WASHINGTON -- Officials of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) welcome the release of revised standards for immigration detention from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

These new standards are an important step forward in the treatment of transgender people in detention facilities. However questions remain about how and when the standards will be implemented, and about ICE's commitment to implementing a law to prevent sexual abuse, and moving away from a prison-like detention model.

All of us who have worked long and hard for equality under the law for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people know how strangely eager some people are to twist and distort the truth about us and our lives. Their ultimate goal? To dissuade public officials from passing laws to end discrimination. I won’t even dignify the ugliest things they like say by repeating them, but you know what I am talking about. Our opponents also make sweeping claims about what terrible things will happen if laws are changed to protect us from the bias and discrimination of others.

Transgender people are popping up everywhere in the current Japanese media landscape. Whether it's appearing on variety shows or hawking soft drinks or makeup in TV ads, the current crop of "new-half" celebrities have established themselves in the mainstream in a way that has surprised many onlookers.

But what does this Japanese appetite for gay and transgender stars mean culturally?

WASHINGTON -- The Social Security Administration (SSA) has ended the practice of allowing gender to be matched in its Social Security Number Verification System (SSNVS).

This will result in the immediate cessation of SSA sending notifications that alert employers when the gender marker on an employee's W-2 does not match Social Security records.

The extent of the problem was made crystal clear when NCTE's Freedom of Information Act request was answered showing 711,488 gender no-match letters were sent in 2010 alone.