When a close friend or relative announces an impending sex change operation, it's only natural to ask a few questions:

  ◦ Will he/she still be a man/woman?

  ◦ What should I call him/her?

  ◦ What if he/she is still not happy after the change?

     These kinds of questions can be asked by us because trans-gendered people are becoming increasingly accepted into our society. In a sign of growing tolerance towards transsexuals, the influence of trans-gendered people is bigger, and because of this, several problems have occurred in our society.

    Actually, trans-gendered people have been ignored by normal social concepts as being different from normal people. Yet, their influence in our society has been growing by their efforts through diverse channels. First, through mass media, the trans-gendered have approached closer to our society. For example, a trans-gendered people who changed his/her gender from man to woman is acting as a popular singer, actress, and model in Korea. At first, when faced with this situation, we didn’t consider him/her as a person. As she has become popular in our society, our consciousness to his/her has gradually changed. We have stated to accept him/her as an essential component of our society. Next, the trans-gendered community has tried to be treated legally as a self-defined-gender identity. Nobody cared about their efforts before the issue of transgender was brought up by mass media. As the result of their efforts, the actress whom I mentioned above finally became a woman. The court judged her a woman in 2002. In addition, trans-gendered people have been organizing associations:

◦ The Transgender Association of Western Australia Inc.

◦ Rainbow Gender Association

◦ The Renaissance Transgender Association.

These have become more recognized to us through diverse activities: the fight for recognition of rights for our constituents, free expansion of gender identity, changing one’s own body, and sexual expression.

    Even though the life of transgender folks is better than before, the trans-gendered community still suffers from severe victimization. Society often reacts to trans-gendered people by trying to discourage the behavior, or punishing the individual for several reasons. First of all, with its focus on a law, transgender folks have a serious impact on a society. If legally changing our gender became easy, how could we identify our natural shape? And how would parents recognize their young?  In the long run, the law protecting human being’s unique right can be used for a method of escape of reality. Next, in term of ethics, as the issues of transgender are getting well-known, our children are having more chances to face the unusual culture whether they like it or not; therefore, changing  gender may be perceived to children as natural as changing their hair color. Parents also often feel the need to protect their children from knowing about such issues. Last, the issues of transgender may strongly conflict with concepts of religion. The majority of people believe our gender is identified by God. If the gender is at the mercy of a surgery operation, changing one’s gender can be considered as a challenge to God. So serious effects, which can be negative to a society, can happen.

     The issues of transgender are becoming close to our life as inevitable issues. Whether or not we accept their unique cultures remains to be seen. We definitely need to understand their problems and must clarify the problems by accepting trans-gendered people.

August 2003