Is the world finally waking up to intersex rights?

Research has found between 0.05% and 1.7% of the global population are born with intersex traits – biological sex characteristics that don’t conform to typical notions of male or female. The upper estimation is around the same number of red haired people, yet intersex people are far less visible.

There are at least 40 intersex variations, ranging from genetic, chromosomal, anatomic and hormonal. In countries with access to western healthcare, it has become common practice to subject intersex children to medical interventions to make their bodies fit into the male/female binary, with damaging results.

Last month a landmark directive on intersex rights was announced by the government of Chile. The ministry of health issued guidance to stop “normalisation” surgeries on intersex children. It is one of two countries in the world that has produced any formal guidelines preventing these medical interventions. The other is Malta, which in April 2015, was the first country to prohibit these surgeries by law.   Read more via the Guardian

Thailand: A new gay web series that is worth your health

Have we been waiting too long for a realistic storyline of native Asian gay men coping with their sexual health issues? The answer is yes. Despite efforts to expand the visibility of LGBT individuals on mainstream TV series and webseries, there's still not a lot out there that truly empower sexual health and rights of gay men who are living in Asia – the region that’s progressing sluggishly, if not the least, in standing up for health and rights of its sexual minorities.

The tide, however, will turn. GAYOK BANGKOK The Series, a webseries following the lives of six diverse gay men living in Bangkok and their drama – relationship, career, family and, most of all, sexual health – in a manner that Asian gay men can truly relate. 

Read more via Test BKK
 

Netherlands: Court convicts, fines politician for anti-gay statements

A Dutch court convicted former Amsterdam politician Delano Felter for comments he made in 2010 against homosexuals. He was fined one thousand euros by the court, which conditionally suspended half the amount for two years.

“The gay profile is simply too dominant. I think that there are too many gays in the government,” he told broadcaster AT5. These people with these sexual deviations must basically be contested by heterosexuals,” he said. The court found his comments “unnecessarily offensive,” and incited discrimination against a group of people.

Felter was the leader of the Republikeinse Moderne Partij, or Modern Republican Party, when he made the remarks on camera as part of a political debate. 

 Read more via Netherlands Times

 

Australia: Zero tolerance for gay 'conversion' therapy

The state government will attempt to crack down on so-called gay conversion therapy through a new public watchdog with the power to investigate people purporting to "cure" or suppress homosexuality. The move comes amid growing concerns that such practices remain prevalent in Australia – including alarming claims of shock treatment or aversion tactics being used in recent years in a bid to thwart same-sex attraction.

Legislation will be introduced into parliament later this year to establish a new watchdog – the Health Complaints Commissioner – with the power to investigate and sanction anyone claiming they can treat homosexuality.

While registered practitioners can already be investigated by authorities, the legislation will close a loophole that currently exists regarding unregistered practitioners making unproven claims that they can convert gay people. "If they are found to be making false claims and to be acting in a manner that puts people's physical, mental or psychological health, safety or welfare at risk, the Commissioner will be able to ban them from providing such services," said Health Minister Jill Hennessy. Read more via The Age

US: Opt-out screening can improve acceptance of HIV testing

Compared with active choice testing, opt-out screening can substantially increase HIV testing, and opt-in schemes may reduce testing, a new study has suggested.

"Our study provides evidence that small changes in wording can significantly affect patients' behavior and thus our understanding of their preferences. Specifically, modifying HIV testing defaults led to clinically and statistically significant differences in test acceptance percentages." 

"We found that active choice testing, although previously considered a form of opt-in testing, is a distinct category: compared with a strict opt-in scheme informing patients that they can request a test, simply asking patients if they would like a test increased test acceptance by 13 percentage points," the authors write.

In an accompanying editorial, Jason S. Haukoos. MD, and Sarah E. Rowan, MD, both from the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, emphasize that, "the study by Montoy and colleagues represents one of the largest trials to evaluate consent for HIV testing among emergency department patients, and the only one to do it in a randomized fashion but with particular focus on the efficacy of the various consent options." Read more via MedScape

New stamps promoting LGBT equality worldwide unveiled at UN

The United Nations Postal Administration unveiled a set of six commemorative stamps to promote UN Free & Equal – a global UN campaign for LGBT equality launched and led by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

The new stamps mark the first time the United Nations has issued stamps with this theme. In an interview, the artist who designed them, Sergio Baradat said he was very influenced by art from the first quarter of the 20th Century. 

“One of the stamps represents someone who is transgender,” Mr. Baradat said, referring to the stamp that depicts a person with butterfly wings, an image he says represents a person “becoming who they really are, blossoming." "We live in a world where even though [developed] nations have embraced marriage equality [and] LBGT equality, we still have a far, far, far way to go, but we are making some strides,” he added.  Read more via the UN 

Manoj Bajpayee And Rajkummar Rao Are Urging India To Be More LGBT-inclusive

Aligarh actors Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao, and director Hansal Mehta, released a video in support of the movement to slash Section 377 which criminalises homosexuality in India. 

They urged viewers to challenge the law, and to embrace open-mindedness about sexualities. Read more

German film: The first ever ‪Gay‬ Sex Commercial!

Russia: Watching the country's strangest documentary

When Boris Nadezhdin, a former Russian Duma deputy, suggested that homosexuality was biological, an audience member cried out, “that’s a lie!” reigning in the rogue guest. I watched “Sodom,” along with dozens of hours of Russian television, to try and understand the narrative on homosexuality being disseminated across the country. Major television networks, all of which are either state-owned or firmly under the influence of the state, spread a narrative that goes beyond homophobia into a surreal, parallel universe of logic. It is a world that has sprung up relatively recently. 

Four years ago, the idea that homosexuality was linked to pedophilia was something that only cropped up in news coverage of the handful of politicians who espoused that view. Now, across the full spectrum of Russian media, that theory is presented as scientific fact. TV hosts across the networks regularly discuss homosexuality as a problem that needs to be solved. Three quarters of Russians now consider homosexuality a psychological disorder, and theories for “treatment” are popular on-air conversation starters. 

Read more via Coda Story
 

Spain: Free metro passes for transgender people

Madrid's metro has announced it will give away a batch of free annual travel passes to transgender people in the city. Thirty-eight passes will be distributed as part of an effort to promote the social integration of transgender men and women across the Spanish capital, according to the metro's website. "Madrid Metro considers it a priority to raise awareness among the public so as to avoid any type of discrimination and prejudice," it says.

The scheme is a collaboration between the local government-run transport network and the non-profit Spanish Association of Transsexuals (AET), which campaigns for transsexual, transgender, gay and lesbian equality across Spain. The organisation doesn't specify how the recipients of the passes will be chosen, simply saying that they will be people "experiencing social exclusion".

Some social media users have reacted warmly to the plan, with one tweeting: "What a beautiful initiative! Everything that improves human relations is welcome!" But other comments are more negative. Some users think giving travel benefits to one group is unfair to everyone else, while others say that rather than being inclusive, the scheme singles out transgender men and women as different. Read more via BBC 

US: Religious Freedom Act cost Indy up to 12 conventions and $60M

The furor surrounding last year's Religious Freedom Restoration Act might have cost the city of Indianapolis as many as 12 conventions and up to $60 million in economic impact, the city's nonprofit tourism arm confirmed Monday evening.

Though they come with some caveats, the numbers from Visit Indy represent the most tangible effects yet of a controversy that city officials and business leaders long warned would cause real damage to Indianapolis' reputation. When Gov. Mike Pence signed RFRA into law last March, it was met with fierce backlash from civil rights groups across the country, who worried that it would allow Hoosiers to discriminate against LGBT people on the basis of religion. Days later, a so-called "fix" was signed into law to clarify that the state law was not intended to override local civil rights protections.

"It’s baffling how delusional Mike Pence is on his claim that there’s no direct correlation between LGBT rights and the Hoosier economy," Drew Anderson, spokesman for the Indiana Democratic Party, said in a statement. "In fact, Pence’s out-of-touch ideology comes from an ideologue — not a governor. When he signed RFRA last year, Mike Pence threw Indiana directly into a $250 million economic panic, including Indianapolis’ $60 million.” Read more via Indy Star  

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