The health ministry is finalising amendments to the draft Civil Codelaw, which is likely to acknowledge transgender people and their rightsfor the first time in Vietnam.
Nguyen Huy Quang,head of the ministry's legal department, said although Vietnam hasbanned transgender surgery and has not recognised transgender people,several of them went abroad for surgery.
Quang saidthe ministry is still collecting opinions on the alternative of notrecognising transsexual people as is done at present, or recognisingtransgender people and their surgery under the supervision of authorisedagencies.
"Personally, I prefer to address the fact and solve it," he said. "This is the right to live with their true gender."
Quang said currently, Vietnam does not allow transgender activities.However, up to 1,000 people have gone abroad for transgender surgeries.This caused huge expenditure for the transgender people and posedpotential risks, as most got the surgery done at unlicensed healthclinics. Worse, they became ‘invisible' after returning to Vietnam asthey are not recognised legally. The photos on their legal papers suchas identity cards and passports did not match their new appearance,causing them a lot of problems, he said.
Statisticsfrom the Institute of Environmental Health Studies show about half amillion people have unclear gender in Vietnam. These people feel theyare of the opposite sex.
Twenty countries legallyrecognise transgender activities. In Asia alone, five countries — India,Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Thailand — allow transgender surgery.-VNA
