Transgender people in Vietnam stay in limbo

The controversial issue was constantly brought up at the previous National Assembly meeting in May.

Discussions then centred around whether the amended Civil Code should give transgender people personal rights equal to those of other sexes. The NALC decided to exclude the recognition issue from the draft law due to “lack of legal framework”.

“The problem is that we have yet to acknowledge same-sex marriage. If we recognise transgender entity now, it might conflict with the Law of Marriage and Family,” said Party Central Committee's Commission for Internal Affairs Deputy Chairman Nguyen Doan Khanh.

“For example, if one spouse decides to change his or her gender, would the couple’s marriage still be valid?”

Family relationships could also be complicated if children were unsure how to address their parents, especially in front of other people.

In Vietnam, there are estimated to be about 500,000 transgender of whom about 600 have had surgery to let certain sexual traits dominate.

About 20 countries now recognise chnage-of-sex operations and the new sexuality it provides. Five of these countries are in Asia - Thailand, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal.

Surnames

A previous heated debate on a proposal to amend the Civil Code to limit the  length of surnames and middle names and to require that the total number of letters in the name be no more than 25, the NALC decided to call off the draft regulation.

They said that many people had said the proposal interfered with citizens’ personal freedoms. “The proposal is not in line with the Constitution,” said National Assembly Law Committee Chairman Phan Trung Ly.

Justice Minister Ha Hung Cuong agreed that the draft proposal was unjustifiable. However, he suggested local authorities advise residents that long names could be hard to process by civil authorities.