as "an insult".

In a message on Twitter, Fratelli d'Italia said the use of the photo had been "improper". However, the party maintained that "it is right to campaign against gender teaching in school".  Read More via the BBC 

India: Court gives police protection to us transgender man

An Indian court has given police protection to a transgender man from the US. Shivy, 18, who prefers to be identified by his first name, is an Indian citizen but has been living in the US since the age of three. He has alleged that his parents tricked him into coming to India on holiday and then took away his passport and green card. He says that they then tried to forcibly marry him off to a man.

The Delhi High Court termed the alleged harassment as nothing short of "bigotry" and said that India was a land of tolerance. Transgender activists and the support group Nazariya arranged legal counsel and shelter for Shivy in Delhi after he ran away from Agra earlier this month.

Shivy has alleged in his petition that his father and some unknown men posing as police officers came to the residence of the activists who helped him, adding that he fears for their, and his own, safety. He has asked the Delhi High Court to help him get his passport and green card back so that he can return to the United States where he is pursuing a neurobiology course at the University of California.  Read More via the BBC 

US: Oregon Court of Appeals upholds civil rights decision

In a ruling based on a landmark civil rights law, the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld a $400,000 damages award against a North Portland bar that turned away a group of transgender patrons.

Bar owner Chris Penner had challenged a Bureau of Labor and Industries finding that he had illegally discriminated against Rose City T-Club members when he asked them to not come back to his establishment because he didn't want it known as a "tranny bar" or "gay bar."

The appellate court upheld the labor bureau's 2013 findings that Penner had denied the group equal accommodations on account of their sexual orientation in violation of the Oregon Equality Act of 2007. The court also dismissed Penner's argument that his free speech rights had been violated. Read More via Oregon Live