Following several other states that have passed laws ensuring that a minor can, safely and legally, undergo sex change medical treatments, the ‘trans refuge’ bill passed recently in Minnesota makes gender-affirming care a legal right.
The new law prevents transgender people, their families, and healthcare providers from facing legal repercussions due to visiting Minnesota for cross-sex hormone prescriptions or sex-change procedures. The law aims to prevent child protection laws of other states from having power over transgender children seeking sex-change surgery under Minnesota jurisdiction. Although proponents of sex change surgery and hormone treatment often refer to these procedures as “gender-affirming care”, opponents call such surgical genital mutilation, and in the case of children, child abuse, and even pedophilia. As yet, there are no Thailand laws that ensure a parent’s right to perform a sex change surgery, or hormone treatment on minor children.
Thailand is a country that is renowned for its acceptance of different gender identities, and, in particular transgender identities. Nevertheless, stigmas and discrimination towards gender minorities still exist even in Thailand. There have been instances of prominent transgender persons who transitioned as minors, including Rinrada Thurapan, Miss Tiffany 2017, and well-known TV and film star. The only current, and arguably, relevant laws concerning sex change surgery and hormone treatment for minors would be Thailand’s criminal laws, particularly Sections [295-297] of the Thailand Penal Code which prohibits bodily assault. These laws may apply, at least theoretically, in cases where the gender transition was, somehow, involuntary, or ill-advised.
Photo credit: Roberto Trombetta
