BrisbaneTimes.com – Liau Y-Sing
When Khartini Slamah first came out as a transexual, he was a dutiful Muslim son by day and a prostitute by night, working on the streets of the Malaysian capital.
The option of sex change surgery was out of the question in this moderate Muslim country where Muslim transexuals are banned from changing their gender and same sex relationships are a criminal offence.
“I tried to find a job but because of my sexuality I was turned down,” said the 44-year-old former prostitute who now works as an activist and counsellor to other transexuals.
Twenty years later, sex change surgery may be routine in some countries but it’s still banned by law in Malaysia – at least for Muslims. The ruling doesn’t apply to non-Muslims who make up about half of the estimated 30,000 transexuals in Malaysia.