Transgender

VANCOUVER'S Jenna Talackova , who looks like a busty Lisa Kudrow , was disqualified as a contestant in May's Miss Universe Canada pageant last week. Seems she was born male. But even though she no longer has a scepter, the rules of the contest run by the Donald Trump organization say that entrants must be "naturally born" females. The pageant's New York-based parent backed Miss Universe Canada's decision. "After review, organizers discovered that Jenna Talackova falsified her application and did not meet the necessary requirements to compete in the 2012 Miss Universe Canada pageant," a statement said.

Determined to overcome a cocaine addiction that had propelled him into a downward spiral of unemployment, sex work, and life one step off the street, Erik Leiff contacted dozens of treatment programs. In person, when he explained who he was - a trans man, having medically transitioned from his birth gender to the only one he could live with - office workers giggled and pointed: "It's like, 'Look at the freak.' " On the phone, all said he would be housed with women. "If you saw me, that would have been ridiculous.

I FELT SOME pressure to get this story into the paper before Chaz Bono got axed from ABC's "Dancing with the Stars. " He's not the most polished dancer, but I really hope Bono lasts on the wildly popular show because the transsexual son of singer/actress Cher and the late Sonny Bono is so much fun to watch. Plus, every flash of his smile is a slap at the haters and those who are urging a boycott of the show because they're afraid Bono might confuse their children. Of course, gender dysmorphia isn't contagious.

A CITY CORRECTIONAL officer who had been accused of sexual assault by a transgender inmate will not be criminally charged, police confirmed yesterday. The officer also had a disciplinary hearing Thursday, but Prisons Commissioner Louis Giorla hasn't acted on the hearing's recommendations yet, spokeswoman Shawn Hawes said. The inmate's allegation, made last month, sparked scrutiny of security procedures at Riverside, the city's female jail, because officials learned that the inmate, Jovanie Saldana, spent 14 months there despite having male genitalia.

HARRISBURG - The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act has long banned discrimination in employment and housing on the basis of gender, race, religion, and disability. Not covered, however, is sexual orientation or gender identity. State Rep. Dan Frankel (D., Allegheny) has waged a nearly decade-long fight to change that through legislation that would add gay, lesbian, and transgendered Pennsylvanians to the protected categories. Speaking at a House Democratic Policy hearing Monday, Frankel noted that 21 states, including New Jersey and Delaware, along with dozens of municipalities and the 27 Fortune 500 companies located in Pennsylvania, have such policies in place.

GET NAKED, squat and cough. That's what inmates are supposed to do when they enter the Philadelphia prisons, at least those charged with felonies, or who are drunk or acting suspiciously. The exercise expels whatever contraband they could be concealing up their keisters. In the rare cases in which authorities aren't sure if they have a John or a Jane, it also would confirm the inmate's gender. But Jovanie Saldana, of Kensington, somehow suckered the system. Saldana, 23, a transgender woman, spent the last 14 months incarcerated at Riverside Correctional Facility, the city's only female prison.

GENEVA - The United Nations yesterday endorsed the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender people, passing a resolution hailed as historic by the U.S. and other backers and decried by some African and Muslim countries. The declaration was cautiously worded, expressing "grave concern" about abuses because of sexual orientation and commissioning a global report on discrimination against gays. But activists called it an important shift on an issue that has divided the global body for decades, and they credited the Obama administration's push for gay rights at home and abroad.

ON A YOUTUBE video gone viral, two female customers savagely attack a transgender woman at a McDonald's in suburban Baltimore. It was an ugly confrontation last week that reportedly began inside a women's bathroom after two customers noticed that 22-year-old Chrissy Lee Polis had male characteristics. A cellphone video of the attack recorded by a McDonald's employee shows the suspects, ages 18 and 14, kicking, punching and stomping on Polis as restaurant workers laugh and appear to be thoroughly enjoying the brutal spectacle.

A transgender Norristown woman has pleaded guilty in Montgomery County Court to fatally stabbing her boyfriend during an argument at a relative's Moore Street home last August. Asia Santana, 40, whose given name is Tyrone Crawley, appeared before Judge William J. Furber Jr. Wednesday and admitted to one count of third-degree murder and one count of possessing an instrument of crime. Assistant District Attorney Cara M. McMenamin described the Aug. 13 stabbing as "a rage killing" in which Santana stabbed Eric Nevith, 28, six times with a kitchen knife.