A transgender South Korean soldier who was forcibly discharged from the army after gender reassignment surgery has been found dead, police said yesterday, prompting anger and calls for legal reform.
Firefighters found Byun Hee-soo in her home in Cheongju after a mental health counselor called emergency services to report that she had not been heard from for several days, Yonhap news agency reported.
South Korea remains deeply conservative about matters of sexual identity and is less tolerant of LGBTQ rights than some other parts of Asia, with many gay and transgender South Koreans living largely under the radar.
Photo: EPA-EFE
In her 20s, Byun voluntarily enlisted in 2017. She went on to have gender reassignment surgery in Thailand in 2019.
Formerly a staff sergeant, Byan was last year compulsorily discharged by a military panel, after the South Korean Ministry of National Defense classified the removal of her male genitals as a mental or physical handicap.
At the time, she waived her anonymity to appear at a news conference to plead to be allowed to serve, wearing her fatigues, and saluting the gathered journalists and cameras.
“I’m a soldier of the Republic of Korea,” she said, her voice breaking.
Police confirmed her death, saying that they were investigating.
Reports said that no note was found, but the death was being treated as suicide, with Yonhap citing officials as saying that she had tried to kill herself three months ago.
Byun’s death triggered an outpouring of grief and calls for South Korean lawmakers to pass an anti-discrimination bill.
“The whole of South Korean society bears responsibility for her death,” said a poster on Daum, the country’s second-largest Internet portal. “Those who ridiculed her and made malicious online comments because she was transgender, I want you to reflect on what you did to her.”
South Korea has a conscript army to defend itself against North Korea, with all able-bodied male citizens required to serve for nearly two years.
However, Byun was a volunteer non-commissioned officer and said at her news conference last year that serving in the military had been her childhood dream.
“Putting aside my sexual identity, I want to show everyone that I can be one of the great soldiers,” she said, fighting back tears. “Please give me that chance.”
Her case was the first of its kind in South Korea.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
A surprising gut feeling may help pigeons find their way home. Animals use various techniques to navigate, including following the stars and remembering key landmarks. Birds, fish and turtles orient themselves using Earth’s magnetic field as a compass, but it is not yet clear how exactly they do this. Pigeons are a well-known group of frequent flyers that can traverse hundreds of kilometers in a single day. For thousands of years, humans have used them to carry news, notes and military messages. Scientists have long tried to untangle how pigeons travel without getting lost. Some think the birds detect magnetic cues using light-sensitive
RSS