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Village Rejects TS Mayor
Contributed by Jodie Miller
via Associated Press
November 29, 1998
QUELLENDORF, Germany -- Residents of the eastern German village of
Quellendorf voted to dismiss their mayor Sunday after he announced he was
becoming a woman.
Norbert Lindner, 40, was elected to a seven-year term in 1996 but shocked
many villagers last summer when he began wearing women's clothes and
calling himself Michaela.
Lindner (right) with a visiting TS who came to show support |
Lindner's celebrity has since spread far beyond the village of 1,048
people, where transsexuals from Germany and France converged Sunday to
show support for the mayor.
Quellendorf's citizens voted to oust Lindner, despite his appeal for
tolerance.
"I think society as a whole has some catching up to do,'' he told
reporters.
Lindner, a father of two children whose wife has left him, said he plans
to start sex change surgery Thursday. A member of the reformed East German
communists, he had said he would leave Germany if voted out of office.
TS's Offered Museum Jobs
Contributed by Stephanie Louise Gray
via Electric Telegraph
November 28, 1998
TRANSSEXUALS are being offered training as museum staff
by the city of Bologna with the Italian government's blessing, but
to the dismay of local clergy.
Marcella Di Folco, head of Italy's Transsexual Identity
Movement (MIT) hailed the course, funded by the European
Union, as a "futuristic project". He said it would "restore dignity
and rights to people who have them only as words".
The intention is to give transsexuals, who are synonymous with
prostitution in Italy, other chances of employment. Later, there
will be courses for immigrant women, gypsy women, battered
women and lesbians. Laura Balbo, Italy's Minister for Equal
Opportunities said: "Finally the approach to equal opportunities is
being widened to include other walks of life."
But Padre Oreste Benzi, a priest who works with the
disadvantaged, called it an absurd initiative that "stank of
demagogy". He said: "A course like this, which is not for
everyone but is reserved for 16 'lucky' ones, risks being a
boomerang. Instead of integrating them, it will create
discrimination. Transsexuals instead should be considered
normal citizens."
Guard Fights Firing
Contributed by Elizabeth Parker
via PA News
November 25, 1998
A prison custody officer who claimed he was forced to resign when
bosses
found he was a transvestite today had a claim for constructive dismissal
adjourned at an industrial tribunal.
Anthony Jensen-Read of Wolverhampton, West Midlands, claims managers at
private jail company Premier Prisons regarded him as an "embarrassmentt"
and took an opportunity to "get rid of him".
Mr Jensen-Read's cross-dressing habit became known to them when he
appeared in a feature in a local newspaper about transvestites.
Today a hearing in Birmingham was adjourned when Mr Jensen-Read's
solicitor Dean Morris made an application to call two extra witnesses.
Tribunal chairman David Hewitt granted the application and the hearing
was adjourned until February 10.
TG Bank Robber Busted
Contributed by Rachelle Austin Elizabeth Parker
via NewsPlanet
November 20, 1998
After more than 30 bank robberies in four provinces totaling some
$80,000 over two years, police in Canada
believe they've caught the crook variously known as the Bookworm
Bandit, the Bomb Bandit and the Unisex
Bandit. As the last one might imply, the suspect is at least a
cross-dresser and possibly has undergone sex
reassignment surgery. The ability to change gender presentation had
allowed the robber to seemingly vanish
when escaping and contributed to confusing eyewitness reports. But
that may have all come to an end on November 18 with a dramatic high-speed chase and the arrest of
Christine White, a.k.a. Anatoli Ivan Misura,
an Edmonton resident. One report suggests that the robberies were
intended to pay for sex reassignment
surgery; another says that White had the surgery before the
robberies
began.
The Bookworm Bandit nickname came from writing demands for cash
inside
hardcover books and displaying
them to tellers; the Bomb Bandit title came from leaving behind
ticking
bags the robber claimed were bombs,
although none actually were. After a mid-morning hit on the Bank of
Nova
Scotia in Belleville that netted
$6,400 on November 18, a tow truck driver spotted the suspect --
apparently a white-haired older man --
running through the bank parking lot with a black attache in one
hand and
the other hand buried under his
coat. The tow truck driver tailed the suspect while calling police
on his
radio. Police cars joined the chase
within minutes, in a race that reached speeds of 140 km/hr. The
suspect
twice fired at police with what was
taken to be a semi-automatic 8 mm. handgun, but later turned out to
be a
starter's pistol which fired blanks.
Finally, she spun out on a hairpin curve and landed in a ditch,
sustaining minor injuries. Although she dropped
her weapon when ordered by police, police apprehended her in what
they
called a "high-risk take-down."
She was later taken for medical treatment.
Inside the suspect's car, registered in Alberta, police found
$20,000 in
cash, "a number of weapons and a
considerable amount of clothing," including three pairs of
spectacles. An
anonymous informant told one
source that there were hormone pills in the car as well. White was
charged with one count of armed robbery
for the Belleville hit, but is expected to be charged in the coming
week
for robberies in Alberta, British
Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec. Police in Ontario had thought for
some
time that their suspect was
"commuting" from the western part of the country to commit the
robberies
in their area, and photos from
security cameras at victimized banks had already been widely
distributed
through both police agencies and the
Canadian Bankers' Association for about a year.
Gene Therapy Can Help Baldness
Contributed by Jodie Miller
via CNN
November 24,1998
CHICAGO -- Researchers at the University of Chicago's Howard Hughes
Medical Center have discovered a new approach to treat baldness -- gene
therapy.
Scientists were able to successfully transform skin cells into hair
follicles in lab mice through the introduction of a so-called messenger
molecule containing the protein beta catenin.
"We've always been told that you're born with a fixed number of hair
follicles and that you can never grow them again in adult life," said
Angela Christiano of Columbia University. "This study would suggest we now
we have the capability to do that."
Similar experiments on humans, however, are not likely in the near future.
The scientists have created some very hairy lab mice, but still don't
understand how to contain the hair follicle growth process.
"You can actually go too far and cause the cells to grow too much," said
University of Chicago researcher Elaine Fuchs. She warned that unchecked
cell growth could lead to the development of tumors.
"We still need to understand how this molecule is regulated inside the
cell of the developing hair follicle to really take it to the level of
clinical application," she added.
About 50 percent of men over 50 experience some type of baldness, although
different types can affect women and children as well.
Body Parts May Cause Sex Differences
Contributed by Rose Prescott
via the New Scientist
November 14,1998
What makes behavior typically male or female? It may have more to do with
body parts than brains, says a scientist in the US who has shown that when
you transplant a female crab's claw onto a male, the male uses it in a
distinctly feminine way.
In many animal species, males and females often use their body parts in
different ways. For instance, male and female marsh fiddler crabs (Uca
pugilator) have very different claws. Females have two feeding claws,
equipped with chemical receptors that detect nutrients in the soil. Males
have only one feeding claw, which is less sensitive than the female's.
The male crab's second claw is much larger than its feeding claw, and is
sensitive to pressure and touch but not to chemical stimulation. Males
often wave this "major" claw seductively at potential mates or use it to
defend themselves when threatened by other male crabs.
Marc Weissburg, a biologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in
Atlanta, says the reasons for these kinds of behavioral differences have
been unclear. Is it the fact that males and females have different kinds
of sensors in their claws? Or could it be because the male and female
brains that control the organs are different?
To find out, Weissburg replaced a male's major claw with the feeding claw
from a mature female crab. He found that the male then used the claw in
the same way as a female. Instead of waving and fighting with it, the crab
used the claw to probe for food in the sediment. "The transplant maintains
its original function," says Weissburg.
What was especially surprising was that the transplanted claw seemed to
"re- educate" part of the male fiddler crab's brain. Weissburg told this
week's meeting that a brain region that the crab had formerly used to
process touch, vibration and pressure had somehow been reconfigured to
process chemical signals from soil. "We can evoke chemo-sensory processing
by stimulating the claw," he says. What's more, the male could sense
nutrients better than usual - almost as well as a female.
Weissburg says he plans to transplant a male's major claw onto a female
next summer. He adds that it has been known for years that women tend to
have a keener sense of smell than men. He speculates that this is thanks
to the tissue in women's noses, rather than better processing of smell
signals in the brain. "A large part of it may be what kind of nose you've
got, not what kind of brain," says Weissburg.
US to Pursue Gay Bias Complaints
Contributed by Jodie Miller
via Washington Blade
November 25,1998
WASHINGTON -- The Washington Blade reports the U.S. Justice Department
announced recently it will attempt to use current federal civil rights law
to take legal action against businesses and state and local governments
that engage in employment discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Legal observers quoted by the Blade said the Justice Department's decision
was prompted by recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, such as a recent case
involving same-sex sexual harassment, that have expanded the legal reach
of Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the U.S.
Civil Rights Act Amendments of 1972.
Justice Department attorney Aaron Schuham told the newspaper that existing
laws banning gender-based discrimination could in theory be applied to
certain cases of anti-gay discrimination. The legal impact of using this
strategy to pursue gay bias cases will not be known until the courts hear
arguments and issue their judgements.
Schuham, who works in the Justice Department's civil rights division, said
high-level officials, including Attorney General Janet Reno and Assistant
Attorney General for Civil Rights Bill Lann Lee, approved the decision to
try and use existing civil rights laws to prosecute suspected cases of
anti-gay bias.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Helen Norton, told the
Blade the Justice Department initiative would not be applicable in cases
where anti-gay bias was the sole motive in a discrimination complaint. But
if a transgendered person was discriminated against for "gender non
conformity," for example, that could serve as the basis for a complaint
based on sex discrimination, she said.
Legal scholars say pursuing the "gender non-conformity" or "sex
stereotyping" line could be useful for men who suffer employment
discrimination for being perceived as "too feminine" and women who are
similarly victimized for being perceived as "too masculine."
Justice Department officials credit groups such as the transgender
organization Gender PAC and legal groups including the Lambda Legal
Defense and Education Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the
National Center for Lesbian Rights for helping to codify the new policy.
The Justice Department is prepared to link sexual orientation
discrimination and sex discrimination by citing the Supreme Court's recent
decision in Oncale v. Sundowner. That decision established that same-sex
sexual harassment is illegal under current sexual harassment law.
The 1989 Supreme Court decision in Hopkins v. Price Waterhouse will also
be cited for precedent. In that case a woman was denied a partnership in
the Price Waterhouse accounting firm because her superiors felt she
dressed and behaved in too masculine a manner. The court found such gender
role discrimination and gender stereotyping a violation of Title VII as a
form of sex discrimination.
Schuham said civil rights attorney general Lee put the policy change into
place "several months ago," although no formal announcement of the change
was made. "It's a very serious commitment that has been directed by
everyone from Janet Reno all the way down," Schuham was quoted as saying.
"We can really bring our resources to bear on this."
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