Gender Identity

For Charlene Moore, even something as simple as trying to board a bus can be a challenge. Moore, a transsexual who was born male but who lives, dresses and self-identifies as a woman, said she had been barred from SEPTA buses by drivers who refuse to accept her pass, which is marked with an "F" for female. Moore has masculine characteristics, including a deep voice. "One bus driver told me I could not use my TransPass because God did not make me a woman," Moore testified at a City Council hearing yesterday.

Pennsylvania joined a small group of states yesterday that guards transgendered people from employment discrimination in state government. Gov. Rendell, in an executive order issued last night without much fanfare, opened the umbrella of protection wider than most every other state. The order applies only to the 80,000 employees in the governor's cabinet agencies and bans discrimination based on "gender identity or expression," which means people whose sense of their sexual identity differs from their gender.

IS THAT a Fruit-A-Freeze in your pocket - or are you just happy to see me? A northeastern Pennsylvania woman is suing a South Jersey-based maker of frozen treats and other snack foods, claiming that she was wrongfully fired because she wore a prosthetic penis to work. Pauline Davis, 45, wore the device to the J&J Snack Foods plant in Moosic, Lackawanna County, while she contemplated a gender change, according to a federal civil-rights complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Scranton.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Activists say Argentina now leads the world in transgender rights after it granted people the right to change their legal and physical gender identity simply because they want to, without having to undergo judicial, psychiatric and medical procedures beforehand. The gender identity law that won congressional approval with a 55-0 Senate vote Wednesday night is the latest in a growing list of bold moves on social issues by the Argentine government, which also legalized same-sex marriage two years ago. These changes primarily affect minority groups, but they are fundamental, President Cristina Fernandez has said, for a democratic society still shaking off the human-rights violations of the 1976-1983 dictatorship and the paternalism of the Roman Catholic Church.

CHICAGO - A small but growing number of teens and even younger children who think they were born the wrong sex are getting sex-changing treatments, according to reports in the medical journal Pediatrics. It's an issue that raises ethical questions, and some experts urge caution in treating children with puberty-blocking drugs and hormones. An 8-year-old second-grader in Los Angeles is a typical patient. Born a girl, the child announced at 18 months, "I a boy" and has stuck with that belief.

THE Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation, passed Congress in November. Rep. Barney Frank's (D-Mass.) controversial removal of gender identity from the bill enraged lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) groups across the country. Frank, one of two openly gay members of Congress, claims to support transgender protections but said he didn't have the votes. It's been reported that freshman Democrats, many from previously Republican districts, didn't want to vote for gender-identity language.

PHILADELPHIA has done the right thing. Last week, City Council expanded Philadelphia's Fair Practices Ordinance to ban discrimination based on gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodations. For far too long, members of this city's transgendered community have had legitimate complaints about treatment, often facing outright harassment. While people's minds won't change overnight, Philadelphia now has something on the books to guarantee equal protection. With the measure expected to be signed by the mayor, Philadelphia will become the second-largest city in the United States and sixth in the state to pass such protection.

Healthy means not being weighed down by a lot of worries. Worries about, "Is my mom going to be OK?" "Is my little sister OK?" "Will we have enough for the rent and food and things?" It means feeling safe and like things will be OK, not depressed and angry all the time. It means being healthy in the usual sense, too, like not being sick. But it means more about being in control of things, being able to do the things I want. Being able to be young instead of always feeling old. Chrystal, age 14 Self-described "African American, heterosexual young woman"; quoted in Lynn Phillips' "The Girls Report: Commissioned by the National Council for Research on Women.

BALLOT QUESTION NO. 1: Should City Council be given the power to require city contractors to comply with wage and benefit standards? This is the most controversial ballot question because it would give Council more power to enforce wage and benefit standards for companies that have professional-service contracts with the city. Contractors would be required to pay a "living wage" - meaning 150 percent of the minimum wage or $10.88 per hour. If someone worked 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, their income would rise from $15,000 to $22,500.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Activists say Argentina now leads the world in transgender rights after it granted people the right to change their legal and physical gender identity simply because they want to, without having to undergo judicial, psychiatric and medical procedures beforehand. The gender identity law that won congressional approval with a 55-0 Senate vote Wednesday night is the latest in a growing list of bold moves on social issues by the Argentine government, which also legalized same-sex marriage two years ago. These changes primarily affect minority groups, but they are fundamental, President Cristina Fernandez has said, for a democratic society still shaking off the human-rights violations of the 1976-1983 dictatorship and the paternalism of the Roman Catholic Church.

CHICAGO - A small but growing number of teens and even younger children who think they were born the wrong sex are getting sex-changing treatments, according to reports in the medical journal Pediatrics. It's an issue that raises ethical questions, and some experts urge caution in treating children with puberty-blocking drugs and hormones. An 8-year-old second-grader in Los Angeles is a typical patient. Born a girl, the child announced at 18 months, "I a boy" and has stuck with that belief.

IS THAT a Fruit-A-Freeze in your pocket - or are you just happy to see me? A northeastern Pennsylvania woman is suing a South Jersey-based maker of frozen treats and other snack foods, claiming that she was wrongfully fired because she wore a prosthetic penis to work. Pauline Davis, 45, wore the device to the J&J Snack Foods plant in Moosic, Lackawanna County, while she contemplated a gender change, according to a federal civil-rights complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Scranton.

IS THAT A Fruit-A-Freeze in your pocket - or are you just happy to see me? A northeastern Pennsylvania woman is suing a South Jersey-based maker of frozen treats and other snack foods, claiming she was wrongfully fired because she wore a prosthetic penis to work. Pauline Davis, 45, wore the device to the J&J Snack Foods plant in Moosic, Lackawanna County, while she contemplated a gender change, according to a federal civil-rights complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Scranton.

Haverford Township Commissioner Larry Holmes left the board's Feb. 14 meeting feeling tremendous pride after passage of an antidiscrimination ordinance he championed. Eight months later, Holmes is still proud of the proposal, but it turns out the fight for it didn't end that night. Resident Fred Teal filed a challenge in Delaware County Court, alleging the township failed to provide proper public notice of changes to the ordinance between first and second readings and exceeded state law. "I personally don't agree with homosexuality," Teal said.

TORONTO - A Canadian couple say it's none of the world's business to know their baby's gender despite a firestorm of criticism over their decision to keep the infant's sex a secret. Kathy Witterick said her 4-month-old baby, Storm, should in time be able to develop its own sexual identity without having to conform to social stereotypes or bow to predetermined expectations associated with gender. Witterick, 38, and her husband, David Stocker, 39, have faced a backlash since the couple's story first appeared in the Toronto Star last weekend.

As one of Philadelphia's biggest suburbs is poised to join the growing list of communities enacting a new kind of antidiscrimination ordinance, another municipality has opted out. Hatboro Mayor Norm Hawkes vetoed a measure Monday night that would have established a borough commission to review prejudice claims - a step advocates argued was necessary to extend protection to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people not currently shielded under...

BALLOT QUESTION NO. 1: Should City Council be given the power to require city contractors to comply with wage and benefit standards? This is the most controversial ballot question because it would give Council more power to enforce wage and benefit standards for companies that have professional-service contracts with the city. Contractors would be required to pay a "living wage" - meaning 150 percent of the minimum wage or $10.88 per hour. If someone worked 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, their income would rise from $15,000 to $22,500.

A convicted rapist trapped behind bars in New Jersey state prison claims he's also a woman trapped inside the body of a man. But the New Jersey Department of Corrections said James Randall Smith does not have gender-identity disorder, and an appellate court upheld the decision last month, denying Smith a procedure his victims' families would probably grant, if it were performed with a dull, rusty knife. Smith wants the New Jersey Department of Corrections to pay for him to be castrated.