Are there more transsexuals now?
Hospitals in Taiwan set strict guidelines for sex change operations. The "parental consent" requirement, which no other nation in the world imposes, makes many transsexuals seek surgery abroad, particularly in the "transsexual heaven" of Thailand, where operations are relatively inexpensive and there are no parental consent requirements. Just in the past year, Fang Rong-hwang has learned of several dozen people who have come to seek help from doctors in Taiwan after having operations in Thailand. Either the operations have failed, complications have arisen, or the patients have needed sex-change certificates. Log onto the websites of Thai sex-change hospitals and you find beautifully designed Chinese web pages beckoning Taiwanese transsexuals. Packages and perks include airline flights, Chinese receptionists, post-operation condos and sightseeing tours. It is safe to assume that there are many more transsexuals, and people who have actually gone through with surgery, than the official figures would suggest.
Reversing the genders God assigned, sex-change operations have always been full of controversy and myth. Fang Rong-hwang, who has performed over a hundred such surgeries, has struggled with these issues since he was baptized four years ago. Women came from a man's rib, and God created both men and women. Maybe a doctor shouldn't play God. Yet a female-to-male transsexual has thanked Fang for taking the "two rocks" off her chest and making her a man. Every father's day she comes to visit and express her gratitude. Many transsexuals who went abroad to have their operations return home to find that their new vaginas have closed up or their new penises have become inflamed. Even so, they still profess to be happy, because at least they have gotten rid of the unwanted sexual organs that they were born with. At this, Fang can't help but sigh: "That's about as much as we can do for transsexuals."
Fang has come into contact with transsexuals who are laborers and others who are dancing girls-as well as more than a few with graduate-level degrees. Some backed out in the surgery room because of their parents' hesitations. One originally female doctor was accompanied by her girlfriend, and her future mother- and father-in-law both came to cheer her up. In that instance, family and friends have accepted "his" true self.
Who killed Yeh Yung-chih?
One April day two years ago in Pingtung, a junior high school boy named Yeh Yung-chih was found dead in the school lavatory. The back of his head had been hit hard. He had gone to the bathroom ten minutes before recess. The case was unsolved because the murder scene had been badly sabotaged by the school. But why did he go to the bathroom before recess? Yeh had been feminine ever since he was small. He loved to cook, sew and do the laundry. His family ran a beauty parlor, and the customers loved his gentle ways and attention to detail.
But after he entered junior high school, his male classmates became hostile toward him. They ridiculed him incessantly, and in the bathroom would gang up to force him to take off his pants and examine his genitals. After his mother talked to the school, the school let him go to the bathroom before recess to avoid the others. But, tragedy still happened. The story of Yeh clearly shows that even in school "there is uncontrolled sexual stereotyping" says Su Chien-ling, the director of the Taiwan Gender Equity Education Association, who has dedicated herself to gender education.
In our society, those who are not conventionally male or female-including homosexuals, transsexuals, people with gender identity disorders, transvestites, sissies and tomboys-are considered fair game to be mocked or scorned at any time or place. From the time one is born, names, clothes and upbringing continually draw the line between male and female. But making such distinctions actually narrows kids' minds and takes away the chance for them to explore the other half of the world.
"Feminine males are especially hard to accept in Chinese society," says Su Chien-ling. "In a society where men are valued over women, learning from females is, from a male's perspective, like learning from the weak. Hence, the range of acceptable behavior is even smaller for males than females. In the sexual spectrum, there is a wide range of colors. To divide male and female into two extreme categories of masculine and feminine would make us unable to understand and appreciate disadvantaged groups." Su suggests that parents should let the kids happily be themselves instead of treating it as something to grow out of. It's like having a kid who is left handed. Instead of hitting his left hand to discourage its use, it is better to encourage him to use both hands.
Gender diversity
In fact, most kids who visit child psychiatrists do not think that there is anything wrong with them. They feel that they have been forced to come by their parents. Chen Chih-tsai, a child psychiatrist at the Women's and Children's Hospital, reminds parents not to be too anxious. Focusing their child's problems on "gender" would block the view to the core of their problems.
The tragedy of Yeh Yung-chih resulted from the harm and discrimination inflicted by society. "In this society," Chen says, "even the strongest man can meet a fatal attack." Her point is that if parents are afraid their kid will be bullied because he is feminine, instead of asking the kid to dislike and torment himself by toughening up and becoming masculine, it is better to teach him to appreciate himself and to enjoy what he has. At the same time, teach him how to get help and protect himself when needed.
Last October in the United States, a 15-year-old boy with gender identity disorder was suspended from school for wearing high heels, bras and wigs to school, making other students and parents uncomfortable. The boy's psychiatrist said that forcing him to wear boys' clothing would harm his mental health. The judge thought that the school's measures would "stifle his sense of self" and thus allowed him to continue to wear girls' clothing to school.
"Students' exposure to different lifestyles makes them more tolerant as adults." The lesson given to that school and its students by the American judge is in fact a lesson for every one of us.