Nachrichten und Neuigkeiten

24. Oktober 2019 22:46

Discussions with a stone wall

Britain’s main gay rights organisation is risking its own future by adopting gender self-ID as its new cause. In 2010, Ben Summerskill, the chief executive of Stonewall, Britain’s biggest gay-rights group, said that the organisation took “no view” on whether same-sex marriage should be legalised. Set up in 1989 to lobby against “Section 28” of the Local Government Act, which barred the “promotion” of same-sex relationships, it was wildly out of step with the gay population as a whole. After a survey later that year showed that 98% wanted the right to marry, it apologised and reversed its position. Now it is under even heavier fire—and the lateness of its conversion to gay marriage is part of the reason.

19. Oktober 2019 01:57

Toronto's top librarian refuses to bar trans critical speaker

The Toronto Public Library is standing by its decision to rent out space to a third-party event featuring a writer and activist who argues against transgender rights, despite mounting opposition from authors, politicians and the city's mayor. Meghan Murphy, who runs the website Feminist Current, has argued that "allowing men to identify as women" undermines women's rights, and that transgender women should not be allowed in women's spaces. She has publicly opposed Bill C-16, which made it illegal to discriminate based on gender identity and expression, and was banned from Twitter in 2018 for violating its hate speech policy. Authors Alicia Elliott, Catherine Hernandez and Carrianne Leung say they will no longer participate Toronto Public Library (TPL) events in light of its decision, and have launched a petition decrying the TPL for allowing "hate speech to be disseminated" at the Oct. 29 discussion.

7. Oktober 2019 22:59

Alaska homeless shelter wins right to turn away transwomen

The Municipality of Anchorage will pay $100,001 and allow the Hope Center homeless shelter to forbid transgender women, settling a lawsuit brought by the faith-based Anchorage shelter for women. The settlement was published Monday and comes a little over a month after U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason issued a preliminary injunction declaring that Anchorage’s anti-discrimination ordinance could not be applied to the shelter as the case moved toward trial in early 2020. The Hope Center was represented in its lawsuit by the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom, which argues on behalf of religious-liberty cases nationwide. (The Alliance was the organization that represented a Colorado baker in front of the U.S. Supreme Court over the baker’s refusal to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.)

7. Oktober 2019 17:28

Scottish Government pledge not to conflate sex and gender

The Scottish Government has pledged that its new working group on the collection of data will ensure sex and gender are not conflated in statistics published by public authorities. The Sex and Gender in Data Working Group, which is headed by the government’s chief statistician Roger Halliday, will seek to ensure that the two categories remain distinct from each other. Concerns have been raised by academics and women’s groups, that the two terms were becoming interchangeable, undermining the collection of vital information needed in the planning of public services for women and men, changing the recording of crimes, and potentially removing sex as a protected characteristic as stated in the Equality Act 2010.

30. September 2019 23:20

OPP no longer releasing gender of victims or the accused connected with crimes

Ontario’s Provincial Police (OPP) is no longer revealing the gender of people accused of crimes or those that are victims of one. A spokesperson for the OPP told Global News the action was taken in May 2019 after a review of policies revealed the information was not required for public police releases. Spokesperson Sgt. Carolle Dionne said it’s not really a change in their code as much as it was an “oversight” in the OPP’s media release policy. “Upon reviewing our operating procedures, it talked about an accused or charged person as a name, residence, their age, charges and a little bit about the incident itself but it never speaks about gender being released,” said Dionne. “So we made that change.”

25. September 2019 22:54

Transgender man who gave birth loses High Court battle to be 'father'

A transgender man who attempted to create legal history by having his baby become the first to legally not have a mother has lost his High Court fight, with the presiding judge citing the "basic facts of life". Freddy McConnell, who was born a woman but later transitioned to become a man, took the Government to court earlier this year for refusing to let him register as the “father” on his child’s birth certificate. The Government argued that he must be the “mother” because he gave birth to the child, who has a “right to know the identity of the person who carried him or her”. Handing down his decision in the High Court today, the President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, sided with the Government, telling Mr McConnell that he must appear as “mother” on the birth certificate.

25. September 2019 22:38

IOC delays new transgender guidelines after scientists fail to agree

Plans by the International Olympic Committee to introduce stricter guidelines for transgender athletes before the Tokyo 2020 Games have run into the sand because its panel of scientists is struggling to reach agreement on such a thorny issue. The scientists had been expected to recommend halving the permitted testosterone levels for trans women competing in elite sport. However, several sources have confirmed to the Guardian that the IOC’s draft guidelines have been parked, for now, because the whole subject is so politically charged and sensitive. Under the current IOC guidelines, issued in November 2015, athletes who transition from male to female can compete in the women’s category without requiring surgery to remove their testes provided their total testosterone level in serum is kept below 10 nanomoles per litre for at least 12 months.

4. September 2019 17:20

”Vi kräver att vården slutar experimentera med våra barn”

Vi är en växande grupp föräldrar med barn som i tonåren plötsligt uttrycker en stark känsla av att ha ”fel” kön. Vi kräver omsorg och vård för våra barns lidande – inte en lång kö till kirurgiska och medicinska experiment, skriver Jannika Häggström med 16 andra föräldrar.

28. August 2019 04:11

Sotto says no to trans women in women's restrooms

MANILA—Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Thursday said he is opposed to the idea of allowing transgender women in restrooms assigned to women. Sotto has become more vocal rejecting the idea after concerns were raised about the possible abuse that could take place in case this setup is allowed. “I now feel very strongly about it because it has turned from a transgender rights to a women’s rights [issue],” Sotto told reporters. “This is now an issue on women’s rights because I feel that a woman’s body is a temple and to her, the toilet is sacred. It’s where she has a weakest point. Kaya kung ikaw meron kang sandata, hindi ka dapat du’n nagsi-CR (If you have a penis, you should not use the women’s restroom). You go to the men’s room.” Sotto added some transgender women’s claim that they are vulnerable to assault in men’s restrooms is unfounded.