You are invited to
a celebration

of the life and work of

kari edwards (1954-2006)


This event will celebrate kari's indomitable spirit and compassionate revelation of body and language. The tribute will focus on kari's considerable legacy and include, poetry, music, performance and presentations of visual art.


Friday, April 27, 2007 at 7:30 PM

San Francisco Campus of the California College of the Arts

1111 Eighth Street

San Francisco, CA 94107



This event will be co-sponsored by Small Press Traffic and the CCA MFA Writing Program

My loving partner and publisher of this blog, kari edwards, died on 12/2/06 her birthday. She touched so many people with her work and her blogs. I know her presence in the world and on the internet will live on. Thank you.

Workers World fought gay oppression before Stonewal By Leslie Feinberg


Years before the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion, the leadership of Workers World Party understood the need to fight oppression as a many-headed hydra.

I joined Workers World Party (WWP) in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1973, drawn to its ranks by my rage at the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the bloody CIA-orchestrated counter-revolution in Chile. The first person in the branch leadership that I “came out” to as transgender in late 1973—Jeanette Merrill—listened to me very intently. She responded, “I don’t know much about your oppression, but I know oppression when I hear it.”

My comrades in the Buffalo branch quickly made discussion and understanding about my oppression an important part of branch work. They demonstrated to me that comradeship is different than friendship or family. It is a powerful relationship among people who unite on a solid platform of political principles and who fight against each other’s oppression as though it were their own.

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A Metis Birthday celebration turned into death ceremony, it may not be just an unfortunate tragedy

On the eve of 25th November, Nima a Metii (cross-dressing effeminate male, age about 25 years), who celebrated her birthday with few friends and friend's of friends in kumarigal near Baudha in Kathmandu, died yesterday afternoon around 2 PM, 25th November, at the Teaching Hospital. The hospital told that Nima died with "methyl" that may have contained at the alcohol they drank in the 25th Night. Nima was rushed to the hospital just before 2 mp after started vomiting, the doctors at the emergency unit told that it was too late and Nima died soon after. Then at the evening other people who were at the party and drunk same alcohol started getting sick and rushed to the teaching hospital and were cared for methyl. They were treated by ethyl agent to neutralized methyl. 3 Metis were released yesterday after the treatment, 6 others were in serious condition and teaching hospital told us to look for other hospital as the condition may get worse and need ICU support.

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Metis, victims (of political change?) in Nepal by Sunil Pant

After the recent peace deal between the Nepal Government and Maoist, like every other Nepalese, Métis (cross dressing effeminate males) also were in expectation that their rights would be ensured and they would also enjoy freedom and safety. But the situation and hate crimes they faces from many angles everyday makes them believe that the situation for Métis has become far worse than before. Before, most of the violence against Métis were committed by Nepal police but recently many Métis were victimized by men who called themselves Maoist. On night of 24th November 2006, four men, tow of them were in combat dress came to the Métis room at Lazimpat where few Métis share a apartment building and the group of Métis were abused physically, verbally, beten badly, threatened not to become Métis anymore. Their mobile phones, money, jewelries were also looted. Those 4 men, who claimed themselves from Maoist party, told Métis to come and collect the phones at Maoist office either in Kalanki or in Kupondole.

Transvestite killings on the rise in Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Two transvestites were shot dead in broad daylight on Wednesday, their bodies riddled with bullets in the latest in a wave of suspected hate crimes in Guatemala.

The transvestites, in their 20s, were gunned down together outside a bar in the crime-ridden Villanueva neighborhood of the capital. They were shot in the face and body.

"They both had long hair and long nails, men dressed as if they were women," said emergency worker Oscar Sanchez. At least 15 bullet casings lay on the ground at the murder scene.

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Transgender Teachers Growing In Numbers


(Tuckerton, New Jersey) For nine years, he was Mr. McBeth, a substitute teacher who kept things moving along in the classroom and filled in ably when the regular teacher was out sick.
And then one September, he was Miss McBeth.

The sex-change operation William McBeth underwent in 2005 roiled this rural, conservative area when she applied to be rehired as a substitute in Eagleswood Township. Parents packed a school board meeting last winter, some decrying what they termed an experiment, with their young children as guinea pigs; others supported her right to be who she is and work at what she does best.

Settlement reached in transgender case

A transgender woman from Arvada who said she was fired after she announced she planned to have sex-change surgery has reached a settlement with her former employer.

Danielle Cornwell, who lived most of her life as David, will return to work next month as part of a settlement with Intermountain Testing Company of Englewood, according to a statement released today by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Center of Denver.


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Probe into death of transgender ordered


Chennai, Nov 22: The Madras High Court yesterday ordered a probe into the "suicide" of a transgender inside a police station here, allegedly due to sexual harassment by the personnel there.

Acting on a petition filed by Jayalakshmi, sister of the deceased, Pandian, the Bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice K Chandru held that the court was unwilling to make any observation on the contention of both the parties with regard to the death.

The Bench directed the Under-Secretary, Tamil Nadu Legal Service Authority, Akbar Ali to probe and submit a report within two months.

A Hidden Life: Being Gay in Rural China


New America Media, News Feature, Rian Dundon, Interview and Translation by Lisa Sangoi, Nov 20, 2006
Editor's Note: Homosexuality has gained some acceptance in metropolitan cities like Shanghai and Beijing. But in rural China, as one young man explains, being gay is still a secret he must keep from his family. New America Media contributor Rian Dundon is a photographer working in China. More of his work can be seen at www.dunnflicks.com.

Xiao Wang fondles the Pisces charm draped around his neck as he drags on his cigarette. "I gave the same one to my boyfriend," he says as he smiles and leans back in his chair in his dorm room. 

Wang, a 21-year-old college student in a large sprawling city in south central China, chats comfortably and confidently about his life, his sexuality and his doubts and hopes for the future. But back in his small rural hometown, he lives with the burden of a secret that he must, at least for now, keep from his family. more...

Memorial to Transgender Transsexual Suicide Victims November 21st


Most people are familiar with the terrible violence committed against Transsexuals and the Transgendered. Every November 20th we hold vigils in honor of the Transgender Day of Remembrance. This is the least we can do. However we also need to honor an even larger amount of Transgendered which are the victims of Suicide. There are literally thousands of Transgendered and Transsexuals who take their own lives each and every year. They too should be Remembered with their own Day which Is November 21st. Please think about these victims, not only that day but every day.

The National suicide rate is 3 per 100,000 People. The Transgender Transsexual suicide rate is 31% of our group. Over 50% of Transsexuals will have had at least one suicide attempt by their 20th birthday. Even more self harm themselves daily either by cutting or self mutilation.

San Francisco Appeals Gay Marriage Order


SAN FRANCISCO -- A month after an appeals court ruled against same-sex marriage, the city and about a dozen homosexual couples have filed an appeal to the California Supreme Court.

Gay marriage advocates hope to overturn the ruling that said limiting marriage to a man and a woman does not violate the constitutional rights of gays and lesbians.

If the high court takes the case, a decision on same-sex marriage is likely a year or more away. The justices have 90 days to announce their intentions.

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S Africa set to back gay weddings


South Africa would become the first African country to approve such unions. The Civil Unions Bill was introduced after the Constitutional Court ruled last year that the existing laws discriminated against homosexuals.

The ruling ANC has ordered all MPs to vote in favour of the bill, despite the fierce opposition of church and traditional leaders.

(fron: lgbt-india] Police arrest Int'l LGBT Conference Organisers in Belarus


Gomel, 08 November 2006: Today, at 8:20 pm the special police forces broke into the apartment where the meeting of Organizing Committee of the International LGBT Conference took place and arrested seven people: Vyacheslav Andreev, Sviatlana Bortnik, Svyatoslav Sementsov, Tanya Ivanova, Aleksei Filipenko, Natallia Kavalchuk, and Viachaslau Bortnik. The
Conference materials have been seized. Activists have been brought to the Zheleznodorozhnyi Borrow Police Department and interrogated. Police officers asked for detailed information on the program of the conference, list of participants, and venue of the conference. International guests were of the special interest of police. Four of activists have been released after tow
hours of detention.

According to our information at 10:25 pm, Vyacheslav Andreev, Svyatoslav Sementsov and Viachaslau Bortnik of Organizing Committee remain to stay at the police station. Two activists who are taking duty near the entrance to the Zheleznodorozhnyi Borrow Police Department confirmed that they haven't left the building and their cell phones are switched off.

We're following the situation and will keep you posted.

On behalf of Organizing Committee of the International LGBT Conference in Minsk,

Tanya Ivanova

Co-president of TEMA - information center

loveforever@tut.by

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Transgender woman alleges discrimination at Philadelphia YMCA


Dawn Dalpe, a transgender woman living in South Philadelphia, has filed a complaint with the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations alleging that she has been barred from all 10 regional branches of the YMCA, the Philadelphia Gay News reported Friday.

Dalpe, 38, states in her complaint that she joined the Christian Street YMCA in mid October to use the swimming pool but was barred after only three visits when executive director Michelle Stevenson demanded Dalpe's "proof of gender." When Dalpe returned with an affidavit from her doctor certifying her biological sex as female, Stevenson grabbed the paper out of her hand and told her to leave or else she would call the police.

S. African gays suffer despite legal protection


At an informal, unlicensed bar at a house in a remote corner of Soweto, South Africa, men and women sip lukewarm beer, mingle, flirt and sometimes dance to driving and monotonous kwaito rhythms. They share a secret.

The bar, called a shebeen in the townships, is one of the places where young black gays don't have to hide who they are, where they can talk openly, and find companionship and a safe haven in an often hostile township.

Historic First Win for Openly Transgender Candidate in Hawaii 


(Washington, DC) — Tuesday's mid-term elections marked a historic first in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LBGT) movement for equality and civic engagement. With a comfortable victory garnering 81,532 votes, attorney Kim Coco Iwamoto was elected to Hawaii's state-level Board of Education (Oahu-at-Large), a non-partisan office.

Ms. Iwamoto, an openly transgender woman, is a member of the National Center for Transgender Equality's (NCTE) Board of Advisors. Iwamoto holds a Juris Doctor from the University of New Mexico School of Law, is a volunteer guardian ad litem for the First Circuit Family Court, and is a frequent speaker at high schools and colleges on civil rights issues and community service.

"This is a truly historic win and marks an important first in the American political landscape, said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. "Kim Coco Iwamoto is an outstanding individual with a long history of pro bono legal work and volunteerism benefiting her home state. She will serve the people of Hawaii well."

Two Orissa girls defy norms, get married


KORAPUT: Two Kondh women from Orissa's Koraput district have defied all norms of their tribal society to live as ˜man and wife" after tying the knot recently. Bateka Palang, 30, wed her bride, 25-year-old Maleka Nilsa of Ghumuru village in Bandhugaon block in a traditional ceremony at Dandabadi, a remote village in Narayanpatna block, in the presence of family.

The village has given its grudging approval ”the elders have asked residents not to talk about it to outsiders for fear of shame ”to the relationship that was formalised after all the usual wedding rituals, including dowry changing hands.

Villagers said the women who wed were cousins and their relationship had developed when Bateka used to visit her would-be wife's home. "About four years ago, I had gone to my cousin's home and found a nice friend in Maleka. She was caring and loving. Gradually we started spending more time with each other but we had never thought that one day we would get married," Bateka said.


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Pakistan's ground-breaking transvestite


"Darling, you are sooo naughty," purrs an elegant sari-clad woman glowing out of primetime television.

Going by the name of Begum (Lady) Nawazish Ali, she hosts an eponymous talk show that has taken Pakistan by storm.

Flirting and skirting her way through politics, society gossip and plain old sexual chemistry, Begum has become the most popular icon to inundate Pakistani fantasy in a while.

Revisions Likely in Birth Certificate Policy


Spurred by a 2002 city law forbidding discrimination based on gender identity and expression and reform sought by gender rights advocates, the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is considering an amendment to the policy governing changes to a birth certificate, making it possible for transgendered people born in New York to alter the gender designated on the form.

However, in testimony before the Board of Health on Monday, advocates agreed in recommending a number of significant changes to the amendment currently under discussion, and some maintained that the overall approach contemplated is inappropriately based on what they termed a "medical model" inconsistent with an emerging ethos of gender self-identification.

Everyone who testified at the Monday hearing, however, agreed that revision in the current city policy is long overdue and congratulated the health department on its work in moving toward reform.

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Intersex Produced by: Dheera Sujan


A group of women talk of their experiences with a rare condition - intersexuality. They are women who have the male XY chromosome. One was forcibly raised as a boy. One only found out about her condition accidentally when she was a teenager. And one was kept in the dark about it deliberately by doctors. About one baby in 20,000 infants is born intersex. Often these infants can be clearly seen to belong to one sex, but a small percentage of them are born with ambiguous genitalia and in the past, doctors made a unilateral decision about which sex they thought the child belonged to. Sometimes they even performed surgery without properly consulting or informing the parents. That practice has been banned in the Netherlands but although medical personnel and lay people are more open to variations in sexuality these days, people with an intersex condition still find the subject very difficult to bring up. This program was produced by Dheera Sujan of Radio Netherlands and airs as part of our international documentary exchange series, Crossing Boundaries.

Transsexual prepares lawsuit against Thai army


Bangkok- A Thai transsexual man is preparing to file a lawsuit against the army for rejecting him for conscription on the grounds of his "mental disorder," news reports said Thursday. Samart Meehcharoen, 22, said that the army's rejection statement, issued two years ago, had deprived him of career opportunities, as a private firm had recently turned down his job application citing his "mental disorder," the Bangkok Post reported. 

"I cannot accept it, because I don't have a mental problem. I'm a normal guy who feels like a woman," said Samart, who wears his hair long and has undergone breast-enhancement surgery, though he has stopped short of a sex change. 

If the Administrative Court accepts Samart's case, it will set a legal precedent in Thailand, which still practices conscription to fill its armed forces.

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Four convicted in St. Maarten attack on gays


Four French nationals were convicted Thursday of beating two gay American tourists in this Dutch Caribbean island and given prison sentences of six months to six years.

The tire iron attack seriously damaged the brain of one of the victims, an employee of the CBS News show "48 Hours."
Three citizens of the island's French half -- Glen Cockly, Micheline Delaney and Allan Daniel -- and a man from the nearby French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, Michel Javois, were found guilty of public violence and grievous bodily harm by Judge Jan Bosch.

Sex Change Doctor Dead At 82


(AP) Dr. Stanley Biber, a small-town physician who said he performed more than 4,500 sex change operations in his career, has died, a friend and funeral home owner said. He was 82.

Biber died in Pueblo, where he had been hospitalized for complications from pneumonia. The cause of death was not announced Tuesday.

"We've lost a tremendous friend in our community," said Mary Winter, owner of the Cormi Funeral Home in Trinidad, a town of 9,300 near the Colorado-New Mexico border.

NYPD may have violated transgender woman's rights


Amnesty International is urging the New York City Police Department to investigate allegations that its officers violated the human rights of Christina Sforza, a transgender woman involved in a July 10 altercation at a McDonalds restaurant in Manhattan, according to an October 27 press release sent by the human rights watchdog group. 

Sforza claims she was viciously beaten with a lead pipe by the McDonalds manager on the night of July 10 and repeatedly called a “fag” and a “faggot” by store employees and customers.

Is there anything gay about them?


Vikram Seth might have signed the letter for decriminalisation of homosexual act. But the ground reality is still very different.

Recently, Baguiati residents Nisha Singh and Nisha Upadhyay committed suicide. The reason was the refusal of society to accept their same-sex love.

In the past two years, this is the fourth such incident in the state where couples have ended their lives. So, how difficult is it for city lesbians to stay afloat in such an unsympathetic environment?

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Postal workers refuse to deliver 'anti-gay' mail


Canada Post plans to go ahead with the delivery of controversial booklets this week, despite protests from Vancouver postal workers who refused to distribute the mail they called "homophobic."

"It hasn't gone out today because of all the attention and we wanted to make sure other mail wasn't disrupted," Lillian Au, communications manager for Canada Post's pacific region, told CTV.ca.

Activists seeks UN transgender support


A Ugandan gay activist has called on the United Nations to protect transgender people in Africa.


Juliet Victor Mukasa, chairperson of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), revealed her experiences as a transgender in Africa when addressing the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva this week. 

She described incidents of rape, being stripped in church and humiliated by police, “In church, “I was once stripped naked as in naked!, in church, before a multitude of people. The pastor ‘saw’ a spirit of a young man inside me and they burnt my clothes and shoes in order to kill the male spirit.”

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Brooklyn prosecutor: Hate crimes charges for 3 in gay man's death



Three men have been indicted on hate crimes charges in the murder of a gay man who was attacked alongside a parkway and then was hit by a car while trying to escape, prosecutors said Wednesday.