Movie about transgender jazz musician to be screened Oct. 7 at Fort Lauderdale gay film festival

I Stand Corrected, a documentary about transgender musician Jennifer Leitham, will be screened Sunday, Oct. 7, at the Fort Lauderdale Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. A jazz brunch precedes the screening. Here are the details:

• When: Sunday 10/07/12 3:00 PM
• Where: Gateway Theatre

Sunday, October 7 at 3:00 pm
Director: Andrea Meyerson
Runtime 2011
USA 2011
Gateway Theatre - 1
Screening Sponsor: Aetna, Dapur
Community Sponsor: Tery

Over the course of more than two decades, John Leitham built a successful career as a jazz musician. Working in an overtly homophobic industry, he led a fractured life knowing that deep down, he wasn’t John, he was Jennifer. After being served divorce papers, John started hormone therapy to reassign his sexuality from John to Jennifer. This documentary chronicles the transition that John made into Jennifer and the risks that she took to actualize her female identity and maintain her status as a top musician.

DIRECTOR: Andrea Meyerson and SUBJECT: Jennifer Leitham to attend film screening

PRECEDED BY: MILA CAOS

Jazz Brunch will be held at Dapur. Address: 1620 North Federal Highway; Fort Lauderdale, FL  33305

Hong Kong tycoon offers $65 million dowry to any man who would marry his lesbian daughter

BY KELVIN CHAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS

HONG KONG -- The daughter of a flamboyant Hong Kong tycoon who has offered $65 million to any man who can woo her away from her lesbian partner said she's not upset with her father. Still, it's unlikely she will be accepting any of the marriage proposals flooding in.

Cecil Chao made world headlines this week when he offered the 500 million Hong Kong dollar marriage bounty after learning that his daughter, Gigi Chao, had eloped with her partner to France.

"I'm actually on very, very loving terms with my father. We speak on a daily basis. He just has a very interesting way of expressing his fatherly love," the 33-year-old told The Associated Press.

Click here to read more.

Immigration Equality praises Obama for new, written guidance providing relief to LGBT families

News release from Immigration Equality:

Washington, DC –Immigration Equality today praised the Obama Administration, and specifically the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), for new, written guidance that will extend discretionary relief to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) immigrants with U.S. citizen spouses and partners. The new written directive, which was announced in response to a Congressional letter spearheaded by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), marks one of the very first times LGBT families have been recognized within federal immigration policies. The guidelines, which are expected to be distributed soon to field offices across the country, will instruct officers and field agents to recognize LGBT families for purposes of relief as defined by a June 2011 memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton.
 
“This is a huge step forward," said Rachel B. Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality. "Until now, LGBT families and their lawyers had nothing to rely on but an oral promise that prosecutorial discretion would include all families. Today, DHS has responded to Congress and made that promise real. The Administration’s written guidance will help families facing separation and the field officers who are reviewing their cases.”
 
In the June 2011 memo from Director Morton, the Department of Homeland Security spelled out factors ICE officers should consider when deciding which immigration cases are classified as “low priority” for removal. Those guidelines included family ties to a U.S. citizen. DHS stated verbally in August of last year that it intended for the “family” guidelines to be LGBT-inclusive, but it had not previously distributed written guidance codifying that intent to field offices.  In a letter yesterday to the 83 Members of Congress who demanded written guidelines, the Administration said it intends to do so.
 
“In an effort to make clear the definition of the phrase ‘family relationships,’ I have directed ICE to disseminate written guidance to the field that the interpretation of the phrase ‘family relationships’ includes long-term, same-sex partners,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano wrote.

“The new guidelines will put in writing a commitment the Administration has expressed over the past year,” said Tiven. “Now, the courts and Congress should act to make relief permanent, and provide access to green cards for all LGBT families.”
 
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Immigration Equality is a national organization fighting for equality under U.S. immigration law for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and HIV-positive individuals.