Gender and labor rights activists yesterday demonstrated outside Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei against the sacking of a transvestite employee who preferred to dress in women’s clothing and use the ladies’ room at work, although he is biologically male.
“I am here to get back my right to work,” Chou Yi-jen (周逸人), surrounded by rights activists, told media during the protest.
“I just feel more comfortable dressing in female clothing and going to the ladies’ room. All of this does not interfere with my work performance and I never bother anybody,” he said. “In fact, before I was fired [last month], I received top grades in my work performance evaluation for the past five years I worked at the hospital.”
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
At first, Chou said he wore male clothes, but that made him so uncomfortable he had to see a psychiatrist, who suggested he should act according to his nature. As a result, Chou decided to dress as a woman. That was about nine months ago.
Since then, Chou had been threatened on several occasions and openly discriminated against by his supervisor.
“My supervisor asked me to get his permission every time I wanted to leave my seat, including when I needed to use the toilet or just to get water from the water fountain,” Chou said.
“This rule only applied to me,” he said.
Before he was fired, Chou worked in the hospital’s information and technology department.
On one occasion, all the employees were given a lunch box during a lunch meeting, Chou said.
“I was the only one who didn’t get a lunch box,” he said.
When Chou asked the colleague who was in charge of ordering lunch why he didn’t get a lunch box, “the colleague said the supervisor told her to pretend that I didn’t exist,” Chou said.
“I’m surprised that there are still employers who think the clothes an employee wears or which restroom he or she goes to is more important than his or her abilities,” said Josephine Ho (何春蕤), chair of National Central University’s Center for Gender/Sexuality Studies.
“The hospital said Chou was fired because of poor work performance, but he always received top grades in his work evaluations over the past five years,” she said.
Gender/Sexuality Rights Association Taiwan secretary-general Wang Ping (王蘋) said that by -treating Chou differently, such as asking him to get permission before leaving his desk, the hospital was in violation of the Gender Equality Employment Act (性別平等工作法), which prohibits such acts by employers based on an employee’s gender or gender identity.
Chou said he was preparing to file a lawsuit against the hospital.
SHORT-TERM OUTLOOK: The Chinese military would most likely focus on rebuilding its organization and leadership in the next few years, experts said Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) military purge has reduced the risks of a planned war against Taiwan, yet increased the danger of a conflict sparked by a miscalculation or accident, Taiwanese experts said yesterday. They made the comments at a seminar on the Fifth Plenary Session of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) 20th Central Committee held by the research group Secure Taiwan Associate Corp (STA) in Taipei. The wholesale sacking of Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officers and managers of the aerospace and defense industry is sure to set back Xi’s timetable to prepare the PLA to launch an invasion of Taiwan
BATTLE-TESTED: Czech companies’ drones, software and navigation systems have been tested in the Ukraine war, while other countries’ are lab-tested, a Czech ex-official said Czech manufacturers are interested in setting up drone assembly lines in Taiwan, former Czech Chamber of Deputies president Marketa Pekarova Adamova told a forum in Taipei yesterday. Adamova made the comments at the inauguration of the Global UAV Academy, an organization dedicated to international cooperation in drone supply chains, technological certification and pilot training. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology said the Czech Republic is the largest importer of Taiwanese drones and uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) components. Adamova, who transitioned to the defense industry after retiring from politics, said the Roman adage “si vis pacem, para bellum” — “If you
STAY VIGILANT: An aircraft carrier and battle group were located to the east of the Philippines, while other ships were identified off the east and southeast coast of Taiwan China has more than 50 naval and other official vessels operating in a wide swath of sea stretching from southern Japan down to Taiwan and off the Philippines, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Wednesday, calling the threat level “obvious.” Taiwan is stepping up efforts to issue details and maps depicting locations where Chinese warships and coast guard vessels operate. “We are staying vigilant about their activities,” Wu said. “The simultaneous threat to Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines is obvious.” The remarks accompanied a map he posted on X showing the locations of 53 ships, 34 of them navy warships,
WORRIES PILE UP: The planned extension would generate nearly 10 million cubic meters of excavated soil, the disposal of which has not been explained, a former EPA official said Yilan County residents, backed by civic groups, on Wednesday filed an administrative lawsuit to overturn the environmental impact assessment (EIA) approval for the Yilan-bound high-speed rail (HSR) extension. They filed the lawsuit after the Executive Yuan on Sept. 11 rejected an administrative appeal. Former Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) deputy minister and lawyer Thomas Chan (詹順貴) said the project’s EIA review was one of the hastiest he had ever seen during his 30-year career in environmental law. Construction of the line would generate nearly 10 million cubic meters of excavated earth and rock, the disposal of which has not yet been explained to the
RSS