Transgender Persons in Contemporary Vietnam: Marginalisation and Livelihood Challenges

Tóm tắt

Abstract: On 24 November 2015, the National Assembly passed the amended Civil Code, which officially legalises sex reassignment surgery (SRS) in Vietnam and introduces the right to legal gender recognition for transgender people who have undergone such surgery (Article 37). It is an important breakthrough, marking the efforts by the movement of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people for equality. However, transgender persons have still been facing challenges. While both the groups of trans women (or transgender women, or MTF: Male to Female) and trans men (or transgender men, or FTM: Female to Male) encounter social prejudices, the former are more vulnerable, isolated and marginalised in a patriarchal and male-dominated society. This article analyses a number of challenges and barriers faced by transgender persons in general,  and the MTF in particular, regarding their livelihoods, and argues that social prejudices have driven transgender persons to the point of desperation in their search for livelihood and made them prone to poverty.