'Transgender' activist describes discrimination'

Many gays and "transgender" people in Southeast Asia continue to suffer discrimination and 70 per cent of "transgender" people in the region end up as sex workers, an international conference on human rights in Southeast Asia held in Bangkok this week heard.

Khartini Slamah, a leading "transgender" activist from Malaysia, said a lot of people were confused about others who don't conform to the male and female gender roles - so "transgender" people often get violated.

"I was raped by police, and by gangsters". Slamah said police argued that it was not legally rape because she did not have an "original pussy".

Being a transsexual also made it hard for Slamah to obtain house insurance because she was listed as a "high-risk" client.

"We're always seen as a sex object and men think we're good at sucking c...cks," she told the two-day conference, which ended on Friday.

Muslims who weren't "straight" suffered double discrimination, as they could be persecuted under Shariah law as well.

She said "transgenders" like her were human. "We're no different [to others]. Don't judge me just because of who I am."

Danton Renato, a prominent Filipino gay and founder of the world's first and only gay political party, said a lot of gay men had difficulties getting jobs in the Philippines and some old gays had even been abandoned nieces and nephews.

Renato, who has been invariably branded as "abnormal", "immoral" and "a threat to young people" said the Philippines remained a very religious country.

He hoped, however, that his political party, the Ang Ladlad Party List, will gain some seats at the House of Representatives in 2013 general election.


(2010-10-17/ews.asiaone)