Some Events of the year 2012: Part 1 - Organizations, Equal marriage

Some events of 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008.

This is just some of what happened in 2012.

Part 1: Organizations, Equal marriage,
Part 2: Other Legislation.
Part 3: Persons.
Part 4: Spouses, Family, Kids.
Part 5: Political, Celebrities, Sports, Festivals.
Part 6: Schools, Universities & Colleges, Imprisonment, Nemeses, Internet.
Part 7: Doctors & Sexologists, Medicine, Genetics, Obituaries

Part 8: Fashion, Beauty Pageants, Music, Dance & Performance.

Part 9: Art, Television, Adverts, Theatre, Cinema.

Part 10: Jargon, News Media, Theses & Studies.

Part 11: Bookshops, Archives, Books.

Organizations

 

 International:

 

Global Action for Trans* Equality (GATE) 20 experts from most parts of the world met at the Dutch Ministry for Education, Culture and Science in The Hague on November 16-18 to discuss alternative models for trans* health classifications.

STP2012. In October 2012 more than 100 actions for trans depathologization took place in 50 cities worldwide, organized by over 80 activist groups and organizations, within the STP 2012 Call for Action.

Second International Intersex Forum, December, Stockholm, as part of the International Lesbian and Gay Association conference, demanded the ending of genital surgeries to 'normalize' and selective abortion on the grounds of intersex and ensuring 'the personal, free, prior and fully informed' consent of the intersex person before medical procedures. The forum sent a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calling for the UN to adopt intersex rights as part of their human rights work. The letter described human rights violations suffered by Indian gold-medal winning athlete Pink Pramanik who was accused of being a man.

A short history of (Harry) Benjamin Syndrome – by Zagria. The one and only history of this movement.

Americas:

 

APA: “Report of the American Psychiatric Association Task Force on Treatment of Gender Identity Disorder” www.springerlink.com/content/65145105t4000220/?MUD=MP.

Angels of Change. Annual Calendar Release and Runway Show benefits the Division of Adolescent Medicine of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Transgender Services 

Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists: Transgender Committee. Jack Pula, chairperson, would like to create a network of psychiatrists and residents of all gender identities who are interested in changing the curricula of medical schools and residency programs nationwide to include training in transgender issues.

Beca Trans, Peru ahs been started by The Homosexual Movement of Lima (MHOL), AIDS group Vía Libre and the Runa Institute of Gender Studies and Development (RUNA) to offer 45 transgender women the opportunity to complete their studies.

Chicago House has unveiled a new nine-bedroom facility to house transgender people on Chicago's North Side.

Cybele Matraeum in upstate New York lost its appeal for tax exemption as a religious organization, which is a big set-back for Pagan religious rights.

Gender Pac – a history by Pauline Park.

3 Louisiana Girl Scouts dissolved themselves because a Colorado troop accepted a trans girl. The National organization remains neutral.

Human Rights Campaign:

Revised its Corporate Equality Index to require equal health care for for trans employees and provide for gender surgery.

Chose Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein as its first national corporate spokesman for same-sex marriage. This shows that it is ethically neutral on big questions.

Visibility Award given to Lana Wachowski. Video.

Donated $250 to Chicago's Center on Halstead for its TDOR events. In response June Latrobe who has organized the Center's TDOR events for several years resigned in protest given HRC's past exclusion of trans concerns.

The National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) has launched the Transgender On-campus Nondiscrimination Information (TONI) Project.

National Workshop on Gender Creative Kids, organized by Kimberley Manning, Elizabeth Meyer & Annie Pullen Sansfaçon.

Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project gathered a petition with 1,700 signatures that Nova Scotia Human Rights Act should include gender identity and gender expression. This was acted on immediately by the New Democrat government.

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and OutServe merged in November and chose Allyson Robinson as their new leader.

Straight Spouse Network. "personal, confidential support and information to heterosexual spouses/partners, current or former, of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender mates and mixed-orientation or transgender/nontransgender couples for constructively resolving coming-out problems". Newsarticle.

Transgender Law Center celebrates 10 years of achievements.

TS-Si, the one-time HBS site that later renounced the label but retained a separatist tilt, has closed.

Toronto Trans March again defied Pride Toronto and took an unauthorized march.

Asia:

Nepal's Blue Diamond Society was defamed on Sagarmatha TV’s Khoj Khabar programme.

GANDA (Gender and Development Advocates) Filipinas founded.

Sukkur, Pakistan: trans women led by Sanam Fakir joined the protests against US drone strikes.

Turkey.

Istanbul’s Trans Pride March was supposed to start at 5pm, an hour after another march by right-wing groups in the same square to protest about the attacks by the PKK (Kurdish Workers’ Party) on Turkish soldiers. The fascists were still there and threw bottles and sticks. The police went in between the two groups and stopped the attack. The Trans Pride March, the finale of Turkey’s Trans Pride Week, started after the altercation and continued along Isitklal Street without any more problems.

ICS, Vietnam:

short film about trans women in Vietnam made by LGBT rights organization ICS has been watched over 200,000 times on YouTube. 'We decided to name it "Pêdê" - the word that society still uses to stigmatize transgender people - as a way to have a closer look at a familiar yet taboo topic,' Video.

Europe:

Association national transgenre (France) Boycotted a meeting with the Minister for Women’s Rights following a dispute over payment of expenses to enable the group's provincial members to attend.

Beaumont Society.

While the other UK trans organizations said nothing, Joanna Darrell of the BS did confirm to the Sunday Times that a pregnant trans man had contacted them.

Was contacted in advance about the Paddy Power advert.

Fourth European Transgender Council held in Dublin.

Organized by TGEU, TENI (Transgender Equality Network Ireland) and other local groups, and was attended by Over 250 activists and delegates from almost 40 countries. However delegates were verbally harassed and physically attacked in the streets.

Greek Transgendered Support Association

denounced the Greek Delegation to the UN for claiming that Greek legislation prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity, when it does not do so.

Homotopia, Liverpool, July 2012 until December 2014,

will feature workshops and opportunities for members of the transgender community to share their own experience, culminating in a major exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool.

TGEU Steering Committee

met with representatives of the EU Commission, 2-8 May in Brussels, and with the Regional Office for Europe of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – (OHCHR). .

TGEU

noted, on the occasion of the International Action Day on Trans Depathologization, that Transgender Identities are still regarded as mental disorders in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) of the World Health Organization. TGEU calls for a depathologization of trans identities and demands a change into a non-pathological category to guaranty full access to trans-related health care and recognition of identities.

Trans Media Watch:

referred Paddy Power advert to Clearcast.

gave evidence at the Leveson enquiry into invasions of privacy by the media in the UK.

Turkey:

Omar Kuddos was prompted by the murder of Seçil Anne of Antalya to sponsor a petition to the President that he should address the ongoing 'honour killings' of gay and trans persons.

Oceania

Queer Avengers, Wellington, glitterbombed Germain Greer, and protested other transphobics.

Equal marriage & civil unions

 

This issue is important for trans people, especially in the US where upon widowhood or divorce, a trans person often finds that s/he has no legal standing, and in Europe where existing marriages are required to be converted to civil unions when one party transitions.

------------
Trudy Ring. “Marriage Equality is a Trans Issue, Too”. The Advocate, January 09 2012. www.advocate.com/print-issue/advance/2012/01/09/marriage-equality-trans-issue-too.

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Americas

Alagoas: first Brazilian state to recognize same-sex marriages.

Bahia: recognition of same-sex marriage from November 2012.

Brazil: the human rights committee in Brazil’s Senate approved a change in the law to say a civil union is between two people, without saying they have to be opposite genders. (This is being achieved despite President Dilma Rousseff's continuing refusal to meet with GLBT organizations.)

California: four years after Proposition 8 removing equal marriage rights, the issue is still before the courts.

Non-residents married in Canada informed that that cannot divorce if they cannot do so where they live. This was admitted to be a loophole, and was fixed.

Colombia:

bill to legalize same-sex marriage passed the first of four votes.

Cuba: Bill to permit same-sex marriage before Parliament, but not passed.

Maine citizen's initiative petition for equal marriage passed.

Maryland referendum for equal marriage passed.

Mexico: the Supreme Court struck down Oaxaca'a law that denied same-sex marriage as discriminatory. This was based on the American Convention on Human Rights which has legal force in many Latin American countries.

Netherlands' Caribbean municipalities of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba have a new law permitting same-sex couples to marry.

New Jersey – equal marriage ballot proposed.

Uruguay – lower house of congress voted for marriage equality.

Washington State referendum for equal marriage passed.

Asia

Israel: A bill to legalize same-sex and interfaith civil marriages was defeated in the Knesset 39-11, but divorce granted to a same-sex couple who married abroad.

Europe

Denmark: the Folketing passed new laws to permit same-sex marriage and church weddings.

Jersey’s civil partnership law with provisions for religious ceremonies finally came into effect.

France: President Hollande has promised a bill in 2013. Large demonstrations pro and con.

Germany's ruling CDU rejected gay tax equality, but the issue will be decided by a court next year.

Hungary: new constitution restricts marriage to heterosexuals, and removed all protections for GLBT persons.

UK.

Government has asked judges to write the equal marriage law, the definition of consummation is proved to be a problem, and it has been announced that non-consummation will not be a grounds for same-sex divorce.

PM Cameron has announced that those churches, other than the Churches of England and Wales, that wish to conduct gay marriage will be allowed to do so.

In server contrast to the Simmons marriage blessing in 1969 , the Church of England of today has wholehearted rejected the proposal for equal marriage.

• Helen Belcher. "Trans people caught between marriage and partnership". GayStarNews, 08 November 2012. www.gaystarnews.com/article/trans-people-caught-between-marriage-and-partnership081112.
  

Oceania

New Zealand: Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill passed its first reading.