VietNamNet Bridge – An official from the Ministry of Justice said that they would protect and support transgender people and were currently waiting for the NA’s approval of some new regulations relating to the issue.  

Health Ministry may determine transgender teacher’s gender

Dr. Tran That, director of the ministry’s Administrative Department.

Dr. Tran That, director of the ministry’s Administrative Department made the statement following a case involved the Binh Phuoc provincial authorities attempting to roll back transgender recognition of Pham Van Hiep.

The attempt by Binh Phuoc provincial authorities to not recognise Pham Le Quynh Tram’s sex change has stirred public opinion and raised issues about people’s right to express their individuality. What do you think about this?

We’ve issued a document to require the provincial Department of Justice to provide a report on the case. I think the decision to allow Pham Van Hiep to change his name was correct. I’ve been invited to attend several seminars on homosexual, transgender and bi-sexual people. During these occasions, I’ve reiterated that related authorities should reconsider related regulations. Regulations are currently too rigid and based on prejudices.

"Re-defining” ones sex means correcting a previously wrongly defined gender to make it more precise, but “transgender” is understood as transforming from one gender to another. Even though the Civil Law stipulates that people have right to re-define their gender, the documents guiding the implementation are too strict. I do think that people like Hiep have the right to re-define their gender but the current regulations seem to make it unnecessarily hard to do so.

After receiving a report from the Binh Phuoc provincial Department of Justice, we’ll study Hiep’s case and may work directly with him. If this is a genuine desire on his part, we’ll just let him get on with his life.

Binh Phuoc authorities said the recognition of Hiep’s transgender status was illegal as it conflicted with Decree 88/2008 on the issue. What do you think?

Regulations are there to make things easier for people. Laws and regulations are drafted based on real life, so it’s not necessary to rigidly force people to live in a way that contradicts the law.

It’s not only the case of transgendered people, but homosexual and bi-sexual people have received very little legal protection. Is that right?

Transgendered, homosexual and bi-sexual people are living in the society and they should be protected by laws and regulations. However, regulations on such issues should not be too loose that people can take advantage of them for their own purposes. But we will need scientists and medical experts to exactly define who are transgendered or homosexual.

The issue on whether we accept marriages among homosexual people was debated at a meeting recently held by the Ministry of Justice on the draft Law on Marriage and Family. It would take a lot of time to get approval from the National Assembly on this issue. However, I think that the adjustment to current regulations and the assistance to transgendered people to re-define their sex could done soon.

You’ve said in a recent seminar on these issues that you’d be willing to help them to re-define their sex. Is this right?

It’s true. Any transgendered person who faces difficulties in re-defining their sex, please call for my help. If you know any of such people who have transgendered or re-defined their sex but face obstacles in getting recognition to change their names, please tell them to send dossiers to me or leaders of the Ministry of Justice. We promise to work on these.

Source: DTriNews