We have recently seen two long-overdue victories in the area of trans* health. Most notably, Stockholm’s Administrative Court of Appeals finally struck down Sweden’s indefensible–and remarkably culturally incongruous–law (text available in Swedish only) requiring that trans* people be sterilized before the government would issue them identity documents with their preferred sex indicated. This welcome ruling [...]
In a crucial test, Nepal’s government has agreed to issue a new citizenship certificate to Caitlin Panta, a nineteen-year-old who underwent sex reassignment surgery this past January (and was apparently the first Nepali citizen to do so). Although the process was fraught with bureaucracy, including an examination by a three-member panel to “confirm” Ms. Panta’s [...]
This month Australia has taken one step forward, one step back in the area of gender identity law. Not surprisingly, the backward step was at the expense of a doubly marginalized group: trans people in prison. On July 5th the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruled that transgender prisoner Thalia Sinden (identified in official documents [...]
Spain’s National Court (Audencia Nacional) has denied the asylum claim of a transgender Colombian national. The individual, whose identifying details were not reported in the original story by Spain’s El Diaro De Cádiz, had been living in Spain since 2000 but entered deportation proceedings in March 2011. Despite urging from no less an advocate than [...]
A major breakthrough in sexual orientation law in Latin America occurred earlier this year: the ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that Chilean authorities unlawfully discriminated against Judge Karen Atala Riffo by denying her custody of her children based on her sexual orientation. Now there is an English translation of the Atala decision; [...]
The EEOC has issued a decision holding that it will consider gender identity discrimination to be a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Title VII. The ruling comes in Macy v. Holder, a case brought by a transwoman against an agency within the Department of Justice. The EEOC decision cites precedent established in a series of federal court decisions that [...]