Transgender conscript avoids compulsory military service

Posted on : 2014-08-01 15:14 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Court argues that a man wouldn’t abandon masculinity and take female hormones just to avoid military service

By Choi Woo-ri, staff reporter

His friends and family say that he’s more of a woman than a woman would be. Some even say he’s not feminine, he’s just female. They remember him pointing to his genitals and calling them an accessory, a pointless appendage. He said that he would get a sex change operation right away, if only his mother could accept it. Could this “woman” really fulfill his military service and share barracks with men?

Nine years ago, this non-op transgender was exempted from compulsory military service after being judged to have sexual identity disorder, but recently, the Seoul office of the Military Manpower Administration (MMA) revoked his exemption. In the past, he had attempted to evade military service; the current reason given is that he cannot “physically” demonstrate that he has become a woman.

In June 2005, K, 33, was exempted from his military service after the Seoul MMA found him to have a severe case of sexual identity disorder, earning him level five in the assessment ranking system. Clause 102 in the psychological section of the physical examination for recruits states that an individual who has received one or more years of treatment or who has been institutionalized for one or more months because of sexual identity disorder is to be given level five, which signifies exemption from military service.

K had received psychiatric treatment for sexual identity disorder for 14 months, beginning in Jan. 2002. In 2004, K received surgery on his eyes, nose, and chin, and the following year he was diagnosed with sexual identity disorder by a university hospital. Even after being exempted from military service, K received injections of female hormones for about three years. After that, he took birth control pills instead of hormone shots, but he stopped taking the medicine after experiencing side effects.

At the beginning of 2014, while the Seoul MMA was looking into the case of another individual who shirked military service, investigators found that K had given this individual advice about getting an exemption and charged K with avoiding his compulsory duty as well. Investigators argued that he had received psychiatric treatment and took female hormones under false pretenses in order to avoid serving in the military nine years ago.

The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office could not indict K because the seven-year statute of limitations had passed, but the Seoul MMA announced that it would revoke K’s exemption from military service. K may have gotten away with the crime, the MMA said, but he still has to serve in the military, since it was obvious that he had dodged his military duty.

On May 29, K was once again diagnosed with sexual identity disorder at a university hospital. He submitted this diagnosis along with documentation of having gotten cosmetic surgery on his chin to turn himself into a woman. Despite this, the Seoul MMA revoked his exemption on June 10, explaining that “an exemption can be given for military service when it is objectively shown that someone has become a woman.”

On July 16, K filed a lawsuit with the Seoul Administrative Court, arguing that the revocation of his exemption was unfair. K claims that he was not dodging military service since he had already been a transsexual when he received the physical examination nine years ago. He says that the only reason he hasn’t had plastic surgery to remove his male genitalia is because his mother is resolutely opposed to the idea.

On July 9, an appeals court in Daejeon made its decision in a case about violating the Military Service Act that is similar to K’s. Daejeon District Court upheld the verdict of the lower court, which found the defendant not guilty.

“The claim that a man would take hormone injections and abandon his masculinity for a year for the sole purpose of getting out of military service does not match what precedent teaches us,” the court said.

 

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