Swimming to set up 'open category' for transgender athletes

BUDAPEST, Hungary - Swimming intends to set up an 'open category' to allow transgender athletes to compete in a separate class at the elite level, Husain Al-Musallam, president of governing body FINA, announced on Sunday. 

The policy will, however, exclude many transgender athletes from women's elite swimming. 

"I do not want any athlete to be told they cannot compete at the highest level," Al-Musallam told an extraordinary congress of his organization. 

"I will set up a working group to set up an open category at our meets. We will be the first federation to do that." 

He was speaking after FINA unveiled a policy on inclusivity which was then approved by the members. 

Brent Nowicki, FINA's CEO, said the organization was determined to maintain separate men's and women's competition. 

He added that FINA "recognizes that certain individuals may not be able to compete in the category that best aligns with their legal gender alignment or gender identity." 

Under the rules, he said, male competition would be open to all.

But "male-to-female transgender athletes and intersex athletes can only compete as female athletes in FINA competition, or set a world record, if they can prove they have not experienced any element of male puberty." 

In the debate that followed, Dr Christer Magnusson, a Swedish member of FINA's medical committee, was among those who complained that the implication was that boys aged as young as 10 would have to decide to start transitioning. 

Last year, the International Olympic Committee announced guidelines but asked federations to produce their own 'sport-specific' rule. 

FINA set up three expert committees, one medical, one legal and one of athletes, to look at the issue. 

The medical committee found that men who transitioned to woman retained advantages. 

"Some of the advantages males acquire in puberty are structural and are not lost with hormone suppression," said Dr Sandra Hunter of the Marquette University in Milwaukee. 

"These include larger lungs and hearts, longer bones, bigger feet and hands." 

The legal experts concluded that the policy of excluding most transgender swimmers would be legal. 

They were "necessary and proportionate to achieve a legitimate objective," said London-based barrister James Drake. 

For the swimmers, Cate Campbell, an Australian four-time Olympic gold medalist said: "My role is to stand here today and tell trans people we want you to be part of the broader swimming community ... but also to stand here and say... 'listen to the science'." 

In the United States, swimming has moved to the center of the debate over transgender women competing against natal women, as Lia Thomas has become the face of the issue. 

Thomas, a freestyle specialist, competed for the University of Pennsylvania, men's team from 2017-19. 

After transitioning and undergoing required hormone therapy, she raced on the women's team this season. 

Thomas became the first known transgender athlete to win an elite US collegiate title when she edged Olympic medley silver medalist Emma Weyant in the 500m freestyle in Atlanta in March. 

Agence France-Presse

Actress Emma Watson urges more men to fight for gender equality

LONDON | British actress Emma Watson urged more men and boys on Sunday to take a stand for women’s rights and be proud to be feminists in a bid to add momentum to a global campaign to unite men and women for gender equality.

Watson, 24, a goodwill ambassador for U.N. Women, used International Women’s Day to add impetus to the HeForShe campaign that was launched in September last year and encourages men and boys to join the fight for equal rights.

So far around 240,000 men have pledged their commitment online, according to the HeForShe website, including U.S. President Barack Obama and actor Matt Damon, but there is a target to mobilize one billion men and boys by July this year.

“There has been a ground swell of support but we need more men to take a stand for gender equality,” Watson told a discussion on gender equality at Facebook’s London headquarters.

“Men often think that feminism is a women’s word … but if you stand for gender equality, you are a feminist.”

Watson, who rose to fame as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, said the campaign was not about men saving women and also called upon women to support the campaign.

“It’s uncomfortable and awkward for women to acknowledge there is a problem, but we need to understand we are complicit,” she said.

The actress said she was pleased with the response to the IMPACT 10X10X10 initiative, a one-year pilot project launched in January seeking commitments from governments, companies and universities on women’s empowerment and gender equality.

Several countries, including Sweden, the Netherlands and Sierra Leone, have backed the campaign, Watson said.

When asked about gender equality on a global scale, Watson praised the power of social media to allow girls and women to interact with others who can provide advice and support.

Audience members chosen by U.N. Women to attend the event submitted their stories online of what they had done to advance gender equality.

Jacob Anderson, 24, a Swedish designer, said he was an active supporter of women’s rights on online forums and social media.

“Gender equality should be talked about far more than it currently is … it doesn’t make sense that women and men don’t have equal rights,” Anderson told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the event in London.

source: interaksyon.com

Iggy Azalea rise tests music industry on race, gender

LOS ANGELES | Iggy Azalea has soared to stardom as a rare white woman in hip-hop, but her meteoric rise has triggered a backlash that reveals much about the music business’s fault-lines on race and gender.

The 24-year-old Australian, who released her first full album just nine months ago, is up for four Grammy awards on Sunday, including the prestigious Record of the Year for her smash hit “Fancy.”

But even as Azalea wins plaudits from the industry and packs arenas, detractors see her as uncanny or even offensive — a white, blonde woman who raps in an accent that is identifiably African American.

Her most vociferous critic has been fellow rapper Azealia Banks, a black woman who has accused Azalea of mocking African Americans.

Banks, who has never been nominated for a Grammy, charged that Azalea — whom she taunted as “Igloo Australia” — shied away from issues important to the black community such as police brutality.

“When they give these Grammys out, all it says to white kids is, ‘Oh yeah, you’re great, you’re amazing, you can do whatever you put your mind to.’

“And it says to black kids, ‘You don’t have shit — you don’t own shit, not even the shit you created for yourself,’” Banks said in a radio interview.

Azalea — who moved to the United States as a teenager to pursue her hip-hop dreams and has been romantically linked to African American men — has denounced Banks as a “bigot.”

“There are many black artists succeeding in all genres. The reason you haven’t is because of your piss poor attitude,” Azalea wrote on Twitter.

HIP-HOP NOW GLOBAL

Hip-hop has gone global since its birth in New York in the 1970s — and Azalea is hardly a trailblazer as a white rapper.

The all-time best-selling rapper — Eminem — is white, as are Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, the duo who won four Grammys last year.

But a more unique factor is Azalea’s gender. No women, black or white, have come close to achieving the sales of hip-hop’s leading men, some of whom are notorious for misogynistic lyrics.

James Braxton Peterson, a scholar of hip-hop at Lehigh University, said that the music’s US audience was now predominantly white — but also male — meaning that Azalea was able to connect with a ready audience of white girls and women.

“Hip-hop culture is a black American art form that, much like jazz and the blues and other art forms before it, has transcended the origins of its emergence,” Peterson said.

Peterson said it was unrealistic to stop the globalization of hip-hop, which has become a potent political force in parts of the world as diverse as France, Ghana and the Gaza Strip.

Yet hip-hop, by its very nature, draws more questions about artists’ identities, he said.

“In most other musical forms, if somebody else writes your lyrics, that’s fine, that’s pretty normal. But in hip-hop, if someone else is writing your lyrics, it calls into question all sorts of questions of authenticity,” he said.

Azalea has been dogged by accusations of using ghostwriters. Nicki Minaj — one of the most acclaimed female rappers — was widely seen as criticizing Azalea last year when she said that the world should know, “When you hear Nicki Minaj spit, Nicki Minaj wrote it.”

The Trinidad-born Minaj later accused the media of putting words in her mouth and has congratulated Azalea on her success.

WHAT IS GENUINE?

It will never be known if Azalea would have achieved similar success if she rapped in Australian brogue. British hip-hop artists such as The Streets and London Posse kept their accents and enjoyed success, although not on the massive scale experienced by Azalea.

Despite the charges of inauthenticity, Azalea — like many rappers — has injected herself into the music. In “Work,” one of her first songs, she raps of her struggles to start in hip-hop and declares: “People got a lot to say / But don’t know shit ’bout where I was made.”

But her lyrics have also faced close scrutiny. She apologized for another song in which she described herself as a “runaway slave master” — a phrase she insisted was metaphorical and not racist.

Azalea, a prolific user of Twitter, recently wrote she was annoyed by strangers trying to “set the guidelines for how I should act or what’s genuine for me.”

“I’m myself, as strange as I may be, daily,” she wrote.

source: interaksyon.com

Transgender troops seek end to US military taboo

WASHINGTON DC - For Donna Harding, joining the Australian army was a bid to try to suppress what she had known from an early age -- she was a girl trapped in a boy's body.



"It's quite a common pathway for people who are gender conflicted, trying to fix what we see is wrong with us, and see the military as the way of doing that," Major Harding said.

She was speaking at an unprecedented gathering of transgender troops from foreign armies in Washington, sharing their experiences in the hopes of persuading the Pentagon and the US administration to break perhaps the last taboo -- openly integrating members of their community into the military's ranks.

Eighteen countries around the world expressly allow transgender personnel to serve, including major US allies like Australia, Britain, Canada, Sweden, and New Zealand.

But in the United States, despite the 2011 repeal of the divisive "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law, which banned gays from serving openly, there is little talk of extending the same rights to transgender people.

There are an estimated 15,500 transgender people believed to be serving in the US armed forces, but, under the current rules, if they are discovered the military is required to dismiss them.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said earlier this year he was open to reconsidering the current ban. But as yet no review is underway, and any move to incorporate transgender people openly into the ranks is likely to stir controversy.

Harding joined the Australian reserve forces in 2000 before entering the regular army in 2004. She said she had "lived under the constant anxiety and fear that someone would find out my secret."

"I've lost count of the number of times it would have been so easy to drive into that oncoming truck," Harding told the audience at the event organized by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), noting that 80 percent of transgender people have contemplated suicide, and some 40 percent have tried it.

Now after transitioning to become a woman, Harding works with the Royal Australian Nursing Corps and says that being "open and authentic is the key to being able to perform your job."

Major Alexandra Larsson, an intelligence officer with the Swedish Air Force, insisted she had been very lucky to receive good support once she plucked up the courage to become a woman, saying she has "the best job in the world."

"The problem today is that it depends on who you are and where you are. And it shouldn't be like that. Everybody should have the same opportunity ... but hopefully people can look at me and say at least 'for her it was possible.'"

Being true to yourself

Key to ensuring that transgender people can be embraced by the army is education, and working so those who undertake the difficult decision can do so with dignity and security.

There is little to suggest that including them has any effect on a military's operational effectiveness.

"Without doubt, the more mature our inclusive policies become, the better our operational delivery becomes, because we have got people who are being themselves, they are being authentic in the workplace, without having to have personal challenges alongside that," said Squadron Leader Sarah Maskell, who promotes equality and diversity in the British Royal Air Force.

Issues such as sharing showers or medical costs and care should be relatively easy to deal with by applying some common sense, the panelists argued.

Sergeant Lucy Jordan, the first person in the New Zealand Defense Forces to become a woman while serving, praised the support she had been given by her commanding officers.

"What my organization gave me, and what we are doing here, is primarily about investing in the most important thing that an organization has: its people."

source: interaksyon.com

New York state drops transgender surgery rule to change sex in birth certificates

NEW YORK  -- Transgender people born in New York state, with the exception of New York City, will no longer have to prove that they have had sex-reassignment surgery to change the sex marked on their birth certificate, Governor Andrew Cuomo's office said on Thursday.

About 100 people a year seek to change the sex on their birth certificate in New York state, according to the office of the governor, who is a Democrat.

New York City has a separate records system from the rest of the state and still requires proof of surgery for such a change.

Under the policy, a transgender person will still need to provide a notarized affidavit from the doctor treating them for what the American Psychiatric Association calls gender dysphoria, previously known as gender identity disorder, in order to get their birth certificate modified.

But under the policy the doctor will no longer need to affirm that their patient has had surgery, only that they are receiving "appropriate treatment."

Transgender rights groups say many transgender people, who identify as having a different sex from their one at birth, do not need, do not want or cannot afford sex-reassignment surgery.

Being unable to change the sex marked on their identity documents can leave them vulnerable to discrimination or embarrassment, these rights groups say.

"This change brings New York in line with the current standards of medical care for gender transition -- it's not 'one size fits all,'" Dru Levassuer, the transgender rights director for the advocacy group Lambda Legal, said in an interview.

"It is important to have accurate identity documents that reflect who people are in the world," he said.

Four other states -- Vermont, California, Oregon and Iowa -- as well as Washington DC, also do not require surgery and proof of surgery before changing sex designation on a birth certificate, according to Lambda Legal.

New York's new policy closely matches that of the US State Department, which in 2010 dropped proof of sex-reassignment surgery for altering the sex marked on passports and consular birth certificates.

Only people who are 18 years old or older are allowed to apply to alter their birth certificate in New York state.

"Under Governor Cuomo's leadership, New York is reclaiming its rightful place as the progressive capital of the nation and made significant progress to advance the rights of all New Yorkers, including members of the transgender community," Alphonso David, the state's deputy secretary for civil rights, said in a statement.

"Much work remains, and this administration is committed to promoting laws and policies that are fair and just for all," David added.

source: interaksyon.com

Australian court agrees, we're not all male or female

SYDNEY - A landmark ruling won by an Australian gender trailblazer which finds that sex does not just mean male or female could have broader implications as society becomes more accepting of diversity, experts say.

Norrie, who does not identify as either male or female, last month won a bid to have a new gender category on the register of births, deaths, and marriages in New South Wales, Australia's most populous state.

"I'm very happy that I have been told in no uncertain terms that what sex you are is not just male or female necessarily," Norrie, who uses only a first name, told AFP.

Born as a male, Norrie underwent gender reassignment surgery in 1989 to become a woman. However, the surgery failed to resolve Scotland-born Norrie's ambiguity about sexual identity.

The sexual equality campaigner made global headlines in February 2010 when an application to New South Wales' department of Births, Deaths, and Marriages accepted that "sex non-specific" could be accepted for Norrie's records.

But soon afterwards, the office revoked its decision, saying the certificate was invalid and had been issued in error. At the time, Norrie said the decision left her feeling "socially assassinated."

"There was a lot of support for fighting for it," the 52-year-old recalled.

So began a series of appeals, ending with a decision last month in the New South Wales Court of Appeal which ruled that sex should not be limited to male or female, though it stopped short of defining other categories.

"There are a few people, not many, who are like Norrie and don't want male or female on their birth certificate," said Norrie's lawyer Emily Christie.

"She feels that every time she has to sign a form, every time she has got to fill something out, and it says 'What's your sex?' and it only has male or female, she feels that she is being forced to live a lie."

Christie said that while Norrie's passport has had an 'X' instead of male or female, this only goes so far, as a birth certificate creates a person's identity under a range of different laws.

"If Births, Deaths, and Marriages recognizes that you can be something other than male and female, then she can be something other than male and female potentially under other legislation," Christie explained.

"This is the first time that we have actually had a court case say that just the ordinary meaning of sex, in this legislation, in our current day and age given our understanding of diversity in the community and how people want to be identified, can mean more than just male and female and so should recognize Norrie."

The case has now been sent back to the Administrative Decisions Tribunal to determine what the description for Norrie will be, and whether a term such as "non-specific" is acceptable.

But it comes at a time when the Australian government has released new guidelines which state that individuals should be given the option of selecting "male," "female," or "indeterminate/ intersex or unspecified" on their personal documents.

Anna Brown, the director of advocacy and strategic litigation at the Melbourne-based Human Rights Law Center, said while Norrie's case had an unusual set of facts, it was important the law "recognize that sex and gender are more complex and nuanced than a simple binary of 'M' and 'F.'"

"Law, policy, and practice should reflect the reality of sex and gender diversity in our community, and new anti-discrimination laws to prohibit discrimination on the basis of 'gender identity' and 'intersex status' and the availability of passports with an 'X' marker are all significant strides in the right direction," she said.

"Sadly, in many respects intersex, transgender, and gender diverse people, such as Norrie, remain invisible. We need to ensure their stories are told in order to build greater understanding and ultimately reduce the stigma, discrimination, and harassment they face, often on a daily basis."

Norrie, who believes officials have been sympathetic to her case all along, is "enormously pleased" and confident of further progress.

"I've had X on my passport for two years now, and I've been putting my sex down as non-specific since I was first granted a certificate back in 2010. People seem to be able to accommodate the truth."

source: interaksyon.com

Despite improvements in gender equality, domestic violence in PH still 'unacceptably' high - WB

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines is doing relatively well in terms of a number of indicators on gender equality compared with other countries in the East Asia and the Pacific, says the World Bank in its latest report.

However, despite improvements in gender relations, domestic violence is still "unacceptably" high as up to 5.6 million Filipino women have been abused by their partners, according to one of the authors of the report.

The report entitled “Toward Gender Equality in East Asia and the Pacific,” studied gender gaps in the area of economic opportunities, influence in home and society, and access to human capital and productive assets across the region.

Andrew Mason, lead author of the study, said that women in the Philippines are doing specially good in terms of enrollment in school where there is a significant difference in the number of male and female students in the secondary and tertiary levels.

“I think at the secondary level there are 108 girls for every 100 boys and it’s even more tilted in the direction of women at the tertiary level -- it’s about 125 girls for every 100 boys," said Mason told InterAksyon.com in a recent interview.

Same trend

Mason says the same trend in the miiddle-income countries in the region where a reversal in the "gender gap in favor of boys to a small gender gap in favor of girls" has been observed in the last two decades.

However, despite being more educated than their male counterparts, Filipino women earn less than working men. This even if there are more unemployed men than women in the country.

Latest data from the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics show that unemployed men make up more than three-fifths of the total 2.8 million without jobs in the Philippines. Meanwhile, the National Statistics Office said that as of October last year, 67.6 percent of the total underemployed Filipinos were men while 32.4 percent were women.

“In the region as a whole we see that women earn about 70 to 80 cents for every dollar that men earn and the Philippines is right in that same range – 76 (cents). In that sense there’s no wage equality or earnings equality, but the Philippines is not dramatically worse or dramatically better than (others),” said Mason.

Progress in health

The World Bank report also observed that the Philippines has made progress in the area of health with the country’s fertility rate and infant and child mortality declining over the years.

“We see infant and child mortality has gone down dramatically for both boys and for girls. In fact in the Philippines the under five mortality has halved for both boys and girls since 1990,” Mason said.

In addition, there are also more women now who give birth attended by skilled birth professionals. “Not a perfect performance but a lot of good news that we can talk about in terms of health,” said Mason.

Empowered within the home

In terms of influence at home and in society, Southeast Asian women in general and Filipino women in particular seem to be empowered within the home.

“Southeast Asian women have a high level of autonomy with respect to their cash earnings. Either the wife makes a decision or it’s jointly made. So only in a very, very small share of cases in the Philippines does the husband actually dictate what the wife does with her money,” said Mason.

The Philippines also does better with the rest of the world when women’s involvement in politics is to be measured, according to the study, which is a companion to the World Bank’s 2012 World Development Report. Between 22 to 23 percent of legislators in the country are women while the world average is 19 percent. In the East Asia and Pacific region, the average is 18 percent.

“It’s low in absolute terms. It’s not even 50 but it’s higher than the global average by a few percentage points,” said Mason.

Domestic violence problem persists

However, Mason said that while domestic violence in the country is low compared to countries making up the Pacific region, it is still “unacceptably” high if put in actual numbers.

Two-thirds of adult women in the Pacific region have experienced violence in the hands of a partner. In the Philippines, around 18-19 percent of women reported domestic violence.

“If you look in the scale of the region, it’s on the relatively low side. But it’s still, I would say, unacceptably high. If you convert this percentage into numbers of (Filipino) women this means about 5.5- 5.6 million adult women have experienced domestic violence at the hands of a partner. So there’s good news and bad news hidden in this statistics,” he said.

source: interaksyon.com

Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons: Did He Just Come Out as Gay?

It's no secret in Hollywood that The Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons is gay.

In fact, his partner of 10 years is often with him when he hits a red carpet or sitting beside him at awards shows and other glam events.

So what's up with all the headlines today claiming that Parson has finally come out of the closet as a gay man?

READ: Matt Bomer Comes Out as Gay Man

Well, all the hoopla has been stirred up because his sexuality and relationship was mentioned in a New York Times article today. It quietly pops up in reference to the Emmy winner's work last year on Broadway playing a young gay activist in The Normal Heart, a play about the early days of the AIDS epidemic.

"The Normal Heart resonated with him on a few levels: Mr. Parsons is gay and in a 10-year relationship, and working with an ensemble again onstage was like nourishment, he said,'" reads the Times story.

And that is it. Parsons is not quoted in any way talking about his private life.

The big news here is that the paper of record actually wrote that Parsons was gay. But Parsons was never actually hiding in the closet. He's never lied. He's never had a beard. He's just never spoken about his life outside work.

No big bang here.

source: eonline.com