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Thailand- Group proposes law to guarantee transsexual people’s legal rights
Jul 25. 2019 – The Nation
A group of transsexuals has proposed a new law that guarantees legal rights to people who undergo sex change, including a right to have their title changed to suit their new gender.The group submitted the proposal addressed to House Speaker Chuan Leepai on Thursday.
The proposal seeks equality for men and women who undergo sex change, in terms of their name title, legal rights as married couples, marital status, military conscription and imprisonment in the correct cell based on their new sex.
More details are here -
1 Reply
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The new Constitution of Thailand, drafted by the military junta (to ensure they remain the predominant force in Thai politics), talks about “equal rights” for all in general terms but there is no mention of specific groups such as LGTBQI, – it was widely rumoured that transgender people would be given greater recognition and, in particular, legal status by the new constitution, but it never happened.
I expect that the Thai parliament, in its usual way, will apply constructive procrastination to this issue and nothing will happen. This is a great pity as transexuals are generally recognised and accepted by the community at large and can be found in a wide range of professions. But the fact remains that they can take physical steps to adopt a gender different to their birth gender, but that, under existing law, will never be acknowledged. Birth and other documents can only show their birth genders and cannot be changed.
By the way, the Nation article talks about “imprisonment in the correct cell based on their new sex” . This sounds a bit odd, to me as Thai prison cells are communal and you can find up to 50 people or more in the same cell; so I am not sure how that might work. I wish the petitioners luck, but am not optimistic about the income.