Killings of gays increase in Mexico, report says

(Mexico City) Killings of gays and lesbians have risen in Mexico despite a government tolerance campaign and a law legalizing same-sex marriage in the capital, according to a report released Thursday by a coalition of civic groups.

A review of more than 70 newspapers in 11 Mexican states found an average of nearly 30 killings a year motivated by homophobia between 1995 and 2000, compared to nearly 60 a year between 2001 and 2009, the report said.

Ricardo Bucio, president of the government’s National Council for the Prevention of Discrimination, backed the report, saying it gave visibility to a lingering problem.

The government launched a radio campaign in 2005 to promote tolerance of homosexuals.

In December, the Mexico City legislature approved the first law in Latin America explicitly giving gay marriages the same status as heterosexual ones. The legislation, affecting only the capital, also allows same-sex couples to adopt children.

Mexico City’s annual gay pride parade draws tens of thousands of people, and in some neighborhoods gays openly hold hands.

But violence against gays seems to have increased as more become public about their sexual orientation, said Alejandro Brito, director of Letter S, one of the groups that released the report.

Mexico City had the most homophobia-motivated killings, with 144 between 1995 and 2009, according to the report.

Despite the federal government’s push to promote tolerance, President Felipe Calderon’s conservative administration campaigned against the Mexico City law allowing same-sex marriage.

Transgender veteran irate over disriminatory treatment by police

Autumn Sandeen, a 20-year veteran of the Navy, wrote an open letter to President Barack Obama on Monday decrying the intense discrimination she was subjected to as a transgender woman after being arrested at the White House last week.

Sandeen (top left in the photo) and five former and current members of the armed forces, including Lt. Dan Choi, chained themselves to the White House on Friday as part of a GetEQUAL protest of the military’s discriminatory stance on gay service.

[1]

Sandeen wrote on Pam’s House Blend [2], “When I handcuffed myself to the White House fence, I wasn’t an impersonator wearing a costume; I was proudly wearing an appropriate uniform for my gender identity.”

Yet Park Police treated her as less than human. Several people, she wrote, overheard one U.S. Marshal say, “Did you see it? The nerve of it to be wearing a Navy uniform. Did you see the shim in the Navy Uniform?”

Her outrage is understandable. And her message is clear: “President Obama,” she wrote, ”your U.S. Marshal calling me ‘it’ and ‘the shim’ is the equivalent to calling an African-American by the N-word, or calling a gay-American by the anti-gay F-word, it is absolutely unacceptable.”

[1] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-dadt-protest-sandeen-top.jpg
[2] http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/15940/president-obama-a-transgender-veteran-is-not-impersonator-it-or-shim

GENDA becomes Mass. campaign issue

Deval Patrick reiterated his support for a ban on anti-trans discrimination in a fundraising letter.

Bisexuals sue gays for discrimination

Three bi men are suing a gay association saying they were told they weren’t gay enough.

Man reports hate crime in Montana

A Montana man reported being assaulted by an anti-gay crowd of eight to 10 men, the Missoulian [1] reported.

Early Saturday morning outside of an AmVets club in Missoula, a 32-year-old man claimed he was beaten and harassed with anti-gay slurs. Apparently, the man first drove himself to a local hospital to receive medical attention, and later reported the incident to police.

[2]

Missoula Police Sgt. Bob Bouchee told the Missoulian none of the injuries were serious. The man was treated and released by Saturday afternoon.

“I can’t say for sure that the victim was chosen out of discrimination or if the derogatory term was used against him as part of the disturbance, but there were some words used that lead us to believe it was a discrimination-type assault,” Bouchee told the paper.

[1] http://www.missoulian.com/news/local/9093565e-4105-11df-a7b1-001cc4c002e0.html
[2] http://www.365gay.com/wp-content/uploads/news-gay-slurs-top.jpg

Trangender rights bill passes NY Assembly, faces uphill battle

The Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act quietly passed throught the New York Assembly on Tuesday with at 91-40 vote. This is the third consecutive year the Assembly passed the bill that protects transgender New Yorkers from discrimination in housing and employment.

The bill now faces a series of hurdles in the Senate, …