Recognition Of Transsexuals

Australia and New Zealand allow people to mark their passports with “X” instead of “M” or “F,” Pakistan recognizes the Khawaja sara as having a “third gender” on identity documents, while Germany and New Zealand allow the gender field on birth certificates to be left blank for later self-determination.

• China has ordered a psychiatric clinic to pay compensation to a gay man who was given electric shocks in an attempt to make him heterosexual. The man, Yang Teng, said a Beijing court had decreed that the Xinyu Piaoxiang clinic would have to pay him 3,500 yuan ($560; £400). The decision has been hailed as a legal milestone by gay rights bodies. Homosexuality has not been classified as a mental illness in China since 2001 but anti-gay prejudice remains common.
• Homosexuality was decriminalized in China in 1997 and declassified as a mental disorder by the Chinese Society of Psychiatry in 2001. But at the same time, the government has restricted LGBTQ activism. Last month, the government released a new regulation banning any display of “abnormal sexual behaviours” online. And in May, authorities abruptly cancelled a planned LGBTQ conference in central China.
• The Chinese public is becoming more accepting of the country’s LGBTQ community. A 2015 poll by WorkForLGBT, a Chinese advocacy group, found that 77 percent of people believe that workplaces should be “welcoming of all, regardless of sexual orientation.”
• Other countries like Ireland and Belarus lack provisions for trans people altogether. In December 2013, the Netherlands passed a law eliminating hormonal therapy or surgical requirements for legal gender changes, but trans people must still apply for a medical document.