Seoul, South Korea
A South Korean military woman who was expelled from the army after undergoing surgery sex changeShe was found dead, the agency reported on Wednesday Yonhap press.
The body of Byun Hee-soo was found in its address of Cheongju, the south of Seoul. Police opened an investigation.
Byun Hee-soo, a sergeant in his twenties, he enlisted voluntarily in the army as a man in 2017, Before undergoing surgery in Thailand for a sex change.
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Compared to other Asian countries, South Korea he is deeply conservative on aspects of sexual identity and homosexual relationships between the military are likely to be penalized. Becoming a woman, she communicated to her hierarchy her desire to continue in the army.
A military commission ordered in January 2020 his expulsion from the military institution, As the Ministry of Defense considered the loss of his genitals they constituted a mental and physical problem.
After his expulsion, Byun came out of anonymity to defend his cause. “I am a military man from the Republic of Korea,” he said in a trembling voice. He explained that being in the military was a childhood dream but said he suffered from depression due to “gender dysphoria” or gender identity disorder. Hence his choice to have surgery.
“I want to show everyone, that regardless of my sexual identity, I can be one of the great soldiers defending the country,” he had said. “Please give me this opportunity,” the young woman implored.
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Military service is compulsory in South Korea. where the army is primarily responsible for protecting the territory from the northern threat. Every fit man must serve two years of military service.
Byun was the first South Korean soldier to undergo an operation to change his sexual identity during his service. International human rights associations have long denounced consensual sex between two people of the same sex as a crime in the eyes of South Korean military law.
The South Korean army relentlessly persecutes soldiers who have homosexual relations, which can lead to two years in prison and forced labor in the event of a conviction by a court-martial.