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Michigan TG Fights For Diploma Name Change
Contributed by Jayne Fischer
Journal News Service
June 18, 1998
FLINT, Michigan - A man who graduated from Birch Run High School as a woman will have to sue
to force the school district to change his transcript and diploma to
reflect his sex and name change. Board of Education members met privately
with their attorney, Michael J. Eschelbach, and decided that they would
rather pay for a court fight than comply. "There was no action, which
means that the offer to have a first initial last name and no indication
of gender is where the district stands," Superintendent Peter J. Dion said
of the compromise that the district proposed Neither school officials nor
the graduate's lawyer, Rudy Serra of Detroit, will identify the man.
School officials will not say when the man graduated, while Serra said he
believes that it was 1983. Serra gave the board an ultimatum in May: Make
the document changes by Thursday of this week or face a suit. Serra said
he now might file the suit immediately. "'They told me ... that there's no
need to wait, because they're not going to change their mind," Serra said.
He said his client suffers gender dysphoria, or gender identity disorder.
Serra said his client is a married stepfather who lives in Washington and
needs the transcript to apply to college. The Americans with Disabilities
Act covers gender dysphoria, so the district must comply, he said. Using a
first initial and no gender designation is unacceptable because it opens
the alumnus to', discrimination, Serra said. "By doing that, that's like a
red flag that here's a disabled person," he said. "I don't understand
what benefit the district derives from keeping my client from going to
college." Dion said he will not alter the document because it could set a
precedent. Serra called the argument "silly," and said the precedent would
comply with the law.
Mrs. Doubtfire to dress as Italian musical
Contributed by Jodie Miller
via Reuters
June 17, 1998
ROME - The hit cross-dressing comedy "Mrs. Doubtfire" is getting
a makeover in Italy, where a theater impresario is turning it into an
Italian- language musical.
The project will be freely adapted from the 1993 Fox feature, which
starred Robin Williams as a father who loses custody of his children and
disguises himself as a nanny in order to be near them.
Veteran theater director Pietro Garinei has acquired the rights to
transform the film into a musical, and has slotted it to launch at Rome's
Teatro Sistina as part of the season beginning in fall 1999.
Negotiations are under way to attach a composer and lyricist to the
project, with Garinei expected to take an active role in shaping the
vehicle for the stage.
The announcement comes on the heels of a season in which Broadway-style
musicals have become unprecedentedly popular in Italy, led by a hit
production of "Grease" that recently transferred from Milan to Rome's
Sistina.
Several other imports such as "Hair," "The Rocky Horror Show," "Seven
Brides for Seven Brothers," "A Chorus Line" and "The Phantom of the Opera"
have recently been staged or are in preparation, and audience appetites
also are returning for homegrown musicals made popular in past decades.
"There's a new generation of theatergoers in Italy that also are
music-lovers, and naturally, they seek out theater with music," says
Garinei. "People are rediscovering that musicals are complete
entertainment and by far the best form of theater in Italy for family
audiences."
Millenium March Board Selected
via UFMCC News Service
June 9, 1998
LOS ANGELES-- The June 9th meeting of gay organizations in Washington,
DC has moved the Millennium March on Washington forward, according to the
Rev. Troy D. Perry, Moderator of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan
Churches and one of the first three leaders to call for the March.
"Members of 32 organizations representing a broad, grassroots
cross-section of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered movement
participated," said Perry. "The representation was as diverse as our
larger community, and included civil rights organizations, bisexual and
transgendered groups, youth advocates, state organizers, aging activists,
sexual minority coalitions, people of color organizations, community
activists, spirituality groups, and AIDS organizations."
The group designed and adopted an organizing structure composed of a
15-member Board of Directors and a much larger Leadership Council. The
Board will have parity for people of color and by gender, and will include
bisexual and transgender representation.
Seven members were elected to the Board and two additional members were
appointed after the meeting. Six additional members will be appointed at a
later date.
The initial nine members are:
Elizabeth Birch (Ex. Dir., Human Rights Campaign, Washington, DC)
Beverly Biddle (Ex. Dir., National Lesbian & Gay Health Assoc.,
Washington, DC) Rea Carey (Ex. Dir., National Youth Advocacy Coalition,
Washington, DC) Duane Cramer (Board Member, Names Project Foundation, San
Francisco, CA) Ann DeGroot (Ex. Dir., Out Front Minnesota, Minneapolis,
MN) Dianne Hardy-Garcia (Ex. Dir., Lesbian Gay Rights Lobby of Texas,
Austin, TX) Kerry Lobel (Ex. Dir., National Gay & Lesbian Task Force,
Washington, DC) Rev. Troy Perry (Moderator, UFMCC, West Hollywood, CA)
Nicole Ramierz-Murray (Co-Chair, National Latina/o LGBT Org., San Diego,
CA)
The Millennium March on Washington is scheduled for April 30, 2000. It
will be the fourth national March on Washington by the GLBT communities
and the first human rights march of the new millennium.
For additional information, contact MMOW2000@aol.com by e-mail.
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