Israeli school to fire a teacher for coming out as a trans woman
An award winning mathetmatics teacher in Israel was told she faces dismissal after coming out to her students as a transgender woman.
A high school mathematics teacher who openly talked to some of her students about being a transgender woman was summoned to a hearing for her dismissal.
Marina, who has been for the past three years an outstanding teacher and mentor, says Israel’s Center for Educational Technology (CET) wants her fired for merely discussing her gender identity.
She told her supervisor that on several occasions students asked her about her gender identity, and other issues such as a recent religious ruling that allowed a devout Jewish woman to undergo medically assisted procreation.
Marina was was shocked to get a hearing summons, which reads: ‘During classes to religious girls designated to to study of mathematics, you stimulated a discussion on religion, parenting and sexual orientation.
‘Discussions on social issues are not part your job description, and that is worse tenfold when it comes to adolescents – in which you lack the adequate training’.
Marina told Channel 2 Israel: ‘I tried to explain that I am a human being just like they are and that it has no bearing on me being professional, and they need to accept people as they are’.
She tried to explain ongoing work with pupils includes small talk, and she refuses to hide her identity, ‘coming out should encourage teachers to come out to students to teachers so that neither teachers nor students feel ashamed of themselves’.
Attorney Moshe Shochetman, of the Aguda, Israel’s LGBT advocacy group, told Channel 2: ‘Its very hard for this woman to find work, this is her bread and butter and she’s very good at it – she is outstanding and has received an award for her work.
‘To cut her off with this pretense is to destroy her livelihood’
KOMO News reports that Erin Hanson and Katie Pugh had scheduled a cake tasting with Fleur Cakes in Hood River, Ore. as part of the planning process for their forthcoming wedding. But Fleur Cakes owner Pam Regentin allegedly canceled the appointment as soon as she found out Hanson and Pugh were a same-sex couple.
"I mentioned Erin in passing, and said a 'she' in passing too, in the email," Pugh told KOMO News. "A few days later she called back and that was today. And called and verified it was a same-sex wedding."
It's the second Oregon-based case of its kind to make headlines this year. In February, Sweet Cakes By Melissa owner Aaron Klein admitted he denied a lesbian bride-to-be a wedding cake after she visited his Gresham shop on Jan. 17.
Klein, who reportedly owns the bakery with his wife Melissa, argued that he was simply living in accordance with his religious beliefs by rejecting the woman's request, NBC reported at the time. Furthermore, he believes his refusal to make the cake is protected by his constitutional right to practice his religion as he sees fit.
KOMO News points out that the Oregon Labor Bureau is still investigating the Sweet Cakes complaint.
In July 2012, a Colorado gay couple hoped to order a cake from Lakewood's Masterpiece Cakeshop but were reportedly refused by owner Jack Phillips, who is said to have told them his business doesn't support same-sex marriage.
Similarly, in November 2011, a lesbian couple was denied a wedding cake by the Christian owner of an Iowa-based bakery. "I didn't do the cake because of my convictions for their lifestyle," Victoria Childress, who runs her bakery from home, told KCCI-TV at the time. "It is my right, and it's not to discriminate against them. It's not so much to do with them, it's to do with me and my walk with God and what I will answer [to] Him for."
Minnesota officially became the 12th U.S. state to approve same-sex marriage May 14 when Gov. Mark Dayton appeared before a jubilant crowd to sign a marriage equality bill into law.
"What a day for Minnesota," Dayton told the spectators, who huddled on the steps of the State House in St. Paul. "What a difference a year and an election can make in our state."
Dayton's signature came just a day after the state Senate approved it with a 37-30 vote, the Associated Press reported.
"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness should certainly include the right to marry the person you love," he noted.
Echoing those sentiments was State Rep. Karen Clark and Sen. Scott Dibble, who are both openly gay.
"I wish everybody could be right here and see what I see," Dibble, who thanked his husband of four years during his speech, noted. "Today is a day for rejoicing and celebrating in Minnesota. The dream of a life filled with joy, a happy, healthy family -- that sounds so normal -- and it's gonna come true."
Dibble went on to call the bill's passing "a legacy we can be proud of."
The first lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) couples will be allowed to tie the knot when the law takes effect on Aug. 1.
Advocates for Informed Choice, the Southern Poverty Law Center, pro bono lawyers and parents Pam and Mark Crawford have filed “the first ever impact litigation lawsuit against South Carolina Department of Social Services, Greenville Hospital System, Medical University of South Carolina and individual employees for performing an irreversible and medically unnecessary surgery on an infant who was in the state’s care at the time of the surgery”.
AIC state:
The lawsuit, filed in both state and federal courts, charges that it was a violation of the Constitution when South Carolina doctors working for the state surgically removed the healthy genital tissue of M.C., a sixteen-month old child, potentially sterilizing him and greatly reducing if not eliminating his sexual function. M.C., who was born with an intersex condition, was in the care of the South Carolina Department of Social Services when doctors, in cooperation with social services employees, decided to perform this medically unnecessary surgery. This lawsuit was filed on behalf of M.C. by his adoptive parents, Mark and Pam Crawford, who seek justice for M.C. and hope to end this inhumane and antiquated practice.
The casework has taken over two years to get to this point. Read more at: http://oii.org.au
The woman, who was born a man, can marry her boyfriend after watershed ruling that falls short of allowing same-sex marriage.
Hong Kong's top court has granted a transgender woman the right to marry her boyfriend in a watershed ruling that falls short of allowing same-sex marriage.
The surprise decision only covers the right of a transgender person who was born male to marry a man, and for one who was born female to marry a woman.
Monday's ruling by the court of final appeal brings Hong Kong in line with many other places in the Asia-Pacific region, including mainland China, where transgender people are allowed to marry as their new gender.
The court ruled in favour of the woman, identified only as W. One of the judges on the five-member panel dissented.
W's lawyer, Michael Vidler, said his client was overjoyed. W, who is in her 30s, was born a man but had surgery in 2008 to become a woman. The hospital issued a letter certifying her new gender.
Vidler read a statement by W to reporters in which she said that after the surgery she had lived her life "as a woman and been treated as a woman in all respects except as regards my right to marriage".
"This decision rights that wrong," the statement said.
Vidler said the ruling would not take effect for 12 months, giving the government time to change marriage laws.
The judges noted that from evidence and submissions received, "it appears in the Asia-Pacific region, such marriages are permitted" in mainland China, Singapore, India, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. Same-sex marriage remains rare in the region, though New Zealand approved it last month.
In China, the ministry of civil affairs clarified the law in 2003 to make it clear that transgender marriage was legal.
Hong Kong retains a separate legal system from mainland China.
In New Zealand, probably the most liberal country in the Asia-Pacific region when it comes to gay and transgender issues, such marriages have been legal since a court ruling in 1994. The country also had the world's first openly transgender member of parliament.
US COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) Hospital Sued For Performing Unneeded Sex-Assignment Surgery on Baby
A South Carolina couple is suing the state to challenge its decision to perform sexual-reassignment surgery on a toddler in its care who was born with both male and female internal sexual genitals.
Mark and Pam Crawford, adoptive parents of the now 8-year-old child, spoke to the media Tuesday morning about the lawsuits filed in partnership with the Southern Poverty Law Center in federal and state courts.
The Crawfords say the child was born with intersex condition, which means a person is born without sexual anatomy that fits the definition of a male or female.
The suit alleges the South Carolina Department of Social Services decided to perform "dangerous and mutilating surgery" in April, 2006 on the 16-month old to make the child a girl.
Named in the suit are the Department of Social Services, The Medical University of South Carolina, Greenville Health System and several other caregivers.
"Doctors decided to play God," said a SPLC representative Tuesday morning in front of the federal courthouse.
"It's too late for my son, but we want to put other doctors on notice," said Mark Crawford who noted the action was "drastic and permanent."
Pam Crawford said her son was operated on "simply to conform to society."
The Crawfords adopted the child, a few months after the surgery. They say he identifies himself as a boy to his pediatrician. Recently he asked for a boy's haircut and boy's clothing.
The lawsuit states doctors, acting as agents of defendant hospitals, performed the surgery for the purpose of "assigning" the child the female gender despite their own conclusion that the toddler "was a true hermaphrodite but there was no compelling reason that she should either be made male or female."
Yale Minister Faces Opposition from Methodists for Marrying Gay Son.
The Reverend Thomas W. Ogletree, a minister in the United Methodist Church and a Frederick Marquand Professor Emeritus of Theological and Social Ethics at Yale University Divinity School, was asked by his son Thomas Rimbey Ogletree to officiate at his wedding. On October 20, 2012, the wedding took place at the Yale Club and was mentioned in the wedding section of the New York Times the following day. Thomas married another gay man, Nicholas Haddad, in a state that legally has same-sex marriage.,
Conservative Methodist ministers saw the wedding announcement and filed a complaint against Dr. Ogletree with the local bishop for violating church rules. According to Randall C. Paige, pastor of Christ Church in Port Jefferson Station, New York, “the ceremony is a chargeable offense.” But Dr. Ogletree, a retired dean of Yale Divinity School, doesn’t see it that way.
He met with Dr. Paige last January to resolve their differences and possibly avoid a church trial. Dr. Paige believes that Rev. Ogletree is “fostering confusion in the church about what we stand for. And it undermines the whole covenant of accountability that we share with each other as pastors.”
Dr. Paige asked Dr. Ogletree to apologize and promise never to perform such a ceremony again. Rev. Ogletree refused to comply.
Israeli school to fire a teacher for coming out as a trans woman
Minnesota officially became the 12th U.S. state 
Advocates for Informed Choice, the Southern Poverty Law Center, pro bono lawyers and parents Pam and Mark Crawford have filed “the first ever impact litigation lawsuit against South Carolina Department of Social Services, Greenville Hospital System, Medical University of South Carolina and individual employees for performing an irreversible and medically unnecessary surgery on an infant who was in the state’s care at the time of the surgery”.
The woman, who was born a man, can marry her boyfriend after watershed ruling that falls short of allowing same-sex marriage.
Yale Minister Faces Opposition from Methodists for Marrying Gay Son.
