Gender and Sexuality
Dykes Rally and March in Santa Cruz without Sponsors or Permits
Submitted by pirate on Mon, 06/23/2008 - 08:44.
Santa Cruz Indymedia June 22, 2008
The 16th annual Santa Cruz Dyke March took place on May 31st to increase lesbian visibility and activism. The gathering, unsponsored and unpermitted, began at the clock tower and featured local poets and musicians. After a three and a half hour rally, queers from near and far, and allies, marched down Front St. to Laurel St. and then up Pacific Ave. while spectators lined the sidewalks. read more »
Calif prepares for busy week of same-sex marriages
Submitted by pirate on Sat, 06/14/2008 - 21:23.
By AMANDA FEHD, Associated Press Jun 14, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO - City worker Eileen Shields usually spends her days answering questions about West Nile Virus, bed bugs and other health concerns, but next week she'll be one of hundreds of volunteers at City Hall helping same-s read more »
Cuba approves free sex-change operations
Submitted by pirate on Sat, 06/07/2008 - 05:38.By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press June 6, 2008
HAVANA - Cuba has authorized sex-change operations and will offer them free for qualifying citizens, an official said Friday. read more »
Iraqi Women Quietly Endure Horrors of War
Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 03/08/2008 - 17:57.By Cyril Mychalejko
March 8 marks the 99th celebration of International Women's Day, a day to commemorate the political, social, and economic struggles and achievements of women globally.
This year we should use the holiday to observe and reflect on the suffering of Iraqi women, who have become invisible "collateral damage" in our country's war in this now defenseless Middle Eastern nation. A good place to start would be by picking up and reading Haifa Zangana's book, "City of Windows: An Iraqi Woman's Account of War and Resistance." Zangana is an Iraqi woman, journalist and activist, who was also a former prisoner of Saddam Hussein's regime. She dedicated her book to A'beer Quassim Hamza al-Janaby. read more »
Protecting Darfur's women from rape
Submitted by pirate on Mon, 02/18/2008 - 20:18.By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU, Associated Press Feb 18, 2008
KALMA, Sudan - U.N. peacekeepers in armored vehicles and pickup trucks whizzed into this refugee camp. A dozen women came to meet them, bringing their donkeys, water rations and homemade axes.
It was time for one of the refugees' most perilous tasks: collecting firewood. read more »
Italy: Women protest in major cities to defend abortion rights
Submitted by pirate on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 22:23.
Rome, 14 Feb.(AKI) - Thousands of women were expected to protest to defend abortion rights in nationwide rallies being held in major Italian cities late on Thursday.
The protests followed a raid by police on a hospital in the southern city of Naples earlier this week, on what was thought to be an illegal abortion.
Rallies were being held in Rome, Milan, Bologna and Naples and Italian Health Minister Livia Turco was expected to attend one of them. read more »
Transvestites protest fatal raid
Submitted by pirate on Sat, 12/08/2007 - 08:35.The Jakarta Post, Jakarta December 08, 2007
Dozens of transvestites and activists staged a peaceful protest at City Hall on Wednesday, demanding the city administration investigate the death of a transvestite following a raid by public order officers. read more »
Dublin: Anarcha-Feminist Magazine RAG #1 - Rape Culture
Submitted by pirate on Sun, 11/11/2007 - 09:13.Saturday, November 10 2007 Infoshop News
Sexual violence is a huge problem in our society. Sexual assault is not something that happens to other people elsewhere but is something that has happened to a significant number of people in any community, group or setting. Yet sexual violence is rarely talked about, the extent of it is not widely known and outside the feminist movement it is seldom taken up as a political issue. ---- This article sprang from a case of rape in a community of activists which, in the various meetings, workshops and discussions that followed, forced people to try to deal with a problem which is usually hidden. read more »
Talking Dirty About Revolution: Sexual Health and Gender Inequality in Venezuela
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 08/14/2007 - 23:16.By Rebecca Trotzky Sirr
Originally published at www.UpsideDownWorld.org
Though new laws guarantee all Venezuelans the right to healthcare, birth control and sexual education, poorer women disproportionately face health problems including higher rates of disease, STDs, unplanned pregnancies and unsafe abortions.
Sara walks into the neighborhood clinic where I am volunteering in rural Venezuela, in a municipality of less than 15,000 people situated in the Andes mountains. Besides tourism, agriculture fuels the local economy, which is dependent on small farms. Sara visited today for her checkup. She’s 35 and has lived here all her life. "Before this clinic was here, I never went to the doctor," she explains. read more »
Italian gays plan "kiss-in" protest in Rome
Submitted by pirate on Mon, 07/30/2007 - 18:35.Gay.com Monday, July 30, 2007
Italian gays will hold public "kiss-ins" near the Colosseum this week to protest the detention of two men by police for kissing in front of the famous Rome monument, gay rights groups said.
Some lawmakers said they would discuss the incident in parliament, while gay rights groups accused the police of discrimination Saturday.
There were contradictory versions of the events that led to the detention. read more »
UN expert: Rape rampant in Congo
Submitted by pirate on Mon, 07/30/2007 - 18:22.By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER, Associated Press July 30, 2007
GENEVA - Sexual atrocities in Congo's volatile province of South Kivu extend "far beyond rape" and include sexual slavery, forced incest and cannibalism, a U.N. human rights expert said Monday. read more »
Afghan girls traded, sold to settle debt
Submitted by pirate on Mon, 07/09/2007 - 19:18.By ALISA TANG, Associated Press July 9, 2007
JALALABAD, Afghanistan - Unable to scrounge together the $165 he needed to repay a loan to buy sheep, Nazir Ahmad made good on his debt by selling his 16-year-old daughter to marry the lender's son.
"He gave me nine sheep," Ahmad said, describing his family's woes since taking the loan. "Because of nine sheep, I gave away my daughter."
Seated beside him in the cramped compound, his daughter Malia's eyes filled with tears. She used a black scarf to wipe them away. read more »
Arrests, protests overshadow Jerusalem Gay Pride
Submitted by pirate on Mon, 06/25/2007 - 04:45.
by Delphine Matthieussent Jun 21, 2007
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Police arrests and angry protests cast a shadow over a deeply controversial Gay Pride event in Jerusalem on Thursday, prompting a poor turnout and forcing organisers to scrap a rally in a park. read more »
Colombia to recognize rights of gays
Submitted by pirate on Sat, 06/16/2007 - 06:23.
By JOSHUA GOODMAN, Associated Press Jun 15, 2007
BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombia is set to become the first Latin American country to give established gay couples full rights to health insurance, inheritance and social security under a bill passed by its Congress. The plan approved Thursday is expected to take effect soon. It is backed by the country's conservative President Alvaro Uribe. read more »
Russian police detain gay activists
Submitted by pirate on Sun, 05/27/2007 - 21:03.By JIM HEINTZ, Associated Press May 27, 2007
MOSCOW - Police detained gay rights activists, among them European lawmakers, as they tried to present a letter to Moscow's mayor Sunday in a demonstration that also attracted a hostile crowd of people who punched and threw eggs at the activists.
The letter, signed by some 40 European lawmakers, appealed the city's ban on a march that would have taken place Sunday to mark the 14th anniversary of Russia decriminalizing homosexuality. read more »
Planned protest divides Russia's gay community
Submitted by pirate on Fri, 05/25/2007 - 18:11.by Marina Lapenkova Fri May 25, 2007
MOSCOW (AFP) - A planned protest by members of Moscow's gay community this Sunday has provoked a deep split among Russian homosexuals: whether to battle on the streets for greater rights or remain in the shadows.
"We are simply asking to be considered citizens like any others," said Nikolai Alexeyev, the organiser of the planned March of Tolerance, which has been banned by city authorities.
Alexeyev, virtually the sole public face of Russia's gay rights movement, is as controversial a figure for many Russian gays as he is for the authorities who ban his events. read more »
170 New Yorkers' gay marriages upheld
Submitted by pirate on Thu, 05/17/2007 - 02:17.
By DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press
May 16, 2007
BOSTON - The marriages of more than 170 gay couples from New York who wed in Massachusetts before last July are valid because New York had not yet explicitly banned same-sex marriages, a Massachusetts judge ruled.
Couples are barred from marrying in Massachusetts if their marriages would be prohibited in their home states. The New York Court of Appeals ruled against same-sex marriages on July 6, 2006. read more »
Fresno High Schoolers Make Transgender History
Submitted by pirate on Wed, 05/16/2007 - 04:08.Indybay.org May 14, 2007
Three weeks after Cinthia Covarrubias was nominated for Prom King at Fresno High School, transgender Roosevelt High senior Johnny Vera was selected by his classmates as this year’s Prom Queen.
Fresno High Schoolers Make Transgender History read more »
