Watch Live the 2nd VietPride - Hanoi của sống Telecast!

VietPride - Hanoi's Live Telecast! According to the website the live broadcast will begin at 5pm Hanoi. click here to see the time differential worldwide, for instance it's minus 12 hours where I live in Dallas. So in Dallas I will need to get up at 5am Sunday to watch.

Local Time in Hanoi:

While its wonderful to see our LGB community making such advancements in Viet Nam it's heartbreaking to know its only gotten worse for transgender people in country.

While the government is seeking the international community to recognize its human rights record it remains “Oppressive.” “Brutal.” “Terrible and worsening.” According to Time  these were some of the fierce editorial lightning bolts to scorch Vietnam’s human-rights reputation last week, hurled in the wake of a surprise 75-minute White House audience for the country’s President Truong Tan Sang. But in Hanoi, capital of the single-party communist state, a silver lining could come from an unlikely source: gay pride. Rainbows will be out in full force for the nation’s second ever Viet Pride festival on Sunday, when a 200-strong bicycle parade will cruise down streets still decorated with hammer-and-sickle billboards, passing landmarks like the resting place of national hero Ho Chi Minh and a statue of Lenin.

Radio ABC Australia paints a even bleak portrait of trans rights pointing out transgender people are being left behind as gay rights surge forward. According to ABC Vietnamese trans people who dare to live authentically are regulated to the most menial low paying jobs and constant harassment. Some left with no options dance at weddings where they are subject to the most demeaning, dehumanizing treatment.

A step backwards....

Two years ago amongst much fanfare Pham Le Quynh Tram joyously became the first Vietnamese transsexual to allowed to change her official documents only to have that revoked January 2013

inching forward...

There is a glimmer of hope on the horizon for transgender Vietnamese citizens with the publishing of the first ever in country biography of a trans person:

Video: Transgender Student Ashton Lee delivers 5700 signature petition urging Gov Brown to sign AB1266

Lee explains why he is so committed to AB 1266 "The School Success and Opportunity Act": "This will make it easier for us to graduate, to be accepted and understood."

Source Sacramento Bee:

His mom, Catherine Lee, said her son's struggle to assert his gender identity in school had an immediate negative effect on him. She was hopeful that his petition would receive a warm welcome from the governor.

"I've followed Jerry Brown for a long time, ever since I was a little kid and the first time he was governor," she said. "I have faith in him."

Carolyn Laub, executive director of the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, said Brown's signature would send a far-reaching message to transgender students.

"It says that we care about you, and we care about your success in your education and we want you to have all the benefits and opportunities that come with school, like being in P.E. class and being on sports teams," Laub said. "It says that your education matters."

The petition now has 6400 signatures. It's still open so please add your name too.

Gaye from Istanbul found murdered! Already there have been 4 trans murders in 2013

Gaye, a trans woman who had according to reports, just left the sex trade and begun working as a florist, has been found dead in her apartment in Istanbul.

This brings the death toll of Turkish trans people to 4 in 7 months.

“We need a law to combat against hate murders,” said Ebru Kırancı from Istanbul LGBTT told Bianet.

Another person from the LGBT community apparently died from a drug overdose. While its not clear if she was trans her lose is still the transgender communities lose. A article posted on radikal.com.tr expressed outrage over the oppressive conditions that undoubtedly contributed to her death:

"Already that no one cares. The result is a trans died! What family accept what society accepts, nor officially recognized, defined. I just broke a jar of water towards the water is being treated. According to the system because the heterosexist homosexuals, transsexuals, all LGBTs a depraved, perverted, sick, sex-crazed, sinful, layout, racking ..."

"As long as I do not think it would be anything ranging strengthens the LGBT movement. Because everyone in Turkey, which is a heterosexist society and heterosexual Muslim Sunni official anlmda! Under such circumstances the law of this country, judiciary, homophobic, transphobic also be the usual, prime minister, deputy homophobic, transphobic and normal to have"

This memorial facebook page was posted by Trans X Turkey:

Trans X Turkey · 238 like this

19 hours ago near Istanbul, Turkey · 

• Bir Kardeşimizi daha kaybettik, başımız sağolsun...

  
  

  Özge Özge

  
  

  Went to selçuklu öztekinler kız meslek lisesiIt's ComplicatedMale

  Like ·  · Share

There is much frustration in Turkey as the murders of LGBT people go unmentioned by mainstream media, uninvestigated or under investigated by police, unnoticed by politicians and condoned by religions. This leads many Turkish transgender people to feel that  there is a conspiracy against them, a conspiracy of acquiescence.

There are pitifully few accounts of these murders in mainstream media and only one translated to English further widening the awareness gap. Indeed there is a conspiracy in Turkey against LGBT people that encompasses every segment of society. 

This is a trailer of director Maria Binder's film, Trans X Istanbul  which is in currently in production. It is  a documentary with Ebru Kırancı examining the murderous conditions Istanbul Trans people exist in. 





What can we do?

Thursday August 1st at Ortanca Park Lambda Istanbul will be hosting an event to foster #kurtulustaneleroluyor: Homofobik ve Transfobik Şiddete Karşı Dayanışma (Solidarity Against Homophobic and Transphobic violence).

This Thursday come together in our forum in the Middle Park, Feriköy our neighborhood, we're going to talk about what we can do against the increasing and sistematikleşen violence.

Our forum Esmeray stylings. As a LGBT individuals to live in this neighborhood, then to talk to, will share their experiences of violence, attacks, we think what we can do together.

We expect all other LGBT residents of the neighborhood and our forum participants.

Ortanca Park

Istanbul, Turkey

View Map · Get Directions

Mylène, French transgender Woman Found Murdered at Home

Thursday evening firefighters responding to a call from friends found  Mylène, a transgender woman in her Couzeix residence around 8:30 apparently the victim of an attack. Couzeix is a commune in the Haute-Vienne department in the Limousin region in western France.

According to Gay Star News  Mylène,42, was beaten to death with a hammer but the article does not include a link supporting that.

From the article's update on Friday it appears the police have arrested one person in connection to her murder.

From the article linked below "Mylene police still looking for key witness" which misgenders her.

"An appointment made on the internet and gone wrong, could be the cause of the death of this 42 year old hairdresser, appreciated for transmutation performances he gave in nightclubs in the area."

"But according to our information, the police is also investigating the guests at a party hosted Mylène Wednesday night, just hours before his death. Investigators seek such a man considered a "key witness" in the case of voluntary manslaughter. It would be left alone with the victim in the late evening and could be the last to see him alive."

"An autopsy will be performed at the Forensic Institute in the coming days to determine the exact circumstances of the death of Mylène, further clarified the floor of Limoges."

Read more at Meurtre de "Mylène" : la police recherche toujours un témoin-clé

Class Action Lawsuit Targets Walmart's "Straight Talk" Unlimited Data Plan For Throttling Users

This is slightly embarrassing, not something I would normally discuss in public. I used to hide my cell phone when I was among friends. I didn't want anyone to see it.

See, I used to use the cell phone service "straight talk". At the time I worked at Walmart and couldn't afford ATT or T-Mobil service. Like many under employed trans people I couldn't afford Internet at home so the "Unlimited" plan seemed just what I needed.

Except my phone wouldn't open up links a few days after I re-up'd. (bought another $45 service card). Being ignorant I always assumed it was just a lousy phone/service but as it turns out the "Unlimited" plan wasn't unlimited at all. In fact it was another Walmart screw job.

Source ABC News :

A class action suit filed last week in U.S. District Court for Northern California claims that consumers who buy Straight Talk cell phone plans aren't getting straight talk: The plans, advertised as providing "unlimited" data use, in fact have limitations, the suit claims.

The complaint against Walmart Stores and TracFone Wireless, which jointly created Straight Talk in 2009, says that the advertising claim is false, and that customers are routinely subject to having their flows of data "throttled" (slowed) or to having their access to data terminated without notice.

Throttling takes place, according to the complaint, when subscribers near or exceed "internally established, but undisclosed" data usage limits, or when the strain imposed on wireless networks by peak data usage requires easing.

The complaint says customers who objected to being "throttled" were blamed by TracFone service reps for having misused the data service, without being told how they had allegedly misused it.

As an example, the suit cites Northern California wireless customer Edward Tooley, who switched to Straight Talk's unlimited plan from a competitor's plan that expressly limited him to 2.5GB of high speed data, above which ceiling his data would be throttled.

Well, now I use Metro PCS (which is still slightly embarrassing siting amongst my S4 phone friends) but at least they let you know you have a throttle down point, but since I have WiFi at my house it really doesn't affect me.

But I'd really like to get in on this class action suit.

Some activists condemn and Some ignore the fact that the NSW Marriage Equality bill explicitly excludes Trans and intersex people

NSW Australia: Just days after a legislative inquiry indicated individual states had the right to legislate marriage equality New South Wales  introduced a bill to do just that, for cisgender couples.

The main problem it seems is the law will inevitably face a constitutional challenge. Some believe that's just a transphobic excuse.

ABC reports that The committee's chairman, Nationals MP Niall Blair, says none of the constitutional law experts the inquiry heard from could give a solid guarantee that state-based laws would hold up in court.

"The drafting and some of the items in that legislation would ultimately have the final bearing on whether that would survive a constitutional challenge, should it actually be determined that it is in conflict with the marriage act," he said.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald "The bill makes it clear it is about the marriage of same-sex couples only. Trans-sex marriages are not allowed, and churches are explicitly exempted."

A pre-operative trans person cannot marry a person whose sex is the same as theirs (which, legally, is usually the old sex on the pre-operative trans persons birth certificate), despite being of opposite gender although getting a passport corrected to indicate female, male or "X" is no problem.

The latest statement by  NSW Marriage Equality doesn't mention trans exclusion but the Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH) issued a statement Friday that condemns the marginalisation of trans* and intersex people in the proposed marriage 'equality bill' for NSW:

CAAH Co-Convenor Cat Rose "The Liberal Party have never gone near marriage equality with a barge pole in the past. The only reason such a homophobic party has shifted has been because of the mass campaign that we've prosecuted. 

Rose continued, "But the exemption trans* and intersex people's rights shows they haven't shifted nearly far enough. Our campaign has been for full equality for everyone, we don't settle for concessions and we won't stand for this transphobia and the invisibilising of Intersex people."

"Using the spectre of constitutional challenge is a smoke screen for bigotry, we've seen in other states that the power is there to pass more inclusive bills if they wanted to test it. Either way our fight will have to continue for genuine marriage equality to be recognised by the federal government." said Rose

Norrie, a resident of NSW recently had hir application to have hir gender listed as not specified by the Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages upheld by the NSW Supreme Court. Under the laws Norrie and anyone else who adopts 'not specified' gender neutral documentation will not be allowed to get married