Category: News

In a historic first, the Democratic National Convention will see transgender participation like never before. For the first time ever, there will be more than a solitary transgendered delegate in national political process. No less than five delegates, and two committee members will be attending the Convention on July 26-29, 2004 in Boston - four of whom are current or former board members of the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC).

Austin became the 3rd city in Texas and the 71st municipality in the country to add gender identity as a protected class to its human rights ordinance. On Thursday, June 10, 2004 by a unanimous vote, Austin?s City council voted to amend the Austin City Human Rights Ordinance to include gender identity as a protected class in employment, housing, and public accommodation. Austin joins Dallas and El Paso as the only cities in Texas to extend equal rights to its Transgendered citizens. Houston added gender identity to its nondiscrimination policy in public employment in July of 2001.

On June 24th 2004 the law society of upper Canada, the 207 year old association of lawyers in Ontario held a public forum/ workshop on gender identity issues in Toronto. The forum had two trans identified persons speaking and two human rights lawyers and covered issues that trans identified people deal with. After the panel discussion (of which I was one of the presenters) the mayor of Toronto gave an address to the law society with regards to Pride Week a model policy paper on, Sexual Identity and Gender Orientation: Creating an Inclusive Work environment.

Info can be found along with a press release at: http://www.lsuc.on.ca/pics/subtopic.jpg

Lindsay Smith

Al Franken has apologized for the offensive joke made o­n the June 2, 2004 show.

"On Wednesday?s ?Fighting Hannity?s Lies with Lies About Hannity? segment, I falsely claimed that Sean Hannity was born a hermaphroditic conjoined twin, and that the doctor who delivered him and his twin reacted in horror at their birth. I would like to apologize to members of the intersexed and conjoined-twin communities for furthering the unjustified stigma attached to these conditions. An estimated o­ne in 2000 people are born with atypical genitalia, which, like conjoinment, is a naturally-occurring bodily variation. I am sorry for the ill-considered joke."
-Al Franken

On Monday May 17, 2004 the International Olympics Committee announced that transsexuals will be allowed to compete in their correct gender, effective immediately. The decision had been anxiously awaited since February when the policy was originally going to be enacted.

The New Mexico Hate Crimes Bill passed the New Mexico House of Representatives today, and Gov. Bill Richardson has pledged to sign the legislation. The Bill establishes increased penalties for acts of violence against many groups, among them sexual orientation and gender identity. Representatives of New Mexico Gender Advocacy Information network(NMGAIN), a transgender advocacy organization, had lobbied the NM legislature for over four years, to see the protective legislation pass.

Anthony Barreto-Neto won a landmark civil rights case in Vermont on April 22, 2004. The Vermont Attorney General ruled that the Town of Hardwicks dismissal of Mr Barreto-Neto was due to his identity as an transsexual, and that it was a violation of Vermont law banning discrimination based on sex or sexual orientation. The Town of Hardwick settled the discrimination claim brought by the former officer for $90,000 and is required to enact a formal non-discrimination policy against transgender people, as well as conduct trainings for employees regarding transgender issues.

IFGE has joined MassEquality.Org, an alliance of leading advocacy organizations to support marriage rights for everyone regardless of gender. The resolution can be read below:

By Joann Prinzivalli

CDI members at the IFGE Convention netted over a thousand dollars for charity by running a carnival after the Friday evening convention dinner at the Philadelphia Airport Hilton on March 21, 2003.

A year of planning and sometimes panic came together on Wednesday, March 19 at the Philadelphia Airport Hilton Hotel as Transgender 2003, the 17th annual IFGE Convention registration opened at 10:00 A.M. As co-chairwomen Kristine James and Alison Laing herded the attendees, vendors, and hotel the premier event of the Transgender Community got underway.