What church do youattend? Is it one that is welcoming, reconciling, and affirming orone that preaches discrimination, prejudice, and bigotry of aminority?

What church do youattend? Do they preach acceptance, tolerance, love, understanding,and inclusion or do they preach intolerance, exclusion,discrimination, prejudice, hate, bigotry, and shunning?

What church do youattend? Are the teachings of the Lord God with happiness, fun,gatherings, socializing, and inclusion of all peoples no matter Who,What, Where, or How they are or are the teachings of evil with gloom,doom, fear, discipline, hate, and exclusion of some minority orother?

What church do youattend? Do the congregants believe, practice, act, sound, and dowhat they profess or do the congregants offer lip service andpractice, act, sound, and do opposing beliefs?

What church do youattend? Is there genuine acceptance of all or false hypocrisy of “ToLove Everyone”?

Written on: 11/17/2009 [20:39] Michelle Alexander at www.tlcrn.com also author of "Color of Sunlight".

My Journey:
My name is Michelle Alexander. I am a natal woman from a small rural community in Montana. I am a Home Health-Hospice Nurse. I have been an RN for almost a quarter of a century, the majority of my career spent in Home Health and Hospice Service. In that time, I have had the opportunity to care for hundreds of ill and dying patients across a broad spectrum of humanity: the rich and the poor; elderly and young; male and female; numerous nationalities, ethnicities and cultural backgrounds.
In the year 2006, I was blessed with an assignment to care for a patient who touched my heart and life in a way that no other patient had before. Her name was Mishelle Woodring. She was a transgender woman. She was put on our Home Health Service for a seven day course of intravenous antibiotics to treat a respiratory infection. What began as a seven day professional encounter turned into a four and half month expedition into identity, gender and unconditional acceptance that affected me profoundly then and continues to affect me even today.
Until the time that I met Mishelle, my experience with the transgender community was essentially nil. Zero. Nothing. My only encounter was in a well-known drag club in Portland my mother took me to while I was still in nursing school. Her intention at that time was to broaden my horizons, given my small-town origins in Butte, Montana. Up to that point, I‘d had very little exposure to anything resembling diversity.
Before meeting Mishelle, my mental image of a transgender person was what I saw that night in a drag club; what I now know to be an utterly unrealistic portrait of the transgender community. With a casual, unthinking prejudice, I assumed that Mishelle was a male who chose to dress as a female. I thought of her as a transvestite, a term largely acknowledged today as obsolete. I soon discovered that my prejudices regarding Mishelle were equally obsolete.
Mishelle was utterly unique in my experience in that she was completely blind. Totally blind -no shadows, nothing. But she had a relatively powerful memory of having had sight for the first eighteen months of her life. She thought she may have remembered the colors red and green and images of her family farm. She was fifty-six years old when I met her. Consider that if you will: hers was a life led in complete darkness for over half a century.
To my eternal shame, I confess that for the first three weeks of our relationship, I felt awkward around Mishelle and found myself repeatedly judging her. I remained respectful of her but judge her I most certainly did. Secretly, I hoped that she couldn’t sense this. I was conflicted; uncomfortable with her and more uncomfortable with myself for my inability to find a measure of acceptance with my patient.
My discomfort with Mishelle continued for about three weeks. I was very curious and bursting with questions, but I didn’t want to offend her by being nosy. But she must have sensed my curiosity because she broke the ice by telling me: "If you have the courage to ask, I have the courage to answer."
That was all it took to begin the process of opening my mind and heart to her. Mishelle became my teacher and I gladly became her student. She gave me books to read and videos to watch. With each assignment, the questions multiplied and my curiosity grew by leaps and bounds. She gave me her journal, typed on an old fashioned typewriter, covering the years 1988 to 1991, filled with her deepest emotions and darkest fears. Reading it, I discovered that her daily existence was filled with pain, rejection, fear and moral questions the likes of which I‘d never considered.
My heart opened to her. I too had been blind. But now my eyes were opened and I understood. I could see that being a transsexual was not a choice nor was it a lifestyle. It could only come from within. I finally realized that it was not about the clothing nor was it about merely being feminine but was instead wholly concerned with identity: a deep sense of self.
The core of this realization was her blindness. She did not have a visual construct of what a female or a male looked like. She could not look at another woman and think: "That is what I want to look like. That is how I want to dress."
It was at this time that I began crossing professional boundaries with Mishelle, something I had never done in over twenty years of a successful career in nursing. I began visiting her on my off time. I introduced her to my husband and two boys--ages 9 and 12 at the time. We took her under our wing and made her part of our family. She visited our home--with our cheerful assistance--on numerous occasions, most notably for her fifty-seventh birthday. I gave her my cell phone number, my home phone and my email address; all violations of professional conduct. Nevertheless, it felt like the right thing to do and still does.
Mishelle transitioned in Kalispell, Montana, a small town with a population of perhaps seven thousand hard-nosed conservatives. Believe me when I say that her transition was completely and utterly an act of self-determination, raw, unadulterated courage and iron will. Like many transgender folk, she had no guidance, no assistance and very few resources to draw upon; a situation further complicated by her blindness. She could not find a physician to prescribe her the necessary replacement hormones. Eventually, she did contact a counselor but ironically, he had no knowledge of gender issues nor any experience working with a transgender client. She had very little support from her friends or family. The employment possibilities for a blind trans woman in Kalispell in the late Eighties were extremely limited. But despite all of the adversities in her path, she did not let them stop her in her quest. Instead, the obstacles she encountered made her all the more determined to become the person she knew herself to be; had known since she was a small child: a female.
Some two months after we met, I attended a spiritual retreat; a Catholic Crusillo. It was a life-changing experience and though I struggled with the knowledge at first, I understood now why I was in Mishelle’s life. I knew that she would soon pass away, that it was my role to help her through the emotional process and to be with her throughout the final journey, to show her the unconditional love and acceptance she so richly deserved before she died. I knew as well that she had remained here on this Earth in spite of her terminal illness to educate me so that I could in turn educate others.

Mishelle died on August twelfth, 2006. She died comfortably, with peace in her heart. She knew that she was wholly accepted and loved unconditionally by myself and my family. It was my honor to hold her in my arms as she breathed her last.
I can tell you this as well: meeting Mishelle, getting to know her on such a deep, meaningful level has changed my life. I embrace the lessons that I learned from my dear friend and teacher and strive to apply them in my daily existence. I am forever committed to doing my part in ‘paying it forward‘. My goal is not only to be an lifelong ally to the trans community but to also share Mishelle’s story with anyone and everyone who will listen.
Her story is entitled The Color of Sunlight. This co-written memoir is in the final stages and will be published in mid-February of 2010. My assistant is a dear trans woman that I was fortunate beyond words to have met on my journey. Synchronicities abound: her name just happens to be Michelle, too. In this book you will find the details of Mishelle’s life and how I and my family came to know her, love her and understand the greatness of her spirit.
It was Mishelle’s dream that her experience might open hearts and minds to the true internal landscape of a transgender individual. It has become my dream as well. My intent is to demonstrate that being transgender has nothing to do with external appearance. It is not about the look, not about the dress, not about a life-style choice, not a fetish and certainly not perverse nor a definition of one‘s sexuality. My dear friend and teacher was convinced that her choice was to transition or die. She chose to live. She chose to educate and she chose to face her adversities. She chose to love and she chose to forgive. She was my teacher. She was my friend. I am and will be forever grateful that she was placed into my life. I had the opportunity to care for her, to learn from her and show her the unconditional love and acceptance she so completely deserved and I am blessed beyond measure for it.

Love,
Michelle

TransFaith Discussion Forum

Forum » Sacred Conversations » How My Life Has Changed [open]

http://network.transfaithonline.org/?id=36&no_cache=1&tx_mmforum_pi1[action]=list_post&tx_mmforum_pi1[tid]=129

It is time again for World Aids Day.  Tuesday, December the 1st, 2009.  At the Tower Theater for the Performing Arts, on Olive and Wishon, Fresno, CA, U.S.A.  Starts at 5:30 p.m. to about 8:30 p.m.  FREE!  Reception, entertainment, memorial, and luminaria.

On Saturday, May the 15, 2010, I, Rachel Joy Bowman, will be flying to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  On Monday, May the 17, 2010, I will be reborn.  May 17th is my birthday and my second birthday.  Sexual Reassignment Surgery will be done by Dr. Sherman Leis at the Transgender Center.  www.thetransgendercenter.com.  Check out the site.  They do everything.
I will be in recovery for 12 days, coming home Monday, May the 31st, 2010.
I have to come up with about $2,000.00 down and hope I qualify for the credit needed to pay the rest ($18,000.00) on time.
The Transgender Center is a clinic that was converted from a very large estate.  It does have provisions for staying in one of the rooms.  The hospital is the Bucks County Hospital.
I hope to raise the funds with my California Unemployment Insurance or some sort of job (hopefully) and fundraising efforts, such as recycling aluminum cans and plastic bottles, begging, hitting on friends (watch out, here I come), sewing for profit, selling at yard sales, selling on Craigs List or ebay, and any other means anyone can suggest.
Wish me luck - please!

by Charles Q. Choi, Special to LiveScience
posted: 09 November 2009 03:03 pm ET
One day artificial penis tissue could be grown to help men, new findings in rabbits now suggest.
After implantation with replacement tissue, lab rabbits that once had damaged penises had working organs and could produce offspring.
"Further studies are required, of course, but our results are encouraging and suggest that the technology has considerable potential for patients who need penile reconstruction," said researcher Anthony Atala, director of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Such methods could potentially aid men who just want to enhance their normal penises, rather than repairing any damage.
"Our intent and the goal of our work is to provide a solution for men who need penile erectile tissue for medical reasons," Atala told LiveScience. "Of course, you cannot control how the technology is used in terms of what patients want."
The real hope is "that patients with congenital abnormalities, penile cancer, traumatic injury and some cases of erectile dysfunction will benefit from this technology in the future," Atala said.
The challenge
Reconstructing the spongy erectile tissue in damaged or diseased penises has traditionally been a challenge because of its complex structure and the intricate cellular interactions needed to make it work properly. A number of different kinds of surgery have been attempted — often procedures with multiple stages that can involve a silicone penis prosthesis — but natural erectile function is generally not restored.
"There is nothing more devastating for a surgeon than to be in the operating room and to have no tissue to give a patient who needs it," Atala said. "We want to find a solution to that dilemma."
The researchers sought to solve this problem by engineering replacement tissues in the lab. They first harvested the kinds of cells that line blood vessels ­— smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells — from the erectile tissue of rabbits. During an erection, the endothelial cells release nitric oxide, which makes the smooth muscle tissue relax, permitting an influx of blood into the penis.
After letting the cells multiply, millions of them were injected into scaffolds made from rabbit penises stripped of all their cells with detergents. These scaffolds provided support as the injected cells developed. After implanting the scaffolds in the penises of 12 male New Zealand White rabbits, organized tissue with vessels began to form as early as one month afterward.
"In much of our work, we have learned that 'nature knows best,' and this is certainly true with decellularized organs — they are ideal to support cells as they multiply and as tissue develops," Atala said.
The cells were injected into scaffolds on two separate days, enabling them to hold nearly six times as many smooth muscle cells as in the prior research, which the scientists believe was a major key to success. Tests showed that blood pressure and flow within the erectile tissue was normal and that veins drained normally after erection.
Just like rabbits

All rabbits with the bioengineered penises were just as active as normal rabbits — they tried sex within a minute of introduction to females. Swabs from the females held sperm in eight of 12 instances and four of the females became pregnant, delivering healthy pups.
"Although many scientists shy away from doing research in this critical area, these are all very important body structures — especially if you're a man," said stem cell scientist Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass., who did not take part in this research. "Certainly no one wants to be known as the 'penis doctor' — so bravo to Tony for having the courage to develop this reconstructive procedure, which could potentially help thousands of people suffering from congenital anomalies, penile cancer, and traumatic injuries. This is the most complete functional replacement of erectile tissue reported to date."
If the scientists do try and help people with this research, naturally they will not use rabbit cells with men.
"We would take a small sample of a patient's erectile tissue, extract the cells we need and multiply them in the laboratory," Atala explained. "The resulting tissue would be a perfect match for the patient.
Future research also might not depend on scaffolds made from decellularized penises. Instead, Atala and his colleagues could print three-dimensional scaffolds out from materials such as collagen. "We can print structures to make them to order as needed," he said.
"Regenerative medicine isn't science fiction as many people believe — it is benefiting patients right now and has the potential for even wider use in the future," Atala added.
The scientists detailed their findings online November 9 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Yes, it is a LAW!  A Federal Law!

Today, something extraordinary happened. Love conquered hate. After more than a decade, the inclusive hate crimes bill we've fought so hard for has been signed by the president and sealed in law.

It took twelve years, over one million emails, faxes and phone calls to Congress, and 14 separate votes on the floors of the House and the Senate to turn the hate crimes bill into law. Right-wing groups opposed us ferociously until the very end; they knew having a pro-LGBT law on the books would be a game-changer, and it is.

 

I cannot overstate the importance of this moment. This is the first time ANY federal equality measure protecting LGBT rights has become law. The very first time. And it is the first federal law to explicitly protect transgender people. It is a touchstone in our movement, a triumph of what is right. And I truly feel things will never be the same.

Please check out the article on "Womb transplants" at blog.rachelbowman.com.  The chance for Trans to Female is getting closer to real real!!!!  Other research into ovarian cancer and stem cell growth is another area I am googling, too.

Criminal Contractors

Four years ago, Jamie Leigh Jones was drugged and gang-raped, vaginally and anally, while working for defense contractor KBR (a subsidiary of Halliburton at the time) in Iraq. She then was locked in a shipping container without food, water or medical treatment in an attempt to keep the story quiet. She was unable to sue KBR for sex discrimination in open court because KBR was one of many companies with government contracts that require employees to sign individual contracts barring lawsuits and forcing mandatory binding arbitration, where the company almost always wins.

Sen. Al Franken's (D-Minn.) amendment to a defense appropriations bill pending in Congress restores women's rights to jury trials when employed by a company with a government contract. This amendment is in jeopardy, thanks to the lobbying of Appropriations Committee Chair Sen. Daniel Inouye (D -Hawaii) by deep-pocketed defense contractors.

Please call the office of the Defense Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee NOW before it's too late. The staff member who is handling this issue is Nicole DiResta, and her direct line is 202-224-3506. Make sure to leave a message if you reach voice mail. If Ms. DiResta's voice mail fills up, the main number is 202-224-6688.

Please note: Sen. Inouye's name is pronounced "In-uh-way."

Hate Crimes Act

As we note the historic passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, we remember the lives of these and countless other victims of hate violence:

Angie Zapata, beaten to death because she was transgender. Her murderer referred to her as "it." She was twenty years old.

Balbir Singh Sodhi, age 52. A Sikh American, he was shot to death by a man who, thinking that he was of Arab descent, took private revenge for the attacks of 9/11.

Jose Sucuzhanay, murdered at age 31 by men who saw him walking arm in arm with his brother and assumed that he was gay. The assailants added anti-Hispanic and anti-gay slurs to the violence they inflicted on him.

Matthew Shepard, age 21, was taken to a remote area by two men and was severely beaten, then tied to a fence and left to die because he was gay.

James Byrd, Jr. was chained to the back of a pick-up truck and dragged for three miles. His killers left evidence inscribed with "KKK" to show their intent. Byrd was 49 years old.

We mourn their loss, celebrate their lives, and share their friends' and families' grief.  Passing this legislation honors the lives of these good people whom we lost too soon. But we must not mistake it for a monument to them, or a plaque commemorating distant history. The hate crimes law is necessary because the scourge of hate violence that took these lives has not ended.

Dr. King often quoted the Book of Amos, saying that we must not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."

In passing this bill, Congress has unleashed the power of justice to combat hate. And it has done more.  Senator Edward Kennedy once said that this legislation sends "a message about freedom and equality that will resonate around the world." This marks the first time that we have as a nation expressed—explicitly, and with teeth—that LGBT people are to be protected. And this law sends a loud message that perpetrators of hate violence against anyone will be brought to justice.  This message, and this powerful tool in combating hate crimes, will erode the very foundations of the hatred that has taken so many lives already. From the justice that this Act provides—the righteousness, and the end of violence, will necessarily flow.

Sincerely,

Joe Solmonese, President, Human Rights Campaign

Visit www.loveconquershate.org to learn more about the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Trans-e-motion has signed on to endorse the following:
globalsouthlgbtiqactivists@gmail.com

re: SIGN-ON STATEMENT: Equality and Justice for ALL LGBTIQ People in the World!

From: intersex-forum@googlegroups.com on behalf of Bruce Amoroto (bruce.amoroto@gmail.com)

Sent: Wed 10/14/09 11:18 AM

To: Intersex Forum (intersex-forum@googlegroups.com)

In view of the recently-concluded Twelfth Regular Session of the United Nations Human
Rights Council, the October 10-11 National Equality March in the United States,
October 10 World Mental Health Day, October 11 International Coming Out Day,
October 16 United Nations World Food Day, October 17 United Nations International Day
for the Eradication of Poverty, October 17 Global Action to Stop Trans Pathologization,
October 24 United Nations Day, United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen
on 1-18 December 2009, and December 10 United Nations Human Rights Day, lesbians, gays,
bisexuals, transgenders, transsexuals, intersex, and other sexual and gender minorities
from the Global South through the Global South LGBTIQ Activists' Forum drafted and are
releasing this sign-on statement inviting the support of LGBTIQs from the Global South
and the Global North.

Translations of this statement in various languages will be available soon.

To have your individual and organizational names listed in this statement you may email
us at globalsouthlgbtiqactivists@gmail.com.You may also check out our blog at

http://globalsouthlgbtiqactivistsforum.blogspot.com/2009/10/sign-on-statement-equality-and-justice.html

Global South LGBTIQ Activists' Forum

http://groups.to/globalsouthlgbtiqactivists

Equality and Justice for the People of the Global South!

Equality and Justice for All LGBTIQ People in the World!

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

And today, we, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, transsexuals, intersex, queers
(LGBTIQs) and other 'sexual and gender minorities' (SGMs) from the Global South and the
Global North commemorate that message of Martin Luther King Jr. as we join our sisters
and brothers in the United States and all over the world in marching for justice and
equality in civil and political rights. But more than marching for these rights,
we LGBTIs and other SGMs from the Global South and the Global North are today also
marching for our economic, social, cultural, and collective rights. We believe that
there can never be a genuine and more meaningful justice and equality for ALL lesbians,
gays, bisexuals, transgenders, intersex and other 'sexual and gender minorities'
in the world if there is economic, social, cultural and collective injustice, oppression
and violence committed against the people of the Global South by International Financial
Institutions (IFIs), States, governments, corporations and multinational-transnational
companies from and based in the Global North.

In our daily lives, we from the Global South face not only violation of our civil and
political rights, but more importantly and for a very long time we have experienced
violation of our economic, social, cultural and collective rights. As sexual and gender
minorities, we have  experienced not only stigma, discrimination, abuse, and violence on
the basis of our sexual orientation and gender identity but as citizens of the Global
South, we continue to experience  structural and systemic violations of our dignity,
rights, and freedoms caused by socio-economic inequality and poverty, patriarchy and
heterosexism-heteronormativity, racism, xenophobia, discrimination on the basis of
our ethnicity, culture and religion, religious fundamentalism and intolerance, and war.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, there is State-sponsored homophobia allowing violence against
sexual and gender minorities committed by the family, religion, schools, and the law
and law enforcers. Poverty and the imposition of neoliberal policies and structural
adjustment programs on the region have led to safety nets for social protection and for
basic social services on food, health, education and housing for LGBTIs to be almost
non-existent. LGBTI people are stigmatized and colonial-era laws penalize homosexual
conduct. Media and the work of civil society is censored and with the collusion of
the government and the church, an "African culture" is used to justify the
discrimination, abuse and violence against LGBTIs and other SGMs.

Media is often used by the government to further marginalize and violate the rights
of sexual and gender minorities. Religious fundamentalists have successfully forged
a pan-African alliance against homosexuality such that in countries that do not
previously have laws criminalizing homosexuality have been strongly influenced to
put into law harsher penalties in areas related to sexuality. And while many are
dying from hunger and HIV/AIDS, LGBTIs remain marginalized due to policy and funding
exclusion from the government and conservative NGOs and funding agencies.
Women-who-have-sex-with-women (WSW) remain excluded in HIV intervention programs
and despite numerous researches done on men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM), there are
still no government-run intervention programs specifically for them.

In the Middle East and North Africa, specifically after the invasion of Iraq by
American and allied forces and in light of the global policy on "war against terrorism",
there has been in recent years brutal crackdowns and campaigns aimed at cleaning up
so-called deviant sexuality or gender expression. While laws criminalizing homosexual
conduct between men as well as between women exist in most countries of the region,
these laws are not purely products of Islam as many outside MENA commonly believe but
are mostly products of colonialism.

While religion-based regimes as well as secular and authoritarian States in the
region carry out crackdowns on sexuality ascertaining the intensity and frequency
of arrests and executions can be difficult. Situations vary from one country to another
in the region but generally, women and LGBTQ people still lack recognition and
protection of their basic human rights and fundamental freedoms as equals in society.
Women in the region are particularly at high risk of violence as they have no control
over their own bodies and their own movements due to structures and systems related
to the family, custom, law, as well as the economy. LGBTQ people on the other hand,
if in case they are out and manage to stay alive, are still stigmatized, discriminated,
and at high risk of violence because of laws, customs and views related to sexuality.
Civil society has been under severe attack and some existing NGOs have been placed
under strict conditions since the 1990s. And while the internet has brought promise
to developing a LGBTQ community especially among those who can afford it, like civil
society, it too has been subjected to censorship particularly on issues related to
sexuality and gender. Lastly, while HIV/AIDS have remained unreported and invisible
in the region, information on sexuality and related rights violations have likewise
remained scanty.

In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, despite democracy being gained after the fall of
the Berlin Wall in 1989, conservative codes of morality and masculinity still play
out and many LGBTs have now been beaten, jailed, and denied their rights to expression
and to peaceful assembly and association. While `sodomy laws' have been scrapped,
vilification of LGBT people from political and religious leaders continue which then
fans the flames of hatred from organized extremists, Neo-Nazis in particular. LGBTs
are stigmatized and marginalized as homosexuality and transgenderism are called a sin,
a sickness, or a break from so-called "traditional values". Overall, violence against
LGBT people in the region includes verbal and family violence, physical attack, sexual
assault, and sexual harassment. While accession to the European Union brings some
promise to many LGBTs in the region, organizing around issues has been troubled due
to little and lessening international funding.

In Asia and the Pacific, there is diversity in people, culture, political and
religious systems, and issues. Abuse and violence against LGBTIs and SGMs arise
from either one or a combination of colonialism and laws like `sodomy laws',
conservative codes of morality, gender and sexuality, and poverty. In former British
colonies as well as in non-British colonies across the region, versions of the
colonial provision on the `carnal intercourse against the order of nature' play
out and decriminalization of homosexual acts form a big part of the struggle of
LGBTIQs, SGMs, and their organizations. Many LGBTIQs and SGMs experience stigmatization,
marginalization, and violence ranging from verbal and family violence, physical attack,
sexual assault, and sexual harassment. As in other regions of the world, homosexuality
and transgenderism-transsexuality is also seen as a sin, a sickness, a break from
so-called "Asian values", or all of the above. For many countries in the region,
especially those that experienced colonization, the biggest struggle is still
poverty (eradication). Many in Asia and the Pacific continue to face structural
and systemic violations of their dignity, rights and freedoms due to the dynamics
of elite rule and socio-economic inequality, patriarchy, discrimination on the bases
of race, ethnicity, culture, religion, and health status (e.g. HIV/AIDS, disability),
regionalism, and war while suffering the impact of the imposition of structural
adjustment programs of IFIs and the dehumanizing influence and role played by
multilateral-transnational corporations and select powerful States and governments.
In recent years there has been a growth in extremist-nationalism and religious
fundamentalism and intolerance leading to further stigmatization, marginalization,
discrimination, and violence against women, LGBTIQs and SGMs in the region.

In the Caribbean, there is a high level of social homophobia rooted in British
colonial laws. The combination of an intensely repressive environment in families,
communities, and public spaces, and antiquated laws on sexuality keeps people
underground and closeted and sometimes kills those who come out of the closet.
British colonial laws like `buggery laws'(related to `sodomy laws') prevent LGBTs
from being visible which then leads to further discrimination at work, family life,
law, and public life. Homophobia and violence against LGBTs exist and are strengthened
by culture's strong definitions of masculinity and femininity that are supported by
religious fundamentalists and political conservatives.

In Latin America much has been won by the LGBT community in the past twenty years.
Democracy has paved the way for the political and cultural participation of many
in the LGBT sector which then enabled a few countries in the region to now have
national protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
However, poverty and violence against LGBTs and other SGMs still exist. While
sodomy laws' have been repealed in most of the countries in the region, police
brutality and human rights abuses continue due mainly to strong codes of morality
and good customs which are strengthened by the influence of the church and religious
fundamentalists. Still dominating much of the region, hetero-patriarchal values have
especially become harmful to women many lesbians, bisexual women, and transwomen,
for example, have been murdered and killed by family members of their respective
partners. In many countries in the region sexuality education is still anchored on
reproduction and many sexual and gender minorities have been morally and
psychologically attacked by the school system and its members. Services in health
are lacking or are denied from transgender people. Workplace discrimination is also
common.

All of these problems however are not isolated cases but  are in fact nationally
and regionally reinforced because of the existing inequity and inequality in the
current global economic and political structure--the divide between the rich, advanced,
and developed countries of the Global North and the poor and "developing" countries
of the Global South.

The "indebtedness" of the Global South is the result of the exploitation and control
of the resources, economies and peoples of the Global South throughout the history
of colonization, neocolonization, and capitalist globalization. There are odious,
onerous and illegitimate debts that the Global South does not actually owe and need
to pay the Global North but there are certainly historical, social, economic, and
ecological debts that the Global North needs to pay the Global South. In the spirit
of justice, all of these debts must be audited and accounted for in a comprehensive
and participatory manner and full restitution and reparations be made for the human,
social, and environmental damages caused in the Global South. We strongly believe and
support the call for Total Debt Cancellation without conditionalities for all countries
of the Global South as a crucial first step towards addressing this divide between
the Global North and the Global South and the long-standing economic-social-cultural
and collective oppression and violence against the people of the Global South.

In order for us LGBTIQs and other SGMs in the Global South to have our equality
in dignity, rights, and freedoms fulfilled, our governments and States must have
their equal right to a healthy and sustainable environment, equal right to development,
and equal  right to economic and political self-determination free from the destructive
and deadly influence, meddling and coercion of international financial institutions
(IFIs) like the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Asian Development Bank,
Financial Stability Forum, World Trade Organization and of powerful States and
governments. As peoples of the Global South, we have witnessed and experienced not
only the destruction of our economic, cultural, and biological diversity, but we
have also witnessed the rejection, negation and destruction of our sexual and gender
diversity because of so-called "development" paradigms, policies, and programs peddled
by these IFIs and serving only the interests of a few States and governments.

In view of the global economic and financial crisis, we strongly support the call
for the shutdown of these IFIs so that our States and governments can independently
and effectively fulfill our economic, social and cultural rights--right to food,
right to the highest attainable standard of health, right to education, right to
adequate housing, right to work in a conducive environment with just compensation,
right to social security and to other social protection measures, right to participate
in cultural life, right to a recognized and respected cultural identity, and others,
as well as our collective rights--right to sustainable development, right to economic
and political self-determination, right to a healthy and balanced environment, and
right to peace, so we may live our lives in dignity, free from discrimination on
the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identity. We strongly support the
call for reform and the strengthening of the United Nations so that no country or
group of countries can control and dominate the affairs of this august body to the
detriment of other nations and countries, and so that this body can effectively
fulfill its mandate of protecting the equality in dignity, rights and freedoms of
ALL people no matter what their sexes, genders, sexual orientations, or gender
identities are.

In view of the global food, fuel, and climate crises and their huge impact on the
people of the Global South and on Earth, we call on the IFIs, transnational/multinational
companies, corporations, governments, and States from the Global North to acknowledge
their role in these crises, to cease polluting the environment with their policies,
programs, and products, and to take immediate and full responsibility in helping
governments and States from the Global South to adapt to climate change with full
recognition, respect for, and protection of their equal right to development, equal
right to self-determination, and  equal right to a healthy and sustainable environment.
At the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Denmark this December, we call on
all States and governments to agree on decisively and drastically bringing down
greenhouse gas emissions to below 1990 levels and to work together so that countries
from the Global South can adapt to climate change fully recognizing, respecting and
helping them fulfill their right to development, right to self-determination, and
right to a healthy and sustainable environment. As we strongly believe and call for
sexual and gender justice, we also strongly believe and call for climate justice now.

On this very important day, 10 October 2009, as millions of LGBTIQs and other SGMs
all over the world march together for justice and equality, we call on our LGBTIQ
sisters and brothers in the Global North, in the developed and advanced countries
and economies to equally recognize, respect, and protect not just our civil and
political rights and freedoms but also and more importantly our economic, social,
cultural, and  collective rights as people and as sexual and gendered beings living
and loving in the Global South and in the Global North.

We lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders, transsexuals, intersex and other
sexual and gender minorities from the Global South and the Global North assert:

ALL human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights!

ALL HUMAN RIGHTS are universal, interdependent, indivisible and interrelated!

SEXUAL ORIENTATION and GENDER IDENTITY are integral to every person's dignity
and humanity and must not be the basis for discrimination or abuse!

SIGNATORIES:

Global South LGBTIQ Activists' Forum International

Bruce Portugal Amoroto

President-Coordinator, Philippine Forum on Sports, Culture, Sexuality
and Human Rights (TEAM PILIPINAS)

Vice President, Gay and Lesbian Asia Pacific Sport Association (GLISA Asia Pacific)

Member, Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association (GLISA)

International Board of Directors

team-pilipinas@yahoogroups.com

http://diversityandequality.ph

http://teampilipinasorg.multiply.com

+63-916-2826781

GMT+8:00 (Manila, Philippines)

TEAM PILIPINAS is a member of GLISA Asia Pacific

http://www.glisaap.org http://www.asiapacificoutgames.org

Intersex Forum - The online community for the Organisation Intersex International.

OII - About Intersex Folks - Not the Gender Police

Website: www.intersexualite.org

All blogs: www.oii-blogs.blogspot.com