Transgender

Stu Rasmussen promised a new administration if he was elected, and he's as good as his word: Silverton residents not only are getting a new mayor; they're also getting a new Stu. Rasmussen, longtime manager of the local cinema, was also elected mayor in 1988 and 1990, and served four years -- but that was when he was wearing slacks and sport shirts to council meetings.

A former soldier and police officer who transitioned from male to female has been allowed to proceed with a complaint against the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives alleging job discrimination based on gender. A ruling this week by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is being seen as clarifying that rules of employment law apply to transgender people, who may file complaints under federal anti-discrimination statutes. In an email to The Times, EEOC spokeswoman Christine Nazer wrote that the ruling is now "the EEOC's position, and we will apply it in all our enforcement activities" under Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act, which prohibits job discrimination based on race, sex, religion and national origin.

Renée Richards would prefer you didn't call her an activist. Thirty-five years ago, Richards became an unofficial spokeswoman for the transgender movement when her legal battle to play as a woman in the U.S. Open garnered headlines across the globe. After nearly three decades of relative obscurity, Richards is now the subject of "Renée," a documentary premiering Tuesday on ESPN. When filmmaker Eric Drath initially approached Richards about the possibility of making a film about her life, she was reluctant.

Responding to incidents of violence against transgender arrestees, the Los Angeles Police Department plans to open a segregated lockup for biologically male and female suspects who identify themselves as members of the opposite sex, officials said. By early May, a 24-bed transgender module will open at the LAPD women's jail downtown, the first such police lockup in the nation, according to Capt. Dave Lindsay, the jail division commander. "This is a major change," Lindsay said.

A New York man who shot and killed a transgender woman last year was convicted Friday of first-degree manslaughter and a hate crime -- a conviction hailed by advocates seeking greater protections for transgender people. Dwight DeLee, 20, of Syracuse, faces 10 to 25 years in prison for killing Lateisha "Teish" Green, 22, outside a house party in November.

So this guy walks into a bar. Wait, scratch that. A woman walked into a bar Thursday night in St. Petersburg, Fla. Her name was Alex Borrego. It was ladies' night at the Bishop Tavern and Lounge, when ladies drink free. So Borrego and a friend ordered their free vodkas with cranberry juice, and sipped away. Then, as the Tampa Bay Times reports , a bouncer told Borrego that ladies' night simply wasn't for her. "You guys don't get to participate," the bouncer told Borrego, according to the report.

To her sister, Angie Zapata was a teenage girl in every sense but the biological one. She spent hours spraying her long hair into compliance with Aqua Net, painting her eyelashes with L'Oreal and her skin with Cover Girl. She combed discount stores for clothes that would emphasize her curves. The effect was stunning. When the 18-year-old visited the store where her older sister, Monica, worked, men would make excuses to hover.

An upstate New York man has been sentenced to the maximum 25 years in prison for the hate-crime killing of a transgender woman. Dwight DeLee was found guilty of manslaughter last month for shooting Lateisha Green because of anti-gay bias. The 20-year-old construction laborer is only the second person in the nation to be convicted of a hate crime for killing a transgender victim. In April, a man was convicted of first-degree murder and a hate crime in the death of a transgender teen in Colorado.

Mara Keisling — 6-foot-2, with frizzy brown hair and a wry smile — is the best-known transgender activist in Washington, which is to say she is not well known at all. "Trust me," Keisling said after finishing a conversation with one congressional staffer. "We have no political clout." But as she wound her way through the Rayburn House Office Building, there were sparks of recognition. "Hey, Mara," another staffer said warmly when he bumped into her on his way to lunch.

A transgender Mexican granted asylum in the U.S. should be released from immigration jail while her case is under appeal, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a lawsuit filed Thursday. The ACLU said Oscar Santander, also known as Diana Santander, should be freed while the government appeals an immigration judge's ruling in May that gave her asylum because she would be at risk of torture if deported to Mexico. Santander, 42, came to California illegally in 1994 but was deported in 2001 to Tijuana.

So this guy walks into a bar. Wait, scratch that. A woman walked into a bar Thursday night in St. Petersburg, Fla. Her name was Alex Borrego. It was ladies' night at the Bishop Tavern and Lounge, when ladies drink free. So Borrego and a friend ordered their free vodkas with cranberry juice, and sipped away. Then, as the Tampa Bay Times reports , a bouncer told Borrego that ladies' night simply wasn't for her. "You guys don't get to participate," the bouncer told Borrego, according to the report.

The economy — sluggish, recession-y, depressed — while slow to recover has also been slow to inspire television series about the slow-to-recover economy. As if in recompense, not one but two shows with premises rooted in high unemployment premiere Tuesday. In each, the lead characters lead double lives for the sake of a job: In the much remarked upon but hardly anticipated "Work It" on ABC, two men put on wigs and dresses to sell pharmaceuticals at a firm that prefers to hire women over men (because, as one character explains, "the doctors seem to want to nail them less" — because doctors are, you know, dudes)

  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called on world leaders for the first time Tuesday to stop discrimination against gays and lesbians, announcing that the United States would use diplomacy and $3 million in aid to help expand the rights of gay people around the world. In a speech to mark Human Rights Day, which is celebrated Saturday, Clinton declared that protecting the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people is "now one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time" and compared it to the battles for women's rights, racial equality and religious freedom.

Authorities are seeking the public's help in identifying a man who shot and killed a transgender woman in Hollywood late Thursday night and who may also be responsible for the attempted armed robbery of another transgender woman in West Hollywood less than an hour later. The shooting victim, Nathan Henry Vickers, 32, was found lying unconscious in the area of Lexington Avenue and Gower Street at 9:58 p.m. The Los Angeles Police Department said Vickers had a gunshot wound to the chest and was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.

As authorities searched for a gunman who killed a transgender woman in Hollywood late Thursday night, residents and sex workers along Lexington Avenue voiced fears of further attacks. The victim, Nathan Vickers, 32, was said to frequent areas known for prostitution, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Vickers, who also used the name Cassidy, died of a gunshot wound to the chest and was discovered near the corner of Lexington Avenue and Gower Street at 9:55 p.m., police said.

Renée Richards would prefer you didn't call her an activist. Thirty-five years ago, Richards became an unofficial spokeswoman for the transgender movement when her legal battle to play as a woman in the U.S. Open garnered headlines across the globe. After nearly three decades of relative obscurity, Richards is now the subject of "Renée," a documentary premiering Tuesday on ESPN. When filmmaker Eric Drath initially approached Richards about the possibility of making a film about her life, she was reluctant.

A Colorado man who says he bludgeoned his date to death out of rage and shock after discovering she was biologically male was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder and a hate crime. Jurors deliberated about two hours before finding Allen Ray Andrade, 32, guilty of killing Angie Zapata, 18, of Greeley last July. District Judge Marcelo Kopcow swiftly sentenced him to life in prison without possibility of parole -- the state's mandatory sentence for first-degree murder.

Starting today, New Jersey joins eight other states in making it illegal for employers and landlords to discriminate against transgendered people. The law, which sailed through the Legislature in December, has received little attention in a state that's gaining a reputation for being welcoming to lesbian, gay and transgendered people. Earlier this year, New Jersey began allowing civil unions for same-sex couples.

Those shocked by the inclusion of Chaz Bono on this season's "Dancing With the Stars" would do well to check out the ESPN documentary "Renée" — there is nothing new under the sun, not even transgender individuals taking center stage in a national competition of athletic prowess. From childhood, Dr. Renée Richards, born Richard Raskind, seemed destined for an extraordinary life, though none could guess it would include competing on the women's professional tennis circuit after having gender reassignment surgery at age 40. Raskind was an accomplished athlete all his life, playing tennis throughout his college career at Yale and while serving in the Navy.