The article titled ‘Ex-Sergeant Byun Hee- soo, a sergeant who had a sex reassignment surgery was found dead at home' has frequently been seen on the Internet lately. In the controversy with her gender change, Sergeant Byun ended her life. What drove her to death?

During her military training, Sergeant Byeon secretly had sex reassignment surgery abroad when she was on leave from the army. Officially, the transition surgery during the military service was illegal. She hoped to continue serving as a female soldier in the military, but this was contrary to military law. The military judged her as someone with a physical disability and she was forced to discharge in January of last year. Sergeant Byeon filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea(NHRCK), but this was dismissed. However, after her death, the NHRCK considered the previous dismissal to be a violation of human rights.

Both sides, Sergeant Byeon, and the army did their best at that moment. But the efforts ended with a tragic result. Then, what do we need to do to prevent such tragedy from reoccurring?

Transgenders are people whose social and biological sex do not match. Unlike biological sex that is given from birth, social sex is a gender that is formed and divided by being learned socio-culturally. Therefore, the gaps may arise depending on the individual's growth experience and background. However, they are done injustice and face several discriminations due to the difference.

First, there is an injustice in administration processes On the sex correction issue, there is no legal statute, but just an established rule that is sort of a no-forcible guideline from the Supreme Court to the lower courts. Some court rulings break the established rule set by Supreme Court, but there is no illegality on those violations. A transgender said, “I had to move out to another district to get permission on sex correction request as the district’s Court has a precedent that applied relatively tolerant legal requirements of sex correction.”

Second, the discrimination continues in gender binary national institutions, such as detention camps, prisons, and the army. According to 2020 NHRCK’s research on transgenders’ experience of discrimination and hatred, 43.7% of research participants who are doing or done with military service responded that they have experienced physical and lingual hatred in the army. And, three of nine research participants who served detention reported the facility’s gender dichotomy.

Thirdly, there is discrimination related to medical rights. A trans- man who had had sex reversal surgery was once brought to the emergency room due to acute dysuria.¹  He was suffering urethral stricture, which is a typical side effect of phalloplasty.

He could not get prompt treatment as doctors there were inexperienced in the kind of cases, and his urethral stricture became chronic.

Discrimination is also seen in employment and education. Transgenders have difficulty finding employment and are sometimes forced to resign. Even in school, the place that should be a safe zone for students, gender minorities are often overlooked. A trans-female Ju Si-Yeon asked her homeroom teacher to permit her exclusion from the graduation photo which is taken in her senior year in high school. The teacher said, “You’d better be tolerant for a while. You are near graduation.” Ju was desperate to hear the words, as it was unavoidable to be seen as a male student in a graduation photo book that divides students’ pictures according to dichotomous gender types.

Lastly, the press and video media express the hate towards them, and their identities are rejected and harassed continually in their daily lives. Among COVID-19 mass infection cases, there is a case of so-called ‘gay bar mass infection’. The local infection was occurred due to a man who went clubbing to a few clubs in Itaewon, a party district in Seoul. King Club, a gay bar, was one of the clubs the man visited. Some news headlines were including the word ‘gay club’, which was not necessary, and even distracting for readers to clarify the essentials of the issue. These coverages stigmatized transgenders and even incited generalized hatred toward LGBTIQ.

To solve these problems, institutional supports are needed. In the United States, the Anti Discrimination Law has been clarified by stating that “No person in the United States may be excluded from or denied access to participation in federally funded education programs or activities on the grounds of sex.” As such, the law that people should not be discriminated against based on gender is necessary to be clearly stated in Korea, too.

Also, reformation of everyday language and academic and technical terms would improve awareness of now-discriminated transsexuals. According to the International Classification of Diseases of 2019, the category of gender identity disorder was deleted, and rather the category of

gender discrepancy was newly established. This reduces the stigma of the mentally ill, which has been attached to the transgender, and allows them to receive the appropriate medical services.

In addition, as shown in the United Nations Freedom and Equality Campaign, extensive media campaigns can give a positive influence on personal perceptions so that promote public awareness of transgender rights.

Human rights are the most primary rights that a person has because he/she is a person. In addition, it is the minimum standard that is essential for humans to lead a dignified life. Humans have the right not to be discriminated against for various reasons such as gender, age, religion, language, gender identity, appearance, disability, education, etc., which are innate, interdependent, and inseparable. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that 'No rights and freedoms can be used to trample on that of others.'

However, these rights are revealed to being in legal institutions that we have not already taken care of and in social life that we have taken for granted. As stated above, discrimination against transgender is so naturally incorporated into society. According to ‘the Transgender Hate Discrimination Survey' released on February 9 by the NHRCK, 65.3% of 591 transgender people aged 19 and over who are legally qualified said they had experienced discrimination for being transgender in the past 12 months.

Unfortunately, there are no specific laws and policies on transgender in Korea. Isn’t this discrimination have driven Sergeant Byun to death? This experience alarms the importance of learning about the social issue of transgender once more and considering what's the desirable way to look at them.

Furthermore, discrimination in society should be considered as a general issue of the world to go one step further for society with equity.

¹ In March 2021, the medical school of Seoul National University opened an 1-credit, elective class for the undergraduates on transgender’s medical treatment.