When it comes to Asia and the Pacific islands, there is a wide variance in terms of the populace's acceptance level for transgender people.
One of the countries that has made gigantic leaps in terms of acceptance of transgender people is South Korea. Much of the improved perception of transgender people there has been driven by transwoman Lee Kyung-eun, who is better known to Koreans and the rest of the world by her stage name of Harisu.
Harisu was born in 1975, transitioned in her teens, had SRS, then started garnering international attention in 2001 when she appeared in a wildly successful advertising campaign for Dodo Cosmetics.
The multitalented Harisu has authored four books, modeled, acted in movies and television shows, appeared in print and television commercials and recorded several K-pop albums.
On November 29, 2003 she petitioned a Korean district court in Incheon to change her name and gender on her family registry. The petition was granted and on December 13, 2002 she became only the second person in South Korea to legally change their gender. On May 13, 2007 after dating him for two years she married her boyfriend Micky Jung.
Harisu was cognizant of her role as South Korea's first open transgender celebrity and was adamant about always setting a good example. Her successful transition opened the door for other Korean transwomen to walk in her pumps.
A K-pop group called Lady appeared on the scene which tried to capitalize on Harisu's popularity in Korea. After a nationwide talent search, three transwomen were chosen to form the group and a fourth was added later. However, the band received a lukewarm reception and officially disbanded in 2007.
In addition to Harisu being credited for helping to change attitudes about transgender people, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea has been pushing to protect transgender people in Korea as well.
South Korean transpeople are now eligible to serve in the country's military forces and rewrote its military medical examination procedures in order for them to do so.
But the biggest milestones for Korean transsexuals have been in their court system. In June 2006 the Korean Supreme Court ruled that transsexuals who have sex change operations should be able to legally change their gender.
Justice Kim commenting on their decision, said that their decision “is the best choice to alleviate the suffering of transsexual people at a time when any tangible legislative measures to protect their rights is most likely a long time coming.”
And to illustrate just how far Korea has come on transgender issues, a Korean court recently sentenced a man to four years in jail plus community service for raping a transwoman. It's a landmark case there because in 1996 the Korean judiciary rejected a similar case involving the rape of a transwoman.
So once again you have an Asian nation running rings around the self proclaimed leading democracy in the world when it comes to granting basic human rights to transgender people. When are we in the States going to catch up to the rest of the world who long ago recognized that we are human beings?
TransGriot Note: Love my little sis Isis. She's a role model to a lot of us, and here's a recent interview posted to YouTube that was done by Paul Wharton for trenDCtv.com
I've served with Angela Brightfeather on the NTAC board, have walked the halls of Congress with her, hung out at various conventions with her, and she was one of the people in the room when I picked up my Trinity in 2006.
She also beat my behind soundly on the pool table in the Philly hotel's sports lounge during that same 2006 IFGE convention.
Nevertheless, she's a role model to myself and many of us. She serves as the vice president of TAVA, the Transgender American Veteran's Assn and is a tireless advocate for transgender veterans issues. She also excels at keeping HRC 'ejumacated' and fighting for the civil rights of transpeople in North Carolina and around the nation.
She keeps us focused on the bigger prize of equality for all, and it's nice to see one of the good peeps in the community win a well deserved honor.
As I mentioned in another post, I met then Sgt. Stephan Thorne during the 1999 Creating Change when it was held in Oakland and had a wonderful conversation with him.
I was ecstatic to find out that the 24 year veteran of the San Francisco Police Department was recently promoted to lieutenant.
In gaining his promotion, he also made history. He is the highest-ranking out transgender law enforcement official in the country, according to San Francisco Police Commission President Theresa Sparks, who is also transgender. Thorne is one of the top-ranked LGBT officers in the SFPD.
Thorne has been a police officer for 28 years, and stated to the Bay Area Reporter's Seth Hemmelgarn that he's honored and excited about the promotion not just for himself, but also for others.
"This is a really significant step, and a really validating experience personally for me, but also for all other transgender people," he said.
Sparks said she thinks Thorne's promotion from sergeant is well deserved.
"What's really gratifying is Stephan Thorne was promoted in spite of being transgender, not because he's transgender ... he was promoted on merit as opposed to anything else."
Sparks said Thorne is "a gentleman" and "really an excellent role model for our community." She said there are also two transgender patrol officers on the force.
Thorne, who transitioned in 1994 amid quite a bit of publicity, said he identifies as queer but is in a long-term relationship with a woman, Michiko Bailey. The two have five children between them from previous relationships, and four grandchildren.
Thorne doesn't yet know where he'll be stationed. First, he has to go through two weeks of training. Police lieutenants typically manage other personnel.
"I'm proud on behalf of my community, and also acutely aware of the shoulders I'm standing upon of all the people that have come before me and done such hard and incredible work to move forward with equal rights for all of us," Thorne said.
Openly gay Supervisor Bevan Dufty said he's worked with Thorne over many years.
"I think that he embodies the professionalism and commitment to public service that we want to see in the SFPD leadership," Dufty said.
Dufty said he's heard from many members of the police department about Thorne's promotion.
"People really regard him as eminently qualified," Dufty added.
Let me add my congratulations to Stephan as well for his historic promotion. He's a quality guy and the San Francisco PD is definitely lucky to have him as part of their force.
Just finished watching an hour ago the Tyra show featuring our sis Isis on it. She's looking fly and it was interesting hearing her thoughts about ANTM, sharing some of her pics from the old days and getting her mother's take on things.
I can also see where she got those good looks from. She's just like her mom, a beautiful and classy lady as well.
The fun part for me was Isis finally getting the opportunity to confront Clark over her hateful statements. Clark tried to use her 'growing up in the South' and her Southern Baptist religion as excuses for her comments on ANTM.
Naw chick, you just got called out on your BS. Let's roll that beautiful YouTube footage shall we?
Clark, did your narrow young little 'c' 'christian' mind consider that the reason you don't see transgender peeps openly living their lives in your South Carolina town is because some of the denizens of that town openly express the same negative attitudes you obviously felt comfortable enough to utter for posterity?
Shoot, that's another post.
But I do have one question to ask Clark. Why aren't you in the Final Three for ANTM's Cycle 11? Seems like Isis is more of a woman than you are. She has the one thing you seem to lack:
Class.
Anyway, back to the show. It was also cool seeing her reaction when Dr. Bowers walked on set as well. I've bumped into Dr. Bowers at SCC and IFGE and she's a class act as well.
So check out the show, and Oxygen usually broadcasts it if you miss the syndicated broadcast of it. You also may wish to head to the Tyra show website and show some love to our girl. The haters are already crawling out of the woodpile.
TransGriot Note: Y'all know how much I love and admire Dr. Marisa Richmond of Nashville, who is one of my role models as to the type of Phenomenal Transwoman I wish to project to the world.
Well, 'Number Two', as Dawn and I call her (our inside joke about being the only African-American IFGE Trinity Award winners and the order in which the three of us received them) was recently honored with the 2008 Baltimore Black Pride Chairwoman's ICON Award for her years of work toward advancing GLBT-issues.
Congrats, sis. The story from Nashville's Out and About follows.
Marisa Richmond, president of the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition (TTPC), has received the 2008 Baltimore Black Pride Chairwoman's ICON Award for her years of work toward advancing GLBT-issues. She accepted the award in Baltimore, Md., on Oct. 11.
The Chairwoman's ICON Award is a special honor personally selected by the Chair of the Board of Directors. Cydne Kimbrough, this year's chairwoman, said she chose Richmond for the award because of her tireless dedication to the GLBT community.
The Chairwoman's ICON Award is a special honor personally selected by the Chair of the Board of Directors. Cydne Kimbrough, this year's chairwoman, said she chose Richmond for the award because of her tireless dedication to the GLBT community.
"It has been my personal goal to select individuals who are stellar examples of what we all can be, no matter our race, gender identity/expression , or sexual orientation, " Kimbrough said. "Dr. Richmond was a clear choice as she is educated, powerful, humble, kind and not only one of the best in the GLBT community of color - she is one of the best in the country and possibly the world."
The ICON awards are given to community members and allies who work to improve the lives of GLBT people of color in Baltimore and throughout the U.S. Icons are nominated by community members.
Richmond said the award reassured her of the importance of her work.
"I've started to realize that, especially for African American transgender people, I've become an important role model because they don't see a lot of positive role models out there," Richmond said.
Aside from her work with TTPC, Richmond also serves on the board of directors of the National Center for Transgender Equality and is on the Sexual Violence Prevention Planning Committee of the Tennessee Department of Health.
"The transgender community doesn't need to look far to find a leader that is always putting us first," said TTPC member Carla Lewis. "Many times Marisa Richmond stands for us when we won't stand for ourselves."
Richmond is a former Board Member of the Tennessee Vals in Nashville, and has also served on the Boards of American Educational Gender Information Service (Board Chair from 1996 to 1999), the International Foundation for Gender Education, National Transgender Advocacy Coalition, Tennessee Equality Project and Nashville's Rainbow Community Center.
Since April 2006, she has been a regular panelist on Out & About Today on News Channel 5+ in Nashville and has been a columnist for Triangle Journal News in Memphis since February 2008.
Richmond said she has had a commitment to hard work since her childhood.
"I was raised to stand up for what I believe in and never to accept second class status," Richmond said. "My parents were politically active and they encouraged me to be so, too, because everyone can make difference."
Earlier this year, on Super Tuesday, Richmond became the first openly transgender person to win an election in Tennessee when she was elected to the Davidson County Democratic Party Executive Committee. One month later, she became the first African American transgender person to be elected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention from any state, and is currently one of two Tennesseans on the National LGBT Steering and Policy Committee of the Obama for America Campaign.
"She put a face on the transgender part of LGBT and has continued to drag the transgender community kicking and screaming into the open where the rest of the world can see that we deserve to be respected for our humanity just like everyone else," Lewis said.
TransGriot Note: I know this cycle of America's Next Top Model was shot during the summer and the winner has already been determined.
But I still cried and I'm disappointed about seeing Isis eliminated during Wednesday's broadcast.
I'm writing this open letter to my sis anyway.
Dear Isis, I just watched the episode containing your heartbreaking elimination from Cycle 11 of America's Next Top Model, I know you wanted to go much further in the competition than you did and your brothers and sisters in the worldwide transgender community and beyond wanted just as badly to see you win it.
Sis, know that I and the entire transgender community are immensely proud of you.
Through difficult circumstances, catty remarks, borderline inappropriate questions and the ignorance of some of your fellow competitors you handled yourself with class and dignity even with a camera lens pointed at you.
I felt your pain of dealing with a transition in a fishbowl situation. My own transition was done in the middle of a major international airport in which 30,000 passengers a day transited through it. I don't know if I would have had the courage to do it with most of the planet and the unblinking eye of a television camera following my every move, But if that's what it would have taken for me to become the Phenomenal Transwoman I am today, I would have done so in a heartbeat and with a smile on my face.
I recognized that you had the weight of our community's hopes and dreams on your slender shoulders in this competition and I worried about that. I noted you were struggling with the confidence issues that many transwomen have during the early stages of transitioning from the old gender role to the new one. I'm 15 years into it and I still have nervous butterflies from time to time when I'm thrust into an unfamiliar situation or meet a relative from my extended family for the first time in decades that only remembers the old me.
The recent article I read mentioning you'd only been transitioning for two years confirmed what I'd suspected as I watched the episodes of you in that competition unfold from week to week.
Sis, you have the look, the intelligence and the talent to go all the way. I have no doubts that you will succeed at whatever you choose to do. You also have something else going for you that many people don't have who are trying to enter the fashion industry- a worldwide community of people who love you and wish you nothing but success.
As time goes on, transition will get easier for you. Your confidence will grow as you learn who Isis is, get comfortable with your body and figure out what type of woman you want to project to the world. As you work through that ongoing process, you will eventually get to the point in which you feel as strong, sexy, beautiful and confident as the Egyptian queen you chose to name yourself after. This America's Next Top Model experience will only help speed that inevitable day along.
Isis, you are a wonderful role model for us, and as Tyra said, you are an inspiration to me and many of us inside and outside the GLBT community. Hold your head up high and never forget that we love you. You are a beautiful butterfly emerging from your cocoon, spreading your wings and evolving into a classy young woman both inside and out.
Yep, our girl is gone, but at least I got the satisfaction of seeing ShaRaun and Hanna beat her to the door. I'm waiting to see how long before Clark goes bye bye as well.
Here's the uploaded YouTube episodes if you wish to watch it. My comments are being compiled in the open letter I've written to her.
A transsexual singer charged with illegally criticizing mandatory military service in Turkey said in court Wednesday she would say the same thing again.
Singer Bulent Ersoy has acknowledged saying on television that if she had children she would not want them to join the army to battle Kurdish rebels who are fighting for self-rule.
"I spoke in the name of humanity. Even if I were to face execution, I would say the same thing," the state-run Anatolia news agency quoted Ersoy as telling the court in Istanbul.
In Turkey, defendants are not expected to enter a plea before a panel of judges hears testimony at a trial and returns a verdict.
Ersoy questioned the fairness of a law making it a crime to criticize Turkey's mandatory 15-month military service for all men over 20. If found guilty, she could face two years in prison.
Ersoy, 56, who sings traditional Turkish music and dresses in flamboyant gowns, served in the military before her 1981 sex-change operation, her lawyer Muhittin Yuzuak told the court Wednesday.
A small group of pro-Kurdish protesters demonstrated outside the court house in support of the singer, holding a banner that read in Kurdish "Long live Diva."
The European Union, which Turkey wants to join, is pressing the nation to do away with laws that stifle free expression.
Under EU pressure, Turkey amended a law in April that barred the denigration of Turkish identity and institutions. The law had been used to prosecute Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and other intellectuals. But human rights groups said the changes did not go far enough.
Ersoy is one of Turkey's best-loved singers. In February, she made the comment about Turkey's military service while appearing on the jury of a Turkish version of "Pop Idol."
At the time, Turkey had thousands of troops in northern Iraq pursuing rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, who maintain bases there.
In the indictment, prosecutor Ali Cakir accused the singer of "alienating the public toward military service" and affecting the morale of the soldiers and their families. He asked that she be sentenced to between nine and 30 months in prison.
TransGriot Note: PlanetOut has just posted a story on my fave ANTM Cycle 11 contestant courtesy of the Associated Press, so you know I had to post it here for y'all to peruse.
PlanetOut Trans "Top Model" raises U.S. awareness Tuesday, September 23, 2008 / 02:39 PM By GILLIAN GAYNAIR
As a little boy in the Washington suburbs, Darrell Walls liked to pretend to be Lil' Kim or a Pink Power Ranger.
He felt different -- like a girl mistakenly born a boy.
But Walls eventually embraced that difference and today is living true, as Isis King. Now 22, King is the first transgender contestant on "America's Next Top Model," the CW Television Network reality show hosted by supermodel Tyra Banks.
"I'm just trying to be myself," King said during a telephone interview last week. "If I inspire people, that's a wonderful thing -- whether you're trans or not."
While the number of transgender representations on television remains small, activists say in recent years they have seen a movement away from stereotypical roles such as transgender sex workers or villains. Now, the roles are not as marginalized -- and some are even portrayed by transgender actors.
Last year, Candis Cayne became the first transgender actress to have a recurring role, on ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money." She plays Carmelita, the trans mistress of Patrick Darling, a New York attorney general played by William Baldwin.
And from 2003 to 2006, transgender actress Alexandra Billings guest-starred on three TV shows, including ABC's "Grey's Anatomy." Billings played a married transwoman about to have sex reassignment surgery. However, as doctors prepare her for surgery, they discover she has breast cancer, and she's told she must stop her female hormone therapy to treat the disease.
"When audiences see real gay and transgender people facing many of the same ups and downs as everybody else, it helps to change perceptions and break down stereotypes, " Neil G. Giuliano, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said in an e-mail. "The casting of Isis on such a popular show offers a groundbreaking opportunity for a community that is historically underrepresented on television."
Audiences are seeing not only how the very slender, long-legged King fares on photo shoots and before judges, but also behind-the-scenes comments from some of her fellow contestants, including one who called her a man and another who made a "drag queen" reference.
Viewers are also getting glimpses of how she's transitioning from man to woman. A recent episode, for example, shows her injecting female hormones. King began the treatments last year and wants to have the expensive surgery -- not undertaken by all transgender people -- by her 25th birthday.
"I don't believe the surgery will make me any more of a woman," said King, who has been living as a woman since early last year. "I've always been that woman. But . . . it's something I feel will complete me."
Growing up in several communities in Prince George's County, Md., King said she had a "pretty normal childhood." She attended church. She hung out at malls her senior year.
At Charles Herbert Flowers High School, she took honors art classes, studied interior design, sculpture and fashion design. In her senior year, she said she designed and sewed 24 outfits for a fashion show -- and taught the models how to strut.
After high school, King attended the Art Institute of Philadelphia, where she earned an associate's degree in fashion design. While in college, she confided in some female friends that she wanted to dress like a woman.
Just before her 21st birthday in 2006, she did -- it was her own creation, a pencil skirt with an off-the-shoulder black blouse. And she decided to move to New York to pursue a fashion career and formally transition into living as a woman. "Mentally, I was ready, and that was the most powerful thing," King said.
She told her mother -- whom King describes as her best friend -- of her plans. "She wasn't for it," King said. "But I was already doing it."
King's mother, through a Top Model representative, declined an interview request.
Once in New York, she legally changed her name, selecting "King" to honor her mother's side of the family. She chose Isis as her first name, after the powerful Egyptian goddess.
But her mother didn't take to it. She instead called her "D," for Darrell.
In New York, King had also had run into obstacles. The $4,500 she had saved to move to the city had dried up, and she needed help getting back on her feet. She moved into an apartment provided by The Ali Forney Center, an organization that serves homeless gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth.
"Technically, I was homeless," King said. "I just wasn't living literally on the street."
In late 2007, "America's Next Top Model" filmed an episode in New York to raise awareness about homeless youth. The contestants modeled in street clothes and a handful of homeless youth donned couture, serving as extras in the shoot.
King was one of them.
When Banks later scrutinized models' photos for judging, "she kept on noticing Isis," executive producer Ken Mok said. "And she said, 'Who is that girl?'"
King clearly knew how to pose, understood fashion and was passionate, he said.
Earlier this year, "Top Model" found King and invited her to audition for the new season.
"I think the one message we always try to get out there, that Tyra always expresses, is you want to widen the spectrum of what is considered beautiful," Mok said.
"Top Model" was actually shot over the summer, so King and other contestants already know their fates though they are not permitted to discuss them. Fans of the reality show, which airs Wednesday nights, will have to wait until Dec. 10 to learn who wins.
King says her main challenge on "Top Model" was being so vulnerable in front of millions.
"For the world to see my issues and my struggles as a person, with my whole transition -- I think that was probably the toughest thing I had to endure," she said.
But King, who now lives in New Jersey, said she believes she has a future in fashion.
She's hopeful, too, about her family's acceptance of her life.
On a recent visit to Maryland, King was playing with her younger brother when her mother called out to her, she said.
There was no hesitation -- she was no longer "D."
For the first time, her mother called her Isis.
(AP)Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. (c) 1995-2008 PlanetOut Inc
Remember Kim Petras, the German teen who is believed to be the youngest person in the world to ever undergo GRS?
Boy, how time flies. Three years ago the controversy was raging all over the world whether Kim, much less any transkid was too young to transition at age 12. We had a rather spirited debate about it on TSTB, and it led me to compose a post about the issue of teen transition and my thoughts on it.
Just an FYI, I'm in favor of doing it in your teens.
Kim is now a stunning looking 16 year old. After enduring years of taunts from fellow classmates she shook it off and focused on her music, which became cult hits on MySpace and You Tube.
The cult hit status has paid dividends for Kim and led to her recently being signed by a German company to a recording contract. She's now focused on her budding music career and achieving pop star status, not her unique path to womanhood.
"My music is most important to me at the moment. It's the way I can best express myself."
"I know that because of my past people will always bring up the subject, I can't get away from it. But I hope that one day I might be better known for my music than for my past."
As Kim prepares to release her first CD, it's what her sisters and brothers all over the world wish for her as well.
Main Entry: role model Function: noun Date: 1957 : a person whose behavior in a particular role is imitated by others
The first time I heard those words attributed to me was back in 1999. I was listening to 'After Hours' late one night back home and Sarah and Jimmy during one part of the show started talking about people in the Houston GLBT community that they considered leaders and role models. Vanessa Edwards Foster's and my name came up in the conversation, and after being in shock for a moment, I began to think about the gravity of what they just said on a 100,000 watt FM radio station.
Damn, I'm a role model now. There are times when I wonder if any one's even reading some of the stuff I post here on TransGriot or on the Bilerico Project.
When I look at my blog's hit counter I get my answer. I get my answer from the people who are moved enough to leave comments on the posts (hint, hint)
Sometimes those posted comments from transpeople and allies all over our planet tell me the same thing that Sarah, Jimmy and others have said over the last nine years, that they consider me a role model as well. While it's potentially head-swelling stuff and I'm honored that people think of me that way, I still keep it in perspective when I read it. I put my pantyhose on one leg at a time just like everybody else.
When it's not too damned hot to wear pantyhose, that is ;)
But there are times I hear it and burst into tears. Lola's comment kind of took me back to the time when I was in my late teens, a college student struggling with this issue.
Like many young transpeople, she's dealing with the transgender issues now and not allowing them to fester because they never go away. If you do that, before you know it ten years has passed and you have a spouse, kids and a career to factor into the transition equation.
There are times when I wonder if I'd had the type of information and positive role models available now like a Dr. Marisa Richmond when I was trying to transition, where I would be in my development path as a transwoman?
But I have to deal with the context of the times I grew up in in the 60's and 70's. While the information on transpeople was sketchy at best, there's a lot of positives connected with growing up in that time period as well.
It's that combination of influences plus the willingness to adapt and listen to the enlightened viewpoints of people who are wiser and sometimes younger than me that makes me at this particular point in time in August 2008 the person I am.
You have to concede that young people nowdays are a hell of a lot smarter than we were at that age. They grew up immersed in information thanks to the Internet, and sometimes they may have a better approach or a fresh way of thinking about an issue than their elders. But sometimes your elders have valuabe lessons they learned that you can incorporate into your own knowledge base as well. They are your elders and in your life for a reason, and they need to be treated as the historical resources they are so you don't repeat mistakes.
All I can do is strive to be the best person I can be, and if in the process of my own personal evolution it inspires some of you to do the same, then it's a win-win situation for us and the community as well.
Las Vegas transgender legend Jahna Steele died Jan. 24, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. She was 49.
The Clark County, Nev., Medical Examiner e-mailed Windy City Times that the "cause and manner [of death] are pending at this time."
Jahna Erica Steele was born John Matheny Sept. 29, 1958, in San Antonio, Texas, and lived in Nevada for a quarter-century. Matheny grew up in San Antonio before undergoing sexual-reassignment surgery in his early 20s. Steele was an accomplished actress and headline entertainer in Las Vegas. She was a member of the "Crazy Girls" topless revue at the Riviera before being outed in 1992 by the TV show 'A Current Affair'.
Steele's last job on the Las Vegas strip was reported to be as a warm-up announcer for "La Cage," the female impersonator show at the Riviera. Steele was also featured in the 2006 movie Transtasia, a documentary about the "World's First Most Beautiful Transsexual Pageant."
Mimi Marks, one of the headliners at the Chicago female impersonator venue The Baton and a featured contestant in Transtasia, told Windy City Times that Steele's passing was a "shock." Marks added that she felt she had "a cool connection" when they met during the pageant (their only meeting ) and that Steele "paved the road for a lot of us showgirls. It was the most upsetting and disappointing thing that she passed away. It's a sad thing for the world of female impersonation— and what makes it more sad is that, starting on Valentine's Day, they're going to start playing Transtasia on Showtime."
Local entertainer Tiara Russell, also featured in the movie, e-mailed that Steele "was a goddess for the queens. She crossed barriers ...worked in Vegas for many years undetected as transgendered and spearheaded Transtasia. ... She had a pure heart and was sweet and believed in a universal spirit."
Steele was preceded in death by her father, John. Jahna is survived by her mother, Connie; sister, Sally; brothers, Dan and Tim; and many nieces, nephews and friends. Jahna also leaves behind a large extended family and friends. She will also be missed dearly by her good friend, Tara.
For memorial information, go to Jahna Steele's Web site, www.thejahnasteele.com . Donations may be made to WE CARE Foundation.
Copyright (c) 2008 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
When it comes to Asia and the Pacific islands, there is a wide variance in terms of the populace's acceptance level for transgender people. 
On November 29, 2003 she petitioned a Korean district court in Incheon to change her name and gender on her family registry. The petition was granted and on December 13, 2002 she became only the second person in South Korea to legally change their gender. On May 13, 2007 after dating him for two years she married her boyfriend Micky Jung. 
A K-pop group called Lady appeared on the scene which tried to capitalize on Harisu's popularity in Korea. After a nationwide talent search, three transwomen were chosen to form the group and a fourth was added later. However, the band received a lukewarm reception and officially disbanded in 2007.
