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A student senator at UC Berkeley abstained from a vote supporting transgender rights last week, then took a moment to explain her thinking. Now, more than 1,000 people have signed a petition demanding that she resign from student government or face a recall.

This story came out earlier this week but it was shocking enough that it bears a look. The transgender activist community was all abuzz on Thursday over a letter that had actually been featured in the New York Times a week earlier. Buzzfeed picked it up and ran with it, adding to the celebratory mood. The document in question was an open letter published by a gaggle of 1,600 scientists who are rejecting the anticipated HHS memo defining sex and gender in traditional, scientifically accepted terms for purposes of Title IX questions. What’s truly amazing is the fact that these...

This afternoon, the Illinois House debated and passed HB 1785 – a highly controversial proposal that would make it significantly easier for gender-dysphoric persons to obtain fraudulent birth certificates. This bill passed by a vote of 63-32. See the full roll-call vote below. Six Republican lawmakers voted with fifty-seven Democrats to approve deceptive birth certificates: Steve Anderson (Geneva), “Leader” Jim Durkin (Burr Ridge), Sara Jimenez (Springfield), David Olsen (Downers Grove), Bob Pritchard (Sycamore), & Grant Wehrli (Naperville). If one of these lawmakers represent you and your family, you may want to ask him/her why he/she voted in favor of this...

More than half a century of emotional pain came to an end when Janice Carney opened her eyes on the morning of Feb. 25, 2001, in a Colorado hospital. Carney, born John Joseph Carney, vividly remembers waking up on her 51st birthday, after eight hours of surgery, and seeing her best friend holding a birthday cake with a single candle on it. "It was the beginning of my new life," Carney says. A surgeon removed Carney's male genitalia, which Carney describes as "toxic waste," and reshaped the tissue to medically turn Carney from male to female. . . .

Civil-rights protection OK'd for transgender individuals By Sharon Pian Chan Seattle Times staff reporter Transgender individuals will now enjoy the same civil-rights protections as other minorities under legislation passed by the Metropolitan King County Council Monday. The council added gender identity to laws already prohibiting discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations based on sexual orientation, sex, race and religion. The legislation will protect transsexuals, transvestites and any other individuals with a gender identity that differs from their sex assigned at birth. "It's going to make employers aware of discrimination," said supporter Smitty Petersen. "People generally don't do things if...