Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Court to Debate Gender of Transsexuals
By Kim Tong-hyung
Korea Times Staff Reporter
The Supreme Court will hold a hearing next Thursday to discuss whether to legally recognize transsexuals' new gender, signaling the start of an intensive public debate over the issue. The court has invited a doctor experienced in sexual reassignment surgery, and a religious leader who had been publicly opposing gender recognition of transsexuals, to participate.
"We will make a decision over the issue of gender recognition of transsexual people and we expect to extend the talks until we reach a unanimous conclusion among the judges. We will ask the opinions of experts, whether to stand for or against legally recognizing the changed sex of transsexuals, and also consider public sentiment,'' said a Supreme Court official, who added the hearing will be closed to the public.
Progressive activists and minority rights groups have been claiming that recognizing transsexuals by their new gender would be an important step to grant them legal equality. By denying the rights of transsexuals to be recognized by their new sex, transsexual people could face serious social obstacles when applying for jobs or licenses, receiving welfare benefits or marriage among others, with their original birth certificates determining their proof of identity, according to the activists.
However, conservative voices, including many religious leaders and organizations, have been balking at the idea of recognizing transsexuals by their new gender. They point out that sexual reassignment surgery is not capable of brining fundamental changes to one's biological origin, as it inevitably results in infertility, and claim that the issue over transsexuals is more a problem of lifestyle, not gender identity.
Many countries in Western Europe, with some exceptions such as Ireland, Albania and Andorra, have adjusted their sex laws in recent years to give transsexuals legal recognition of their new gender.
The arguments over the bureaucratic recognition of those who change their sex began last year when three transsexuals filed an appeal to the Supreme Court after a lower court rejected their claims to be legally identified by their new genders. Two of them, in their mid-30s, received surgeries to become women and one went through a similar route to become a man.
Since 2002, when entertainer Ha Ri-su and another person, who both received sexual reassignment surgeries to become women, was granted legal recognition of their new sex by court, there has been a consistent number of people requesting to be listed as the opposite sex to what is marked on their birth certificate.
According to official figures, 22 transsexual people applied for gender recognition of their new sex to the Seoul Family Court and 17 other regional courts in 2004, with the courts granting the applications in 10 cases. The number of cases rose to 26 in 2005, with the courts allowing new gender recognition in 15 of the cases.
The inconsistency in the rulings have critics pointing out the need of a legal framework to determine the conditions under which transsexuals are granted legal recognition of their new sex. For gender recognition for transsexuals, courts are looking for ways mandate the applicants to prove that they have lived in their new gender and whether they intended to live that way permanently, as well as their physical changes by medication and surgery.
In 1996, the Supreme Court ruled a sexual offense case involving a transsexual victim as a molestation, instead of rape, refusing to recognize the victim was biologically a woman. In its ruling, the court wrote the "victim cannot be recognized as a woman by conventional thought.''
Ten years later, however, minority rights activists contend that changes in "conventional thought'' might actually give transsexuals a better change to be legally recognized by their new gender.
thkim@koreatimes.co.kr 05-11-2006 17:01 ¶ 8:37 PM
Korea Times Staff Reporter
The Supreme Court will hold a hearing next Thursday to discuss whether to legally recognize transsexuals' new gender, signaling the start of an intensive public debate over the issue. The court has invited a doctor experienced in sexual reassignment surgery, and a religious leader who had been publicly opposing gender recognition of transsexuals, to participate.
"We will make a decision over the issue of gender recognition of transsexual people and we expect to extend the talks until we reach a unanimous conclusion among the judges. We will ask the opinions of experts, whether to stand for or against legally recognizing the changed sex of transsexuals, and also consider public sentiment,'' said a Supreme Court official, who added the hearing will be closed to the public.
Progressive activists and minority rights groups have been claiming that recognizing transsexuals by their new gender would be an important step to grant them legal equality. By denying the rights of transsexuals to be recognized by their new sex, transsexual people could face serious social obstacles when applying for jobs or licenses, receiving welfare benefits or marriage among others, with their original birth certificates determining their proof of identity, according to the activists.
However, conservative voices, including many religious leaders and organizations, have been balking at the idea of recognizing transsexuals by their new gender. They point out that sexual reassignment surgery is not capable of brining fundamental changes to one's biological origin, as it inevitably results in infertility, and claim that the issue over transsexuals is more a problem of lifestyle, not gender identity.
Many countries in Western Europe, with some exceptions such as Ireland, Albania and Andorra, have adjusted their sex laws in recent years to give transsexuals legal recognition of their new gender.
The arguments over the bureaucratic recognition of those who change their sex began last year when three transsexuals filed an appeal to the Supreme Court after a lower court rejected their claims to be legally identified by their new genders. Two of them, in their mid-30s, received surgeries to become women and one went through a similar route to become a man.
Since 2002, when entertainer Ha Ri-su and another person, who both received sexual reassignment surgeries to become women, was granted legal recognition of their new sex by court, there has been a consistent number of people requesting to be listed as the opposite sex to what is marked on their birth certificate.
According to official figures, 22 transsexual people applied for gender recognition of their new sex to the Seoul Family Court and 17 other regional courts in 2004, with the courts granting the applications in 10 cases. The number of cases rose to 26 in 2005, with the courts allowing new gender recognition in 15 of the cases.
The inconsistency in the rulings have critics pointing out the need of a legal framework to determine the conditions under which transsexuals are granted legal recognition of their new sex. For gender recognition for transsexuals, courts are looking for ways mandate the applicants to prove that they have lived in their new gender and whether they intended to live that way permanently, as well as their physical changes by medication and surgery.
In 1996, the Supreme Court ruled a sexual offense case involving a transsexual victim as a molestation, instead of rape, refusing to recognize the victim was biologically a woman. In its ruling, the court wrote the "victim cannot be recognized as a woman by conventional thought.''
Ten years later, however, minority rights activists contend that changes in "conventional thought'' might actually give transsexuals a better change to be legally recognized by their new gender.
thkim@koreatimes.co.kr 05-11-2006 17:01 ¶ 8:37 PM
