Uganda's president signed anti LGBT bill into law

(CNN) -- Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed into law Monday a bill that criminalizes homosexuality.
He had gone back and forth about the controversial bill.
Last month, Museveni said he wouldn't sign the bill, describing homosexuals as "sick" people who needed help, not imprisonment. Then he backtracked this month and said he'd sign it because scientists had determined that there's no gene for homosexuality and that it's merely abnormal behavior.
Then, last week, he said he would seek advice from American scientists before he made any decision.

Post by Cleve Jones.

Minister's proposal would allow Irish transgender people legal gender recognition at 16

Transgender people will be allowed to apply for legal recognition of their acquired gender from the earlier age of 16, under proposals Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton will bring to Government today.

Last summer Ms Burton published the draft heads of the Gender Recognition Bill which will allow transgender people to have their status recognised by the State for all purposes – including the right to marry or enter a civil partnership in the acquired gender.

After the issuing of a gender recognition certificate by the Department of Social Protection, the transgender person will be able to apply for a new birth certificate that recognises his or her acquired gender.

The person has also right to have a birth certificate that recognises his or her acquired gender. This will be done through the issuing of a gender recognition certificate by the Department of Social Protection. The transgender person will then be able to apply for a new birth certificate. However, the original draft legislation recognised those rights for people over the age of 18. Source: Irish Times

Why does Gender Recognition Legislation matter?

Trans people cannot legally change the gender on their birth certificate under any circumstance. Birth certificates are a foundational identity document and are often requested for official purposes (such as accessing social welfare, attaining a PPS number and getting married). While Ireland does, in certain cases, allow for changing gender on documents like passports and driving licences, this results in trans people having inconsistent official identification documentation. That is, a person may be recognised as one gender on certain documents and another gender on their birth certificate. The result of this can be a ‘forced outing’, where a trans person is outed as trans against their will when they apply for a job, a new passport or entry to college. Forced outing can result in harassment, discrimination and even violence.

The lack of legal recognition for trans people has also been deemed a clear human rights abuse. Presently, Ireland is the last country in the European Union that does not allow for legal recognition of trans people, despite a High Court ruling that this is incompatible with Ireland’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. In 2009, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg stated, “There is no excuse for not immediately granting [the transgender] community their full and unconditional human rights”. source: Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) 

Barneys New York Brothers, Sisters, Sons, & Daughters: The Film

This one is for you Candy Darling.

Arin Andrews, Edie Charles, Valentijn de Hingh, Ashley de la Cruz, Sawyer Devuyst, Peche Di, Dezjorn Gauthier, Trevon Haynes, Katie Hill, Eve Lindley, Niki M’nray, Ryley Pogensky, Ines Rau, May Simon, Ahya Taylor, Maxie Neu, and Gisele Xtravaganza.

These seventeen extraordinary men and women, transgender individuals with diverse experiences and unique personal stories, are the faces of Barneys New York’s Spring 2014 campaign: Brothers, Sisters, Sons & Daughters, which launches today exclusively on The Window.



Directed by Bruce Weber, Brothers, Sisters, Sons, & Daughters takes a closer look at the lives of seventeen transgender individuals and allows them to tell their stories in their own words.

Even on her death bed Candy Darling was the star
She lives on today in the hearts of all who knew her..

Transgender Purple heart recipient abused by Houston VA hospital

Born intersex and raised as a male Charlene Lauderdale found herself identifing more as a female later in life.

@BarackObama...end transgender discrimination... I served in the US Air Force in Desert Storm...now I am denied medical care at the VA

— Charlene Lauderdale (@CrTexLady1960) November 13, 2012

Monica, AZ Transgender woman takes a stand against the religious discrimination law

Monica's mother told her about her involvement in the civil rights movement of her time, but she never dreamed she would have to do it all over again.

Monica is experiencing much the same discrimination her mother did with the Arizona legislature's passing of a bill which allows anyone to discriminate if they claim they are doing it for religious reasons.

The second video is of Arizona's Governor Jan Brewer says she will decide by next Friday whether or not to sign the bill.

I'll be at the White House next week reporting for the Transadvocate, a newly designated news site

I will be at the White House next weekend and not outside looking in but inside it with the rest of the LGBT bloggers, who will be attending the 5th Annual LGBT Media Journalists Convening.. Having attended my first one last year I'll tell you, except the unexpected, every second.

But this year is extra special. I will be visiting the president's house as a reporter for the transadvocate, formally a blog, but now a newly designated news site. So we will be heard loud and clear, above the din, with the rest of the world's news agencies.

So will I meet with the president? That's unknown, but probably not. However, in case I do I'd like to forward your questions and comments to him. And if enough people respond here it's possible Mr. Obama's peeps might take notice. And if they do they might even ask him to speak with us, as long as we are in his house and all.

So what's up? Is this possible or just hype? Expect the unexpected.

What would you say to the president of the United States?

I'll be at @BarackObama's house next weekend with the #LGBTMedia14 What would you ask him? http://t.co/8QgGZa3nPK @mitchellreports #Trans
— planetransgender (@kellibusey) February 22, 2014