{"id":6242,"date":"2009-12-20T19:27:15","date_gmt":"2009-12-20T11:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/?p=6242"},"modified":"2009-12-23T10:55:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-23T02:55:00","slug":"views-on-transgenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/borninmalaysia\/2009\/12\/20\/views-on-transgenders\/","title":{"rendered":"Views on transgenders"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is an interesting article <\/a><\/strong>from NST. The views of various religions and also some transgenders were provided. What do you think about this issue?<\/p>\n

\n

\n

TRANSGENDERS SPEAK OUT<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fatine Young:<\/strong> \u201cTranssexuals in Malaysia have been treated like freaks or second class citizens for far too long. I hope the community becomes more accepting of transsexuals. \u201cWe just want to be what we are. Give us a chance to show that we can contribute to society too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yuki Choe, 33, sales executive:<\/strong> \u201cMy biggest fear in the job part is not knowing what they are thinking of when they see me. People are trained to be polite, sometimes you do not know who hates you for who you are. \u201cI hope society would be able to appreciate and accept people who are different, especially gender-wise. People should understand that gender variance is part of life, and not be limited to just strictly boy or girl. \u201cEveryone is taught there are only boys and girls in the education system, all other variances are not acknowledged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sugenya, 33, food outlet owner:<\/strong> \u201cPeople look at us as if we are a joke. When they see a Mak Nyah, they automatically think \u2018sex worker\u2019. But actually we are not all like that. Some of us are highly educated and entrepreneurs. \u201cThere are many \u2018pondans\u2019 who are not brave enough to \u2019come out\u2019 because their families beat them. But after they run away from home and with the help of hormone treatments, some families find it easier to accept. \u201cBut even then, they are only allowed to visit their family at certain times, in fear that relatives might drop by. \u201cIf the families support them by teaching and helping them find jobs, 50 per cent of them will not end up as sex workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elisha, 30, community sex worker programme manager:<\/strong> \u201cYou all have normal and peaceful lives, right? As humans, I want transgenders to have that same right. Don\u2019t equate us to sex workers. \u201cOne day I hope transgenders will be able to have government jobs, especially in Parliament. \u201cMyadvice to others out there is to not allow anyone to deny you of your basic human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manja, 34, PT Foundation outreach worker:<\/strong> \u201cIt\u2019s almost impossible to get a job in the government sector and it\u2019s really difficult dealing with Immigration because the name on my passport does not match my physical appearance. \u201cI believe the problems faced by transgenders is worldwide. All we want is the same rights as other women.\u201d<\/p>\n

WHAT THE RELIGIOUS LEADERS SAY<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a Christian perspective, human beings are created by God, in the image of God. God created everything and He pronounced it as good. However, all of creation has gone wrong because the first human beings chose not to listen to God and since then we have a topsy-turvy world. \u201cWe who are not in their situation need to empathise with them and help find solutions rather than to judge them and say, \u2018live with what you have\u2019. That\u2019s a simple phrase from this side of the fence, but insufficient. \u201cWe must try to understand them and help them as we have helped others in different situations, for we all suffer the consequences of our flawed common humanity. \u201cWe can\u2019t sit in the judgment seat as if we are God. Our hearts should go out to them and work on finding a solution for their situation.\u201d\u00a0– Tan Kong Beng, Christian Federation of Malaysia executive secretary<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn Hinduism, these people are a creation of God. In our religious stories and book, there have been accounts of transsexuals who have been treated with due respect.. \u201cSociety accepted transsexuals then, especially because they were able to handle many different situations. \u201cToday, we too have to respect every creation of God, giving them due dignity and respect.\u201d\u00a0– Dr M. Bala Tharumalingam, Malaysian Hindu Sangam deputy president<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTranssexuals are born like that and our birth is not in the hands of human beings. It\u2019s not the choice of a person to be male, female or a transsexual. \u201cThe public should not blame him or her. It\u2019s not like they are breaking rules and laws. They must be given respect just like you and me.\u201d – Harcharan Singh, Malaysian Gurdwara Council president<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no such thing as a transsexual, people are either male or female. It is not something you can change. Even if a man wants to be a woman using surgery, it won\u2019t work because you can\u2019t change what God gives. \u201cSome of these people are confused because of psychological reasons. Maybe in their family they were the only boy among nine girls, playing with their sisters and cooking. Those are some of the problems that contribute to this. \u201cPeople must accept what is given, they should dress and behave accordingly so they are accepted by the public. When a man wears a girl\u2019s dress, people will make fun of him. In Islam, it is haram. You can\u2019t question religion.\u201d – Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria, Perak mufti<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn Buddhism, we don’t interfere with personal affairs. At the same time, we respect their privacy and get involved only if they ask for help. We look into the matter and share with them. When someone asks for help, we maintain noble silence. It’s very personal. \u201cIn our area of discipline, when someone wants to be ordained, we ask if the monks can check their background. If the person wants to be a woman, we refer to a nun. If the person has unusual behaviour, we allow them to be ordained as a novice monk.\u201d\u00a0– Kekanadure Dhammasiri, Buddhist Maha Vihara Malaysia monk and counsellor<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is an interesting article from NST. The views of various religions and also some transgenders were provided. What do you think about this issue? TRANSGENDERS SPEAK OUT Fatine Young: \u201cTranssexuals in Malaysia have been treated like freaks or second class citizens for far too long. I hope the community becomes more accepting of transsexuals. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[112,302],"class_list":["post-6242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-borninmalaysia","category-religion","tag-discrimination","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}