Stereotyped as dancers, beggars and prostitutes, Pakistan's vibrant but shunned transgender community is striking out into politics with individuals contesting elections for the first time. They may only be seven out of 23,000 candidates with little chance of getting elected, but they have livened up an otherwise lacklustre campaign and set an important marker for their rights in the conservative Muslim country. "People don't believe we can be corrupt because we don't have children and families," says independent candidate Sanam Faqeer in the southern city of Sukkur.

A highly-educated woman who becomes a stay-at-home mum is a "complete waste" of a university degree, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, herself a mother-of-two, lashed out in a British newspaper interview last year. Elegant, charismatic and determined, Thorning-Schmidt has headed the Danish government since October 2011, embodying the strides made by women in politics and the workplace in the Nordic countries over the years, though their fight goes on to reach the top echelons of corporate management where they remain under-represented.

A member of Pakistan's transgender community is to contest upcoming general elections on a ticket of equal rights, saying the community has more to offer than begging or dancing at weddings. The elections, due by mid-May, will mark the first democratic transition of power after an elected government's full term in Pakistan's 65-year history. It will also be the first time Pakistan's estimated 500,000 "eunuchs" are eligible to seek office, after the Supreme Court in 2011 ordered the government to issue them with identity cards and to register them as voters.

* Bisexual women also abused more often, mostly by men * CDC says findings offer first national look at the issue * Findings come as Congress considers domestic violence law By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Gay people in the United States are just as likely as heterosexuals to experience domestic violence, sexual violence or stalking, and bisexual women are more likely than other women to be abused, federal health experts said on Friday.