tagged w/ Gender Reassignment
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Lyralisa Stevens says she is harassed and sexually assaulted by male prisoners, and needs surgery to be assigned to a women's prison. State officials say they aren't required to provide that level of care.
Lyralisa Stevens, who was born male but lives as a female, is serving 50 years to life in a California prison for killing a San Bernardino County woman with a shotgun in a dispute over clothes.
Full Story: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/la-me-prisons-transgender-20110420,0,7175748,full.storyLyralisa Stevens says she is harassed and sexually assaulted by male prisoners, and... more
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The Thai Health Services Department has filed a lawsuit against Pratunam Polyclinic for castrating underage sex change candidates.
Officials hope that the legal action will constitute an example and discourage other clinics from providing the service that was made illegal last month when the Council of State ruled that commercial testicle-removal surgery was unlawful unless the procedure was carried out for diagnosed medical reasons.
Thep Vejvisit, owner of Pratunam Polyclinic in Bangkok, admitted operating to remove the testicles of males under 18. Health officials raided his clinic in March after a report it provided the service without parental consent.The Thai Health Services Department has filed a lawsuit against Pratunam Polyclinic... more
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A new law in Thailand is poised to ban castration procedures for biological males under the age of 18. Patients under the age of 21 will require parental permission to go ahead with the surgery.
LGBT activists raised the concern that a major and largely irreversible decision such as gender reassignment surgery should not be undertaken by children and teenagers, who might regret the move later in life. Prior to the new law, there were no age restrictions to the operation, and few or no questions asked. The procedure was also inexpensive, costing only $150.
It is estimated that out of Thailand’s 66 million people, about 180,000 are transgendered. Transsexuals and transgendered people are regarded as natural in Thailand, which is primarily Buddhist. According to Buddhist faith with its belief in reincarnation, the gender of the person is less fixed than the gender of the body into which a person might be born. In this sense, men who dress and live as women are accepted as part of the world’s natural order.
Some young individuals are not very happy about the new regulations, and some medical professionals don’t see a need to change the status quo.
Paiboon Marvin, a 16-year-old business student who is now too young to have the operation, has every intention of becoming a woman, and would rather not have to wait: "I don’t think I’m too young to do it. I know I won’t change my mind. I’ve known since I was a kid that I’m not male."
The president of the Medical Association of Thailand, Aurchat Kanjanapitak, took Marvin’s side: "We should respect their decisions and age shouldn’t be a fixed requirement. If someone happens to have a woman’s heart in a man’s body and doesn’t want to keep his testicles, the change should be allowed."
What do you think? Should teenagers and even children be allowed to receive hormone treatment and undergo surgery to allow them to live in and with the body they desire? Or does it make sense to wait until individuals are older even though sexual development during puberty will often make it much harder, especially for male-to-female transsexuals, to 'pass' and be content with their bodies?
A new law in Thailand is poised to ban castration procedures for biological males... more
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Premiering at Sundance in Park City, Utah, earlier this year, filmmaker Tanaz Eshaghian's documentary "Be Like Others" explores how some young men in Iran choose to have gender reassignment surgery -- permissable for "diagnosed transsexuals", as Ayatollah Khomeini announced over 20 years ago passing a law to support the medical procedure. One man in the film sees the option to allow him to pursue "a decent life." The alternative, however, comes with a cultural price to pay because men sexually attracted to men is not only taboo in Iran; homosexuality is punishable by death. "Be Like Others" reveals how several men make the transition through gender reassignment surgery, and their new lives as women. Dr Barhram Mir-Jalali, a Paris-trained physician who specializes in the procedure, estimates he has performed about 450 gender reassignment surgeries in the past 12 years ("Iran's 'diagnosed transsexuals' by Vanessa Barford, BBC News, 25 Feb 2008).Premiering at Sundance in Park City, Utah, earlier this year, filmmaker Tanaz... more
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Gone are the days when athletes hung up their boots and picked up a new trade. Fat salaries and outrageous sponsorship deals have ensured that successful modern sportsmen are financially comfortable well past their pension years.
Yvonne Buschbaum?s case is a little different, however. You see, at 27, the two-time European woman?s pole vault bronze medallist has decided to call time on her career.
So how will she invest her earnings? A statement on her website best explains her plans: ?I feel as if I am a man and I have to live my life in the body of a woman. I am aware of the fact that transsexuality is a fringe issue, and I do not want to be responsible for it remaining on the fringe.?
According to Sport magazine, ?gender reassignment is likely to involve? taking hormones that are on the World Anti-Doping Agency?s list of banned substances.?
Not wanting to risk being called a dope-cheat and a recent bout of injuries may have contributed to the timing of Buschbaum?s decision.
Gone are the days when athletes hung up their boots and picked up a new trade. Fat... more
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