🇳🇿 New Zealander selected as first transgender Olympian
Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/sport/...ympics-15057736



WELLINGTON: New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard was confirmed as the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the Olympic Games on Monday (Jun 21) when Kiwi officials named her in the squad for Tokyo next month.

New Zealand Olympic Committee chief Kereyn Smith said Hubbard, 43 - who was born male but transitioned to female in her thirties - had met all the qualification criteria for transgender athletes.

"We acknowledge that gender identity in sport is a highly sensitive and complex issue requiring a balance between human rights and fairness on the field of play," Smith said in a statement.

Hubbard, who also competed as a male, became eligible to lift as a woman after showing testosterone levels below the threshold required by the International Olympic Committee.

She will contest the women's +87kg category in Tokyo, an event in which she is currently ranked 16th in the world.

Olympic Weightlifting New Zealand President Richie Patterson said Hubbard has worked hard to come back from as potentially career-ending elbow injury suffered at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

"Laurel has shown grit and perseverance in her return from a significant injury and overcoming the challenges in building back confidence on the competition platform," he said.

Current IOC rules state a trans woman can compete provided her testosterone levels are below 10 nanomoles per litre, a criteria Hubbard meets.

But critics say she has numerous physical advantages from growing up male that make her presence in the competition unfair for female-born athletes.

Hubbard, an intensely private person who avoids the media, did not address the gender issue in remarks released by the NZOC.

But she thanks the community for supporting her return from injury.

"I am grateful and humbled by the kindness and support that has been given to me by so many New Zealanders ... your support, your encouragement, and your aroha (love) carried me through the darkness," she said.

🇲🇾 A RESPONSE TO CRITICISM AGAINST SUHAKAM’S STUDY “FEASIBILITY OF HAVING LEGISLATION OF THE RECOGNITION OF A THIRD GENDER IN MALAYSIA”



Legal gender recognition is the process of changing the name and gender information on official key documents and in registries, in order to recognize a person’s gender identity. This process recognizes transgender and non-binary persons as equal human beings with dignity and affirms their right to identity and self determination.

DISCRIMINATION CAUSED BY LACK OF LEGAL GENDER RECOGNITION

The non-recognition of gender identity in legal documents opens transgender persons up to multiple forms of discrimination, violence, degrading and humiliating treatment, fraud and other forms of exploitation. Simple, every day tasks like going to the bank can cause extreme anxiety for a trans person who has to reveal that they are transgender and answer questions regarding their gender identity.

Another example documented in ARROW’s LGBT Monitoring Report relates the humiliating experience of a trans woman and her friends who were made to stand in gender-segregated lines based on their gender marker in their identification cards during a club raid. They also faced verbal violence, including being told that they are men.

The Suhakam study “Discrimination Against Transgender Persons based in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor (2019) shows that 57% of the respondents faced pre-employment discrimination. Respondents were, among other things, subjected to intrusive questions about their gender identity, bodies and appearance, and the difference between their physical appearance and the gender identity stated in their identity cards.

Doxing or non-consensual disclosure of transgender persons’ gender identity, as well other forms of violation of privacy by state and non-state actors takes place with impunity. There are many instances of Malaysian state agencies that have directly violated transgender and intersex persons’ privacy by disclosing their gender identity in to the public. In 2020, state religious agencies obtained Nur Sajat’s legal documents from the National Registration Department, disclosing her deadname and assigned sex to the media without her consent, resulting in the deadnaming and misgendering of Sajat in the media, and prosecution against her based on her gender identity. Similarly, doxing can also potentially expose transgender persons to vigilantism.

In the past, state agencies have also proposed medical tests that are not evidence- or rights-based to determine a person’s gender identity. Gender identity is self determined. Just like cisgender people, transgender, non-binary and gender diverse persons do not need to be subjected to tests to determine their gender identity. Research shows that as human beings we are able to articulate and express our gender identity from childhood.

The International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) removed all trans-related diagnoses from the mental disorders chapter as “evidence is now clear that it is not a mental disorder, and indeed classifying it in this way can cause enormous stigma for people who are transgender…”

86% of the respondents of the Suhakam study stated that they would prefer to change their gender marker in their identification cards. These are the provided reasons:

• Their physical features conformed to male or female but this was not reflected in their identification card;
• To be recognised as woman or man;
• To avoid discrimination based on gender;
• To ease daily affairs such as movement, access to education and religion;
• To reflect current identity in their identification card;
• It would give benefits, advantages, comfort, confidence and boldness to them;
• It would be easier to obtain jobs;
• To avoid confusion of the (respondents) gender identity.

LEGAL GENDER RECOGNITION WILL HAVE A POSITIVE IMPACT ON TRANSGENDER PERSONS LIVES:

1. Ability to live with dignity and feel a sense of safety and security. The Suhakam study shows 46% of the respondents stated that they don’t feel safe living in Malaysia because of lack of acceptance, discriminatory laws, discrimination, lack of life security, unable to change gender marker in IC, increased vulnerability to arrest, among others. Meanwhile, 72% have thought of migrating to countries that provide better protection for trans people, legal gender recognition, accessible trans healthcare services, and an environment where trans persons are able to express themselves without hesitation. A gender recognition law will acknowledge transgender persons’ gender identity and contribute to transgender persons’ safety.
   
2. Significantly improve mental health and well-being. Transgender persons and other marginalized groups face minority stress as a result of the discrimination, violence and marginalization that they experience. In addition, transgender and non-binary persons experience varying levels of gender dysphoria, a form of anxiety and stress as a result of binary norms that trans and non-binary people are subjected to. For a transgender person, minority stress and gender dysphoria can surface when they are misgendered and mistreated because of their gender identity.
   
3. Strengthen families and foster family acceptance. Legal gender recognition can help lead to acceptance from family members, and reduce the isolation faced by transgender persons, thereby strengthening the family institution. One of the main drivers of discrimination, violence and suppression of gender identity and gender expression against transgender persons by family members is fear of discrimination, violence and marginalization of transgender persons. Thus, legal gender recognition and affirming laws can foster wider acceptance of transgender persons.
   
4. Opens doors for protection and access to all areas. Legal gender recognition will address multiple forms of discrimination and contribute to transgender persons gaining greater access to employment, healthcare services, housing, education and other areas of life without discrimination and fear.

Read more: https://justiceforsisters.wordpress.com/202...er-in-malaysia/





This post has been edited by internaldisputes: Jun 24 2021, 05:30 PM

🇺🇸 Danica Roem's message to LGBTQ youth: 'You have to care' about politics
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/20/politics...tics/index.html



It was a moment captured for the history books.

Danica Roem, on her knees with her face in her hands, crying. It was 2017 and she had just become the first state lawmaker who identifies as transgender elected in Virginia.

She will always be the first, but four years later, she is no longer the only person in the US who identifies as transgender to be elected and serve in a state legislative body. It's not a well populated trail, but one she is proud to have blazed.

"They were willing to look at me and they go, 'Yeah, we know she's trans and she'll do a great job,'" Roem said of her constituents in an interview with CNN earlier this month.

"I never say 'trans but,' always 'trans and.' Because it's like, no, I don't hide who I am. People know exactly who I am here."

And during this Pride Month, Roem has a message to the younger people in the LGBTQ community who say they don't like politics: "When you are an LGBTQ person, you have to care."

Roem represents Virginia's 13th District in the House of Delegates -- an area near the home of the first major battle of the Civil War. Roem jokes that there are still more things named after Confederate general Stonewall Jackson in her county than there are Starbucks locations.

She says her success is built on deep knowledge of local issues since she grew up in the Manassas area she now represents.

"When I was asked on election night, 'Hey, what does this mean?' It was just like, well, it means that a trans woman is going to finally work on fixing Route 28."

Though Roem is a state legislator, her history-making moment means her platform is national. She is well aware that her visibility and representation are changing the national conversation.

"What we learned from the marriage equality fights," she explained, is that "if you know a gay person in your life and you see just that person, just being a person, that you (are) far less likely to want to restrict their civil rights."

Given that 0.6% of Americans identify as transgender, according to a Gallup poll on LGBT identification published earlier this year, she recognizes that for some people, she may be the only trans person they know.

"If you know a trans person, you're much more likely to support our civil rights. But because there are fewer of us, it makes it a harder conversation."

Her path to politics

Before her run for office in 2017, Roem spent nine years as a journalist in her community, which she says was her chief qualification for elected office.

"What person is going to be more qualified to represent their community than a lifelong resident of that community who spent their career actually covering the public policy issues of the community?'"

She first got invested in politics in 2003, when then-President George W. Bush wanted to limit marriage to heterosexuals. She couldn't ignore what was happening.

"I would read the newspaper, I would read USA Today, New York Times," she says. "I would read those every single day, and then I would go online and I would read about politics, two hours a day, seven days a week, every day for years."

Though she hadn't yet come out, Roem said she sought to understand what legal mechanisms existed to protect people like her -- and more importantly -- how to fight for them.

Across the country today, many states permit a legal strategy known as the gay and trans "panic" defense, which can allow people who are charged with violent crimes against LGBTQ victims to argue that it was the victim's gender identity or sexual orientation that drove them to violence.

Earlier this year, at the behest of a teenage constituent who told her it was scary growing up knowing that someone could get away with harming them, Roem introduced a bill to ban the gay and trans panic defense for murder or manslaughter in Virginia.

"I realized ... that that person was living with the same fear in 2020 that I had as a closeted high school freshman in 1998."

It passed the legislature in February, making Virginia the first state in the South and 12th in the country to ban it as a defense of murder or manslaughter.

"We're simply saying that a person's mere presence and existence as an LGBTQ person does not constitute a heat of passion defense that negates malice in an attack. In layman's terms, you can't just assault and kill someone just because you feel like it," Roem said.

April Fools' Day

Roem was 14 years old when Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered in 1998 in Wyoming for being gay.

"I knew damn well who I was at that point, and I was too scared to tell anyone. And then when you see a young gay man in Wyoming being pistol-whipped, bound to a fence post, and left to die in the freezing cold. ... When you see that play out, it's the late nineties and you're in the South and you go, what's happening in Wyoming is not far fetched from what could be happening in Virginia," Roem recalled.

Fearing for her own safety and the lack of legal protection, and worried about how her family and friends would react, she waited another 14 years before she decided to transition.

"I was at a point at age 28 where I did not want to go into my thirties living a lie. I had pretended to be someone else my entire life by this point. I had known who I was since I was 10 years old."

She was afraid of disappointing people, especially her mom, she said, and struggled to decide how she wanted to tell people. She thought Facebook would be a good place to start, and eventually changed her gender and her name on the platform -- on April Fools' Day.

"I figured, okay, if it goes badly, 'April Fools!' If it goes well, I'll let it ride," she explained. "I thought it was the safest day of the year for me to do it because if I just did on like April 2, it would just be like, 'Um, I have questions. What are you trying to tell us?'"

Despite her concerns, she said she felt supported by friends who told her they loved her new look.

"And so go figure, that was like the day of my adult life where I was being real. April Fools' Day was the day I was being like, nope. This is actually who I am. And I've let it roll ever since."

As a teenager, Roem said she didn't have LGBTQ role models of her own -- she didn't even know any. She saw trans people portrayed in the media, but only in a limited, disheartening, fashion.

"Trans representation was whoever was being ridiculed on Jerry Springer," she remembered. "Or 'When we come back on Maury, we're going to have a shocking announcement about this person's really dating a man,' or, you know, like some stupid crap like that."

She knows now that she wasn't alone.

"Now I know at least five or six people who I went to school with who are out, including same-sex couples who are married now. And it's just the oddly comforting thing about that is like, 'Oh, it wasn't just me who was suffocating,'" Roem said.

'Politics cares about you'

This year has already become the worst year for anti-LGBTQ legislation in recent history, according to the Human Rights Campaign. As of May, more than 250 anti-LGBTQ bills had been introduced at the state level, with 17 of them signed into law.

"When you are an LGBTQ person in the United States, regardless of whether you care about politics, politics cares about you," Roem said.

Her plea is personal, and she hopes her activism will inspire the next generation into action as well.

"If you're not involved, if you are not your best advocate, you're asking someone else to fill that void. Some of the people who will try to step up to fill that void are going to be political charlatans who have no interest in preserving your best interest," Roem said.

"You can't count on other people to be your best advocate. You have to step up."

🇪🇺 Uefa add rainbow to logo as Hungary anti-LGBT row intensifies
Source: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...ow-intensifies/



LAUSANNE: Uefa on Wednesday added the rainbow to their logo as they defended their decision to refuse to allow Munich’s Allianz Arena to be illuminated in the same colours in protest at anti-LGBTQ laws passed in Hungary.

In a statement European football’s governing body said they “are proud to wear the colours of the rainbow”, a symbol for the LGBTQ community, but stood by their decision by saying the city of Munich’s request to illuminate the stadium was “political”.

Germany will play Hungary at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday on the final day of Euro 2020 group matches.

“The request itself was political, linked to the Hungarian football team’s presence in the stadium for this evening’s match with Germany,” Uefa said.

Uefa said that the rainbow was “a symbol that embodies our core values, promoting everything that we believe in – a more just and egalitarian society, tolerant of everyone, regardless of their background, belief or gender”.

And they insisted that their decision to turn down Munich’s request was not political, saying that “the rainbow is not a political symbol, but a sign of our firm commitment to a more diverse and inclusive society”.

Munich’s request to illuminate the stadium in the Bavarian capital came after the Hungarian parliament approved a ban on the “promotion” of homosexuality and gender change to minors, legislation that critics say is even harsher than Russia’s law on “gay propaganda”.

Last year homosexual couples were also effectively banned from adopting children, a measure that led to rare criticism of government policy by a Hungarian sports personality – the national team’s goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi.




This post has been edited by internaldisputes: Jun 24 2021, 09:25 AM

Trying to defend the first transgender athlete in the upcoming Olympics is very challenging because some people are very hung up to the idea that once someone is born a specific gender then they will always be that one gender.

I reckon the Olympic committee has had this debate a lot too in closed doors and finally settled to limiting the amount of testosterone one person has, among other biological metrics. I think that's a very good compromise. I wonder what sort of argument people will come up with next once we have the first transman participating in sports that emphasize less on strength and more on flexbility like badminton, for example.

Regardless, very excited for our first transgender athlete in the Olympics. Whether she wins or not, her participation will pave way to more athletes in the future who doesn't fit the traditional binary gender roles. What a time to be alive.




This post has been edited by internaldisputes: Jun 24 2021, 10:52 AM