Anger as S. Korean transgender soldier found dead

CHEONGJU: A transgender South Korean soldier who was forcibly discharged from the army after gender-reassignment surgery has been found dead, police said, prompting anger and calls for legal reforms.

Firefighters found Byun Hee-soo in her home in Cheongju after a mental health counsellor called emergency services to report that she had not been heard from for several days, Yonhap news agency reported yesterday.

South Korea remains deeply conservative about matters of sexual identity and is less tolerant of LGBT rights than some other parts of Asia, with many gay and transgender Koreans living largely under the radar.

Byun, formerly a staff sergeant and in her 20s, enlisted voluntarily in 2017. She went on to have genderreassignment surgery in 2019 in Thailand. The defence ministry classified the removal of her male genitals as a mental or physical handicap, and a military panel ruled last year that she would be compulsorily discharged.

Byun’s death triggered an outpouring of grief and calls for South Korean MPs to pass an anti-discrimination Bill.

A memorial altar for Byun was set up at a local hospital where friends and activists paid their respects yesterday.

On Daum, the country’s second-largest web portal, one person wrote: “The whole of Korean society bears responsibility for her death.

“Those who ridiculed her and made malicious online comments because she was transgender, I want you to reflect on what you did to her.”