Transsexuals should be allowed to change legal gender without surgery: watchdog

SEOUL, Nov. 17 (Yonhap) -- Transsexuals should be allowed to change their legal
gender without undergoing a sex-change operation, South Korea's rights watchdog
said Monday, suggesting the Supreme Court amend its transgender guidelines.
The top court's guidelines stipulate that transsexual people have to have sex
reassignment surgery in order to officially change their gender.
The guidelines were made in 2006 to maintain judicial consistency amid concerns
that rulings had varied according to judges' social leanings since the first case
for a male-to-female transsexual person was approved in 2002.
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea said such court guidelines,
however, overlook the expenses and health risks transsexual people have to bear
for surgery.
"A sex reassignment surgery is very expensive, and its results sometimes can have
fatal effects on one's health. Considering those concerns, it is too excessive a
demand for the judiciary to require surgery, while there can be other medical
methods for sexual transition, like hormone therapy," Yoon Seol-ah, the
commission spokesperson, said.
A 2006 survey by the rights commission suggests many transsexual people live in
poverty due to prejudice and discrimination. Their monthly income averaged
700,000 won (US$497), it found, while a sex-change operation costs up to 100
million won.
No official data exist, but the commission assumes there are about 4,500 people
in South Korea who identify with a physical gender different from the one with
which they were born. Those who have had gender reassignment surgery number 300
to 400.
The watchdog also said other guidelines, such as requiring applicants to be 20 or
older and unmarried, or to have finished the military service or be exempt from
it, violate their human rights and should be abolished.
"Their lives will be better off if their gender gets changed early and their
identity forms early," Yoon said.
The watchdog also said judges should rule over transsexual cases with legislation
rather than the top court guidelines and suggested that the National Assembly
speaker establish a special law on the issue.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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