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Canadian Military
Will Pay For SRS

Contributed by Jami Ward, Elizabeth Parker and Rachelle Austin
via Reuters
September 2, 1998

OTTAWA -- In Canad's integrated armed forces, soldiers can now train with, share quarters with, and even become members of the opposite sex.

Canada's Defense Department confirmed on Wednesday the military has agreed to pay for sex-change operations after a request was granted to one of its soldiers.

"Our decision was based on our assessment of whether someone who had had (gender reassignment) surgery could serve in the military. The advice we got from the specialists we consulted was that once somebody had been successfully treated, they should not be restricted from any military duties," Colonel Scott Cameron, director of medical services for the military, told Reuters.

Canadian Defense Minister Art Eggleton approved payment through the Department's medical plan for gender reassignment surgery. Senior medical and personnel officers recommended the payment, likely to run C$20 - $30,000, and the Department felt it should follow the model of Ontario's provincial health plan, which in the last six years has expended a total of some C$700,000 for 46 gender reassignments. Opposition Members of Parliament would have preferred the soldier resign and undergo the surgery as a civilian.

TS Pilot
Wins Big Judgement

Contributed by Elizabeth Parker
via PA News
September 2, 1998

A transsexual pilot was today awarded more than 77,000 pounds by an industrial tribunal which ruled that an air company had unfairly sexually discriminated against her. Kristina Sheffield, 52, of Ealing, west London, won her legal battle against Air Foyle, which is based at Luton Airport, Bedfordshire, in July. Today a three-strong industrial tribunal sitting at Bedford ruled that Miss Sheffield should be awarded 14,000 for injury to feelings and 62,000 for loss of potential earnings.

Miss Sheffield, a grandmother, who was born a man named Ian Sheffield, had argued that Air Foyle was guilty of sex discrimination because it refused her a job interview because she was a transsexual.

She had applied for a job as a pilot with EasyJet, which is also based at Luton. Air Foyle was handling the recruitment process on behalf of EasyJet and as a result was the target for Miss Sheffield's complaint. Miss Sheffield, a former RAF and Britannia pilot who has 32 years of flying experience, contended that she was suitably qualified and capable of being an EasyJet pilot and should have been given an interview. Air Foyle had denied discrimination and argued that other pilots found Miss Sheffield difficult to work with because she flaunted her sexuality. The tribunal ruled in favour of Miss Sheffield in July after a hearing in Bedford in April.

Mexican TG
Booted From Canada

Contributed by Elizabeth Parker
via Toronto Sun
September 1, 1998

A transsexual awaiting sex-change surgery was deported to Mexico a day after the Federal Court of Canada rejected his bid to stay.

Screaming and sobbing, Luis Ezequiel Manzo Chavez, 26, also known as "Shadmith," was escorted in handcuffs to a flight last Thursday night at Pearson Airport. Immigration spokesman Sue Dobrin said yesterday Chavez was deported without escort to her homeland. She said the court last Wednesday dismissed Chavez's application to halt his deportation.

Chavez, an illegal immigrant, had said she would be killed if she returned to Mexico. But Dobrin said an assessment indicated Chavez wouldn't be in danger. Mexican officials also vociferously denied that Chavez would face government harassment because she is transgender.

Chavez had been undergoing female hormone treatments for more than two years and was about to have sex-change surgery in Britain, his friends said. He came to Canada in November 1994 with his female lover, whom he later married, and filed an unsuccessful refugee claim.

Saudis Raid Home
Arrest TGs

Contributed by Rachelle Austin and Elizabeth Parker
via NewsPlanet
August 31, 1998

Five Pakistani transvestites have been arrested in a raid on a private home in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, according to a local newspaper which printed their photos. The arrests are described as part of a crackdown on illegal immigration which has deported close to a million foreigners since October. Less than a week before, two other transvestites were arrested in Dahran.

In 1996, 24 Filipino foreign workers in Saudi Arabia were arrested for homosexual acts and 23 of them were given 200 lashes each before being deported, in a case investigated by Amnesty International. Also in 1996, one Saudi man was beheaded for homosexual behavior and another given 200 lashes and a six-month prison term for wearing a dress to a wedding party. Earlier this year, two Saudi men were beheaded for the kidnapping and rape of a boy. Saudi Arabia does not have a written penal code.

Scot TGs
Jailed With Women

Contributed by Elizabeth Parker and Rachelle Austin
via PA News
August 31, 1998

Legal history was made on Monday when a transsexual was sent to the female unit of a prison to serve a sentence for embezzlement. Lawyer Alexandra MacRae, formerly Stephen, was sentenced to 15 months at Dundee Sheriff Court. MacRae, a former Scottish National Party candidate and rugby prop forward, who underwent surgery in 1984, is the first biological male in Britain to be jailed with women, it was reported. She will be held in Craiginches Prison in Aberdeen which houses mainly men but has a small women's wing.

MacRae, 57, was sentenced after failing to repay 16,000 embezzled from a client at her practice in Dundee two years ago. The court heard that she faced physical danger irrespective of whether she served her time in a male or a female prison. But Sheriff Brian Scoullar told MacRae that because of the seriousness of her crime there was no alternative to a custodial sentence.

MacRae had previously admitted embezzlement but sentence had been deferred to allow her time to repay the money. However, she was declared bankrupt and lost a job working with a rights agency. A Scottish Prison Service spokeswoman said the decision to send her to a women's unit had been taken partly on medical grounds. She said: "We had to base the decision strictly on our encounter with the person and also from medical considerations. We were quite happy to accept that she is a woman. "

Craiginches has three women in it and that makes the situation a lot more manageable simply because of the numbers involved rather than Cornton Vale (Scotland's only all-female jail). "There's also the fact that her sentence fits in with being at Aberdeen because she was tried in the north east and has family in the north." MacRae, who was married to a Ghanaian woman, is the son of a Church of Scotland minister.

Lady Di's Dresses
Go On Sale

Contributed by Elizabeth Parker
via Associated Press
September 3, 1998

FOR SALE: Eight dresses worn by Princess Diana, last week at the Mall of America in Bloomington MN. Six were created by her favorite designer, Catherine Walker. Proceeds will go to a summer camp for children with AIDS.

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