julian burnside – watching brief
Tag Archives: Law
november 20
This Tuesday is International Day of Transgender Remembrance. I should be dwelling on Happy Things today but it’s been a lazy month for blogging.
Judith Butler talks in Undoing Gender that within the spread of gender and desire what isn’t necessarily important is who you sleep with or what you identify as, it’s what you are seen to be. It’s easy for a straight-acting gay man to hide the reality of their desire, especially when being seen to be straight affords a better life. It’s not so easy for someone who looks like a butch dyke or femme poof to disguise this, irrespective of whether their appearance corresponds with a particular set of desires or identities. Equally, the insistent surveillance of aberrations from the norm mean to be a punk in Adelaide or be a woman with short hair leaves people open to the possibility of negation, erasure, a violent denial of identity and life.
I mostly get left alone. Occasionally I’ve had verbal abuse, either direct or whispered. I received far more unwelcome attention and violence when I was a goth and punk. I’m not sure whether to regard this lack of hate as fortunate, or, to use that difficult word, normal. I sometimes think being over 6 foot affords me a degree of apparent protection. I also tend to think people really have evolved in the last twenty years, and yes, I’m extraordinarily lucky to be living in a secular european society that more or less regards human rights as unalienable.
Nonetheless, far too often people who look like fags or dykes or trannies or punks or just not normal, or who appear to be normal but are exposed as different have their right to choose their identities and desires forcibly removed by other people who simply cannot abide a reality in which difference exists.
It is this lack, of rights, of protection, of having a livable life that I think is the commonality between the various letters in the GLBT…(insert extra letters here). It also means there is no difference between the ongoing feminist struggle for women’s rights, racial and cultural equality and that of desire and identity. The need for human rights, for there are never enough, is what makes us the same.
There is though, from within, a compulsion to smooth out all this abundant diversity, to make each individual the same, to deny others their rights, to make them less than human, because they possess a different difference. It is to say, while my difference deserves protection and is acceptable, is right, yours is not and does not.
I don’t know if I particularly care about remembrance days. In the 90s it was AIDS vigils and I suspect despite the transient media attention it doesn’t make much of a difference. What does? Publicly out trannies perhaps, though then one or two become the voice for a community that is far too disparate to be called one, and their subjective opinions and prejudices (such as the boringly prevalent anti-shemale porn party-line in the transgender community) become those affixed to this now defined group. Though it’s self-evident that seeing diversity is a good thing.
I’d like to think of those individuals who for some personal reason decided to use their expertise and position to make a positive difference in their field for those who need what they cannot get alone, in medicine, law, politics, education. I’ve met so many people like this who over many years have slowly and inexorably caused the world to change. If we are going to remember the violence, it’s also pertinent we all remember, as Jacques Derrida said, those who “stand on the side of human rights”.
Nakia Ladelle Baker died in January in Tennessee as a result of blunt force trauma to the head. Keittirat Longnawa was beaten by nine youths in Thailand, who then slit her throat. In March, Moira Donaire was stabbed five times by a street vendor in Chile. The body of Michelle Carrasco was discovered in a pit in Chile, her face unrecognisable. Ruby Rodriguez was found naked and strangled to death in the street in San Francisco. Erica Keel was repeatedly run over by a car in Pennsylvania. Bret T. Turner died from multiple stab wounds in Wisconsin. Victoria Arellano was refused HIV related medications in California. Oscar Mosqueda from Florida was shot. Maribelle Reyes from Texas was turned away from HIV treatment centres because she was transgender. In July an unidentified cross dressing male was found dead with gunshot wounds to the chest and lower back.
Protected: miscellaneous tranny stuff … coz we rule
korean law ruling allows change of sex
During the weeks I ventured west into the mountains, Korea’s Supreme Court was debating whether to permit male-to-female transsexuals to legally change their gender as documented on their birth certificate. I am very happy to hear last Thursday the ruling was allowed, however I’m of the opinion that legal rulings on gender identity are no less repressive and didactic than religious hegemony, and usually through the mediocrity of compromise what could have been a substantive change in cultural perception becomes an indeterminate middle-ground quagmire, too prescriptive to humanely acknowledge the real world of sex and gender.
In short, it does not go far enough, primarily because it explicitly bases establishment of gender identity on that least-seen and most irrelevant piece of anatomy in everyday life. Secondly because it treats transsexuality as a medical condition, or more accurately, pathologises it, in remarkable the same way that being homosexual once could lead directly to lobotomies. I guess it’s better than getting burnt at the stake.
“Gender should be decided by not only physical appearance but also the person’s mentality and psychology, and society’s attitude to that person. This means that gender is decided by diverse factors, and that a person’s mental and social gender, which he or she did not recognize at birth, can be found during his or her social life,” the court said in its ruling.
Following such a definition, the court also suggested five criteria in deciding whether to recognize transsexuals’ new genders in official records.
First, the person should have had a feeling of physical disorientation about his or her birth sex and have felt that he or she belongs to the opposite sex through to their adult lives.
The person should have received psychological counseling to determine their mental sexuality, and also eventually have undergone surgery to have the desired sex’s physicality.
After surgery, the person needs to live a biological and social life that meets his or her new gender. He or she also should not cause severe changes in relationships with others and his or her friends and family should acknowledge the change.
harisu supports korean law
advocate lim tae-hoontranssexual law in korea and japan
A couple of articles on the current legal and cultural positions of transsexuals in Japan and Korea broadly illustrates a few important points. Firstly, Asia generally, and the more post-industrial countries like Japan and Korea specifically are making a mockery of the lack of progress in English-speaking countries on the issue of gender. This is despite the slightly incoherent journalistic postulation that gender is a choice, and that transsexual people – in the same way gays ‘choose’ who they fuck – are engaged in an elective activity and could ‘choose’ to be ‘normal’. Irrespective of their (the reporter’s) confusion, the place where identity matters – in the courts and in jurisprudence – seems to have a more pragmatic grasp of the issue.
The second point is that fundamentally religion in all its forms is evil and is quite unequivocally the most pestilent curse to befall humanity. When a reverend (they do not deserve capitalisation) states, “God did not endow mankind with the right to choose sex”, he, and the combined corpus of religions are exercising their primary agenda of enslavement and destruction of the single attribute that makes humanity so wonderful: diversity.
Contra religion’s war on human identity, both these articles clearly underline the huge importance of the internet in changing people’s lives for the better.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court opened a public hearing to make guidelines for lower courts on whether to allow transsexuals to be able to change their gender in their family registry.
It was the first court hearing on the gender change issue in the country’s judicial history.
After more than three hours of heated debate by advocates and opponents from medical and religious circles, Chief Justice Lee Yong-hun shook his head and said, “It’s a very difficult question.’’
The court plans to make a decision after another hearing next month.
During Thursday’s hearing, Lee Moo-sang, a urology professor at Yonsei University’s Medical College, said transsexualism is determined in the perinatal period.
The medical doctor suggested the government establish a system in which the court permits transgender people to be able to undergo sex-change operations and also legally change their gender after receiving a diagnosis from psychiatrists and surgeons and the consent of their family.
Rev. Park Yeong-ryul, head of the conservative Protestant Christian Academy for National Development, argued against Lee’s opinion, saying “God did not endow mankind with the right to choose sex.’’
Japan’s first sex-change operation was performed in 1998, and its first transsexual and gay politicians were elected to public office in 2003. A groundbreaking legal reform allowing some transsexuals to change their officially registered sex took effect the following year.
The advances — the result of long years of work behind the scenes — have given Japan’s sexual minorities rising self-confidence and a greater willingness to come out of the closet despite the country’s long-prized conformity and disdain for displays of individuality.
“These changes have been way overdue,” Fujio said at a recent interview in Tokyo. “I think the law got people thinking, ‘If the country has recognized these people, they must be acceptable after all.’”
Greater visibility and legal change are part of a general trend in Japan toward more personal freedom.
Technology and tradition have also played a role. The Internet has spread information about alternative lifestyles to people who in previous generations would have been isolated. Meanwhile, Japan’s lack of deeply-rooted moral or religious censure of sexual minorities has made the transition easier.
harisu
kanako otsuji & aya kamikawawhen jurisprudence lags behind reality
It’s a really nice idea that a post-operative transsexual can change their gender on their birth certificate and every other document, but it almost completely misses the point. It is scientific and legal hubris and deceit to attempt to assign gender based on an arbitrary determination of what’s between someone’s legs and whether what is found there corresponds to parochial yearnings of what constitutes male and female.
Stupid judges need a) a compulsory course in reading the complete works of Judith Butler, and b) need to stay the fuck out of people’s pants until they can understand it’s a bit more interesting than black and white. Or to be a bit clearer, just because someone is a transsexual and wants to legally and officially be a she instead of a he or vice-versa doesn’t automatically mean then want to perform roadworks on their genitals.
Han Chae-yoon, head of the Korean Sexual Minority Culture and Rights Center (KSCRC), said that in Korea, their official genders, even after surgery, depend on judges’decisions because of the lack of legal ground.
“Being determined a man or a woman in society can determine an individual’s happiness over her or his entire life,” Han told The Korea Times.
“It is nonsense for judges to decide one’s gender at their own mercy in accordance with their tastes and values because of the absence of a relevant law,” she added.
harisuchanging the law to match your gender
It shits me so much that something so obvious has to become the province of the law and the courts to legislate on and even worse can’t make consistent decisions. Changing your gender on your birth certificate should be as easy as changing your name or applying for a passport (ok, maybe not a good example). It shouldn’t have to go to a court, which have much better things to do with their severely limited time. Legislation based on narrow and conservative definitions of gender is cowardly and ineffectual response to what should never have become a complex issue. And furthermore, it unequivocally should not be dependant on whether you’ve had sex-reassignment surgery – whatever the fuck that term is supposed to mean.
Koreans who have undergone surgery to change their gender are calling for standard procedures in courts to facilitate the process of changing their family records to reflect their altered sexuality.
Although the exact figure remains uncertain, there are reportedly between 4,000 and 10,000 transsexuals in Korea. According to the Department of Court Administration at the Supreme Court of Korea, 81 individuals have filed suit in regional courts to change their gender on their family records. Forty of the cases have been dismissed.
The department pointed out that the number of suits has increased dramatically since television star Ha Ri-su was permitted to register as a woman in 2002 following transgender surgery.
Transsexuals argue that without an established set of rules, whether they are allowed to alter their records depends too much on the discretion and personal values of judges who handle the cases. They point out that between 2000 and 2004, the Gwangju District Court ruled 9 of 11 such cases in favor of the transsexuals, while in the same period, 10 out of 13 cases were dismissed by the Busan District Court.
one law for them another for the rest of us
Eugene McGee is a lawyer. He got drunk, drove and killed a cyclist. He didn’t stop because he didn’t want to damage his career. He got fined $3100 and lost his licence for 12 months. The award for being an utter fucking wanker goes to Eugene McGee. A lingering, painful death by prostate cancer is the prize. The award for asshole-of-the-universe goes to the judge who handed down the sentence. The prize is drawn-out senility, Alzheimers, and permanent loss of bowel control
Theres a rally being held to protest against a recent decision in an Adelaide court, which saw lawyer Eugene McGee handed down a $3100 fine and 12 months loss of licence for hitting and killing cyclist Ian Humphreys whilst drink driving in his four wheel drive. Afraid that he might damage his careerhe didnt stick around at the scene of the accident. When he was later apprehended by police, McGee was not breath tested or blood tested, even though he admitted to having had 4 or 5 glasses of wine and police admitted to having smelt alcohol on his breath. Two brothers who stopped to see if they could help at the accident scene claim that their statements to police have been changed, and are baffled as to why they were not called to give evidence in court despite claiming to have witnessed McGee driving erratically at speeds of up to 160kph, then speeding off after hitting the cyclist. A group called Wheels of Justicehas formed in SA they think its pretty lousy that it only costs $3000 to kill a cyclist and are holding a rally in Adelaide on the weekend; there is a concurrent action being held at Fed Square from 9:30am on Saturday 7th May. People who cycle and feel that their lives should be protected by the law are encouraged to bring their bikes and join the rally, which will travel to the steps of Parliament House pedestrians also welcome.
sex-change ops on the tab
The New Zealand government has decided to start picking up the tab on sex-change operations. Not for everyone though. Only four lucky lottery winners get the door-prize of a lifetime and make their friends green with envy.
The policy, quietly adopted by the Government last year but little-known outside the transgender community, saw funding set aside for up to four operations over two years.
The package includes up to three male to female operations –worth about $30,000 each –performed by Christchurch cosmetic and reconstructive surgeon Peter Walker.
He performed the first of those operations at Southern Cross Hospital last month.
A fourth operation, female to male, could take place offshore as the surgery is not done in New Zealand. The operation costs up to $80,000 in Australia.
The money is coming from a $5.6 million special high-cost treatment budget.
Zhang Lin gets married
Sometimes China really manages to get it right, like 10 years ahead of the rest of the world. Not only is one of the country’s most acclaimed dancer/choreographers, Jin Xing a transsexual, but while other countries can’t even move out of the 1950′s on sexuality issues, China goes right ahead allows transsexual marriage.
In Xinhuanet today is the story of Zhang LIn, who has just got married.
Zhang Lin, the first Chinese transsexual to be issued a marriage certificate, is legally engaged to her partner and will hold a big wedding ceremony on May 1st.
The grand engagement ceremony was held Saturday in Nanjing, the capital of east China’s Jiangsu province, with a locally celebrated host presiding over the celebration.
The 38 year old received not only her new ID card this March but also a marriage certificate approved by the civil affairs department.
Before her sex change operation Zhang Lin had been married to a woman and had a 12-year-old daughter.
The Happy Couple