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Posted: 02/22/2012 - 00:00
Baltimore County MD Passes Trans Rights Bill

The Baltimore County Council on a 5-2 party line vote last night passed Bill 3-12, a measure designed to protect the human rights of its trans citizens. Its passing makes Baltimore County the fourth jurisdiction inside the state of Maryland after the city of Baltimore, Montgomery County and Howard County to do so and it joins the more than 160 jurisdictions, Washington, D.C. and 16 states that have trans anti-discrimination laws

As usual, the Republicans on the County Council, David Marks of Perry Hall and Todd Huff of Lutherville voted against the measure.

Posted: 02/17/2012 - 00:00
Advertising Standards authority says contentious ad is misleading

Sun Media says it has no knowledge of an Advertising Standards Canada (ASC) decision on a transphobic television ad that ran on Sun News during the provincial election.

Serge Sasseville, vice-president of corporate and institutional affairs at Quebecor Media, the parent company of Sun News, says the media organization was now aware of any complaint.

Posted: 02/09/2012 - 00:00
Trans People Fear New Rule That Gender On Passport Must Match Appearance

Not keen on airport security? Try flying while trans.

As if life – and the new airport X-ray scanners – didn’t pose enough barriers for many transgendered people, Transport Canada has thrown another hurdle into the mix.

A quiet regulatory change while Parliament was on summer break last year instructs boarding gate officials to confirm that a traveller’s appearance matches the gender on their passport, and says they can keep a passenger from boarding if it doesn’t.

Posted: 02/09/2012 - 00:00
Chow's flight rules motion defeated

NDP MP Olivia Chow’s attempt to repeal an air screening regulation that could prevent trans Canadians from flying went down in defeat at the Commons transport committee Feb 9.

The committee voted six to five to reject Chow’s motion.

“If they don’t want to scrap those regulations, they could go to where Australia is with three categories,” Chow says, referring to the “indeterminate” gender category available on Australian passports. “There are many other alternatives. What the government is doing is just dumb.”

Posted: 02/09/2012 - 00:00
Motion To Repeal Trans Flight Ban is Defeated by Tories in Committee

Sadly, I must report that this morning’s vote did not go well in the meeting of Parliament’s Transport Committee.
Olivia Chow’s motion to repeal article (c) of paragraph 5.2(1) (the transgender flight ban) was defeated in a vote of 6 to 5.
Members voted along party lines. Here is the breakdown:
NO – Adler – Conservative
NO – Holder – Cons
NO – Poilievre – Cons
NO – Richards – Cons
NO – Toet – Cons
NO – Watson – Cons
YES – Chow – NDP
YES – I. Morin – NDP
YES – Coderre – Liberal
YES – Garrison NDP

Posted: 02/03/2012 - 00:00
Rule creates fear of flying for transgendered

Boarding a plane is more inconvenient than it used to be, but most of us do it without thinking: show your government issued photo ID and find your seat.

For transgendered people, it's a different story. Relatively new regulations adopted by Transport Canada state that no-one can board an airplane if "the passenger does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents."

Posted: 02/01/2012 - 00:00
Canadian Trans Teen’s Sudden Death May Have Been Bullying-Related Suicide

The small town of Chatham, Ontario has been rocked by the sudden death of Coltyn Mayrand, a 16-year-old trans teen who passed away Saturday night.
There is some question, though, as to the cause of Mayrand’s death: He’s believed to have committed suicide, though no official report has been made public. And though family members admit Coltyn was bullied for being trans, they say it wasn’t the root of his problems:

Posted: 01/31/2012 - 00:00
Transgendered people outraged over Canada’s identification rules for air travel

OTTAWA—The Canadian transgendered community fears being grounded by rules forbidding airlines from allowing someone to board if their hair and clothing do not match the gender identity listed on their passport or other identification.

“We cannot have regulations which judge people on how they appear to be gendered. It’s unacceptable,” said Christin Milloy, a trans-identified blogger whose Monday post about the identity requirements for air travel was one of those widely discussed by the transgendered community online this week.

Posted: 01/31/2012 - 00:00
Conservative MPs laugh at concerns that trans people face flight ban

UPDATE: Feb 1, 10:50pm - When Xtra posts original documents to the web, we typically use a free online service called Scribd. This involves uploading the file to Scribd's server and then embedding the document in our web page. On Tuesday, Xtra did just this with email correspondence between reporter Andrea Houston and representatives of Transport Canada. At some time today, however, Scribd removed the document from its servers due to a copyright claim "at the request of Transport Canada."

We have now copied and pasted the text of our email correspondence below:

Posted: 01/23/2012 - 00:00
Trans people forcibly sterilized in Sweden

ANDREA HOUSTON - It was shocking to learn last week that Sweden – a country with a reputation as friendly and welcoming to queer people – forces trans people to undergo sterilization to change their genders.

And it's not a new law. It's been on the books since 1972. Trans people must also prove that they do not have any eggs or sperm saved in a bank somewhere.

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by Dr. Radut.