Shortly after school began in the fall of 2004, an eighth grader named Tye Clark delivered a jolting message to her classmates: ”I’m the same person I was last year and the year before, but I am transgender and will now come to school as a boy.”   News widgets and RSS feeds on Feedzilla.com

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Washington, D.C.-The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund today announced it has endorsed 100 openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) political candidates in 2008, making this endorsement slate the group’s largest ever. LGBT candidates are running for offices at all levels of government, from school boards to the U.S. Congress, according to the group. Chuck Wolfe, the Victory Fund’s president and CEO for the past six years, said the surge in openly LGBT candidates in 2008 reflects the community’s growing willingness to embrace political leadership as a path to change: ”I think reaching this milestone is a testament to a new attitude in our community about how to achieve political change. We don’t have to accept sitting on the sidelines and hoping others will do the heavy lifting. We can roll up our sleeves and do it ourselves.” The full story   RSS feeds and News widgets on Feedzilla.com

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European Institutions Should Help End the Violence Lesbian and bisexual women and transgender men face violent abuse, including rape, in Kyrgyzstan, both in family settings and from strangers on the street, Human Rights Watch said in a report issued today. The report calls on the Kyrgyz government to acknowledge the problem and protect the victims, and on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and other European institutions to step up their response to violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity.   RSS news feeds and Widgets on Feedzilla.com

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