Indian Trans Woman Rejected by Mother Commits Suicide. R.I.P. Aparna

Aparna at 27 years of age returned home after Sexual Reassignment Surgery and hanged herself in the town of Anamalai, Tamil Nadu, India after her mother refused to accept her.


I know, it's sad, but it's not much of a story. Here's why I have written about her suicide. The only other memorial to her is an atrocious article by the Times of India which is so bad even given latitude for the differences in social perceptions and languages is still nothing more than a transphobic attack on her.

So who was Aparna? We know little other than what the Times published except that Aparna took her name from a goddess in the Hindu Religion Uma, also known as Parvati, daughter of the mountains.

It seems Parvati came by her name Aparna for fasting in the forest seeking to earn the admiration and respect of someone she loved. Parvati went into the forest and performed rigorous Tapas, wearing nothing to protect her tender body from the harsh weather, eating nothing, not even a leaf, earning the admiration of the forest ascetics, Sadhus and Sages, who named her Aparna – the leafless one.

Eventually the goddess was successful and had a rich and full life but not so for our Aparna. She died without the love she so desperately needed degraded in death by the Times of India.

But her memory will live on, in these pages a small tribute to a brave and lovely woman, Aparna.

R.I.P. Aparna

Free Kate: Florida Family's HS Daughter Facing Felony Sex Offender Charges For Consensual Same Sex Relationship

The outpouring of support from social media has astonished and almost overwhelmed Kaitlyn Hunt's family and even crashed the Change.org petition site's server for a while!

Kate's family and friends started the facebook group Free Kate because they were at he wits end and didn't know where else to turn.  Kate, a cheerleader and varsity basketball player was 17 when she became romantically involved her team mate, a freshman at Indian River High School, apparently with the knowledge of her girlfriends parents.

When Kate turned 18 her world was turned upside down. Her girlfriends parents had her arrested on felony charges for her consensual relationship with their daughter and she was subsequently expelled from her school. This was done without them contacting Kate's parents or pursuing other far less damaging legal actions, like a restraining order.

Kate's mother doesn't understand why her girlfriend's parents couldn't talk to her telling WPTV "You get with me, and say, hey, as a mom, this is going on and I don't like this, let's talk about this," said Smith. "I would have sat down with her, I would have sat down with our children, and I would have nipped it in the bud, and I would have respected her."

The police recorded a conversation between Kate and her girlfriend, which led to Kate's arrest. Kate was interrogated extensively without a lawyer present and was eventually charged with two counts of felony lewd and lascivious battery on a child 12-16. The prosecutor later offered a plea deal of felony child abuse, with two years house arrest followed by one year probation. If Kate turns down the plea she will be tried  by jury and could be sentenced to 7 to 15 years. In ether case she would be branded a sex offender ruining her life.

Kate has offered to permanently cease contact and leave the state if charges are dropped, but that offer has been rejected by the prosecutor and the girlfriend's parents.  Kate's girlfriend has taken no part in her prosecution and denies she is a victim, but the law grants her no rights in this matter.

 Kaitlyn's mother posted this plea on Facebook: "We have until (this) Friday to either agree with an outrageous plea offer, or start trial. The state offered a plea of two years house arrest and one year probation. Kate wont be able to get a job, start her life, ever leave the house for an entire two years, then another year on probation. That is absolutely ludicrous. We need justice in this situation, not to feed into these parents hates and insanity. Will you help support Kate? Will you write a letter to the state attorney, will you come sit in the court room and show your support, will you wear Kate's bracelet in support of her? Will you pray, will you speak your mind to these other parents in regards to their actions? Will you help our family?"

How many of us as young people fell heads over heals in love with someone a few years different in age? Why does this consensual relationship have to ruin Kate's life?
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Please sign the petition: Free Kate....

Visit Free Kate.net to learn more...

And if you would like to help the family cope with their considerable legal fees, you can do so here.

Sheriff Press Conference May 20th

Let Damian Walk X2: Two Events Planned In Support Of Transgender Senior Damian Garcia

There will be two rallies in support of Damian Garcia the male transgender student from Albuquerque NM.

Damian may not attend his own graduation on May 22nd because the school's refusal to allow him to wear a black robe, the color traditionally worn by male students. The school so far has rejected Damian's offer that he wear no robe and have stuck with their demand that he wear a white robe, the color worn by female graduates.

The first rally is on Sunday May 19th where you can meet two of youngest LGBT allies I have have ever had the pleasure of writing about, William and Phynn Moorman their parents and of course, Damian Garcia.

MEDIA ADVISORY [via moveon.org]

Torrey Moorman:  letdamianwalk@gmail.com

*** Event held at Sombra Del Monte Elementary School on May 19 at 3 pm***

Albuquerque Residents Stand Up in Support of Transgender St. Pius X High School Student Student Damian Garcia

Over 7000 people sign petition of support for Damian to be able to wear male graduation robes

Local residents will gather to deliver a petition to Damian Garcia requesting Principal Barbara Rothweil, PhD and the Diocese to allow Damian to wear black cap and gown for graduation.

Forcing Damian to wear the girl’s white cap and gown is demoralizing, and many question the legality of such a demand. Allowing Damian to graduate in black cap and gown will show support for Damian as a student of a respectable and nurturing school environment.

Participants in the event will include William and Phynn Moorman, who created the petition, and Damian Garcia.

WHAT: Official delivery of petition to Damian Garcia, and Principal Barbara Rothweil, PhD if she will please join us.

WHO: Local Albuquerque residents and St. Pius X students and alumni

WHERE: Sombra del Monte Elementary School, corner of Candelaria and Moon, Albuquerque, NM. Google map

WHEN: 3pm on May 19, 2013

Please bring signs and posters with "Let Damian Walk"

To read the petition Click Here.

Facebook link: Click Here

Link to Archdiocese: Click Here

Update 5/20/13 Video from this event:




********

The second event is scheduled for Monday May 20th

From the Facebook event "Let Damian Walk In Black"

When: May 20th 7:00am until 1:00pm. The Organizers say 5 minutes or the whole day, all support is welcome.

Where: St. Pius X High School Albuquerque, NM Google Map

From the event facebook event

Members and supporters of the LGBT community,

We come to you not only as friends but as FAMILY to help a brother in need. Damian Garcia our transgender brother attends St. Pius X High School here in Albuquerque. While attending St. Pius. teachers, staff and friends including his own family members refer to Damian as a male student. As we all know, graduation is just around the corner, which is to most a time of celebrating ones academic and extracurricular achievements. However, for Damian this moment of academic excellence hangs in the balance between embarrassment and joyous celebration. According to St. Pius' standards, Damian must wear a white robe, which is traditionally worn by female graduates. Now my question to you is this: What's more important? The gender wriiten on a birth certificate or who that person is during HIS everyday life? We say let the kid WALK IN BLACK... It's HIS day to sparkle.

P.s: Please no parking in St.Pius parking lot we can not guarantee that you will be allowed to stay parked there.

Damian commented on the facebook event page:

Transgender Senior Damian Garcia Would Walk Graduation Without A robe If Allowed

“I just want to walk in my black robe, nice and proud and have that memory to look back on with my family and friends,” said Damian Garcia. “I would rather not walk than to embarrass myself by wearing a female robe.”

Damian will not be allowed to walk in a males black robe May 22nd even though he has legally changed his name. Saint Pius High School is demanding that he wear in a female white robe because he has not had medical surgery altering his chest to present a male appearance, the prerequisite to changing the gender on his birth certificate in New Mexico.

Some state still demand unnecessary medial intervention for physiological issues before allowing their citizens to pursue a life guaranteed by the constitution.

New Mexico will produce a new birth certificate, with both name and sex changed, and seal the old birth certificate. However, a letter from a surgeon documenting Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) is necessary, prohibiting those who cannot afford or do not desire SRS from amending their birth certificates. Female to Male SRS can cost between $12,000 and $20,000 in addition to years of costly therapy and hormone replacement therapy(HRT)before SRS can be considered.

Two unrelated children, Will 8 and sibling Phynn 12, were so upset after viewing the KRQE news report about the way Saint Pius High School is treating Damian they "refused to go to bed until our mom agreed to help us fix this". So together with mom they began a facebook page "Let Damian Walk and started the Move on petition "Let Damian walk for graduation in male cap and gown" which had 9,000 signatures as of this posting.

Note to school administrators. Will and Phynn are your future students or not, in the case of private institutions like Saint Pius High School with open bias against LGBT minorities.

Principal Barbara M. Rothweiler's welcoming letter states her school is geared towards furthering students education and that 98% of her students go on to university. Her selling point is substituted by pointing out that "Some of our recent graduates can be found at Harvard, NYU, Stanford, Notre Dame, and Brown."

Out of all of those schools Principal Rothweiler so proudly listed only Notre Dame does not include LGBT inclusive clauses. The other top 20 universities do. When students and parents shop for preparatory schools like Saint Pius High School, LGBT inclusiveness is a major indicator of the quality of education they will receive their regardless is they are LGBT or not. Discrimination against any minority is not acceptable.

Graduation gown a problem for transgender student

President Obama's it gets better message:

Video: Issak Wolf Addresses The Red Lion School Board Meeting

Transgender senior Issak Wolfe stood up in front of the the Red Lion School Board June 16th reminding them "You are dealing with a flesh and blood human being not just a story in the paper, not just a thorn in your side."
Issak knows from experience how painful it is to be bullied by people in authority. His high school principal changed his campaign from prom king to queen without telling. If that wasn't bad enough the school board is persisting in lying to Issak and his supporters saying it would be against the the law for them to read his male name at graduation.

Issak drives the point home "Reading my male name at graduation wouldn't hurt anyone but reading my female name serves no purpose other than to hurt me more. Is it more important to push around a teenager than to make the school a safer place for all students?

PA Title 22 Education Code does not require schools to read a students legal name at graduation and the Red Lion School District has nothing in writing making that a requirement.

Issak isn't asking them to put his male name on his diploma or alter the official records. He's simply asking to be recognized on graduation for who he is.

CLICK HERE for video in new window

You can help take the sting out of Isaak's graduation by signing his Graduation card.

Kudos to WPMT FOX43. Every story this station has published about Issak has been presented in the highest tradition of journalism and amazingly they just keep getting better with each report. Thank you.

Read more at Red Lion transgender student wants male name read at graduation

Transgender Woman and Two Men Arrested For Norwalk CT Robbery and Beating

 

 

A trans woman and her boyfriend from Bridgeport CT were arrested for a February robbery according to the "Hour's" problematic headline "Warrant: Transvestite and boyfriend beat man until he was blind in one eye". It is not clear how the Hour ascertained with any degree of certainty that Karma is a 'transvestite'. The HOUR is the only news source I could find that is reporting on the arrests.

The Hour reports:

"Milton "Mel" Hudson, 53, of 36 Kossuth St., and Lucinda Karma, 35, of 554 Soundview Ave., Bridgeport, both face charges of first-degree assault, second-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit first-degree assault and conspiracy to commit second-degree robbery. Juan "Cody" Jimenez, 37, of 21 Taylor Ave., is charged with second-degree robbery and conspiracy to commit second-degree robbery."

"Hudson and Karma were arrested Sunday, and Jimenez was arrested Saturday. All three suspects were unable to make their bonds after their arraignment Monday at Norwalk Superior Court and are being held at the Bridgeport Correctional Center, a prison for men. Their next court date is June 6."

"Hudson told police that he assaulted the victim, because he was defending the honor of his transvestite girlfriend Karma, police said."

"Hudson claimed that the victim had touched Karma's buttocks, police said. Karma admitted to telling Hudson to assault the victim, stating that the victim had touched Karma inappropriately, according to police."

"Both Hudson and Karma said Jimenez went through the victim's pockets after Hudson knocked out the victim, police said. Court documents show that Karma positively identified Jimenez as the third suspect."

Read more at The Hour.

Why not just let a sleeping dog lie, after all the Hour mug shots of Karma doesn't portray her as female? There has already been confessions made and some degree of culpability established and as a community we have to confront the good, the bad and the ugly fearlessly or faux and others will do it for us.

South Carolina Sued over failed sex assignment surgery on 16 Month old Intersex Infant

A South Carolina Couple who's adopted intersex infant was operated on without their knowledge just three months before they took custody to 'correct' ambiguous genital are suing saying the gender that was assigned was wrong.

Pam and Mark Crawford's first of a kind lawsuit alleges the doctors couldn't have known which gender the 16 month old known only as "M.C.", would identify as later in life when they modified his genitalia to appear female. Now that M.C. is 8 years old and identifies as male his female genitalia is causing him great distress.

South Carolina does not change gender on Birth Certificates but it is not clear if that will be affected by this lawsuit.

The Crawford began raising M.C. as a female after adoption but as time went on they begun to notice he gravitated towards typically male toys and behaved as boy would be expected to. After consulting with a pediatrician and discovering M.C. had been operated on the couple facilitated their child's transition to male. The couple is pursing legal action in hopes of preventing this happening in the future.

"We feel very strongly that these decisions to permanently alter somebody's genitalia and their reproductive ability for no medical reason whatsoever is an abhorrent practice and can't be continued," Pam Crawford told Reuters in a phone interview.

"It is too late for our son," she added. "The damage has been done to him." “This case is about ensuring the safety of all children who do not have a voice,” said Alesdair H. Ittelson, SPLC staff attorney. “No one advocated for M.C.’s right to be free from unnecessary medical intervention at a time when the state was entrusted with his safety and well-being. It is high time all involved answer for the needless injury they inflicted on M.C.”

“By performing this needless surgery, the state and the doctors told M.C. that he was not acceptable or loveable the way he was born,” said Pam Crawford, M.C.’s adoptive mother. “They disfigured him because they could not accept him for who he was – not because he needed any surgery. M.C. is a charming, enchanting and resilient kid. We will not stop until we get justice for our son.”



Advocates for Informed Choice has partnered with the SPLC in this case and has initiated Project Integrity and invites you to add your name in support of M.C..

The lawsuit, M.C. v. Medical University of South Carolina, was filed in County of Richland Court of Common Pleas. M.C. v. Aaronson was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina. Defendants include the South Carolina Department of Social Services, Greenville Hospital System, Medical University of South Carolina and individual employees.

SPLC co-counsel include Advocates for Informed Choice and pro bono counsel for the private law firms of Janet, Jenner & Suggs and Steptoe & Johnson LLP.

Nevada Legislature Passes Bill Adding Gender Identity To Hate Crime Laws

SB 139 was approved March 21st 2013 by the Senate with 20 ea, 1 nay and one abstaining.

The Nevada State Legislature approved the bill today 5/14/2013 with 30 yeas, 11 nay and one excused.

The bill authorizing additional sentences of up to 20 years for hate crimes motivated by the victim's gender identity or expression now goes to Governor Brian Sandoval who is expected to sign it into law.

Queensland Doctor Calls For A Gender Clinic: She's My Girl

THE leading Queensland psychiatric expert on children with gender identity disorder says the number of transgender children is increasing.
Dr Stephen Stathis said he expected parents of two children would apply to the Family Court for permission for them to be given feminine hormones within the next year and more would follow as others reached puberty.

But he said some desperate parents who were unaware of the professional help available for their anxious transgender children were getting unregulated, unregistered hormones from overseas via the internet.

Dr Stathis, Director of Child and Youth Mental Health Services at Brisbane's Royal Children's Hospital, has seen more than 20 children with GID in the last four years, including some as young as four.

"The numbers are rising and now we're looking at developing a gender clinic," Dr Stathis said. Half his gender identity patients are boys who identify as girls - the other half are girls who identify as boys.

More at couriermail.com.au

Hong Kong Court Rules Post-Op Transgender Woman May Marry Boyfriend: Video

The decision gives hope that other transgender people, both male-to-female and female-to-male, will be able to marry people of the opposite gender. Although it is only likely to affect post-operative transsexuals.

It is likely that, following the judges' recommendations, the government will amend the marriage law to clarify the position for transsexuals.

The team's argument, presented by Lord Pannick QC in the court of appeal last month, was that as the Hong Kong government recognizes W as a woman on her ID card they should accept she is a woman for marriage law as well. ~ Gay Star News



However same-sex marriage or civil unions are still not recognised in Hong Kong.

Read more at the Raw Story.