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.
Korea in Dilemma Over Transgenders’ Right to Choose
SEOUL (Yonhap) ㅡ At close to midnight, men can be seen entering a cafe in Seoul’s bustling university district, Sinchon, in groups of two or three.
While at first glance it may appear to be an ordinary cafe, its customers don’t just go there to drink beer. On entering, most customers first go behind a curtain in a corner of the cafe to put on women’s clothing, a wig and makeup, before taking a seat for a chat.
Rush, catering especially to crossdressers and transgenders, is a cafe owned by a 46-year-old man who goes by the female name Lee Cho-rong.
“Many people in South Korea don’t really understand the difference between gay and transgender. I’m not gay. I was born a man but eager to live as a woman and be beautiful,’’ said Lee, dressed in a red and pink women’s “hanbok,’’ Korea’s traditional dress. “Some of our regulars say they come here to take off stress at the end of the day by breaking taboos that say men should not wear women’s clothing.’’
Born the youngest of three sons to conservative Protestant parents, Lee keeps his transgender lifestyle secret by living as a man during the day and a woman at night.
“I’m planning to have a sex-change operation only after my old mother dies. There’s no way I could now, my mother might be shocked to death.’’
Lee recalls discovering his inner female identity in the second year of elementary school.
“My mother could not afford to buy me blue stockings for a school talent show, so she borrowed a red pair from her neighbor. At first I refused to wear them because it was the wrong color, the one which girls were supposed to wear. I eventually wore them because I had no other option, but didn’t feel bad, strangely enough.’’
He now feels more comfortable wearing women’s clothing than men’s, and when spending time with female friends.
As is required of all South Korean men, Lee completed approximately two years of mandatory military duty. After graduating from university, he earned a living in low-paying manual jobs, such as washing windows of high-rise buildings and in manufacturing. “I chose such hard jobs in a desperate effort to live a normal life like other men, but couldn’t,’’ he said.
Out of loneliness, he started an Internet site called ‘’Rush for crossdressers’’ years ago.
The number of subscribers to the Internet site recently rose to about 2,600 after the homosexual-themed Korean film “King and the Clown’’ sold a record-high 12 million tickets at the box office. The movie’s unexpected popularity reflects a change of attitude in South Korean society toward those with different sexual preferences, Lee said.
The presence of transsexuals in society no longer shocks South Koreans thanks to strong media coverage of transsexual stars like Harisu.
“There are many difficult moments in the life of a transsexual. My most embarrassing moments were when I have had to show my personal identification card in public,’’ Harisu, a male-to-female transsexual, told Yonhap News Agency by telephone. “I couldn’t get a passport, visa or even my own bank accounts because I was legally a man,’’ the 31-year-old singer and model said.
“This is what I felt while performing in China: while South Koreans have surely become more generous than they were before about people who are different from them they are still very conservative.’’
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.’’
“If we approve transsexuality, we should do the same for homosexuality. Many people have died of AIDS as a result of homosexuality,’’ Rev. Park claimed.
An increasing number of transgender people in South Korea have asked the courts to let them change their sex in family registries since the popular entertainer Harisu was allowed by a district court to legally switch her gender from male to female in 2002. To date, however, only 25 people have been allowed to legally change gender, and requests from 26 others were turned down. Three are appealing the court rulings in the Supreme Court.
If the court rules in favor of the people after the hearings, many of the nation’s estimated 1,000 transgender citizens are likely to follow suit and legally change their gender.
A considerable number of transsexuals are forced into working in the sex or entertainment industries because their job opportunities are strictly limited, according to the cafe owner Lee.
“What we want from society is understanding and to be able to get a regular job and live a normal life like other women,’’ Lee said. “We’re all God’s children.’’
Japanese transgender community emerges
Sexual minorities enjoy limited rights today
TOKYO — To most Japanese, Takafumi Fujio — with cropped hair, thick arms and deep voice — is a typical, middle-aged salaryman. But until four years ago, when the food company worker started on a range of hormonal treatments, he was a woman, a housewife and mother of two.
Fujio is one of an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 Japanese who believe they were born the wrong sex, a sexual minority that has been largely hidden from view in Japan.
But that is quickly changing.
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.
The rising visibility is a sharp turnaround for those like Fujio, who grew up in an era in postwar Japan where talk of transsexual lifestyles was rare.
“The transsexual community had a great dilemma. If we spoke out, we risked our jobs, our livelihoods. But by staying silent, nothing would change,” said Aya Kamikawa, Japan’s first and only transsexual politician.
Since 2003, Kamikawa — a male to female transgender — has played a key role in lobbying for changes at both the national and local levels, including the sex-change law. She has also successfully lobbied to eliminate unnecessary mentions of gender in public documents.
Still, obstacles to full acceptance remain.
Under the 2004 law, for instance, only unmarried, childless applicants can change their official gender. Applicants also must have had a sex-change operation and been diagnosed by two doctors as having gender-identity disorder.
A mere 151 people in Japan officially changed their sex between July 2004, when the law went into force, and the end of March 2005, according to the Justice Ministry. Fujio himself isn’t eligible to change his official sex because he has children.
The stigma of transsexuality is also still high in Japan. Transsexuals say they are reluctant to seek work or even go to the dentist for fear their original gender will be revealed by documents such as health insurance cards.
Moreover, transsexuals experience even more restrictions because some of them are also gay or lesbian. Same-sex marriages are forbidden in Japan, hospital visits by gay partners can be blocked and it’s impossible for homosexual couples to jointly purchase a home or for a survivor to inherit the assets of a gay partner.
“We have no legal protection or assurances whatsoever, and that brings many worries,” said Aki Nomiya, who was born male but now lives as a woman with a female partner, though she has not had a full sex-change operation.
Japan first needs to allow for a partnership system like that of France, whose 1999 Civil Solidarity Pact gives some legal rights to unmarried couples, Nomiya says.
But officials say Japan isn’t yet ready for such changes.
“This is a very complicated and divisive problem that needs to be treated with caution” said Kunio Koide, councilor of the Civil Affairs Bureau of the Justice Ministry. “I don’t see widespread support for reforms at the moment.”
Still, Japan’s sexual minorities as whole have claimed some victories.
Kanako Otsuji, Japan’s first openly gay politician, successfully lobbied for a change in local regulations to allow non-married couples to apply for public housing — including gays and transsexuals.
“My generation has been the first to speak out about sexual minority rights in any meaningful way,” Otsuji, 31, said in Osaka prefecture, where she has held an assembly seat since 2003.
In the meantime, Japan’s transsexuals are enjoying their increasing freedom — while chafing against the enduring restrictions.
As a young woman, Fujio says he suppressed his desire to live as a man and married a male co-worker “mainly out of feelings of obligation,” giving birth to two girls.
Nine years later in 2002, Fujio made the decision to divorce and live as a man.
The move, however, has had painful consequences. His ex-husband’s family has allowed him to see his children only once since the divorce four years ago.
“Of course it’s tough. We have to first get the public to think, ‘It’s OK to live that way of life,’” he said. “Then, maybe I’ll get to see my kids — maybe in 10 years.”