American Bar Association calls on courts and legislatures to end the "Transpanic" Defense

I thought the despised "transpanic" defense met its end with the brutal murder of Angie Zapata when it took the jury just hours in 2009 to convict Allen Andrade of the highest charges against him, first degree murder. Andrade unsuccessfully attempted to use the transpanic defense saying his actions were uncontrollable when he was surprised by Ms Zapata's transgender status after having sex with her as an excuse for acquittal or to mitigate his punishment.

Apparently lawyers have souls too.


Source: ABA Now.org

113A

ADOPTED AS REVISED

Urges action to curtail use of the “gay panic” defense

RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges federal, state, local and territorial governments to take legislative action to curtail the availability and effectiveness of the “gay panic” and “trans panic” defenses, which seek to partially or completely excuse crimes such as murder and assault on the grounds that the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity is to blame for the defendant’s violent reaction.  Such legislative action should include:

(a)    Requiring courts in any criminal trial or proceeding, upon the request of a party, to instruct the jury not to let bias, sympathy, prejudice, or public opinion influence its decision about the victims, witnesses, or defendants based upon sexual orientation or gender identity; and

(b)   Specifying that neither a non-violent sexual advance, nor the discovery of a person’s sex or gender identity, constitutes legally adequate provocation to mitigate the crime of murder to manslaughter, or to mitigate the severity of any non-capital crime.

Proposed Resolution and Report 

Resolution 

Victory In California! Governor Jerry Brown Signs AB 1266 Empowering Transgender Students

Today marks the beginning of a new era for transgender equality. AB1266 is now law.

 What this means: As our next generation of citizens matures they will have first hand knowledge and respect for their transgender peers and vice versa.

What this doesn't mean:  AP, Fox and ABC's first paragraph states that California transgender students can now use 'whatever restroom they want".

Being that this extension of the bathroom meme is repeated by all of the major media outlets in this way, at this time, lends to the impression that it is fact, and could lead one to assume that a trans student could sit down and make a decision which gender they want to be, on that day.

Setting the record straight. Its not a spurious, frivolous or an apocryphal decision which guides trans students to the correct restroom. In fact, it's not a decision at all. It is the universal innate knowledge of ones gender. There are always factors which could preclude a young person from from transitioning, but that does not alter ones gender awareness.

"I'm a Girl" The last words by Jamaican 16yo Dwayne Jones before her 2hr beating death began

Truly heartbreaking to die alone, rejected by family, homeless, tortured for hours for expressing ones true gender, but that's how Dwayne's life ended after being outed at a dance. Heartbreaking that not one of the 300 people at that dance would be caring enough to identify her attackers.

There has been controversy in the social sphere if Dwayne was transgender. If I knew I was about to be beaten for my gender expression on that Montego morning my last words as a trans woman would have been the same as hers ergo I use female pronouns in reference to Dwayne.

Source AP:

Dwayne Jones was relentlessly teased in high school for being effeminate until he dropped out. His father not only kicked him out of the house at the age of 14 but also helped jeering neighbors push the youngster from the rough Jamaican slum where he grew up.

By age 16, the teenager was dead — beaten, stabbed, shot and run over by a car when he showed up at a street party dressed as a woman. His mistake: confiding to a friend that he was attending a "straight" party as a girl for the first time in his life.

"When I saw Dwayne's body, I started shaking and crying," said Khloe, one of three transgendered friends who shared a derelict house with the teenager in the hills above the north coast city of Montego Bay. Like many transgenders and gays in Jamaica, Khloe wouldn't give a full name out of fear.

Caribbean-based reporter and editor David McFadden who authored the AP article lives in Jamaica has first hand knowledge of the transphobic and homophobic atmosphere and was allowed interviews with Dwayne's housemates who miss her dearly.

Dwayne was the center of attraction shortly after arriving in a taxi at 2 a.m. with his two 23-year-old housemates, Khloe and Keke. Dwayne's expert dance moves, long legs and high cheekbones quickly made him the one that the guys were trying to get next to.

Dwayne had been very careful not to tell anyone about attending this dance in her authentic gender. No one knew except a girl from her church who she confided in who in turn outed her.

Minutes later, according to Khloe and Keke, the girl's male friends gathered around Dwayne in the dimly-lit street asking: "Are you a woman or a man?" One man waved a lighter's flame near Dwayne's sneakers, asking whether a girl could have such big feet.

 Then, his friends said, another man grabbed a lantern from an outdoor bar and walked over to Dwayne, shining the bright light over him from head to toe. "It's a man," he concluded, while the others hissed "batty boy" and other anti-gay epithets.

Khloe says she tried to steer him away from the crowd, whispering in Dwayne's ear: "Walk with me, walk with me." But Dwayne pulled away, loudly insisting to partygoers that he was a girl. When someone behind him snapped his bra strap, the teen panicked and raced down the street.

But he couldn't run fast enough to escape the mob.

The teenager was viciously assaulted and apparently half-conscious for some two hours before another sustained attack finished him off, according to Khloe, who was also beaten and nearly raped. She hid in a nearby church and then the surrounding woods, unable to call for help because she didn't have her cellphone.

Dwayne's father in the Montego Bay slum of North Gully didn't want to talk about his son's life or death. The teen's family wouldn't even claim the body, according to Dwayne's friends.

"I'll be cooking in the kitchen and I'll say, 'Dwayne, you hungry?' or something like that," said Keke while sitting on the old mattress in her bedroom, flinching as neighborhood dogs barked outside. "We just miss him all the time. Sometimes I think I see him."

Dwayne's room is empty except for pink window curtains decorated with roses, his favorite flower.

R.I.P Dwayne. Your LGBT community will hold you dear and will give you your final resting place in our hearts.

US and UK Leaders Reject Call to Boycott Sochi while thousands protest in solidarity with LGBT Russians. #NoPussiesNoGames

Stephen Fry ‏@stephenfry27m

With @PeterTatchell this afternoon pic.twitter.com/NPwUVqpsuS

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It should come as no surprise that both President Obama and now David Cameron, British Prime Minister, have let it be known that while they sympathise with the unrelenting brutal persecution of Russia's LGBT community they are against a boycott of the Russian winter Olympics.

1. David Cameron ‏@David_Cameron17h

   2/2 @stephenfry However, I believe we can better challenge prejudice as we attend, rather than boycotting the Winter Olympics. DC

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2. 1. David Cameron ‏@David_Cameron17h

      1/2 Thank you for your note @stephenfry. I share your deep concern about the abuse of gay people in Russia...

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      2:33 AM - 10 Aug 13 · Details

While it is gratifying that our united efforts have gained these leaders ears it is clearly not enough to have any real meaning in Russia dominated by Putin.

Just days after one bureaucrat said the "gay propaganda" law would be suspended for the Olympics so it would be "safe" for LGBT athletes and visitors Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko  insisted that athletes would "have to respect the laws of the country"  at Sochi meaning the "Gay Propaganda law could be subjectively enforced.

That is exactly why "No Pussies No Games" is petitioning the worlds peoples. We support both a worldwide boycott AND protests at the Sochi Olympics. Politicians more concerned with the number of medals athletes win, not human rights. The Olympic committee is more concerned with the high fees it receives than human rights.

No Pussies No Games: Boycott / Demonstrate at The Russian Winter Olympics

Victory In Taiwan: MTF Trans Couple Abbygail and Jiyi Wu's Marriage is reinstated

In a historic reversal the Taiwanese government has reversed a earlier ruling invalidating this transgender couple's marriage.

The Sun Daily reports: in what was hailed as a "benchmark" ruling, Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior on Wednesday decided that the marriage status of Abbygail Wu, 27, and her 29-year-old partner Jiyi Wu remained legal.

Abbygail graciously gave planetransgender a interview while the couples fate was still unknown. It was her suggestion that the article be titled Can The Taiwanese Gov't Revoke A Marriage With A Letter? It was a wonderful experience for me to learn first hand from these two young people what love means to them and a joy to be in some small way a contributor to what the WSJ described as a important component to this victory.

Abbygail and Jiyi Wu's struggle to love has transcended national boundaries lending their humanity to the realization that trans people worldwide belong together in one community.

While some see this as a leap forward for marriage equality not everyone is so optimistic according to the WSJ

Taiwan’s LGBT rights groups caution that the case does not signal that conservative Taiwan is ready to rewrite its marriage law yet.

“Protection of marriage and the right to marry is part of basic human rights, which means the decision was delayed justice but nothing groundbreaking,” said Chien Chih-chieh, the secretary-general of Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights.

The case, in fact, shows the government is still unwilling to budge from the current regulation that states a marriage can take place only between a man and a woman, she said.

The only silver lining, she said, is that the public and the government seem more willing to discuss the issue, which gives the group hope that a bill on recognizing same-sex marriages they plan to pitch to the legislature in September may meet less resistance.

人一出生，就被賦予性別是男生或女生，但是有一群人，他們無法認同自己的生理性別，長­期不安、痛苦，甚至去做變性手術，這個族群叫作「跨性別者」！接下來，我們要帶您來看­台灣，一對非常特別的「跨性別」伴侶、Abby和小芷的故事！Abby和小芷，兩個人­原本生理上是男生，成年以後，他們都進行了變性手術，就在Abby變更身分證為女性之­後，他們到戶政機關完成結婚登記。當時，身分證件註明，兩個人是一男一女，在法律上沒­有問題。但後來、戶政機關發現，原本登記為男性的小芷，身分證也由男變女！這下子問題­來了，兩個變性人、身分證都成了女性、他們的婚姻還算合法嗎？一場全球罕見的跨性別者­「婚姻保衛戰」，在台灣正式開打！

Men are born, were given gender was male or female, but a group of people, they were unable to identify with their physiological sex, long ­ unease, pain, even for the sex change operation, the group called the "transgender"! Next, we'll take you to see – Taiwan, a very special "cross-gender" companion, Abby He Xiaozhi story! Abby He Xiaozhi, two people ­ was physically to be boys, as adults, they have carried out that operation, after Abby change ­ of identity cards for women, they went to the population administration organ complete marriage registration. At that time, the identity documents indicated, two persons were a man and a woman, no ­ on legal issues. But then, the population administration organs found was originally registered as a male small Zhi, identity card by the MTF! Grabbed the issue ­ came, two transgender people, identity card were all women, their marriage is legal? Rare transgender ­ a global "battle for marriage", in Taiwan officially started!

Peruvian nightclub Gotica Discoteca fined $123,302 and shutdown for discriminating against a transgender woman

Peru nightclub Gotica Discoteca was fined S/370,000 for denying Godfrey Arbulú entrance and later trying to charge her a higher cover than normal. All of this was caught on video and audio which Ms Arbulú successfully used in social media, radio talk shows and Television in a bid to get the government to protect her human rights.

Panamericana Televisión S.A. "Indecopi multó a la discoteca Gótica con 370,000 soles por discriminar a Godfrey Arbulú por su orientación sexual. Además, la empresa deberá emitir una carta pidiendo disculpas por el trato discriminatorio y tendrá que publicar por seis meses un aviso en su página web al igual que un letrero en el local donde indique que ahí se prohíbe toda práctica discriminatoria."

Gotica Discoteca is contesting the ruling has this sign posted above its shuttered doors stating “Gotica Entertainment S.A. informs the public that all discriminatory practices to consumers for any reason, including unjustified distinctions by origin, race, sex, language, religion, opinion, economic status, sexual preference or any other reason are prohibited.”



Read more at Peru this week.com

Russian Sports Minister tells Obama, LGBT and other human rights advocates to "Just Calm Down"

AP: Urging critics of Russia's new anti-gay law to "calm down," the country's sports minister said Thursday that the rights of all athletes competing at next year's Winter Olympics in Sochi will be respected.

Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko did insist that athletes would "have to respect the laws of the country" during the Feb. 7-23 games in the Black Sea resort in southern Russia.

The law, signed by President Vladimir Putin in June, bans "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" and imposes fines on those holding gay pride rallies.

Mutko said the issue had been blown out of proportion by a groundswell of protest and unease outside Russia.

"I want to ask you to calm down," he said."

36 Pictures of Russian police, orthodox thugs and generic scum "calming down" LGBT people.

Essentially, anyone willing to forgo common human dignity supported by the vast majority of the world are welcome. All others, gays, Lesbians, Transsexuals, Bisexuals, Gender Queer, Intersex, followers of religions other than the Orthodox church, atheists, anyone not belonging to the United Russia political party and migrant workers, shut up, calm down and maybe you won't get you head caved in.

Obama cancelled a summit with Putin in part because of Russia's anti LGBT laws making Obama the first world leader not 'calming down'.



Recently the new civil rights movement wrote about the quandry the IOC faces regarding the human rights records of host countries.

IAAF president is calmed down.

"I don't have the feeling there is a problem whatsoever," IAAF President Lamine Diack said. "There is a law that exists. The law has to be respected. Some things have to be respected. We are here for the world championships."

Pussy Riot in prison for singing a protest song in a Orthodox church and they aren't calmed down. Nether am I. I am outraged and pissed off that any country should treat its minorities so horriably THEN have the adacity to tell those of us outside of its sphere of influance to JUST CALM DOWN.

Want to know what would start calming me down Mr. Mutko? If you freed Pussy Riot and recinded the 'gay propaganda laws and stopped encouraging to beat up my people. Then I would start to calm down,

Untill That happens we will have a Pussy Riot. 

International Olympic Committee Charter

Survival Tip For Trans Sex Workers: Kick Kick Kick, then Back Roll

Fascinating info from a former trans sex worker who now instructs others on how to survive in those seconds when a john suddenly becomes a murderer. These tips could save your life from WNCY news.
OK, lets say I'm giving you head.......

Don Ennis ABC News Icon time as Dawn ends. Oy Vey! oh shit. I've, done that too

"Purging".

Its found at the traumatic tip top of the roller coaster ride of transition when the car slows to a stop and shimmies,  and as our hearts skip a beat and we begin back to the bottom of this ride we call life. Uncontrollably, ever increasing to breakneck speeds we hurdle to the welcoming velvet of denial. Its the moment when some trans people suddenly come to the horrific realization someone we know, a brother, friend, or worst, an employer might have seen us while we made forays en femme.

Its a mindless trashing of every fem article we just spent mad money on. Its a purging of all thoughts of femininity. Its a temporary sense of relief, an incredible peace knowing there is nothing 'wronge' with us.... that gradually weeks and months later it becomes a heightening of feminine sense until one day we start to wonder if there wasn't something we did wrong presenting that garnered so many transphobic glares and snickers. Then its the slow gradual euphoric trip back on the roller coaster to the top of life.

Its knowing that we are trapped in a revolving door because no matter how hard we try to deny Dawn, or Tina or Samantha she still lives inside of our now hyper masculine presentations.

I write about purging as if I have first hand knowledge of it . That's because I did it a few thousand times in the earliest days of my transition. And I'm not ashamed of that, anymore. It doesn't lessen the authenticity of my being rather admitting to it reinforces me.

I'm not saying Don purged. I'm not saying that I don't take what he says about making a mistake at face value. I'm just saying...

Don, the major difference I can seen right now between your experience and mine was that no one knew me. No one.

To everyone who has or is experiencing what Don has, know this. There is nothing to be embarrassed about what you have gone through. And Don, there will be many disparaging articles written and to be frank, your credibility may have taken a hit but that's why I'm writing this article, because if the truth be known,  you will be even more respected now.

Like the Cosmopolitan article which tried to empower us but ultimately couldn't because the author had not experienced transition personally, purging is misunderstood by the cis community by no fault of there own. I hope that Sam reads this.

Trans people can now own "Purging", as it should be, thanks to you Don. Its part of our culture, our physiological makeup, our birth right. We can now come to terms with it publicly. For some of us its a beginning on our road less traveled, or possibly a exit from it, but there is no denying purging is at a intersection of transsexualism.

Then again, some trans people have never experienced a purge. *sigh.

What ever you do Don, live your life authentically.

Transgender actress Mimi Juareza wins best actor as Dorina in "Quick Change" at the Philippine Independent Film Festival.

Source Inquirer Entertainment:

MANILA, Philippines- The Best Actor wore a stunning violet gown. 

True to its maverick spirit, the 9th Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival gave the best actor trophy to a transgender, Mimi Juareza, for his acting debut in Eduardo Roy Jr.’s “Quick Change.”
Asked if he had wanted to win best actress instead, Juareza told the Inquirer: “Best actor, best actress … whatever, for as long as they show their appreciation for my work, I don’t mind.” The jury cited Juarez for “his bold take on a gender-bending role.”
Roy said that for a first-timer, Juareza was a “natural.”“Luckily, he was a good actor to begin with. We only had a two-day workshop before the shoot,” Roy told the Inquirer.

Read more at Inquirer Entertainment

The 9th Cinemalaya Film Festival Awards Night was held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) on August 4, 2013.



Quick Change trailer



SYNOPSIS: Dorina believes she is a lady incarcerated inside a male body. She's got herself a flourishing career, albeit in an illegal cosmetic surgery business. She is a mother figure to Hero. She acts as a devoted wife to Uno, Dorina feels that she is one lucky woman. Until his partner falls in love with another transgender.

Reviewed by Brun Philippines online:

Eduardo Roy Jr.’s “Quick Change” (Review): “The Unattainable Virgin”

Eduardo Roy Jr.’s “Quick Change” is one my favorite films in the festival.  The story is not an easy sell and moviegoers with an open mind may be the only ones to give this opus a second look.  Nevertheless, “Quick Change” is one of the must-see movies of the year. Many films have already tackled stories about transsexual individuals, but some films were more exploitative than revelatory. Roy’s “Quick Change” rises above the rest.  The movie tells the story of Dorina, a middle-aged transsexual living with a younger man and raising his young nephew. 

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What separates “Quick Change” from most gay-themed films is that it is not really about being a homosexual.  It is about living.  Dorina is flesh and blood.  He or she (whatever pronoun you may assign to Dorina) is a three-dimensional character solving personal and economic problems like most Filipinos.  Her conditions may be unique but the pain and complications in her life are not alien to most.  Dorina may not necessarily be the poster girl for the LGBT community but director Roy brings justice to Dorina’s humanity by making her a complex individual rather than a prototype.  Dorina, as a film protagonist, does more service to the community than non-threatening gay characters on television. In a way, by being flesh and blood, Dorina indirectly criticizes the community and the public at large.  You cannot really shove her in a convenient box with a label “immoral faggot.”

Read more at Braun Philippines online

Russian Officials Flip Again: Now say they WON'T beat up LGBT people at the Sochi Winter Olympics

Another turn around, yet another de facto acknowledgment by Russian officials regarding the immorality of the "Gay Propaganda Laws"

Originally, The Olympic committee (OIC) in a effort to stifle the worlds objection to sending there athletes in harms way at the 2014 Olympics claimed a unnamed Russian official  had given them assurances LGBT athletes would not be persecuted under the "Gay Propaganda Law". This was a optimal evasion by the OIC since it would have freed them of any moral obligation or claims of liability in the event the Russians didn't temporally suspend the law and beat people except.....

......that no sooner than that dog and pony show ended a cosponsor of the anti LGBT law, Vitaly Milonov, a Member of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, said "If a law has been approved by the federal legislature and signed by the president, then the government has no right to suspend it. It doesn't have the authority." So the hate fest was back on....

....and if left at that Russia probably would have faced an all out boycott something they were not prepared to do. There is a lot of money to be made and prestige and ego to satisfy.
So today another in a series of  abrupt about faces, 100Wapi reports that "Russia said on Sunday that athletes and guests attending next year’s Winter Olympics will not be subject to the country’s stringent new anti-gay law."

“The Olympic Games is a major international event. We need to be as polite and tolerant as possible. That is why a decision has been made not to raise this issue during the Olympics,” Igor Ananskikh, deputy chairman of the State Duma’s Physical Culture, Sport and Youth Policy Committee, told Interfax."

 “Russia plans to host large international competitions in the future. The atmosphere at them must be as safe and polite as possible,” he added.

"His comments came just a day after Russia’s sports minister warned that athletes and spectators would be accountable under the law."

Dear Mr. Igor Ananskikh what of the mobs, the bullies the orthodox 'christian' criminals who always show up whenever one or more LGBT person gather to beat them up? YOUR country not only encourages this violence but turns a blind eye when it happens. Mr. Igor Ananskikh your country needs to change those laws and start enforcing laws that protect all tour citizens now.

Russian officials assurances may seem creditable enough to allow corporations, the IOC and politicians to ignore the  brutal treatment of intellectuals, LGBT and opposition parties which will undoubtedly resume immediately following the "international competitions". So Putin will have his games.

EXCEPT Putin has not taken into account the worlds population which can see through his facade, his pretensions and faux humanity. That is why transaction Convergence sponsored the petition No Pussies No Games: Boycott / Demonstrate at The Russian Winter Olympics.

We're not petitioning politicians, corporations or the IOC. Its understood who they are, they don't care.

This is the voice of the people who you beat.

The voice of the people you brutally oppress.

This is the voice of the people calling out to one another to make a moral commitment to force Putin to lead Russia away from the path he has put her on. This will work regardless if athletes and attendees decide to boycott or demonstrate at Sochi because the reality is that many athletes and guests feel that there attendance is a more valuable form dissension.

And with this temporary suspension of a legally enacted Russian law by a bureaucrat for the temporary safety of LGBT visitors and artists, Putin has ONCE again shown how righteous any protest might be.

Balaclavas for everyone. Free Pussy Riot 

Sarah Baker's unofficial guide to transitioning for Life while in prison

Life Imprisonment An Unofficial Guide
£9.95 Waterside Press

By now everyone has read the sensationalistic mail online article "Violent inmate who tortured his step-mother's brother then boasted about freebies in prison is given £10,000 sex change on the NHS" about Sarah Baker, a transgender prisoner serving life for resisting a child rapist who was preying on her behind bars.

In all fairness the article does make a effort to properly inform but not before repeatably misgendering her despite acknowledging her desire to be called Sarah, positioning her medically mandated surgery as a frivolous unwarranted expense and calling her a "Violent violin playing thug". All of which has garnered Mail on line hundreds of shares comments as of this posting.

Can you say pandering to violence prone right wing thugs?

So lets for the sake of it, take a less condemning look at Sarah. She was originally jailed at age 19 after spending her youth incarcerated in juvenile detention centers. It's not all Rosy. She escaped open prison in 2007, spent 100 days on the lamb and fathered a child with a former pen pal during that time.

The daily mail makes a point to mention Baker said prison was agreeable to her in a 2009 Telegraph article. This sort of bravado in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversity is the same thing that I, like many other trans people displayed when we used hyper masculinity to mask our true selves while serving in the military.

For a inside look I read another article about Sarah's current Pen pal. It was published today sans the sensationalistic headlines and unsurprisingly has receive few shares or comments as of this posting.

"Mrs Stockwell, 74, started writing to Baker when she was volunteering with probation more than 20 years ago and now feels like she is "a second son". She feels that she is a new person and deserves chance." Mrs Stockwell helped Sarah publish her first book and is helping with the next one and feels she is a changed person who deserves a chance.

So who is Sarah, a undeserving inhuman thug as the Mail online would have us to believe?  This Is Croydon today.co.uk shows us her human side in a interview let her speak about the conditions she is facing now:

Social skills are not taught. If you're chucked out at 40 with barely anything in your pocket, how are you going to survive?
"The thought of being released terrifies me and I would find it easier to be left here.
"At least we know what to expect here – what will I do, die alone in a bedsit?
"However, 25 years is enough. I have hurt people but I want to do something positive." 

The violin player added: "The London Chamber Orchestra have said I can work for them if I am released."
Her next opportunity to appear before a panel will be in October this year

Two Brazilian Trans woman Murdered in Two Days

TransMusePlanet reported that transgender woman Vougue Savannah, 30 was shot and died July 28th. It was later learned that the shots were not for Savannah but for a friend, India, purportedly becuse of a money dispute. According to a post on transfofa  Anchieta Bridges, of the 4th Police District, said José da Silva, 37, was arrested and charged with attempted murder and injury followed by death.

On the 31 another Brazilian trans woman was murdered. In this instance her authentic name was not used by the press.

Ms. Tavares, 21, was found dead with six bullet wounds in her butocks on a plot in the Baixada Fluminense near Rio. 
Ms. Tavares' murder is being investigated as a hate crime.

The head of the station of Niagara Falls (65th SD), Robson da Costa Ferreira da Silva, heard three witnesses and did not rule out that the crime may have been motivated by revenge or homophobia.

According to relatives of the victim, Ms. Tavares had no enemies and her gender has always been respected by family and friends.

Fa'afafine: An antinomy of gender roles not understood outside of Samoa

Shared by Trans Health Australia on planetransgender's facebook page a revealing look at what it means to be a Fa'afafine in Samoa.

There are up to 3000 Fa'afafine – men raised as girls – currently living in Samoa. The Feed's Patrick Abboud investigates this complex and often misunderstood cultural phenomenon.

While it is not widely known in Australia, there is a third gender of people who make up an important and accepted part of Samoan culture.

Samoan Fa'afafine – or “Fafa” – are men who are raised as females and identify with that gender.

They mostly have relationships with heterosexual men and are generally not gay.

In Samoa, gender identity is largely based on a person’s role in the family and if one family has numerous sons and no daughters, it's not uncommon to raise one of the boys as a girl.

 

Phineas Hartson 2 weeks ago

As one of the "Fa'afafine" I was not raised to be Fa'afafine I just WAS and simply left to be ME. My family did try to direct me towards more masculine pursuits but never forced me to be anything other than myself. They definately never pushed me to be more feminine or female. Defining "Fa'afafine" is neither black or white, which is the whole point. I'm greatfull that Leo, Ymania and I were able to share our stories and that to be truly happy you must standup and be true to yourself.

Published on Jul 16, 2013

Not really a boy, not really a girl, not traditionally 'trans' of any kind. Somewhere between all those identities exists a third gender. We're talking about the Samoan Fa'afafine or 'Fafa'.

Fafa have the body of a man but identify as female. They have relationships with heterosexual men mostly and are generally not gay.

Confusing?

Well not for the Samoan community - it's part and parcel of their culture. Gender identity for Samoans is about the role you play in the family not so much which anatomical bits you have. So when you've got 7 or 8 sons - no girls in the family, it's quite the norm to simply raise one of your boys as a girl.

The Feed airs weeknights at 19:30 on SBS 2. You can also follow us on Twitter at @TheFeedSBS2, or 'LIKE' us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SBS2Australia) to stay in the loop

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