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From our fabulous News Hawks!

Have you seen a TG-related news story online or in your local paper? Send it in to TGF and become a News Hawk! Don't assume we know everything that's out there, because you are our eyes and ears. To file a story, send it in to Cindy.

Salvador TGs Murdered

Contributed by Elizabeth Parker
via Reuters
June 11, 1998

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - Seven gay transvestites have been shot to death in El Salvador in the past six weeks but police appear little interested in their investigation, a gay rights activists said Thursday.

A police chief told a local radio station the murders could be the work of a serial killer but added they were still under investigation.

"There are seven dead (homosexuals) and one female prostitute," said William Hernandez, president of a group known as Between Friends.

He said he regretted the fact police did not seem very keen to probe the crimes. "No one has even called us," he added.

The body of the latest victim, Santos Cruz, 23, alias "Lucero," turned up Thursday. He had been killed by a shot to the head and another to the chest, Hernandez added.

The bodies of the seven dead homosexuals have been found in or fairly close to the capital San Salvador. Cruz's corpse turned up in San Luis Talpa, a town 21 miles south of the city.

The drag queen murders began April 26 with the shooting death of Jose Alexis Barahona, alias "Karla," Hernandez said.

Some 84 tranvestite prostitutes work in 11 areas throughout the capital of five million people, according to gay rights group In the Name of the Rose.

Battlin' Dana: Hardhitting Queen?

Contributed by Elizabeth Parker
via Reuters
June 10, 1998

JERUSALEM - Dana International, the Israeli transsexual who won this year's Eurovision Song Contest, was charged in court on Monday with assaulting two waitresses.

The singer, who was in court, denied the charges.

Prosecutors allege Dana International pushed one of the waitresses and threw a bottle of water at another at a performance at a cafe in November 1995.

"Such an indictment needs to be reexamined," the singer's lawyer, Shmuel Tsang, told Israeli Army Radio at the magistrates' court in Rehovot, near Tel Aviv.

Court officials said the trial was expected to begin next January.

Dana International, born Yaron Cohen, a male, won this year's Eurovision contest in Britain with the dance tune "Diva."

Her victory in May sparked an outpouring of support from gays and lesbians in Israel, some of whom took to the streets of Tel Aviv to celebrate.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish legislator Shlomo Benizri, who had protested against Dana International's choice as Israel's candidate for the competition, called her victory "a sign of the bankruptcy of Israeli song."

Meanwhile, the head of a rabbinical court ruled that Dana could be counted in a minyan, the group of 10 men required for Jewish prayer services.

Whoever is born male remains so his entire life, Friday's Maariv daily quoted Rabbi Eliyahu Abergal as saying.

The sultry winner of this year's Eurovision contest would have to become religiously observant before qualifying for prayer group, however, the rabbi said.

Dana International, who had a sex change operation five years ago, has become a symbol for the increasingly bitter rift between Israel's secular majority and its ultra-religious minority.

The country's Orthodox establishment has denounced her as an abomination while secular Israelis embrace her in a sign of increasing mainstream acceptance of the country's gay community.

It Had To Happen:
Virtual Woman Playmate

Contributed by Jamie Faye Fenton
via Associated Press
June 12, 1998

ROME, Italy-Casanovas will be able to hone seduction skills on their computer screens next week when a "virtual woman," a kind of electronic playmate who responds to attention like a real woman, goes on the market.

Peruzzo Informatica, the Italian multimedia company marketing the device, described it as a "Tamagotchi for adults" after the Japanese virtual pet that became a worldwide fad.

Unlike the Tamagotchi, Rachel the virtual woman lives on a computer screen. Peruzzo described her as "incredibly charming, passionate, capricious."

She could be in a bad mood but responded to being sent flowers, would gradually become closer to her suitor and could even reward him with a screen striptease.

"There's nothing pornographic about it, it's just a game," a company spokesman said. Rachel could quickly be clicked away out of sight "so you can still pretend to be serious at work."

The virtual woman, which is already proving a hit in Germany and the Netherlands, goes on sale in Italy next week and costs 34,900 lire ($20).

FTM Study: Submissions Sought

Contributed by Susan Raffo
June 15, 1998

Most of us were taught there are only two genders male and female. We know this isn't always the case. This dichotomy has excluded those of us who identify as something other than male or female, or who identify as both. For those who question this dichotomy, conversations about gender and sex can go thousands of different directions. Our anthology will narrow the focus of those conversations and explore a dialogue between butch dykes and FTM's who previously identified as butch, including those folks who fall in between or who use different language than the one being provided. Having narrowed the focus, we will do what we avoided in the beginning and go everywhere.

This book is an opportunity to talk about why we identify the way we do, about why we change identities, and about the search for identity when the words being used just don't fit. It is an opportunity to talk about wanting a penis and not wanting to be a man, about wanting to be a man and not wanting a penis, about maleness and masculinity, about sex and relationships, about communities and conflict, and about finding home. This is also an invitation to complicate the picture and connect the dots.

To defy separation of identities and talk about gender and class, class and desire, desire and disability, disability and culture, culture and religion, religion and tradition, tradition and race, race and ethnicity, ethnicity and immigration, immigration and home. 20

Let's talk about being FTM and identifying with dyke community and culture.

Or being a butch who often gets seen as a man and welcomes that perception. Let's talk about the tension within lesbian communities when a butch begins to identify as transgender are we 'losing our sisters'?

Let's talk about what it means to identify as a transgendered butch. Let's talk about misogyny. And penis envy. And our lovers. Let's talk about who we are, and who we would like to be. What we look like, and what we want to look like.

Terry Dickelman and Raquel (Rocki) Sims are looking for works that include both personal stories and analyses of those personal experiences.

We welcome non-fiction in a variety of genres, including essays, creative non-fiction, non-traditional prose, and poetry. We also welcome black an d white photographs and line drawings.

Contact Info:

Terry: Dickelman@aol.com
Rocki: raffo001@tc.umn.edu

Guidelines for submission
Limit of 25 pages for prose (double-spaced)
Limit of 4 pages for poetry.
Manuscripts and photographs will not be returned without an SASE.
Mail submissions to:

Taygetos Consulting/Anthology Submissions
P. O. Box 131797
Roseville, MN 55113

Deadline: Submissions must be received no later than October 15th, 1998.

We encourage all who have a story to tell to submit for this anthology, regardless of writing experience.

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