Couple files suit for transsexual
discrimination
A lawsuit filed Monday against the U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services alleges the agency discriminated against a
Filipino couple when it denied the husband’s legal residency
because his wife had a sex change operation nearly 24 years
ago.
Jiffy Javenella, 27, entered the country as a legal resident in
2001 as Donita Ganzon’s fiance and applied for permanent
resident status after marrying Ganzon later that year.
But during interviews with immigration agents earlier this year,
Ganzon, 58, revealed that she had undergone a male-to-female sex
change operation in 1981.
Within three weeks, the agency denied Javenella’s
application for permanent residency and revoked his working papers,
according to the couple’s lawsuit filed in U.S. District
Court.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a letter to
Javenella explaining its decision that “currently, no federal
statute or regulation addresses specifically the question whether
someone born a man or a woman can surgically change his or her
sex.”
Governor to receive award in Texas
SAN FRANCISCO “”mdash; Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to fly
to the heart of heavily Republican Texas on Tuesday, where he will
receive an award from former President George H. W. Bush and raise
funds for an as-yet-unannounced re-election bid.
Schwarzenegger will accept the 2004 George Bush Award for
Excellence in Public Service at Texas A&M University, where
Bush’s presidential library is located.
Previous winners of the award include former Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., who is the uncle
of Schwarzenegger’s wife, Maria Shriver.
The Bush Library announced that Gov. Schwarzenegger would be
this year’s award recipient days after he made a high-profile
campaign visit to Ohio.
Compiled from Bruin wire reports.