Appeal

Re-posted from hope 
In 2009, two West Australian men 'won' the right to change the sex marker on their birth certificates (etc.) at the State Administrative Tribunal in 2009. That decision was appealed by the WA Attorney General, and in 2010 the state Court of Appeal upheld his appeal, meaning the guys involved are not able to legally identify as male. The two stated at the time that they would appeal the WA Supreme Court's decision at the High Court of Australia, and they are currently working on this with their lawyers. 

The lawyers in this case have been working pro bono, but heading to the High Court means that more costs are cropping up. The two men have said, "we're certainly willing and mostly able to dip into our own pockets to cover these costs, [but] it's a bit of a financial strain", and so they've set up a gofundme account to get some financial assistance. They've set their target at $3000 (their costs are about $4200), but say "even just a thousand dollars ... would be gratefully received and so very helpful".

This is a pretty important case for Australian trans people, so please consider making a donation if you can .

Free Speech

I have been reading Ginmar's blog on LJ, and she was talking about Fred Phelps and the Westboro Chuch who have moved on from protesting at soldiers' funerals to apparently protesting at (or threatening to so as to gain airtime) the funerals of the victims of the arizona shootings.

I struggle a bit with free speech, I guess because it is so often defending this kind of vileness, and so rarely defending any speech you actually want to get out there.* But yep he has the right to do it - and I agree with her that the only way to deal with this is by more free speech - better free speech. Civil activism is the only way to counter hate speech.

In the vein of more free speech - I give you ( this )

 article from a christian online newsletter. Yay for this guy. 

*also because I think there is a right for the community good to be valued. Free speech fails deal with the reality that not all speech is equal, and that someone's right to air their views needs to be balanced with the right of a community to have all groups respected and valued. Along the lines of the Canadian Charter. IMHO anyway.