LGBTI Activists Call for Social and Legal Reforms on Zero Discrimination Day

In order to end discrimination and achieve broad acceptance for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people across South Asia, coordinated and strategic advocacy efforts to advance both social and legal reforms are needed, said participants at a global forum in Kathmandu this week. 

US: In first, transgender troops testify before House

Army Capt. Alivia Stehlik commissioned as an infantry officer from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., graduated from Ranger School and lived a “soldier’s life,” she said, spending long periods in the field before becoming a physical therapist in the service.

,

India: State of Gujarat establishes Transgender Welfare Board

,

In a landmark ruling in April 2014, India’s Supreme Court introduced recognition of a third gender and directed that transgender people must have access to the same rights to social welfare schemes as other minority groups in the country.

Indonesia: Homophobia and rising Islamic intolerance push Indonesia's intersex bissu priests to the brink

Once kingmakers in one of the most gender fluid societies on earth, the intersex bissu priests of Sulawesi — Indonesia's third-largest island — are on the verge of disappearing after years of cultural decline and increasing persecution.