Excerpts from: "Studies of Gay Men, Prostitutes [and transgendered men] Come Under Scrutiny;" by Jocelyn Kaiser; Science; volume 300, 18 April 2003, p. 403:
"Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) conducted a site visit of an investigator at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), whose studies of sex workers have been the target of a recent inquiry by Congress. Although there is no hard evidence that the inquiry and the site visit are linked, the events have concerned researchers at UCSF and some in government who worry that the Bush Administration and congressional Republicans are intensifying their scrutiny of research on sensitive topics.""
"The controversy centers on research by AIDS researcher Tooru Nemoto, whose projects include preventing HIV infection in Asian sex workers and in 'transgender' men who are planning or have had a sex change operation."
"Program staff at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), for example, have warned grant applicants to cleanse certain terms, such as 'transgender' and 'prostitutes,' from their grant applications. The reason, according to an NIH staffer who asked not to be identified, is to reduce the projects' visibility. 'What's frightening' is that NIH staff feel grantees need to disguise their work, says Alfred Sommer, dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.""
"NIH program officials who handle grants in these areas are worried about the rumored surveillance. Four staffers contacted by Science declined to be interviewed. But one NIH scientist confirmed that some program staff have been telling grantees to reword grants to avoid terms such as: 'needle exchange,' 'abortion,' 'condom effectiveness,' 'commercial sex workers,' 'transgender,' and 'men who have sex with men.'""
VF comment: This is an important issue. Federal monies fund most basic scientific research in the United States. Attempts to censor research topics in such ways prevent all of us from learning about, understanding, and addressing important societal problems and issues. Science is one of the premier, objective and credible scientific journals in the world.
Excerpts from: "Workplace Gains on Gay Rights Cited", by Kirstin Downey: The Washington Post; Friday, May 16, 2003, p. E3:
Also, 16 jurisdictions added protection on the basis of gender identity, up from five in 2001, adding coverage for people who do not conform to sexual stereotypes, such as men who are seen as not masculine enough, women deemed unfeminine or those who have changed their sexual identity. Federal anti-discrimination laws do not include sexual orientation or identity.
Peter Sprigg, director of the Center for Marriage and Family Studies at the Family Research Council, did not dispute the findings but said he and many others are philosophically opposed to the movement. He said such legislation had been turned back in Nashville and Nebraska in the past year.
"There's no question they've made some gains, but we're not giving up the fight," Sprigg said. "We believe this is a result of intense political pressure by pro-homosexual activists, but these laws are built on a false premise that sexual orientation is a characteristic like race or sex, and it simply isn't true."
This newsletter is a labor of love for of our contributing editrixes.
Please join the staff by submitting your own insights into the world of cross-dressing.
Send your input to:
Rachel Boyd, or R.R. Boyd, P.O. Box 2252, Ashburn, VA 20146-9152.
Website problems, comments or suggestions? Let geekgrrl know about 'em!
Updated: 05/08/04
