Zach Howe: Against Being Born This Way

 Full title of Howe's column on Blunderbuss is: "I’m Queer & So Are You: Against Being Born This Way." An excerpt:

What a travesty we have made of a movement for sexual liberation! By refusing to question our sexuality—I was born this way, now leave me alone!—queers are often just as resistant to deviance as the straights we’re supposedly freeing ourselves from. Gay men talk a lot about our sexual development—when did you come out, what did your parents say, did you ever sleep with a woman? Countless men, learning that I have not only slept with a woman but was desperately in love with one for four years, have challenged me to prove I’m really gay—when was the last time you slept with a woman? Are you still into that? You’re not like bi are you?

Listen to yourselves. You sound like straight people.

Third Gender Update, Bangladesh and Germany

Bangladesh has recognized the gender identity of hijras, whose rights are now recognized, including the right to identify their gender as hijra on government-issued documents, including passports (November 2013).

Germany (October 2013) has become the first country in Europe to permit babies with characteristics of both sexes to be registered as neither male nor female. Parents can choose to leave the gender category blank, creating the category of "indeterminate sex."

Successful campaign against female cutting in Upper Egypt

Al-Ahram Hebdo (in French) reports on a campaign in Upper Egypt against female cutting (AKA female circumcision):

Female circumcision is declining in Upper Egypt, where a campaign was launched in 1994 by UNICEF to end this ancient practice. 50.3% of girls age 15 to 19 were circumcised in 2010, as opposed to 97% in 2003.

Read more here (in French of course).