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

Biolife rejects transgender woman plasma identifying her as male assuming promiscuity

Western Washington University alumni Briana Reynolds donated plasma four years prior to beginning transition at Biolife without a hitch. She said that Biolife never asked her about her sexual orientation. However, after she began the transition to female, Biolife continued to identify her as male and assumed she was having unsafe sex with men and would not allow her to donate.

Not only was Reynolds self esteem damaged she also lost an important source of income.

Although Reynolds filled out a form at BioLife stating she has never engaged in male-to-male sex and sexual orientation was never brought up during her meeting with the nurse, homosexual behavior was the reason given to explain why Reynolds was ineligible to donate, she said. 

“I don’t know how to describe how it made me feel,” Reynolds said. “It’s judging me and making assumptions about me simply based on the way I dress.”
Even though Reynolds is a virgin and has never engaged in any type of sexual encounters, the nurse wouldn't budge on the issue, Reynolds said. 

“I don’t dress like a woman when I go out. I wear women’s clothing because I am a woman.” Reynolds told Western University's student newspaper.

The Biolife eligibility criteria makes no mention of transgender status in determining eligibility. It states that a potential donor's "medical history interview consists of a series of questions about their past and present health history, including questions regarding possible exposure to certain infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis."

Recently in 2013 a transgender woman sued a Plasma collection company.  “You people can't give plasma,” Lisa A. Scott allegedly was told by a CSL Plasma nurse, according to her suit filed in 2013 at the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.

I spoke with "Bridget" at CSL Plasma Fort Worth, who told me that I could not donate plasma because I am transgender. Bridget would not give me her job title, last name or reason for denial other than my transsexuality. Keep it classy Bridget.

Although the FDA has been aware of the need to study transgender people independently from gay men since 2009, there has been no such initiative undertaken.

AABB/FDA Liaison Meeting – 5/29/09

The current guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is to indefinitely defer any male donor who has had sex with another man, in the period from 1977 to the present day.

Female sexual partners of MSM are deferred for one year since the last exposure. This is the same policy used for any sexual partner of someone in a high risk group. The argument used to follow these policies is that blood should be collected from a population that is at low risk for disease, since the tests are not perfect and human error may lead to infected units not being properly discarded, and these population groups would be considered a high risk. The policy was first put in place in 1985


Source CDC "Under existing guidelines, FDA bans any male who has had sexual contact at least one time with another male since 1977 from donating blood during his lifetime. The American Association of Blood Banks (AABB), American Red Cross, America's Blood Centers, and several major U.S. cities have called for changes to the lifetime ban. HHS is currently revisiting the policy."



In June of 2010, HHS brought together an independent panel of experts. The Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability reviewed the policy and decided to keep it and concluded the ban was "suboptimal," because it allows high-risk individuals to donate while keeping low-risk donors out. However, the expert committee also concluded "available scientific data are inadequate to support change to a specific alternate policy." The panel suggested the policy not be changed and recommended further evaluation.