Gender Queer Protest the APA May 18 at the Moscone Center

Protest the APA and Gender Identity Disorder!

START DATE: Monday May 18TIME: 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM

Location Details:At the corner of 4th and Howard Street in front of the Moscone Center.Event Type: Protest

Contact Name: Danielle AskiniEmail Address: danielle [at] gidreformnow.com

Address: 1550 Bryant Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

Protesters call for Reform of Gender Disorders at American PsychiatricAssociation Convention

What: A coalition of transgender community advocates and mental healthproviders will gather in San Francisco May 18 to protest how theAmerican Psychiatric Association (APA) is handling revisions to“gender identity disorder” and related diagnoses in their fifthedition of the ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders’(DSM-V).

When: Monday May 18th Protest starts at 6:00pm,Where: At the corner of 4th and Howard Street, San Francisco –Outsidethe Moscone Center

Who: A coalition of medical and therapeutic professionals,gender-variant, transgender people, community members, and alliesworking under the name GIDreformNOW who have grave concerns about thecurrent diagnostic classification and lack of disclosure by the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group about plans for the DSM-V.

Key leaders and advocates for Transgender civil rights will be presentto speak, they include Julia Serano, PhD; Madeline Deutsch, MD; MasenDavis, MSW; Kelley Winters, PhD; Danielle Askini, MSW; Mara Keisling;Andrea James, MA; Lore Dickey, PhD; Michele Angello, PhD; and RebeccaAllison, MD.All are welcome to attend!

http://www.gidreformnow.com/© 2000–2009 San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media

Center. http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/05/15/18595137.php

Resolution by IFGE BOD to APA

Resolution by the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) Board of Directors to the American Psychiatric Association (APA)

Whereas people are naturally endowed with a wide diversity of gender expression, identities, and sexual orientations;

Whereas, the distress felt by gender non-conforming people is fundamentally due to social prejudice and heterosexism, and is not a characteristic of their identities;
Whereas diagnosis of psychological disorders has been used as a form of social control;

Whereas, the inclusion of normal variations of behavior as diagnostic criteria has been widely used to justify discrimination against gender non-conforming people by individuals, governments, and corporations; and has resulted in material harm to people;

Whereas, the principle responsibility of medicine is to "Do No Harm;"

Therefore, be it resolved that we find the American Psychiatric Association to have a responsibility to ameliorate this harm, and hereby call for the following remedies:

(1) We hereby call on the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association to issue a declaration stating that: Gender variance, and gender non-conforming behavior do not constitute a psychological disorder;

(2) We hereby call on the American Psychiatric Association to remove the diagnosis of so- called "Transvestic Fetishism," which explicitly pathologizes gender non-conforming behavior, from their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual;

(3) We hereby call for the reform of any diagnosis that can be made solely based on gender non-conforming behavior, specifically including “Gender Identity Disorder in Children.”

Resolved this day May 15, 2009 by the Board of Directors of
The International Foundation for Gender Education

Facebook IFGE: the International Foundation for Gender Education.

http://www.ifge.org/

APA

Rally In The Castro, May 17th : IRAQ STOP KILLING GAYS

San Francisco LGBT Community Rallies for LGBT Iraqis: Leaders Want End to Torture and Murder

(San Francisco, CA) – A broad united coalition of human rights advocates and politicians will hold a spirited rally this Sunday, May 17, in solidarity with the LGBT citizens of Iraq, who face surging violence and killings. Since 2004, hundreds of gay men have been killed or executed in Iraq. LGBT people in Iraq are targeted by clerics reviving religious pressure against gays leading to killings and by militias seeking rally their bases. Recent reports out of Baghdad document the gruesome gluing of anuses of gay men, who are forced to swallow laxatives, leading to death by diarrhea, come amid continuing genital mutilation.

Responding to the atrocities, San Francisco LGBT community holds a demonstration to support the LGBT Iraqis.

WHERE: Harvey Milk Plaza, Castro and Market Streets
DATE: Sunday, May 17
TIME: 12:30 – 1:30 PM

Speakers: Sen. Mark Leno, Supervisor Bevan Dufty, SF Police Commission Pres,ident Theresa Sparks, Karen Kai of Rainbow World Fund, Rev. Lea Brown of the Metropolitan Community Church, Rev. Tommy Dillon of St. Aidan's Episcopal Church, Debra Walker of the Harvey Milk Democratic Club, political artist Clinton Fein, and community organizers Michael Petrelis and Gary Virginia of Gays Without Borders.

Rainbow World Fund, the LGBT international humanitarian relief charity, is serving as the fiscal sponsor, and donations made through it are tax-deductible. Donations will be used to provide direct aid to the Iraqi LGBT community.

Facebook rainbowfund.org



Please share this email with your friends and post on social network sites!

Gay Russians Arrested | Boycott Eurovision

40 Arrested as Moscow Anti-Riot Police Use Violence to Break up Slavic Pride March Pride Organisers Call on Performers to Boycott Eurovision.


The Moscow mayor has banned LGBT gatherings and enforced this order with violent arrests of gay pride organizers and participants. The only hope for our GLBT brothers and sisters is a international outcry that the Russian politicians can not ignore.

CNN Arrests at Moscow gay parade ahead of Eurovision Song Contest

Gay Russia.ru Russian Gay Activists Unveil Plans for Their Slavic Pride on Eurovision Day

Call the Russian Embassy 1-202-298-5700, 5701, 5704

Contact your legislators

Lady Boys of Bangkok Show Prompts UK Cisgender Woman to Demand "Womanhood Badges"

Apparently the female staff of the venue "Hippodrome" in Yarmouth England have taken exception to the gender diverse performers of a Thai cabaret show.









To ensure no one confuses them from the performers they have demanded to be allowed to wear tee shirts and badges with the inscription "100% Woman" loudly proclaiming their cisgender womanhood.

I am wondering, should all gender diverse worldwide be made to wear a badge? Pehaps a pink triangle?



Source : EADT24 .Badges to sort women from ladyboys

By Kelli Busey Badges? We don't need no stinkin badges!
May 15, 2009
planetransgender

National Religious Campaign Against Torture | White House Witness June 11 2009

Source : NRCAT

We have some exciting news. NRCAT is organizing a major religious public witness at the White House at Noon on Thursday, June 11 to help launch Torture Awareness Month and bring a strong message to the President about the need for a Commission of Inquiry.

There are already five heads of faith groups and other senior religious leaders who have agreed to join us at the White House on June 11.

They are the Rev. Dr. John Thomas (General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ), Archbishop Vicken Aykazian (Armenian Church in America), Rabbi Steve Gutow (Executive Director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs), Dr. Ingrid Mattson (President of the Islamic Society of North America), and the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon (General Secretary of the National Council of Churches). These leaders are helping us to reach out to other senior religious leaders.We are also actively recruiting heads of regional religious bodies (e.g. diocesan bishops and directors of regional Jewish councils) to stand with us on June 11. And the best news is that we have received grant funding to help cover travel costs for these senior regional leaders.

Many of the details remain to be decided (check this webpage for updated info and resources), but we want to get this initial announcement to you right away so that you can build it into your local action plans for Torture Awareness Month.

We need your help to make this a powerful event with the potential to change the course of the debate on investigating U.S.-sponsored torture.

Now is the time.

NRCAT is the sole sponsor of this event so that we have full control of the tone and message to ensure that it is an explicitly religious event with religious ritual and a high degree of gravitas. We hope to have 1000 people of faith, including large numbers of clergy in clerical garb, joining these senior leaders at the White House.

What you can do:

Encourage your regional faith group leaders (e.g., "bishop-level" clergy or a rabbi who serves as director of a regional Jewish council) to travel to DC to participate in this event. Please contact us with information about regional religious leaders who may want to participate in this witness.
Encourage local clergy and people of faith to consider traveling to DC to participate in this witness. Download and copy this flier to help promote the event.

Use this event as a focal point/reference for your local organizing in June by connecting your local activities and media outreach to this national event. For example, consider organizing a local religious witness on June 11, and be sure to inform Members of Congress that any meetings you have with them during the last week of June, to talk about accountability and the Commission of Inquiry, is part of a national effort that includes this witness at the White House.
We look forward to working with you to make this a powerful part of our overall June witness.

Don't forget to order your copy of the 18-minute DVD study resource "Ending U.S.-sponsored Torture Forever." And tell us about your plans for June by completing this brief survey.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Linda Gustitus, President

Rev. Richard L. Killmer, Executive Director