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Content about Third gender

May 2, 2013
'Impersonating a woman' decriminalized in Samoa

Third gender fa'afafine in Samoa celebrate the end of legal discrimination

Fa'afafine, a third gender culture native to Samoa, are celebrating because a new law decriminalizes 'impersonating a woman'.

The Crimes Act 2012, which came into law yesterday, replaced the Crimes Ordinance 1961 which criminalized 'the impersonation of a female' by any male in Samoa. The law was used to persecute fa'afafine with fines or imprisonment as the penalty.

April 17, 2013
Indian trans candidate campaigns for pensions, ration cards and voter ID for her community

Chandni becomes second transgender candidate standing in the Karnataka state election on 5 May

A second transgender candidate has joined the campaign for the Karnataka state legislative assembly election on 5 May.

Chandni, 35, registered nomination papers to stand in the Narasimharaja constituency just a day before today's deadline.

'Former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa had promised to provide pension for the community. But it hasn’t materialized till date,' said Chandni, Deccan Herald reports.

March 19, 2013
Rocky Horror writer Richard O'Brien believes he is ‘30% female’ after taking hormones

O’Brien spent 50 years of his life suppressing transgender feelings. Now he takes the female hormone estrogen but doesn’t want sex reassignment surgery

Rocky Horror Show writer Richard O'Brien has said he is now 30% woman after taking female hormone estrogen for 10 years.

He says he has long struggled with transgender feelings but did not act on them until later in life. His brother’s reaction to hearing O’Brien, at six-and-a-half years old, wanting to be a ‘fairy princess’ caused him to shut down and ignore his feelings for 50 years.

Speaking to the BBC, O’Brien said ‘you can’t just put the lid on things and pretend they don’t exist’ and began to take estrogen a decade ago.

February 26, 2013
Transgender woman to stand for election in Pakistan

For the first time hijras (transgender women) are eligible to stand for election in Pakistan

A hijra, or transgender woman, is standing for election in Pakistan and campaigning for equal rights.

'It is not our destiny to merely dance for others and hold begging bowls. We have a life to live,' said Sanam Fakir, electoral candidate in the central Pakistan town of Sukkur, to AFP.

The elections in mid-May will be the first time Pakistan's estimated 500,000 hijras (sometimes referred to as 'eunuchs') can vote and stand for election.

February 25, 2013
How we should react to the Muslim leader who called hijras ‘dirty’

Gay Muslim advocate Omar Kuddus addresses a video where the president of India’s Islamic Research Centre attacked ‘LGBT’ hijras as ‘defective’

Yesterday GSN broke a story about a YouTube video in which a Muslim leader decries the hijra community.

The interview shows Faiz Syed, the founder and president of India’s Islamic Research Centre (IRC), a non-profit organization that promotes Islamic teachings, answering a question about how Islam deals with the ‘other’ gender that is neither man nor woman.

February 10, 2013
Police raid and arrest 30 people at India gay party

Indian police arrest 30 gay party goers in Mumbai for dancing ‘indecently’

Thirty people were arrested for alleged ‘indecent’ behavior following a raid at a gay party in Malad, a suburb of Mumbai, India.

According to a police officer who spoke with The Times India: ‘The raid was conducted in the wee hours today [10 January] and the accused were caught dancing indecently during the gay party.

‘Six eunuchs were also a part of it’.

February 5, 2013
Thai tomboy students demand the right to wear pants

University students in Bangkok who identify as tomboy say it is unfair that they can't wear pants, when kathoey trans women and gay men can wear skirts

'Tomboy' students in Thailand are demanding their right to wear non-gender-conforming clothes to university.

Students at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University in Bangkok have complained saying it is unfair that male students are allowed to wear female clothes, but female students are not allowed to wear male clothes.

July 21, 2012
The father of us all: meet the world’s first LGBT activist

150 years ago this year Karl Heinrich Ulrichs came out to his family. Five years later he came out to the world. He had become the world’s first LGBT rights campaigner and eventually published twelve manifestos which contain all the demands we still fight for today

While the LGBT rights movement in the English speaking world dates back a half a century, its beginning came a century earlier.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the coming out of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs — the first man to identify himself publicly as a homosexual and campaign for LGBT rights.

July 12, 2012
Third gender? No thanks, says Australian intersex organization

Gina Wilson president of Organisation Intersex International Australia gives her views on a third gender option on birth certificates

Gina Wilson president of Organisation Intersex International Australia (OII) writes about why they are against having an ‘intersex’ option on birth certificates, as proposed by a Canberra law council this week.

July 11, 2012
Gender identity law reform proposed in Canberra

Proposals draw mixed response from transgender and intersex groups

A report published on Monday proposes changes to the law affecting gender identity in the Australia Capital Territory (ACT).

The recommendations include:

May 24, 2012
Third gender finally recognized in Nepal

LGBT community welcomed a decision by the Nepalese government to recognize third gender as 'other'

The LGBT community in Nepal has welcomed a decision by the government to recognize third gender people as 'other' on citizenship identification cards.

Third gender refers to people who consider themselves neither male nor female and includes people who present or perform as a gender that is different from the one that was assigned to them at birth.

It can also include people who do not feel that the male or female gender roles dictated by their culture match their true social, sexual, or gender identity.

April 7, 2012
Gay Nepalese MP starts petition against Facebook

Sunil Babu Pant gathers signatures for 'third gender' option on social networking site

Nepalese member of parliament and LGBT campaigner Sunil Babu Pant has started a petition to make Facebook a more inclusive place for transgender and gender variant people.

The All Out campaign calls on Facebook to change the current profile settings and add an additional 'third gender' for  members whose gender identity doesn't fit within simple male or female checkboxes.