Transgender folk struggle for sexual identity and fairness

Bradley now Chelsea Manning

Carol Forsloff---What is an aberration and what is a right continues to dominate discussion about sexuality in the modern world. One of those areas where comparatively the least is known is transgender identity, an issue that creates considerable pain and misunderstanding for those people who are a significant minority, and whose sexual orientation and difference often causes them to be physically abused or killed or to attempt suicide. Governments now try to determine how the laws on equality should be applied, as one case demonstrates, although the transgender community maintains the struggle is not over yet.

In the State of Maine a recent legal decision is said to have made an important breakthrough in identifying human rights and equality for transgender persons. Nicole Maines had been denied use of the girls' bathroom at her school, despite her chosen identification as a girl and her biological definition as a boy. Her family sued and and won with the court concluded that Orono, the school district in Maine, violated the Maine Human Rights Act. That Act bars discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

The pain that comes from being different is exhibited in different ways. Being in a sexual minority for which there is considerable prejudice and misunderstanding, makes it difficult to conform to social mores and to be accepted in social groups. And to be doubly condemned for espionage as well as that sexual difference is even more painful, which is why Bradley Manning, who was convicted of stealing security documents and passing them along to a blogger news outlet, had a difficult childhood and  expressed the interest in having the operation that to make his chosen identity, a woman, established through surgery

What causes this phenomenon of transgender identity is debated among medical scientists and psychologists. One theory is that in the womb an imbalance occurs creating a female embryo that may have a masculinized brain. On the other hand, psychologists like Eric Vilain, have been quoted as saying, “There is no evidence of a biological influence on transsexualism yet.” Still he admits they continue to expect to find some biological component.

Unchecked surveillance becomes topic of large global coalition

[caption id="attachment_18984" align="alignleft" width="220"] Controversial figure, Edward Snowden[/caption]

Editor----More than 100 organizations from across the globe – including Privacy International, Access, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are now calling for governments around the world to follow international human rights law and end pervasive spying.



This comes on the heels of the conviction of Bradley Manning for spying and espionage, as he turned over documents referencing the US involvement in the Middle Eastern Wars to Wikileaks.  Edward Snowden took a job with Booze-Allen in a technical position involving security and released information he took from his employer to the Globe in Great Britain, a mainstream newspaper.  The coalition of groups have all signed the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communication Surveillance.  These consist of 13 basic principles that spell out how existing human rights law applies to modern digital surveillance.



The group maintains they are writing in response to the government surveillance that has been found extensive in the United States and is presumed to be in other countries as well.  The groups also worry about the increasing number of government surveillance standards that focus on law enforcement and "national security" priorities instead of citizens' rights.  Their concern is how governments are overstepping the law and due process while secretly conducting surveillance.  There are worries specifically regarding the privacy of individual communications.



"It's time to restore human rights to their place at the very heart of the surveillance debate," said EFF International Director Danny O'Brien. "Widespread government spying on communications interferes with citizens' ability to enjoy a private life, and to freely express themselves – basic rights we all have. But the mass metadata collected in the U.S. surveillance program, for example, makes it extraordinarily easy for the government to track what groups we associate with and why we might contact them. These principles announced today represent a global consensus that modern surveillance has gone too far and must be restrained."More than 40 countries are represented in the various organizations.  Their fusion of ideas, and the principles suggested, will be used to help make changes in how the laws are presently interpreted and carried out.



"International human rights law binds every country across the globe to a basic respect for freedom of expression and personal privacy," said EFF International Rights Director Katitza Rodriguez. "The pervasiveness of surveillance makes standing up for our digital rights more important than ever. And we need those rights to survive in a digital world, where any state can spy on us all, in more detail than ever before. We know that surveillance laws need to be transparent and proportionate, with judicial oversight, and that surveillance should only be used when absolutely necessary. Everything we've heard about the NSA programs indicate that they fall far outside these international human rights principles."For the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance:
https://necessaryandproportionate.org/For more on how the principles were developed:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/07/thirteen-principles-for-human-rights

Addition information can be found here:

Danny O'Brien
International Outreach Coordinator
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Phone: 111-111-1111
Email: danny@eff.org

Katitza Rodriguez
International Rights Director - For Spanish-langua
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Email: katitza@eff.org