MUNCIE, Ind. —
A transgender woman said she was ridiculed by hospital staff and eventually denied treatment when she went to a Muncie emergency room coughing up blood.

Officials at Ball Memorial Hospital said they are investigating Erin Vaught’s allegations, which triggered complaints from advocacy groups.

“The irony here is that we spend so much time teaching about transgender issues at Ball State University,” said Vivian Benge, president of the Indiana Transgender Rights Advocacy Alliance. “And yet there is Ball Memorial Hospital treading a transgender like this. It is so sad.”

Vaught is a transsexual, someone who has transitioned or is transitioning from one gender to another, The Star Press reported Friday. In her case, it’s from male to female.

Vaught said when she, her wife and son went to the ER on July 18, she was entered into the hospital computer system as male despite an ID that stated she was female.

“I pointed out that my ID says female,” Vaught said. “There were two ladies there, and one of them snickered a little bit and covered her mouth. The other got a very annoyed look on her face.”

When she went to the exa- room, 3he was met with stares and insults and was referred to as a “he-she,” an “it,” and a “transvestite.”

Vaught said she was kept waiting for two hours without any treatment before a doctor saw her and said she couldn’t treat her because of her transgender condition.

“I was confused,” Vaught said. “I told them I didn’t know my condition, that’s why I was there. She said ‘No, the transvestite thing.’ She said I couldn’t see a doctor until I came back with test orders from my doctor in Indy.”

Benge said such reactions are not uncommon. But Vaught and her supporters wrote about her experience on the hospital’s Facebook page, attracting the attention of advocacy groups including the Indiana Transgender Rights Advocacy Alliance and Indiana Equality.

The groups sent a joint letter to the hospital about how Vaught was “inhumanely treated, dehumanized and disrespected.”

Ball Memorial spokesman Will Henderson said the hospital first became aware of Vaught’s concerns on July 19 via a Google alert, and that a patient representative was investigating the issue.

“We take our patients’ rights policy very seriously,” Henderson said.

While the policy doesn’t mention transgender people specifically, Henderson said it would apply.

“And, should there be any merit to the concerns expressed in the comments, the Hospital will respond in the appropriate manner,” hospital president Michael E. Haley said in a post on Ball Memorial’s Facebook page.

Haley said the hospital is “committed to providing care with respect, dignity and courtesy.”

Meanwhile, Benge said the Transgender Rights Advocacy Alliance has arranged for Vaught to be treated at an Indianapolis hospital.

“We are trying to help her to regain her dignity and humanity,” Benge said. “This is a very difficult kind of thing to go throueh.”

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Lockers have changed a lot over the years. School Lockers last so long though, it is hard to find a school that has upgraded from the ones they had installed back in the 50’s or 60’s. By the time you end up with them they are hard to open, usually had multiple coats of paint, and never seemed to be big enough to hold all your stuff. If you were one of the lucky ones you ended up with a locker that was on the other side of the school from all your classes so you never really go to use it.

Gym Lockers were made of metal like the other school lockers but they usually had more holes in the design. I was never sure if it was so everyone could see in your locker or to help with the smell. Just because the locker was made to last a long time I don’t think they had used any antimicrobial paint or coatings back in the 50’s so the smell seemed to stay in the locker forever.

Wood Lockers were not a common thing in school but some of the sports clubs I attend do have them. It was always nice to see a locker room that had wood lockers since it gave you a feeling of home and a more upscale feeling. You can find lockers for sale new and used on the market. I think I would pay for the newer ones myself. Though the design hasn’t really changed that much over the years there are some differences that make the newer ones worth having now.

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Source: Times of Swaziland

MANZINI – A Swazi male teacher has become a woman after undergoing a sex change procedure.

Her name used to be Petros but she is now known as Patricia.

She is even dating a man.

She decided that she no longer wanted to be a man after discovering that she was trapped in a man’s body.

Patricia said she underwent a sex conversion procedure. She said her male reproductive organs were removed and replaced with female ones.

She said she had no option but to change into a woman to lead a peaceful life.

“I am now at peace with myself,” she said.

Patricia said she was enjoying life as a woman.

She now prefers to be called a woman. She said her partner had accepted her condition without judging her.

“I have a man in my life,” she said.

Patricia said the relationship was so strong that they could be getting married soon.

She revealed, however, that she had not yet met her in-laws but looked forward to meeting them soon.

She is currently working at a private college where she imparts her skills as a teacher to students engaged in taking business courses.

Her students know her as Patricia and are not aware that she used to be a man.

When she was visited this week, she was found busy lecturing in class, taking students through their paces.

When she came out of the class, she referred to this reporter as ‘Aunty’ and greeted him with a perfect woman’s voice.

She quickly registered her reluctance of talking about her past.

She was wearing a red long femine jersey and a multi flowered skirt.

“I have been through a lot and I am now living a peaceful life. I do not want to talk about the past,” she said.

Revealed

She revealed that she endured a lot of pain after having the sex change as people made fun of her.

She said people could not accept that she was now a woman and always poked fun at her.

She said she somehow survived and people had begun to accept her as a woman.

She is happy that only a few who knew her from childhood still refer to her as Petros.

Speaking about her decision to undergo the sex change procedure, she said it was a hard one.

Implications

“I had to be strong because of the societal implications of it,” she said.

She said the procedure was very expensive.

After the successful operation, Patricia said, her story was featured in a South African magazine, which she declined to name.

She said after she had appeared in the magazine and attended other activities organised by the gays and lesbian community, she experienced a lot of bashing from people who teased her.

Friends remember ‘good old Petros’

MBABANE – The woman who now calls herself Patricia was known as Petros at the popular high school she went to in the Shiselweni region.

Friends say Petros was a staunch christian who attended services at Nhlangano Assemblies of God.

He stayed within the Nhlangano urban area with a relative who knew him to be a young man.

“His favourite subjects were Home Economics and Fashion and Design. He was a soloist and sang like a woman,” said one of her former colleagues.

“Knowing him to be a man singing like a woman amused his schoolmates.

“The school administration decided to ban him from singing during the school assembly on Fridays because pupils did not listen to the music but laughed at him uncontrollably. Teachers also laughed their lungs out when he sang.”

At one stage, the principal suspended classes to trace the whereabouts of Petros who had mysteriously disappeared from school.

Rumours circulated around the school that he had gone to a bush to commit suicide. One of his classmates told the school administration that he felt ending his life was better than the ridicule he was subjected by his schoolmates. Petros’s suicide threat was taken seriously as it was made at a time when the school was mourning the death of one Thulani, who had also committed suicide. Pupils combed the bushes from 1pm till 4pm to look for Petros.

The bushes near the compound where he was staying were all thoroughly searched. His flat was locked.

When it was opened, there was no one inside. It was thoroughly searched and Petros was nowhere to be seen.

At 4pm, another team of pupils visited his flat and found him sitting on his bed, eating sour milk.

“He laughed at the pupils and bragged that he was happy to see the whole school abandoning classes to look for him,” said the former colleague.

About the sex change procedure:

* It is known as sex change or gender reassignment surgery; a procedure that changes genital organs from one gender to another. There are two main reasons to alter the genital organs from one sex to another.

* Newborns with intersex deformities must early on be assigned to one sex or the other. These deformities represent intermediate stages between the primordial female genitals and the change into male genitals caused by male hormone stimulation.

* Both men and women occasionally believe they are physically a different sex than they are mentally and emotionally.

This dissonance is so profound that they are willing to be surgically altered. In both cases, technical considerations favour successful conversion to a female rather than a male.

* Newborns with ambiguous organs will almost always be assigned to the female gender unless the penis is at least an inch long.

Whatever their chromosomes, they are much more likely to be socially well adjusted as females, even if they cannot have children.

* Converting male to female anatomy requires removal of the penis, reshaping genital tissue to appear more female, and constructing the female private parts. These parts can be successfully formed from a skin graft or an isolated loop of intestine.

* Following the surgery, female hormones (estrogen) will reshape the body’s contours and stimulate the growth of satisfactory breasts.

* Sex change surgery is expensive.

Overseas, the cost for male to female reassignment is the equivalent of about E40 000 to E160 000.

The cost of female to male reassignment can exceed the equivalent of E350 000.

Figures for undergoing the procedure in South Africa were not immediately available.

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Indoor Planters, Outdoor Planters, Garden Planters, Window Box Planters, High End Planters, and Decorative Planters can all be used for vegetable plants as well as house plants and flowering plants. If you aren’t into the typical house plant try growing herbs instead. You can always have a fresh supply of herbs on hand for your gourmet cooking. Many vegetable plants will also grow well in outdoor and window box type planters. Ok, so you probably won’t want to grow corn in a planter but you can grow pepper plants, tomato, squash and several others.

The point is that just because you have room for a planter but not a traditional garden doesn’t mean you can’t grow other plants than just your typical house plant. You can grow with a purpose and have a small garden scattered around your house and patio. I have been growing vegetable and fruit plants in planters for years. It works well but it is also not the typical garden so you have to take care of them like they are house plants.

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Myrtle Beach hotels have a lot of options to choose from when booking. Besides all the normal amenities they also offer golf packages. Myrtle Beach is one of the top destinations in the USA this year for a beach vacation. You can find some great hotels and resorts plus a lot more. I have been checking into a vacation there a bit late in the summer and I am finding it hard to choose from the different options. I have done a lot of traveling from places that were built for people on vacation to places that didn’t know what a tourist or vacationer was and have never had them. Myrtle Beach will be a nice relaxing vacation for me and not one of those “how much can I see” vacations I often take just to see the historical and cultural icons.

Myrtle Beach best hotels can give you a lot of comfort for a nice stay. The beaches are wonderful and the golf packages are designed for those who live for golf. I have friends that go to Myrtle beach once a year to get the golf packages, their vacation usually consists of ninety percent golf. They have told me it is one of the best places to go if you love golf. While I am not that much of a golf person, I can understand having a hobby or sport you love.

They are many things to consider when planning a vacation. My major things are historic sites, beaches, the ocean, and food. If you think of ocean then you know to think of seafood and I got to have my seafood. There is nothing like seafood right on the coast where you can get it nice fresh and usually cheaper than other places. I use to buy it directly from the boats so I have had some of the freshest seafood you can get.

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SAN FRANCISCO—Seven pastors from the San Francisco Bay area who were barred from serving in the nation’s largest Lutheran group because of a policy that required gay clergy to be celibate are being welcomed into the denomination.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will add six of the pastors to its clergy roster at a service at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in San Francisco on Sunday. Another pastor who was expelled from the church, but was later reinstated, will participate in the service.

The group is among the first gay, bisexual or transgender Lutheran pastors to be reinstated or added to the rolls of the ELCA since the organization voted last year to lift the policy requiring celibacy.

A small number of congregations have voted to leave the church in response to the August vote.

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LAS VEGAS (AP) – Police say eight people were arrested on misdemeanor charges in a Las Vegas Strip demonstration by advocates for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights.

Officer Bill Cassell said Wednesday the eight men and women were taken into custody on obstructing a police officer and jaywalking charges.

Each was booked at the Clark County jail and released pending court appearances.

The protesters were from Washington, D.C.-based GetEQUAL, a group advocating for civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

They had banners calling for Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic senate majority leader, to do more to pass the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

Reid spokesman Tom Brede says Reid supports the act. It would prohibit workplace discrimination due to sexual orientation or gender identity.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Gay activists form a human chain in Hong Kong to mark the International Day Against Homophobia in 2008

(AFP)

VIENNA — The criminalisation of sex workers, drug users, and men who have sex with men were highlighted as major sources of concern in the fight against HIV in Asia, at the world AIDS conference here Wednesday.

Twenty-five countries in the Asia-Pacific region still impose the death penalty for offences related to the possession and abuse of drugs, creating a huge stigma that means abusers often avoid treatment for fear of imprisonment, said Anand Grover, a lawyer and special rapporteur for the UN Human Rights Council.

Injected drug use is acknowledged as one of the main causes of the spread of AIDS worldwide, alongside sexual transmission.

In some countries, “drug users still have to go to jail before they actually can access harm reduction services”, said Rachel Ong, of the Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV (APN+).

Meanwhile, over 15 countries penalise consensual same-sex behaviour, pushing potential HIV patients further underground, according to Anand.

This trend of criminalisation is not customary for the region but rather an “alien British colonial legacy and we have to get rid of it”, he said provocatively.

In parts of India, small tablets of opium are traditional gifts, he noted, adding that in earlier times, “sex workers… were revered, they were given a high status”.

The current trend needs to be reversed and these groups decriminalised, Anand urged.

Ong meanwhile criticised that Asian governments lacked visibility in the fight against HIV/AIDS, compared to the richer nations, which donate much of the aid to fighting the disease.

“The donors’ block usually makes most of the decisions and it’s very difficult for the implementing countries, or countries in ‘the global south’ as they call it, to actually voice their opinions.”

However, several Asian nations, such as Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Singapore — which still has the death penalty for drug-related offences and where homosexuality is illegal — are no longer developing countries and should make a bigger contribution to human rights, she said.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.

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Nikki Araguz, transgender wife of a firefighter killed in the line of duty July 4, 2010, enters a press conference at her attorneys' office Thursday, July 22, 2010 in Houston. Relatives of Thomas Araguz are suing to keep her from getting benefits as Texas does not recognize same-sex weddings. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

By JUAN A. LOZANO (AP)

HOUSTON — The family of a southeast Texas firefighter killed in a July 4 blaze has sued to void his marriage to his transgender widow and prevent her from getting his death benefits because she was born a man and Texas doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages.

The attorney for the mother of Thomas Araguz III said Thursday that the firefighter only learned of his wife’s gender history and after he found out, he moved out of their home and planned to end the marriage.

But a tearful Nikki Araguz said her marriage was not a fraud.

“I’m absolutely devastated about the loss of my husband. I’m horrified at the horrendous allegations accusing me of fraud. They are absolutely not true,” Araguz, 35, told reporters during a brief statement at a news conference.

Thomas Araguz died while battling a blaze at an egg farm in Boling, about 55 miles southwest of Houston. The 11-year veteran of the Wharton Volunteer Fire Department was trapped by falling debris in a burning production building.

In a lawsuit filed July 12 in Wharton County, his mother, Simona Longoria, asked to be appointed administrator of her son’s estate and that her son’s marriage to Nikki Araguz be voided because the couple were members of the same sex.

According to court documents included as part of the lawsuit, Nikki Araguz was born Justin Graham Purdue and changed her name to Nikki Paige Purdue in February 1996.

Voiding the marriage would prevent Araguz from receiving any insurance or death benefits or property the couple had, with these things only going to her husband’s heirs, said Chad Ellis, Longoria’s attorney.

A Friday court hearing is planned to determine whether to extend a temporary restraining order granted Longoria that prevents Araguz from receiving insurance or death benefits or having access to bank accounts or property the couple had.

“Nikki is attempting to make a huge money grab,” Ellis said.

But Darrell Steidley, one of Araguz’s attorneys, said Thomas Araguz was aware his wife had been born a man and that the couple still was living together at the time of his death. The couple had been married for nearly two years.

“We’re going to assert her rights as a spouse of a fallen firefighter,” Steidley said.

Ellis said his client’s efforts to void the marriage are supported by Texas law, specifically a 1999 appeals court ruling that stated chromosomes, not genitals, determine gender.

The ruling upheld a lower court’s decision that threw out a wrongful death lawsuit filed by a San Antonio woman, Christie Lee Cavazos Littleton, after her husband’s death. The court said that although Littleton had undergone a sex-change operation, she was actually a man, based on her original birth certificate, and therefore her marriage, as well as her wrongful death claim, was invalid.

“The law is clear, you are what you are born as,” Ellis said.

While Phyllis Frye, one of Nikki Araguz’s attorneys, declined to comment on what role the 1999 appellate ruling will play in her client’s case, she said the decision “wrecked a lot of lives.”

In April, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office was asked to give a legal opinion in a separate case on an issue connected to the 1999 ruling.

El Paso County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal asked for an opinion on whether the county clerk’s office could issue a marriage license to two West Texas women if one of the women, who had previously undergone a sex change, presented a birth certificate that identified her as being born a man.

The West Texas couple didn’t wait and went to San Antonio, where Bexar County officials granted them a marriage license, saying they relied on the 1999 ruling. Bexar County has previously issued marriage licenses in similar situations.

Abbott’s office has yet to issue an opinion.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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I have been building websites for over twenty years now. I have seen a lot of hosting services come and go over the years. Superb.net is a hosting service that I have used or clients have used in the past and gotten good results from. There is a lot more to building a website then a lot of people realize. For a simple website the resources do not need to be massive or complicated. When you get to online shopping, social networking, games, and other more complex sites with thousands or millions of user accounts you will find the need for dedicated servers and managed servers solutions to be the only way to get what you need.

If you don’t know the requirements of what you need it is also best to have a good web hosting service that can help you in selecting the services you need at a cost you can afford. If you are going to be successful in a website then you will need the ability to upgrade to a more advanced hosting plan in the future. A good hosting account will help you select and set up the hosting plan that will fit your needs for years to come so you won’t be hitting a point that you will need to make major changes just to expand more.



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