Trans Being Left Behind Rights Wise In Vietnam?

Since I posted the story of Cindy Thai Tai and her evolution, it's been interesting from these shores to watch the Vietnamese trans community begin to emerge from the shadows in that country.  

But there is still a long way to go.  Despite trailblazing people like singer Cindy Thai Tai, writer Nguyen Ngoc Thach, the author of the book Transgender, Tran Minh Ngoc, the host of the YouTube show Funny Family and Vietnamese Idol contestant Huong Giang, a pattern all too familiar to transpeople in the US is emerging in which the 'T' is thrown under the human rights bus and told to wait their turn while the L,G and B get their rights because they give a 'very bad image' of the TBLG community in Vietnam.

ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company) recently conducted a radio interview with Nguyen Ngoc Thach and Tran Minh Ngoc about the Vietnamese trans community.   You can click the link to hear it and here's the transcript of it.

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A year ago, legislators decided to include gay people in a debate over revisions to the Marriage and Family Law.  Although the proposed revisions are unlikely to result in legalizing same-sex marriage, it is expected to give live-in gay couples property rights.

But where does the transgender community figure in all of this?

Presenter: Marianne Brown

Speaker: Tran Minh Ngoc, transgender TV show host; Nguyen Ngoc Thach, author of 'Transgender'

BROWN: Tran Minh Ngoc is a glamorous 33-year-old who turns heads as she walks through a crowded cafe to meet me. She's a heroine in the transgender community, founding the country's first online forum for transgenders and later, a talent competition.  Her online TV show Funny Family attracts hundreds of  thousands of hits on YouTube. There are ads too for a new biography about Ngoc called simply, 'Transgender'.

It tells the story of family ordeals, romance and friendship, without the emphasis on promiscuity which many Vietnamese readers associate with  homosexual relationships. Ngoc says it is the first biography about a  transgender person to be published in Vietnam. The book hit the shelves last  month.  They have nearly sold out of 2,000 copies and will print more soon.

Sex changes are not recognized legally, and the only socially acceptable jobs they can do are small entertainment gigs, often at weddings or funerals.

Author of Transgender, Nguyen Ngoc Thach, says taking part in these shows  can be degrading. When he was researching the book, he attended one funeral party where the audience demanded to see performers' breasts in exchange for  a few dollars.  While there are a few notable transgender celebrities like singer Cindy Thai Tai and Vietnam Idol contestant Huong Giang, off stage society is not so accepting.

NGUYEN NGOC THACH: When people look at a show that has a drag queen, it's just entertainment.  Maybe this guy is not a gay, he's not a transgender, but he just wears a skirt and makeup to perform. He's not gay or transgender. That's easy to accept. But when you come into a bank or come into an office, you see a  transgender walking there's a lot of people who can't accept that because  this is onstage only and on stage to perform we can do everything but in  real life, it's not.

BROWN:  Discrimination also comes from within the gay community, especially among  men. Thach cites one website for gay men which doesn't allow members to use female names. He says this is because transgenders are too visible, and gay men feel threatened by that. He says this is compounded by bigotry in the workplace, which creates a Catch-22 for many transgenders.

NGUYEN NGOC THACH: Transgenders often show that they don't have a chance to earn money, so they  do bad things, for example to be a prostitute, a robber, to be a thief. So they give a very bad image of LGBT community in Vietnam. So that's why the LG and B  don't like T.

BROWN: Unlike other countries in Southeast Asia, sodomy is not illegal in Vietnam.  Here there is no religious lobby to stall debate on advancing gay rights.  Some observers say this makes LGBT rights an easy way for Vietnam to improve  its human rights record, which is otherwise tainted by restrictions on  freedom of speech and jail sentences for social and religious activists.

Funny Family's Tran Minh Ngoc says she supports the discussion about  same-sex marriage, but she thinks it's too ambitious.. at least for now.

TRAN MINH NGOC: (voice fades) She says society may be ready to read about transgenders and watch them on television, but on the road to equality, campaigners still have to take baby steps.


TransGriot Note:  Photo is of trans masculine writer Nguyen Ngoc Thach.