This issue of our weekly LGBulleTIn is dedicated to Shira Banki, the 16-year-old girl who passed away three days after being stabbed while she was marching at the Jerusalem March for Pride and Tolerance.

Sunday, August 2

Uruguay plans census for trans people in 2016

The Ministry of Social Development (Mides) of Uruguay plans to launch a census to learn more about trans people living in the country and then formulate specific policies for the community. According to Espectator.com, Mides’ national director of Cultural promotion Federico Graña said it is impossible at the moment to assess the impact of laws or specific social programs for trans people, and this is why the census is needed: the field work is likely to be completed by May, 2016.

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Monday, August 3

Philippines: first same-sex couples apply for marriage licenses, but are rejected



Maria Arlyn Ibanez and Pastor Crescencio Agbayani (photo_ Facebook, The Manila Times)





While Philippines laws still define marriage a “special contract of permanent union between a man and a woman”, two same-sex couples decided to pave the way and applied for licenses in a registry office in Quezon City. Their requests, the first of their kind to have ever been filed in the country, were denied. “We really felt we were rejected”, Crescencio Agbayani Jr. told the Philippine Day Inquirer. “It’s painful to be rejected by your own city hall”. According to Gay Star News, other requests were simultaneously filed in the cities of Baguio, Davao and Silang.

Read more on Straits Times

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Tuesday, August 4

Courier Mail coverage on Mayang Prasetyo murder ruled “offensive” by the Australian Press Council

The Australian Press Council found a breach of its standards in the coverage Courier Mail gave in October 2014 of the murder and mutilation of a trans woman. Mayang Prasetyo was described using terms as “she male” or “ladyboy”, and also her profession as a sex worker appeared to be sensationalised. After being widely criticized, the newspaper responded stating there was “no intention of diminishing the value of Mayang’s life”. However, the APC ruled that “the prominent treatment given to the victim’s gender, and the repetitive detail of her sex work, was gratuitous and contributed to the substantial offence caused by the terminology used to describe the murder victim”.

Read more on Star Observer

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Wednesday, August 5

LGBTI Pride festival kicks off in Uganda

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Today is the first day of Uganda Pride. Thank you to every one who has supported @Prideuganda2015 — Dr. Frank Mugisha (@frankmugisha) August 5, 2015

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A cocktail party, film screenings, a “health and trans awareness day”, a parade and a Mr and Ms Pride contest: this is what activists and organisations in Uganda have prepared for the forth Pride festival happening in the country. “It’s not a protest but a celebration”, organiser Richard Lusimbo told The Guardian. Even celebrations, though, need to be safe, and this is why the events are by invitation only, and locations have been kept secret.

Over 5,000 athletes arrive in Stockholm for the EuroGames

EuroGames opening ceremony (ph. Petra Sundström)

Over 5,000 athletes from 71 nations gathered in Stockholm to compete in 27 different sports: the tenth edition of the EuroGames, one of the world’s largest LGBTI events, kicked off with an opening ceremony held in Kungsträdgården, in the very centre of the Swedish capital. Founded by the European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF) in 1992 to “combat discrimination and promote the right to engage in sport, politics and culture - regardless of sexual orientation, gender, religion, age, ethnic origin, political beliefs, or athletic or artistic ability”, this year’s edition hosts also the first LGBTI Ultra Marathon ever arranged in the world, a 50 kilometers race “open for anyone regardless of gender expression, sexuality and nationality”.

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Thursday, August 6

United States: landmark lawsuit for intersex people to be argued in November

M.C. is 10 years old, and identifies as a boy. He was born with what doctors called an “ovotesticular disorder of sexual differentiation”, a condition that was addressed with surgery removing all of his male anatomy. Now, in a landmark lawsuit, M.C.’s adoptive parents are challenging the hospitals and state guardians who decided to put their son through sex-assignment procedure. A federal suit was dismissed in January, but a state one will be argued in November: as Buzzfeed reports, the jury will decide “whether M.C.’s doctors did enough to convey the risks of surgery, and whether South Carolina’s social services failed to act in M.C.’s best interest while serving as his legal guardians — especially because M.C.’s biological mother was absent from the surgery”.

“The real intent of the lawsuit is just to uphold these constitutional principles—integrity of a person’s body and some kind of due process for infants where people around them in power are considering doing surgeries like this”, said his father. “I would give anything for this not to have been done to our child”, added his mother. “I want to see that his suffering will not be entirely wasted.”

Read the full story on Buzzfeed

(bulletin written by Daniele Paletta)