General Information

Legal Resources

Trans People in Non-Western Cultures

  • Transsexuality in Iran (Wikipedia)
    Despite the lack of queer rights in general in Iran, transsexualism is considered a legitimate medical (rather than moral) problem, as long as the trans-identified person is heterosexual (i.e. attracted to the opposite sex of their identified sex) and wishes to have sex reassignment surgery. This is due in part to the relentless efforts of MTF Maryam Khatoon Molkara, who faced down the Ayatollah Khomeini in person to obtain religious permission for surgery.

From "A fatwa for freedom", The Guardian, 2005

In contrast to almost everywhere else in the Muslim world, sex change operations are legal in Iran for anyone who can afford the minimum £2,000 cost and satisfy interviewers that they meet necessary psychological criteria. As a result, women who endured agonising childhood and adolescent experiences as boys, and - albeit in fewer numbers - young men who reached sexual maturity as girls, are easy to find in Tehran. Iran has even become a magnet for patients from eastern European and Arab countries seeking to change their genders.

(link here)

  • Two-Spirit (Wikipedia), an Aboriginal North American conception of trans-identity
  • Kathoey (Wikipedia), Thai "ladyboys"
  • Hijra (Wikipedia), a Southwest Asian conceptualization
  • Fakaleiti (Wikipedia), Tongan

In the Media

  • Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, season 4, episode 21, orig. airdate 18 Apr 03, "Fallacy"
  • CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, season 5, episode 8, orig. airdate 18 Nov 04, "Ch-Ch-Changes"
  • Transamerica (2006 film)