YEONGDONG, South Korea, A regional court on Wednesday approved the change of gender from male to female for five transgender people without sex reassignment surgery, saying it is against the law to determine whether to allow gender change based on surgery.
The court in the central county of Yeongdong handed down the ruling, saying all human beings have the right to live according to their own gender identity and demanding surgical operations for transgender people amounts to demanding them to violate their own physical integrity.
The five people were assigned male at birth but have strongly identified as women since they were young and have been receiving transgender hormone therapy for years.
The current court guidelines stipulate that an applicant must undergo sex reassignment surgery and be recognized for the change in their physical qualities, including their external genital organs, and verify they lost fertility as a result of the operation, with a slim probability of it being reversed.
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nes have been downgraded to be used as reference, and not criteria, but some courts have still grounded their rulings on it to dismiss the requests of those who did not go through gender-affirming surgery, the court noted.
“Every human being has the right to form their character and live a life according to one’s gender identity, and so do transgender people, who should be able to pursue happiness as an equal member of society,” the court said.
Song Ji-eun, the legal representative in the case, said the ruling is significant in that it called into question the past court rulings made solely through court guidelines.