• 
• 

Published on August 15, 2007

National Legislative Assembly member Juree Vichid-vadakarn also plans to submit a bill allowing transsexuals to legally change their titles. The matter was discussed at a meeting of the National Commission for Promotion and Cooperation for Women's and Family Affairs last Friday.

The TG group is to meet Naiyana Supapueng, a member of the National Human Rights Commission, today for talks on the campaign.

It includes renowned transsexuals such as Yollada, Miss Alcazar 2005 and boxer Parinya "Nong Tum" Kiartbussaba. It consists of both transsexuals and transvestites who use "Miss" as their titles.

Yollada said he was going to disseminate news of the group's formation to other transsexuals and transvestites so that they could support the campaign.

 Deputy Social Development and Human Security Minister Poldej Pinpratheep said the issue needed a public hearing because it involved many ministries and laws, such as marriage registration and property laws.

"There should be legislative amendment for changing titles of both kinds of transsexuals, male and female. However, the Social Development and Human Security Ministry won't be the host for submitting the legislation because it has other urgent matters to

deal with. It is up to the Office of Women's Affairs and Family Development," said Poldej.

Yollada said that if the campaign succeeded, the group would fight to change

a statement certifying exemption for trans-genders from military conscription, which cited "mental perversion" as the reason.

This statement would be changed for only trans-genders and transvestites aged under 21.

Yollada said he had faced many problems when submitting his personal documents while conducting financial transactions with banks, applying for jobs and even travelling in foreign countries. This was because his title did not match his female appearance.

"When our gender is changed, some details of our personal documents should be changed, too. And, actually, we don't want to be the same as women, but we want laws to protect and give us rights to be transsexual people, as well as government organisations and private companies to accept us," Yollada added.

Sasiphat Setakunwat, 24, a male cross-dresser, said changing his title to "Miss" would make his job applications easier. He had applied for a job for men but when an executive saw him dressed as a woman, he immediately rejected him.

"To be a real woman after changing sex is my ambition and I believe it is also the ambition of all transvestites and trans-genders," said Sasiphat.

Ramon Suriya, 24, a trans-gender, faced problems when he went to Sweden to take an English language course and when he applied for a job at a hotel.

 "The hotel denied me because my title is 'Mr', even though I got maximum scores in its test," he said.

Wannapa Phetdee

The Nation