As part of the Transgender Awareness campaign, I offer a diary which visits Malaysia, home of the Mak Nyah, for a ruling against Sharia Law, Ireland, for steps towards gender equality, Scotland for some effort towards that and a disturbing violation of trust, The Philippines for some history and plea for equality, and Thailand, for a winner.
Three Malaysian Mak Nyah (transgender women) have won the right to dress in the style of the gender with which they identify as a three judge Court of Appeals panel unanimously ruled that the Negeri Sembilan Shariah law under which they had been charged was discriminatory because it failed to recognize people with gender identity issues, thereby depriving transgender people of "the right to live with dignity."
This is degrading, oppressive and inhumane
--Judge Mohamad Hishammuddin Mohamad Yunus
Hishammuddin said the Islamic law was aimed at curbing homosexual and lesbian activities that led to the spread of HIV. The present case "has nothing to do with homosexuality," but was about Muslim men with a medical condition, he added.
A lower court dismissed the case in 2012, saying the three transgenders must adhere to Islamic law because they were Muslim and born male. The three, who have been certified by doctors to have gender identity issues, appealed the decision.
The Negeri Sembilan Islamic Religious Department could still appeal the ruling to the apex Federal Court, but it is not clear if they will do so.
Negeri Sembilan is an hour south of Kuala Lumpur.
The name is believed to derive from the nine (sembilan) villages or nagari in the Minangkabau language (now known as luak) settled by the Minangkabau, a people originally from West Sumatra (in present-day Indonesia). Minangkabau features are still visible today in traditional architecture and the dialect of Malay spoken.
Unlike the hereditary monarchs of the other royal Malay states, the ruler of Negeri Sembilan is known as Yang di-Pertuan Besar instead of Sultan. The election of the Ruler is also unique. He is selected by the council of Undangs who lead the four biggest districts of Sungai Ujong, Jelebu, Johol, and Rembau, making it one of the more democratic monarchies. Negeri Sembilan is also the only Malaysian state with matrilineal society majority brought by Minangkabau.
--Wikipedia
My most supportive friend when I was transitioning in Arkansas was a Malaysian Chinese student.
We are thankful and overjoyed. It is a victory for human rights.
--transgender rights activist Nisha Ayub, who was in court when the verdict was read
The three appellants, who were not in court, are makeup artists who have undergone hormone therapy and have faced constant harassment from Islamic authorities.
Dr. Lydia Foy of Ireland is a 67-year-old dentist who has been fighting the Irish government for legal gender recognition since the 1990s.
Recently Dr. Foy announced that the government had announced an “expressed intention” to introduce a Gender Recognition Bill, which would recognise trans people in all dealings with the State, public bodies, and civil and commercial society.
Legal recognition is vital to improving the daily lives of trans people in Ireland.
This is a significant step forward in ending Dr Lydia Foy’s twenty year struggle to be legally recognised in her true gender.
And it is a significant step forward for our entire community who will be able to avail of the legislation in 2015.
Now that there is a firm timeline for the legislation, it’s imperative that the Government review the content of this legislation.
It’s not enough to have a law. The Government now has the opportunity to enact human rights based legislation that fully protects the dignity and autonomy of all trans and intersex people in Ireland.
--Transgender Equality Ireland (TENI)
Dr. Foy, 67, said her national school years were very tough, but became worse in secondary school when she was taunted by bullies who glued the pages of her schoolbooks together and destroyed her clothes.
At least two other transgender children were in school with her at the time and also suffered abuse. One did not survive the experience and later died by suicide. She said she almost didn’t survive herself, suffering a major breakdown in adult life when she was married and a father of two, but knew that she could not go on pretending to be a man.
Dr. Foy, a dentist from Athy, Co Kildare, was identified as male when she was born, but always felt female. In 1992, she finally had gender reassignment surgery and the following year, she applied for a new birth certificate recognising her true gender but was refused.
Her 21-year legal battle ended last week with the State giving a commitment in the High Court to enact legislation next year that will give people the right to have a new birth cert issued if the original one did not reflect their true gender.
--Caroline O'Doherty, Irish Examiner
I have been pretty lonely. People would still think it’s a stigma to be with somebody like me. They might not in time to come. For the next generation I don’t think it will be any hassle at all.
It’s wonderful in that we have such a solid commitment to tidy things up. I feel I can’t relax until everything is totally tidied up.
--Foy, who does not yet have a new birth certificate
The National Health Service of Scotland says it is "extremely concerned" about an incident in which 86 transgender patients were
accidentally outed in an email sent October 27. The "accident" occurred when an email sender failed to use bcc. Unhidden addresses provided full names and dates of birth.
Officials said they will investigate the breach and are taking steps to contact those affected by it. BBC Scotland reported that the people affected were transgender patients at Glasgow's Sandyford Clinic.
Patient confidentiality is of the highest priority and we are extremely concerned that this breach has occurred as a result of human error.
On review of the email addresses we can confirm that a number of the individuals' names and dates of births are discernible from the email addresses.
We have already made the Information Commissioner aware of this issue and have been guided by him.
--NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
The person who wrote the original email compounded the error by three times trying to recall it. The patients were supposed to receive an article co-authored by transgender journalist Leeze Lawrence, who noticed the addressing error when she received a copy of the email and reported it to the Sandyford clinic.
We are greatly concerned that this data breach has occurred. Such violations of data confidentiality are much feared by transgender people due to the speed at which privacy, trust and safety can be painfully stripped from them at the click of a button.
We accept this incident was an accident and not malicious but that is of little comfort to those affected. We urge the 86 people who received each other’s email addresses to permanently delete this unlawfully transmitted data and to not compound the harm by forwarding the data on to anyone else.
The sharing of sensitive personal information without consent is unlawful whether or not it was accidental. The Data Protection Act 1998 and Human Rights Act 1998 together create strict obligations of confidentiality.
The fact that the data potentially identifies the gender reassignment history of individuals in possession of gender recognition certificates further increases the seriousness of the breach since violating the privacy protections of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 can result in criminal charges against individuals.
--James Morton, Scottish Transgender Alliance
A new
Equal Recognition campaign has been initiated by the
Scottish Transgender Alliance and
Equality Network which call for the Scottish government to change the law to recognize the possibility of a third gender (a non-binary option). Australia, Denmark, Malta, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and New Zealand currently have non-binary options.
In the wake of the murder of the Filippina transwoman Jennifer Laude by US Marine Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton, Filipina transwoman Naomi Fontanos has written A Love Letter to my country, from a transgender Filipina It is worth the read.
Mga minamahal kong kababayan (To my beloved Philippines):
I am opening my heart and writing this letter to you not to change anybody’s mind. I am writing this letter so that we can continue the national conversation we are having now about gender and sexuality (and even sovereignty) that I feel has been a long time coming. I hope that your hearts will remain open to this important conversation because I know that as a people, we are fond of saying, “Ang lahat ng bagay ay nadaaan sa mabuting usapan. (We can talk openly about anything under the sun).”
I want to start by saying that transgender people have always existed in the Philippines. We are a highly gender-diverse society and transgender Filipinos have been an indelible part of our country’s cultural memory. It is just that you have known us by different names at different times in our nation’s history.
In olden times before Spain colonized us through cross and sword, we were the babaylan who served as spiritual leaders in pre-colonial tribes and communities. Since the 60s, some of us have also been called byuconeras or pagenteras who you see join beauty pageants from your barangay (village) to nationally televised ones like Super Sireyna on the noontime show Eat Bulaga to international ones like Miss International Queen in Thailand. In the 70s onwards, we were the japaneras who worked as Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and skilled entertainers in Japan’s many bars and nightclubs. Some of us are also those people described locally as having undergone a “sex transplant,” although that is a non-existent medical procedure. (The correct term is genital reconstruction surgery and you do not have to undergo one to be called transgender, by the way.)
--Fontanos
In an ideal world, a world in which there is genuine gender equality, transgender people should be able to share the joys of sexuality with those who are not transgender without prejudice. In an ideal world, transgender people should be able to walk in broad daylight and at night without others feeling that it is their privilege to police or punish us through shaming and discrimination or worse, physical violence. In an ideal world, we all individually will be viewed as having an inherent right to self-determination including deciding for ourselves who we are as gendered beings. And no government institution not even the Supreme Court should usurp that. Isn’t this the kind of world we want to live in here in the Philippines?
Isn’t this the same principle we as a country held on to when we drove out our colonizers including the Spaniards, the Japanese, and the Americans? Many of our countrymen in the past revolted, gave up their lives, and fought against those who oppressed, exploited and manipulated our nation all in the name of the true, good and beautiful idea that is self-determination. If we, as a country, can unite in the idea that only the Filipino people should shape the destiny of the Filipino race, why can’t we rally behind the truth, goodness and beauty of this idea when it is asserted by individual citizens of our country?
And finally we come to Ms. Santiago...where is she?
Last night the 22-year-old Venezuelan was crowned Miss International Queen 2014 in Pattaya, Thailand. Her prize is the choice of either $12500 or cosmetic surgery.