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Vietnam recognises transgender people, allows sex change on legal documents
Reuters - November 24, 2015
Under the new law, which will take effect from Jan. 1, 2017, people who underwent sex change would have "rights and obligations to register for changes in civil status" and personal rights associated with their new gender.
"This is an encouraging signal for LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community in Vietnam", said Nguyen Thanh Tam, founder of Viet Pride, one of the most popular public events displaying LGBT community solidarity.
"The change meets the expectations of people undergoing sex-reassignment surgery and helps create a unified gender identification scheme," Tam said.
Rights groups have been fighting for years in close-by Thailand for a change in legislation so that transgender people can change their sex on travel documents.
Thailand has a prominent LGBT community but the country remains largely conservative and the law bans changes to gender categories on national identity papers and prevents gay couples from taking joint bank loans and medical insurance.
[Reporting by My Pham; Additional reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre in Bangkok; Editing by Mai Nguyen and Sanjeev Miglani.]
Source: http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/11/24/vietnam-policy-transgender-idINKBN0TD1A120151124.
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