Which Face Is Male?
Richard Russell, PhD researches facial recognition at Harvard University. This research led him to study Prosopagnosia, also called “Face Blindness”. This disorder impairs the brain’s ability to recognize facial features.
Dr. Russell said, “My research is inspired by the question: How is perception shaped by sensory, conceptual, and social structures? I am particularly interested in the perceptual processes of recognition and preference judgments.”
While doing research, he noticed that certain cues - specifically contrast - inspires the mind to interpret a face as being male. The anthropologist Peter Frost, PhD has shown that male skin is darker than female skin. Dr. Russell found that while male skin is darker than female skin, male eyes and lips are not much darker than female eyes and lips. The result is greater contrast in female faces between the eyes, mouth and the rest of the face. He found that people use this sex difference in facial contrast to decide the sex of a face and how masculine or feminine it is. Manipulating this facial contrast has opposite effects on male and female attractiveness. Interestingly, cosmetics exaggerate this sex difference, which suggests that cosmetics are used to manipulate sex differences to make the female face more feminine, and hence attractive.
If you are still wondering which face in the above photo is male, the answer is: both. They are the same photo except that one has had the contrast reduced and the other photo had the contrast increased.
ABA Journal - Chicago,IL,USA
Civil Rights
Fla. City Manager Fired Over Sex Change Gets New Job—and a Pay Raise
Posted Apr 9, 2009, 05:22 pm CDT
By Martha Neil
A little over two years ago, when it became public that a longtime city manager in Largo, Fla., planned to undergo a sex change, he was immediately fired from his $140,000-a-year job.
A number of people were outraged, but some also said the incident could be a wake-up call for Congress to enact federal legislation to protect others from such discrimination, as the Associated Press reported at the time.
PrideSource, MI, USA
Transgender Day of Visibility takes nation, world by storm
Detroit events mark success of first annual day for trans pride
by Jessica Carreras
Originally printed 4/9/2009 (Issue 1715 - Between The Lines News)
ROYAL OAK - The first ever international Transgender Day of Visibility was held March 31, and at the epicenter was metro Detroit - where the idea for the day began.
Local events for the day included a panel at Five15 Media, Mojo and More in Royal Oak, where over 30 people gathered to have a dialogue about transgender issues. The panel consisted of activist and public speaker John Corvino, Michael Layne of public relations firm Marx Layne and Company, Triangle Foundation Director Alicia Skillman and Transgender Michigan Co-founder Rachel Crandall.
Crandall, who was the primary organizer for the day, called the panel - and the outpouring of events throughout the nation and world - a success.
“It was kind of like, rather than a panel it was more like an event,” she said. “So we, the transgender community worldwide are taking this day, March 31 of every year, for our day.
The Maneater (University of Missouri), MO, USA
Gender identity referendum passed
Gender identity clause passed with 82 percent of the vote.
By Campbell Massie
Published April 9, 2009
A Missouri Students Association referendum to include “gender identity and expression” into the organization’s non-discrimination clause passed Wednesday with 82 percent of the vote.
Gender identity and expression is meant to protect those who are ”gender non-conforming” from discrimination, which refers to people who identify as transgender, a gender that is not their biological sex. The inclusion of this language goes “to support the larger effort to offer equal opportunity to all students,” the referendum states.
The ballot contained the gender inclusion referendum as well as MSA Senate candidates and the change to the academic calendar.
Diverse - Fairfax,VA,USA
Texas Christian University To Offer Housing for GLBT Students
by Jazelle Hunt
Apr 9, 2009, 09:20
This fall, Texas Christian University will offer on-campus apartments for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered students, as well as heterosexual students who support them, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
DiversCity Q, as the community is called, is one of the fall additions to TCU’s “living-learning communities,” which are themed sections of housing that allow students with shared interests to live together. The university will also offer two Christian-based living communities and one for fine arts, among others.
Shelley Newkirk, a TCU sophomore who proposed and gathered support for DiversCity Q, hopes the community will be a common space for heterosexual and GLBT students to hang out.
The Daily Evergreen (Washington State University), WA, USA
Legislature passes hate crime bill
The law would make it a felony to injure or threaten people because of their sexual identity.
Andy Jones
The Daily Evergreen
Published: 04/10/2009
Transgendered people will receive hate crime protection under a new bill passed by the state Legislature on Wednesday.
The state’s hate crime law makes it felony to “threaten, damage the property of, or physically injure someone because of ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, disability or sexual orientation.” The new bill would add “gender expression or identity” to the definition.
GIESORC Director Heidi Stanton said the announcement continued a great week for the GLBTQ community across the country.
On Friday, same-sex marriage was legalized in Iowa after a unanimous court decision by the state Supreme Court. On Tuesday, the Vermont state Legislature legalized same-sex marriage, the first time it has been legalized by a non-judicial decision.
Denver Post, CO, USA
Trial next week
By Monte Whaley
The Denver Post
Posted: 04/10/2009 12:30:00 AM MDT
Prosecutors are worried that jury selection in next week’s trial of a man accused of killing a transgender woman in Greeley in July has become a lot more complicated.
That’s because 50 groups sponsored a full-page ad in 22 Colorado newspapers and purchased online advertising to commemorate the life and death of 18-year-old Angie Zapata. The ad ran Wednesday in newspapers ranging from the Westminster Window and Durango Herald to the Gazette in Colorado Springs. It did not appear in the Fort Collins Coloradoan or the Greeley Tribune.
Jury selection, which is scheduled to begin Tuesday, could take much longer if enough people saw the ad and are so influenced by it that they could not serve on the jury, said Jennifer Finch, spokeswoman for Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck.
“We are concerned because of all the publicity the case has received, including the ad,” Finch said. “It could be that much longer to seat a panel.”
Bianet, Turkey
Transgender Murder in Istanbul
Bia news center - Istanbul
11-03-2009
Bawer Cakir
Excerpt: A man has stabbed Dilan Pirinc (28) to death, following an argument at her home in Istanbul, Cihangir. “Pirinc had recently filed a complaint about someone harassing her,” her friends told bianet after last night’s incident. According to news reports, a murder suspect is turned in to the Eyup police by his father. Nevertheless, police officials declined to confirm this information to bianet. Neighbors are said to have reported a fight in Pirinc’s house to the police. When officers arrived at the scene, they found her body. When an ambulance failed to show up, her friends arranged for a special service. Pirinc was taken to Taksim Hospital but didn’t survive.
http://www.bianet.org/english/kategori/english/113081/transgender-murder-in-istanbul
Catholic News Agency - Denver,CO,USA
Alaska school district adds ‘gender identity’ to official policy
By Joel Davidson
Excerpt: The third largest school district in Alaska approved a new policy last month that will allow students to choose their own “gender identity.” Gender identity — meaning the gender a person believes he or she has internally, regardless of their given biology — has been added to the nondiscrimination policy of the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=15340
Catholics blast ‘maltreatment’ by Connecticut legislators
By Susan Haigh
Published on 3/12/2009
Excerpt: Some of the estimated 1.3 million Catholics in Connecticut - a state of 3.5 million - are angry about the General Assembly legalizing civil unions for same-sex couples and the state Supreme Court later approving gay marriage, as well as lawmakers approving millions of dollars in state funding for embryonic stem cell research and considering legislation that bans discrimination against transgendered people.
http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=8f06d84e-35cf-4411-ae87-e7fe19d0ceae
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