Fridae's Ng Yi-Sheng speaks with transgender writer, entertainer and activist Tiara Tiar Bahtiar, who had recently launched a book of anecdotes, poems and photographs of local transgender culture, about growing up and how the Bugis people traditionally believe that humans can be grouped into five different gender categories.
From Aug 2-18, Toy Factory Productions presents Purple, a gritty drama based on the life of a Singaporean transgender woman. Fridae interviews the company director and playwright Goh Boon Teck.
The plaintiff, publicly known as Ms W and who has since 2008 been fighting for her the right to marry, will now take her case to the Court of Final Appeal after the Court of Appeal last Friday refused her the right to legally marry a man.
"Is it not known that vulnerability to HIV/AIDS is heightened by the denial of rights, such as the right of transgender people to determine their own names and gender-identity?" asks Bakhtiar Talhah, a Malaysian living with HIV and former executive director of the Malaysian AIDS Council, after the council declined to support the late Aleesha Farhana publicly.
In a written statement, the Ministry of Women, Family & Community Development clarified that it in fact provides counselling and guidance to transgender people without the “intention of ‘correcting’ behaviour etc in line with socially accepted norms.”
A 26-year-old transgender, who took her case to court after the National Registration Department refused to update her name and gender on her identity card despite having undergone a complete sex reassignment surgery, has lost her case.
Pakistan's Supreme Court also recommended that transgenders be allocated a certain number of government jobs and specifically as tax collectors to utilise their "special skills".
A contestant on last weekend's Thailand's Got Talent show got the judges' approval and the audience cheering; and made fans of viewers around the world.
The Transgender Day of Remembrance is often left out in many LGBT event calendars in Asia, with Malaysia being one of only three Asian countries to remember the dead this year, and Kuala Lumpur among 187 cities in 19 countries worldwide, writes Yuki Choe.
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