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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.

Anchorage Daily News Shows Sensitivity to Diversity

Contributed by Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
via GAIN
July 6, 1998

A prominent photo in Alaska's June 18th edition of the Anchorage Daily News shows an African-American family-two adults, two kids-all smiling for the camera. Other photos show other families. The captions reveal the accompanying article's intent by noting: "...that these are not traditional families. The extra guy in the photo is Daddy's lover. The two women aren't sisters but life partners. The man gently coddling a baby actually is a transgender woman. These are not ordinary families. And yet they are ordinary."

Thus begins the newspaper's coverage of the traveling photo exhibit "Love Makes a Family: Living in Lesbian and Gay Families," which was on exhibit in Anchorage. These photos and text work together to create a positive and affirming look at an important but under-covered segment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender life.

Please thank the Anchorage Daily News for its sensitive treatment of this important topic. Contact: Pat Dougherty, Managing Editor, Anchorage Daily News, PO Box 149001, Anchorage, AK 99514-9001, fax: 907.258.2157, e-mail: pdougherty@adn.com.

Buenos Aires Clamps Down On Transvestite Prostitution

Contributed by Elizabeth Parker
via Reuters
July 4, 1998

City authorities in Buenos Aires voted to clamp down on prostitution despite protests outside by a crowd of transvestite prostitutes in high heels and lipstick. Police kept dozens of prostitutes out as the elected city government passed an amendment barring prostitutes from working near homes, schools or churches and obliging them to keep their clothes on.

"We're simply fighting to be free, like any man, woman or creature," Flavia, a 23-year-old transvestite prostitute in thigh-length boots and a black leather mini-skirt, told Reuters. The amendment followed weeks of protests and confrontations involving neighbourhood civic groups and prostitutes, male and female, who have started plying their trade on the streets since Buenos Aires Mayor Fernando De la Rua in March repealed a police code that had kept prostitutes under tight control. A surge of prostitutes appearing in public has embarrassed De la Rua, a leading contender for the country's presidency in elections next year.

Residents of the Palermo neighbourhood lobbied legislators to keep prostitutes off their doorsteps. Residents said that the prostitutes fight, shout, relieve themselves, take drugs and perform sexual acts in full view of the neighbourhood. Residents' groups want police to be given back powers to arrest prostitutes, who often walk the streets half-naked. "We want them to respect our homes, our neighbours. My wife is a teacher and one of her students told her he wanted to be a transvestite prostitute when he grew up because they make a lot of money. That's the kind of example they're setting," Jose Carcavallo, a disgruntled resident of Palermo, told Reuters.

But transvestite prostitutes said proposals by residents' groups to create a "red-light district" for prostitutes away from homes would only increase police harassment. They say they already have to bribe police to leave them alone. "This would mean every time I went to a restaurant or walked down the street outside the red-light zone I'd get hassled by the police," said Fiama, a friend of Flavia. Other groups also felt the proposal was unnecessary Cesar Ciglietti, president of a national group for homosexuals, said laws already exist against many of the complaints voiced by Palermo's citizens. "There's already a penal code against obscenity," he said, referring to complaints that prostitutes in Palermo wear revealing clothing, or none at all. "The police have a history of repression in this country. We can't give them power over the bodies and lives of people," said Margarita Ines Bellotti, a lawyer and member of the Raquel Liberman Assembly, a women's rights group.

Ford Ad Hit With Protests

Contributed by GPAC
via GAIN
July 1, 1998

[New York, NY: 1 Jul 98] FORD MOTOR COMPANY'S recent "Ray and Charlie" television ad campaign features a spot where the loser of a bet must dress in women's clothing; it's played as a joke.

The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), and GenderPAC wrote a letter to Ford protesting the ad. It said, in part, "Please realize that representations like [the Ray and Charlie ad] trivialize our lives and identities, and only make it harder for us to gain access to safety and equal rights... As you well know, these short spots leave an indelible impact on impressionable minds, and we urge you to rethink the inherent message that this one has about transgender people."

Human Rights, Hate Crimes Protections Extended To Tg's

Contributed by LAGPAC
via GAIN
July 4, 1998

The New Orleans City Council voted 5-1, in favor of an ordinance that will provide protection from intimidation and discrimination based upon "gender identification." By doing so, New Orleans becomes the first city in the Deep South to enact such legislation, which is expected to receive the signature of Mayor Marc Morial. The new ordinance brings the city in line with revisions to the Bill of Rights of the revised City Charter which was approved by New Orleans voters in November, 1995.

The ordinance allows employers to enforce dress codes and prohibit cross-dressing in the workplace or while an employee is acting in the course and scope of employment. However, this prohibition is lifted if the employee provides the employer with the written statement of a licensed doctor certifying that the employee "presents the characteristics of gender identification disorder" and that the employee "intends prospectively to attire and conduct him/herself for the foreseeable future" in the workplace "in the manner for persons of the gender with which he or she identifies."

Earl Jackson, Director of the New Orleans Human Relations Commission presented the ordinance to the City Council after months of preparation. The Commission sought counsel and advise in drafting the ordinance from representatives of LAGPAC (Louisiana Lesbian and Gay Political Action Caucus), the Gulf Gender Alliance and the Mayor's Advisory Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues.

Christopher Daigle, Chairman of LAGPAC, stated, "In 1995, we were thrilled with our success in lobbying for the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identification in revisions to the City's Charter. Less than three years later, we find ourselves providing advice and counsel to a city commission eager to introduce a more inclusive Human Rights Ordinance. It has given me great satisfaction to have worked with members of the Commission and City Council on this progressive piece of legislation."

He continued by saying, "It is important for people to understand that this ordinance extends protection to many heterosexuals whose mannerisms and behavior don't comply with rigid socially-prescribed gender roles. This law protects all men who don't live up to a 6'4" John Wayne prototype of masculinity and women whose feminine qualities and attributes don't compare to Helen of Troy. This allows ALL of us to live without fear and to be responsible and productive members of society, regardless of who we are, or who we are perceived to be."

Nancy Sharp, a prominent member of the local transgender community who serves on LAGPAC's Board of Directors and is Vice-Chair of the Mayor's Advisory Committee had this to say: "personally, the passage of this ordinance is a very emotional event for me. I am elated the New Orleans City Council passed the ordinance to protect citizens based upon their gender identity, expression and behavior. It is particularly important to note that this ordinance also has protections for gender-variant heterosexuals, gay men, lesbians and bisexuals." She continued, "I am truly grateful that the new Orleans gay and lesbian community extended their hearts and hands to the local transgender community to accomplish the goal of amending the intimidation and human rights ordinances."

Dana Asked To Quit Fashion Show

Contributed by Elizabeth Parker
via Reuters
July 10, 1998
PARIS - A Jewish group called on Friday on Israeli transsexual singer Dana International to drop out of a Paris fashion show that coincides with a ceremony marking the anniversary of the deportation of French Jews by Nazis.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre said in a statement that it had sent a letter to top designer Jean-Paul Gaultier, in whose show the singer was due to appear, urging "respect for the sensitivity of the occasion."

The Jewish commemoration ceremony, due to take place on July 19, will mark the 56th anniversary of the 'Vel D'Hiv' swoop in which 13,000 Jews were arrested and sent to death camps in July 1942. It takes place at the Vel D'Hiv stadium where the victims were rounded up before their journey to Auschwitz.

Dr Shimon Samuels of the Centre said he had sent a letter to Dana's agent in Tel Aviv to ask that the singer reconsider her participation.

"He told me that Dana will not be singing. She will simply be parading as a model and he saw nothing wrong with that," Samuels told Reuters.

"But for (Gaultier) to feature an already well-known Israeli star who happens to be Jewish in a rather frivolous and light-hearted event really violates the sanctity of the commemoration," he said.

Samuels said he hoped Dana International did not realise that the ceremony was taking place on the same day. Dana, who was born Yaron Cohen, a male, shot to international fame earlier this year by winning the Eurovision Song Contest.

Denver TS Changes Colorado Law

Contributed by JAR
via Denver Post
July 4, 1998

When a Department of Motor Vehicles employee insisted, loudly, to MtF TS Melissa Chapman that: "You can't change the sex on your driver's license until after surgery," she was correct, according to then-current Colorado law. But Melissa lobbied the state, and bombarded DMV officials with information until they changed the law and Melissa Chapman is now a woman both in lifestyle and on her driver's license.

Now, Chapman, who hopes to have GRS surgery soon, has Boulder's Human Rights Ordinance in her sights. The 26-year-old law prohibits job or housing discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation and other characteristics. But, not if the discrimination occurs because someone has changed their sex. "Currently, if we took a complaint [based on] on transgender, we wouldn't have jurisdiction to investigate," said Carmen Atilano, administrator of the city's human rights office. Chapman, along with Boulder residents Wendi Madsen and Kathryn Haley, who also live as women, are pushing the city to change the law.

At the trio's urging, the city has begun researching a change in the ordinance, said Susan Purdy, city director of Housing and Human Services. Purdy said once legalities are ironed out, city staff will recommend to change the ordinance, or not to change it, to the Human Rights Commission. She estimated the recommendation would come this fall, and said there might be public hearings to gauge public sentiment. A change in the law could be approved by the city council and wouldn't require voter endorsement.

Other than Chapman's experience at the DMV, all three had encountered no job discrimination and little harassment in Boulder. "For me personally, it won't have a great impact - I work for the federal government," Madsen said. But for others, it could conceivably have a great impact." Madsen, a computer specialist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, knows of half a dozen transgendered people in Boulder. And she said anywhere from six to 16 people attend support groups and educational meetings sponsored by the Lakewood-based Gender Identity Center.

"The need is there," Atilano said. "How intense the need is, we don't know." While doing their background research, city officials discovered that the state of Minnesota, along with San Francisco, Seattle, Pittsburgh and Iowa City, Iowa, provide protection from discrimination to transgendered people. Iowa City passed such an amendment to its Human Rights Ordinance in 1995 with virtually no opposition, said Heather Shank, coordinator of that city's human rights office. Since then, the university town of about 60,000 has become something of a leader in this issue. Shank is a frequent speaker at gatherings of business leaders, and the city's video, "Transgender: the Law and Employers," is much-borrowed by other cities, including Boulder.

So far, as word of the efforts of Chapman, Madsen and Haley has spread, Boulder officials have heard no opposition to the change, Atilano said.

Transwoman Files Suit Against Tennessee National Guard

Contributed by Laury Weaver
via GAIN
July 4, 1998

Transexual MtF Laury Weaver, a major in the Tennessee Army National Guard, has filed a lawsuit against the Guard alleging sex discrimination and sexual harassment. Weaver, a decorated veteran with 28 years of active and reserve experience in the Guard, alleges that from August 1997 to June 1998 she has been subjected to continuous harassment and has been denied work from active duty assignments.

Weaver is beginning her transition, but is still performing her military job as a male. She was informed that compliants had been filed against her, but she has been unable to find out the nature of the compliants and who filed them. She has, to date, received eight reprimands for noncompliance with military clothing regulations. Weaver maintains that she has been in strict compliance with all clothing regulations while on duty. She says the harassment began last August when she was recognized by a fellow Guard officer while in feminine clothing off duty.

There is no legal protection in Tennessee for discrimination against a person because of sexual orientation or gender expression. Said Ms. Weaver, "I enjoy my job and feel that what I am doing has a positive impact on [unit] readiness and, most importantly, on the individual soldier's preparedness in the guard. All I want is to be able to do that job without harassment."

And finally this quote from Newsweek, July 13, 1998 Perspective Section: "We don't allow pedophiles, transvestites or cross-dressers, either."
-- Texas Republican Party spokesman Robert Black, on the party's decision to bar the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay organization, from the party's convention.
Thanks to BobbyG for this tidbit.

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