WASHINGTON: Costs incurred in sex-change operations and procedures are tax-deductible, the US Tax Court has ruled.

The court ruled that hormone therapies and sex reassignment surgeries were necessary to treat gender identity disorder in the case of a Boston man who became a woman named Rhiannon O’Donnabhain after 20 years of marriage that produced three children.

”The court is persuaded that petitioner’s sex reassignment surgery was medically necessary,” Judge Joseph Gale wrote in a decision for the majority.

The decision is the first to rule that sex-change operations qualify as medical care and overturns a 2005 Internal Revenue Service policy denying medical expense deductions in such operations on the grounds they are ”cosmetic”.

The case involves a $US5679 ($6450) tax bill assessed by the IRS, which denied medical deductions Ms O’Donnabhain claimed after she underwent sex reassignment-surgery in 2000.

Ms O’Donnabhain, a civil engineer, was diagnosed with gender identity disorder in 1997.

She sued the IRS after it denied her a deduction of $US25,000 in out-of-pocket medical costs associated with the surgeries and other care such as hormone treatments and counselling, according to Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, which represented her in court.

Karen Loewy, a lawyer with Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, said the court’s decision ”recognises that expenses related to medical care for transgender people should be treated no differently than expenses related to an appendectomy or chemotherapy”.

STORY SOURCE: http://www.smh.com.au

(CBS)  The version of “Avatar” currently in theaters runs two-and-a-half hours and boasts stunning visual effects. But people are also talking about something that’s missing from the feature film – a steamy sex scene involving the two main characters.

The unreleased scene, which centers around an intimate moment between Na’vi alien Neytiri (played by Zoe Saldana) and Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), is included in the full version of the screenplay, which was released by Fox and posted online at foxscreenings.com.

Read the full “Avatar” script

James Cameron, the film’s director, told Britain’s Daily Telegraph that the scene will be included on the DVD.

“We had it in [the movie] and we cut it out so that will be something for the special edition DVD – if you want to see how they have sex,” he said.

Last week, Saldana told a group of reporters that the steamy scene was difficult to shoot.

“It was a very funny scene to shoot because there were so many technical things that sometimes you have to keep in mind that paying attention to all those might disrupt the fluidity of how a scene is supposed to take place,” she said.

She also added that the scene was scrapped because the film was aimed at a family audience.

READ SCRIPT SEE VIDEO  http://www.cbsnews.com

In what’s sure to be viewed as a wrong-way direction in social change, “Roxxxy” the robot lifesized girlfriend was introduced at AEE 2010, the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas. Roxxxy robot lifesized girlfriend is a anatomically correct facsimile of a woman dressed for sex, and with “servos” and other electronics to make it seem, well, real. It’s maker calls it the first “sex robot.”

Violet Blue, where are you?

Roxxxy robot lifesized girlfriend was created by former Bell Labs employee Douglas Hines, who’s overweight, balding, bespectacled look fits the perfect image of a guy who would make such a thing.

Douglas Hines says that he developed Roxxxy robot lifesized girlfriend after losing a friend in the 9-11 terrorist attack. Just who that friend is, Douglas Hines does not say, leaving one to wonder if he just spent too much money at strip clubs.

READ FULL STORY SEE VIDEO  http://www.sfgate.com

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Social-networking Web sites Facebook and MySpace have identified and disabled accounts used by more than 3,500 registered sex offenders in New York State using a law passed last year that requires sex offenders to register their emails and online aliases with the state, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.

At a press conference, Cuomo said Facebook has disabled accounts held by 2,782 registered sex offenders and News Corp.’s MySpace has disabled accounts linked to 1,796 registered sex offenders. Some of the sex offenders were on both Web sites.

Cuomo said many of the offenders were violating their parole by being on social-networking sites and are prohibited from interacting with young people.

“Whether it’s a playground on the street corner or a playground in cyberspace, it doesn’t matter,” Cuomo said.

Under the state’s Electronic Securing and Targeting of Online Predators Act passed last year, registered sex offenders are required to register their emails and other online identifiers with the state.

The law sets mandatory restrictions on a sex offender’s access to the Internet where the offender’s victim was a minor, the Internet was used to commit the offense or they are among the highest-level offenders.

Cuomo said Facebook and MySpace are the online social-networking sites who have sought access to the information compiled under the e-Stop law.

His office is sending letters to 17 other social-networking sites encouraging them to take advantage of the data gathered under the law, including classmates.com and Friendster, Cuomo said.

A spokesman for United Online Inc. (UNTD), which operates classmates.com, didn’t immediately have a comment Tuesday. A spokesman for Friendster didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Joe Sullivan, Facebook’s assistant general counsel, said the Web site voluntarily adopted a policy to not allow registered sex offenders on the site. He called New York’s law the model for other states and the nation.

In a statement, MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam said, “We applaud and support Attorney General Cuomo’s leadership in his ground breaking use of e-STOP to make the Internet a safer place. MySpace utilized e-STOP to complement technology we had already put in place to remove registered sex offenders from our community as part of a comprehensive approach to protecting Internet users from predators.”

READ FULL STORY: http://money.cnn.com

That Jennifer Lopez honeymoon tape just went from Rated X to PG.

“There wasn’t anything close to sex in it,” Lopez’s attorney John Lavely tells PEOPLE. “We never alleged that. But it’s still private and personal to my client.”

A Los Angeles judge agreed Tuesday, upholding a ruling that Lopez’s ex, Ojani Noa, is forbidden from using 11-plus hours of home video – 20 percent of which allegedly features Lopez – for a mockumentary about his life as a Cuban immigrant, previously titled How I Married Jennifer Lopez: The JLo and Ojani Noa Story.

“They’re trying to stop me from making my documentary and I’m fighting for my rights,” said Noa outside the courtroom. “They’re not being fair.” The aspiring actor and model denies he ever tried to peddle the footage as a sex tape.

The footage has scenes from the ex-couple’s marriage in Florida and honeymoon in Cuba, Noa’s film partner Claudia Vazquez tells PEOPLE, but the project was misrepresented by a tabloid as being sexual, she says. Vazquez adds the project’s title has since been changed to The Escape in reference to Noa having fled his home country.

STORY SOURCE: http://www.people.com

Why all the hoo-ha about the new viagra for women? We already have it – it’s called cash.

Scientists found anti-depressant drug flibanserin did little to lift moods but increased a woman’s sex drive almost as surely as wedding cake decreased it.

In other words, when men have depression, it can be cured by their missus taking flibanserin.

Bookies Paddy Power make Madonna 2-1 favourite to be the first celebrity to endorse the drug – and 3-1 to adopt it.

Cher is 4-1 second favourite, but I can’t see her taking the pills. She’d have to locate her mouth first.