UK judge: S’pore transgender woman can stay to avoid NS

A BRITISH court has ruled that a Singaporean transgender woman who went to the UK as a student in 2004 will not have to return here to face compulsory military service.

The 33-year-old, who was not named by the British media, had completed her National Service from December 2001 to June 2004, but as a male citizen still has to serve at least two weeks of reservist for eight years.

But in an immigration tribunal court, she argued that it would be a fundamental breach of her right to a private life and expression of her gender identity if she was compelled to serve as a man in Singapore.

Her case was appealed against by the British Home Office, who said she would not suffer “serious harm” from discrimination. However, a second judge rejected the appeal in her favour.

“I find that the requirement of the appellant to essentially hide her gender and live as a man, even for two weeks a year, would be wholly unreasonable,” said the judge in a ruling passed last November.

The court has granted the woman sanctuary to remain in the UK. According to The Guardian newspaper, the woman has been accepted by the Home Office and now possesses a Home Office ID card stating her gender as female, even though she has not undergone a full sex change.

According to Singapore law, anyone who has undergone a sex reassignment procedure is identified as his or her new gender. However, because the woman has not had the procedure, she would face up to 15 months in jail and/or be fined if she returned to Singapore.

 

Featured image of Gavel & Stryker by Flickr user Keith Burtis CC BY 2.0.

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