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This AP story ran on September 25 in the Miami Herald.
RAIFORD, Fla. -- Dennis Smith is not only a woman trapped in a man's body, he's also a prisoner trapped in a system that won't supply hormone therapy he says is necessary to maintain a partial sex change. In 1983, Smith legally changed his name to Rhonda and asked that others refer to him as ``her.'' Smith grew his hair long and bleached it blond. He received silicone implants to give him curvaceous hips, a feminine face and a full bust. And estrogen tablets, which the Panama City native took daily, made Smith feel like a woman although, technically, he was still a man. Now Smith, 40, is serving a 10-year sentence at Union Correctional Institution for aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer. He also is suing prison officials who have refused to provide him with 2.5 milligrams of estrogen a day, alleging refusal to treat ``serious medical needs.'' In a 1997 suit filed in Volusia County, Smith claims that officials are violating his Constitutional protection from cruel and unusual punishment. "Just on a whim, they decided not to allow [it],'' said Smith, who claims he's becoming a man again. The Florida Department of Corrections decided in 1992 that transsexuals would not receive female hormone therapy because it wasn't medically necessary. Smith is asking the courts to force prison officials to restore his hormone therapy and pay $100,000 in compensatory and punitive damages. Smith also is seeking a temporary injunction that would force prison officials to restore his hormones until the suit is resolved. Volusia County Judge Joe Will is expected to rule on the temporary injunction within weeks. But, the 8th Amendment has been interpreted as requiring prisons to provide, "necessary health care,'' said John Burke, deputy assistant secretary for the Corrections Department's health services administration. "That excludes cosmetic health care or, what in the free world, we like to classify as elective,'' he said. |
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A press release from TGMenace Southern California.
Los Angeles CA
West Hollywood Visibility Action a Success This afternoon seventeen transgendered people and our allies distributed fliers to businesses and pedestrians on Santa Monica Boulevard to provide education about West Hollywood's new transgender-inclusive non-discrimination law and to show our pride as transgendered people. Transgender Menace Southern California, the organizer of the action, was joined by members of La Union Latina de Transgeneros and Pride at Work Southern California, AFL-CIO. The West Hollywood Station of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department provided vehicular escorts to ensure the safety of all those who participated in the action. Participants reported a variety of responses for businesses and individuals; most were supportive or cordial, many were confused about transgender issues, and very few expressed hostility. Members of Transgender Menace Southern California will be giving Citizen's Comments at the West Hollywood City Council meeting on Monday, October 5, to thank the City Council for the July 20 passage of this amendment to the City's non-discrimination ordinance and to inform Council members about how the visibility action went. . . .Flier Text --
The Transgender Menace Southern California is a direct action group dedicated to using any means necessary to make the world, especially our Southern California corner of it, a safe, just place for all transfolk and genderqueers. For further information:
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Posted on the NewsPlanet web page September 30.
Summary: California's transgendered people now have protection from hate crimes, as the governor harvests the fruit of an openly lesbian representative's labors. California Governor Pete Wilson (R) on September 28 signed into law a bill clarifying that transgendered people are a protected category under the state's hate crimes law. Although prosecutors in San Francisco and Los Angeles had already used the hate crimes statute in cases of assaults motivated by gender or gender expression, the new law is expected to make this practice uniform across the state. AB 1999 was introduced by the state Assembly's first openly lesbian member Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) with Kevin Shelley (D-San Francisco) as its chief co-sponsor. AB 1999 also had early support from state Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Lungren, even though both Lungren and Wilson have made anti-gay moves while in office. Wilson recently vetoed a measure that would have extended the filing period for complaints of workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation to match that for other protected categories. The enactment of the hate crimes law was hailed by the [San Francisco] Bay Area Transgender Law Association, whose co-chair Vicky Kolakowski remarked on the contrast in legislators' reactions to the measure compared to a transgender civil rights bill introduced two years ago. At that time, she said, "most legislators seemed uncomfortable with just hearing the word 'transgender.' This time around they publicly championed on our behalf." While applauding a number of people for their part in that turnaround, Kolakowski gave the bulk of the credit to Kuehl and her staff. |
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This article by Jeff Harder was in the October 3rd Ottawa Sun.
TORONTO -- No more sex changes please, we're Ontarian. The province's Conservative government will no longer fund high-cost sex change operations, sources told the Saturday Sun. "We feel it is not a medically necessary operation and public tax dollars could be better spent elsewhere," a senior government official said. "The money will now be applied to cardiac surgery. The changed has been instituted (yesterday)." In the 1997-98 budget year, taxpayers were billed $122,000 for eight sex changes. The public purse has funded 48 of the procedures in the last six years. Conservative MPPs Marcel Beaubien and Frank Sheehan had been lobbying for an end to public funding for "lifestyle" operations. "I think we have a lot more pressing priorities," Beaubien said at a 1997 committee meeting that reviewed health spending. "If I had a choice between sex changes and heart surgery, I think the money should go to heart surgery," Sheehan added. Ontario's former NDP government defended subsidized sex change operations and refused to delist the service. Health Minister Elizabeth Witmer recently delisted testicular implants, wart removals and flu vaccines. The cost-cutting moves will save $50 million a year. Canada's Armed Forces came under heavy public fire in September after military doctors agreed to cover the $30,000 cost of a sex change for a male soldier. Defence Minister Art Eggleton defended the man's right to apply for the operation. "If a person has a right to consideration under a provincial plan, they have a right to consideration under our plan," Eggleton said. In Ontario, sex changes were granted only after Toronto's Clark Institute completed a psychological review. Then, the patients were sent to American or English hospitals for the necessary alterations. |
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Posted on the NewsPlanet web page October 9.
His designs dominated women's shoes from the 1930's through the 1960's, although he'd designed a plastic sandal for a downscale French chain as recently as last year. Vivier designed for Bally, Schiaparelli, Christian Dior, Pierre Balmain, Guy Laroche, and Yves Saint-Laurent, among other leading designers, and for celebrity clients including Marlene Dietrich, Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor. He created the shoes Queen Elizabeth wore at her coronation in 1953. Vivier is survived by Gerard Benoit-Vivier, the partner he legally adopted -- once a fairly common method for same-gender couples to obtain legal recognition, but now no longer possible most places. |
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Page prepared by Beth Lewis.
Roger Vivier, the openly gay man who invented the stiletto heel, died October 2 in Toulouse at the age of 90, according to "Le Monde."