Sexuality & Gender

"Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance. As I wrote yesterday, at least 22 people were murdered in 2009 because of their sexual orientation. Four out of five of them were people of color and half were transgender women; the other half were overwhelmingly men who defied gender stereotypes, according to hate crime monitors. I argued in yesterday’s article that this violence is best understood as the most extreme example of a long list of dangers transgender women, particularly those of color, deal with everyday. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality point out a few of studies that provide more detail on that.

So the murders are grisly, but they are not isolated attacks. Our cultural fear of people who won’t follow rigid gender rules allows us to turn the other way while people are harassed, exploited and attacked routinely. Stop and think about that today, and then lets all start standing up against gender violence of all forms. And as I wrote yesterday, given the data, communities of color in particular need to come together to put this stuff to an end."

"Gays and lesbians in India seem to have more freedom than just a decade ago. But, says Lesley Esteves, a writer and journalist in Delhi, Indian lesbians face very different challenges than gay men do. As women they have considerably less control over their lives than their male counterparts.  “The problems lesbians face are also the problems women in general face in India,” Ms. Esteves said. “Economic disempowerment and economic inequality are at the root of it.”

These issues may be common to many Indian women, but Ms. Esteves said they were amplified for lesbians. A woman who reveals that she is a lesbian risks disinheritance. And in parts of the country where women must have permission from their families to work outside the home, the option of moving out to live one’s own life does not exist."

"With a historic vote this month allowing gay couples to marry and adopt children, Argentina joined a vanguard of nations — nine, to be precise — granting gays and lesbians these rights. It’s a stunning development on a continent where not long ago such a bold measure would have been unthinkable.

Only the legalization of abortion anywhere in Latin America would be more momentous.

Incredibly, in this day and age, abortion is legal in only one nation in Latin America, Cuba. Five countries — Chile, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic — ban it under all circumstances, even when the mother’s life is in danger. A law making abortion legal in Mexico City is under attack by the Roman Catholic Church. But abortion is not the only women’s rights issue in Latin America. Although many governments in the region describe themselves as progressive, the daily lives of millions of women in Latin America remain mired in poverty, male dominance and discrimination because of lax enforcement of social reforms and legal measures.

Still, Argentina’s vote to allow same-sex weddings is nothing short of a social revolution, a possible sign that perhaps the campaign for women’s rights cannot be too far behind."

"An advisory panel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the green light Thursday to an emergency contraceptive for use up to five days after sex.  The Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs voted unanimously to recommend the drug, called ella. 

The pill is intended for women who have had unprotected sex or for whom another method of contraception, such as a condom, failed.  Currently, there are no emergency contraception drugs available in the United States for use more than 72 hours after unprotected intercourse or failed contraception. The options available now -- Plan B, Plan B One Step and generic versions -- are available without a prescription to women 17 and older.

A group of 20 women's health organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, wrote a letter to the panel backing the drug, citing the roughly 3.1 million unintended pregnancies each year in the U.S.  'We do not believe technology holds all the answers, but having two types of safe and effective emergency contraception will increase the likelihood that a woman can access a product that works for her situation,' the letter said."