[Vitit Muntarbhorn] Sex and gender rights in a plural world

On the occasion of the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (May 17), UN human rights experts recently called for countries to work with LGBTI communities and not to police them. This was an apt message which has to resonate at the national and local levels, especially when the world is witnessing regression in regard to policies on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Thailand can be proud of the fact that the country is generally liberal on these issues, although there is no room for complacency. The most obvious progress is the implementation of the right of all persons (from 18 years of age), irrespective of sex or gender, to marry consensually and to shift away from the binary approach of 'man/woman equals husband/wife.'
This is work in progress, as there are some 50 other laws awaiting reform to underline equality and non-discrimination for all. One of the urgent next steps to pluralize actions is to pass a law to recognize a person's gender identity which can be different from the sex assigned at birth.
A key difficulty is the language itself. The word 'sex' in this context means the biological sex attributed to a person at the time of birth. However, 'gender' is different, as it reflects how a person feels and how society interlinks with the person which can differ from the biological sex. The correct translation of 'sex' is 'phet' in Thai, while the word 'gender' should be translated as 'phet sapap' or 'phet pawa.' There is still much confusion between these terms in official documents, including in the medical sector.
This is especially important for transgender people who wish to affirm their gender and change identification, passport and other documents to reflect their self-determination. At present, regrettably transgender men (individually born a woman but self-identifying as a man) and transgender women (individually born a man but self-identifying as a woman) are unable to change their identity on such documents and are disadvantaged accordingly. This is even where they have had surgery to alter their physique to reflect that self-identification.
On another front, there is the issue of intersex persons, namely persons born with particular sex characteristics, such as with both male and female organs. This group is particularly victimized by coerced surgery from a young age, superimposed by others choosing the (imputed) sex for the intersex child. This causes immense harm physically and psychologically, as the child may grow up to self-identify as having a different sex or gender from that resulting from the coerced surgery. Later in 2025, the UN Human Right Council will host a special session to discuss the intersex issue directly for the first time.
Currently, there are various draft laws to address both the issue of transgender persons and intersex persons in Thailand's Parliament. There are some constructive elements emanating from them. First, on the transgender issue, under the draft, a person has the right to affirm the person's gender without coerced surgery. Second, there is no need for a psychological test for the person to affirm the preferred gender. Third, the health-and-rights oriented approach should enable transgender persons to access medical care, such as hormone treatment, and data protection. LGBTI persons should be able to offer blood donations. Fourth, gender markers will no longer be binary (namely: male, female), but there will be a third category of 'other' gender.
With regard to intersex persons, the draft stipulates that coerced surgery should not take place at a young age. Families should wait till the person grows up to decide whether or not to have the surgery and let the person decide on the sex or gender accordingly. On the birth certificate, the sex of the person should be stated as 'intersex.'
Not everything is settled in the draft, however. A difficult issue is the age of the person for affirming the gender and the age of the person for deciding when and if to have the surgery voluntarily. There is still disagreement internationally on the issue. The draft in Thailand uses 15 as the minimum age for affirming a person's identity. Thus, a person would be able to ask for a change of the gender on identification documents from the age of 15, while those under 15 need parental consent to do so. On the intersex issue, a person should be able to decide whether to affirm that person's sex or gender from the age of 15, and surgery is subject to the person's consent. All this will depend very much on political leadership to press for passage of the law.
What about the vagaries of international trends? Should the recent judgement of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom that 'woman' means a biological woman and not a transgender woman, affect Thailand's approach to sex and gender? That judgement should be viewed in context. First, that Court was interpreting British law on the issue, namely the Equality Act (2010). That law offers protection from discrimination relating to a variety of features, including 'sex,' 'gender reassignment' and 'sexual orientation.' The court was interlinking the word 'woman' with the term 'sex'; in other words, woman as a biological feature. Transgender people will still be protected as a group under the notion of 'gender reassignment.' However, internationally, the term 'gender affirmation' is now preferred to uphold the self-identification or self-determination of persons in this group.
Moreover, the United Kingdom has a separate law — the Gender Recognition Act (2004) — on the issue of transgender people who wish to change their identity on the basis of gender dysphoria. However, there is a pathological and ambivalent tone behind that classification. The international trend now is to avoid classifying transgender people as having gender dysphoria and to advocate that the issue should be dealt with as part of access to health care and 'sexual health.'
Whatever the state of the law here, there or anywhere, there can be no substitute for education and socialization involving the community, educational institutions, families, politicians and general public to treat others with empathy, irrespective of sex or gender. There can be no room for hate crimes. The heart and soul of the world is the plurality of its peoples sharing peacefully and respectfully a caring and concerted destiny.
Vitit Muntarbhorn is a professor emeritus at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. He was formerly the UN Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. The views expressed here are the writer's own. — Ed.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Korea Herald

9 hours ago

• Korea Herald

US strikes on Iran: what we know

The United States has carried out strikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities, with President Donald Trump saying Saturday it was a "very successful attack" and that all American planes were safely on the way home. Trump had spent weeks pursuing a diplomatic path to replace the nuclear deal with Tehran that he tore up in 2018. But he has since backed Israel's military campaign against Iran's nuclear facilities and top military brass, which it launched a little over a week ago. Here's what we know about the US strikes on Iran. The targets Trump said the United States struck three main Iranian nuclear sites: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan, with the former being hit with a "full payload of bombs." Fordo — which was built in violation of UN resolutions under a mountain near the holy central city of Qom — was an enrichment plant capable of housing about 3,000 centrifuges. Centrifuges are used to enrich uranium, both for civilian and military use, with the radioactive metal needing to be enriched to high levels for use in atomic weapons. Fordo's location deep underground presented a challenge to Israeli forces, which do not have the deeply penetrating munitions needed to hit the facility. Natanz was Iran's main uranium enrichment site, with nearly 70 cascades of centrifuges at its two enrichment plants, while a uranium conversion facility and a nuclear fuel fabrication facility were located at Isfahan. The munitions Trump did not identify the type of munitions used in the strikes, but the GBU-57 — a powerful 30,000-pound (13,600-kilogram) American bunker-busting bomb — was likely used to hit Fordo. The US military says the GBU-57 — also known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator — is designed to penetrate up to 200 feet (60 meters) underground before exploding. This differs from most other missiles or bombs that typically detonate their payload near or upon impact. Testing of the weapons began in 2004, and Boeing was in 2009 awarded a contract to complete the integration of the GBU-57 with aircraft. The aircraft The only aircraft capable of deploying the GBU-57 is the American B-2 Spirit, a long-range stealth bomber that can carry two. Prior to the Iran strikes, specialist flight-tracking sites and US media reported that multiple B-2s had left a base in Missouri in the central United States. The bombers — which can fly 6,000 nautical miles (9,600 kilometers) without refueling — are designed to "penetrate an enemy's most sophisticated defenses and threaten its most valued, and heavily defended, targets," according to the US military. The B-2 was first publicly displayed in 1988 and flew for the first time the following year, with the first of the planes delivered in 1993. The bomber took part in operations against Serbian forces in the 1990s, flying nonstop from Missouri to Kosovo and back. B-2s were subsequently employed by the United States in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars in the 2000s. What comes next? Trump called on Iran to "agree to end this war," saying that "now is the time for peace." But it remains to be seen whether the strikes will push Tehran to deescalate the conflict or to widen it further. If Iran chooses the latter option, it could do so by targeting American military personnel who are stationed around the Middle East or seek to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which carries one-fifth of global oil output. The United States has carried out strikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities, with President Donald Trump saying Saturday it was a "very successful attack" and that all American planes were safely on the way home. Trump had spent weeks pursuing a diplomatic path to replace the nuclear deal with Tehran that he tore up in 2018. But he has since backed Israel's military campaign against Iran's nuclear facilities and top military brass, which it launched a little over a week ago.

Korea Herald

3 days ago

• Korea Herald

N. Korea touts 'absolute solidity' of alliance with Russia on 1st anniv. of key treaty

North Korea on Thursday underscored the "absolute solidity" of its alliance with Russia and reaffirmed bilateral cooperation as it marked the first anniversary of the signing of a mutual defense treaty with Moscow. The North's mainstream Rodong Sinmun newspaper, which reflects the regime's official position, issued the message in an article marking the first anniversary of the signing of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership treaty on June 19 last year in Pyongyang between leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The daily touted the treaty as opening "a new chapter in the friendship" between North Korea and Russia and as an outcome of the leaders' "extraordinary" leadership. It said the two countries have "unsparingly shown off the absolute solidity of the alliance relationship." Under the treaty, which calls on one party to come to the aid of the other without delay if it comes under armed attack, North Korea deployed around 14,000 troops to the Russian side in the war against Ukraine between October last year and February this year. In a meeting with Russia's security chief earlier this week, Kim has reportedly decided to send 5,000 military construction workers and 1,000 sappers to Russia's Kursk frontline region for mine removal and war recovery. The Rodong Sinmun described the military deployment and North Korean troops' engagement in the war as the "most exemplary" implementation of the treaty. "It is an unwavering stance of the two countries' peoples to deepen militant friendship and achieve mutual prosperity and well-being," the newspaper said. It also highlighted growing cooperation between the two countries in the economy, diplomacy, education, public health and the arts, adding that "bilateral solidarity and cooperation are becoming broader." On Tuesday, just ahead of the anniversary, Kim held talks with Russia's Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu in Pyongyang, where Russian media reported Kim had decided to send additional troops and workers to Kursk. North Korean media, however, did not report the decision in their reports, only mentioning plans between North Korea and Russia to commemorate North Korean soldiers killed in action while fighting for Russia. An official at South Korea's unification ministry assessed the North likely decided on the additional troop deployment to gain more rewards from Russia in exchange for its military support, adding the decision appears to have been driven by not only economic but also strategic considerations. However, the regime likely omitted media coverage of the decision out of concern for domestic public opinion, the official said. Through the decision, North Korea appears to be aiming to further solidify its alliance with Russia, and the move could likely lead to an increase in North Korean labor exports to Russia at a time when its exports to China remain sluggish, the official said. (Yonhap)

Korea Herald

4 days ago

• Korea Herald

[Exclusive] Moon-era inter-Korean military pact needs to be restored: spy chief nominee

South Korea's spy chief nominee Lee Jong-seok said he believes the now-suspended inter-Korean military pact, reached between former President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in 2018, should be restored. According to his response to the National Assembly's questions submitted Wednesday, a day ahead of his confirmation hearing, Lee said that reinstating the pact, which was suspended by North Korea in 2023 and by the Yoon administration the next year, was "most desirable." "It is my opinion that restoring the Sept. 19 military agreement is most desirable," he said, in a written response, accessed by The Korea Herald. "But if it is not possible to restore the agreement, I think it is necessary to take commensurate measures to reduce military tensions between the two Koreas." Lee was also critical of Yoon's China policies. Lee said the previous administration "did not adequately manage the relations between South Korea and China, viewing China only through the lens of ideology and causing unnecessary conflicts." Lee said that when it comes to South Korea's relations with China, a key trade partner, the two countries "pursue areas of common interest." But he added that when South Korea's "national interests are infringed upon," the country needed to "take measures based on principles." Lee denied allegations, raised by some within the opposition People Power Party, of his having "pro-North Korea views." "I absolutely cannot agree with the claims that I am pro-North Korea only because I have studied North Korea and the Korean Peninsula in depth," he said. "I believe that in order to achieve denuclearization and build a lasting peace in the Korean Peninsula, one must have a deep understanding of, and insight into North Korea and the surrounding region." On North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's governing style, Lee said he took after his grandfather, Kim Il-sung. "Kim Jong-un's governing style is more in line with Kim Il-sung's in that he favors more contact with the people, on-the-ground leadership, and public meetings," Lee said. "This is different from his father Kim Jong-il who preferred to rule behind closed doors and refrained from interacting with the public." When asked about where he stands on the 2020 shooting murder of a South Korean government official by North Korean troops, Lee said he was "not aware of all the facts" as he was at the time a scholar at a policy institute. "If I am appointed as the director of the National Intelligence Service, I will look into the matter," Lee said. In 2022, the NIS filed a criminal complaint against its former director Park Jie-won, who is now a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker, for allegedly destroying the spy agency's confidential materials related to the South Korean official's death. The criminal trial for Park and other high-level officials at the time is still underway. Lee awaits a confirmation hearing by the National Assembly, slated for Thursday.