Gender and labor rights activists yesterday demonstrated outside Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei against the sacking of a transvestite employee who preferred to dress in women’s clothing and use the ladies’ room at work, although he is biologically male.
“I am here to get back my right to work,” Chou Yi-jen (周逸人), surrounded by rights activists, told media during the protest.
“I just feel more comfortable dressing in female clothing and going to the ladies’ room. All of this does not interfere with my work performance and I never bother anybody,” he said. “In fact, before I was fired [last month], I received top grades in my work performance evaluation for the past five years I worked at the hospital.”
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
At first, Chou said he wore male clothes, but that made him so uncomfortable he had to see a psychiatrist, who suggested he should act according to his nature. As a result, Chou decided to dress as a woman. That was about nine months ago.
Since then, Chou had been threatened on several occasions and openly discriminated against by his supervisor.
“My supervisor asked me to get his permission every time I wanted to leave my seat, including when I needed to use the toilet or just to get water from the water fountain,” Chou said.
“This rule only applied to me,” he said.
Before he was fired, Chou worked in the hospital’s information and technology department.
On one occasion, all the employees were given a lunch box during a lunch meeting, Chou said.
“I was the only one who didn’t get a lunch box,” he said.
When Chou asked the colleague who was in charge of ordering lunch why he didn’t get a lunch box, “the colleague said the supervisor told her to pretend that I didn’t exist,” Chou said.
“I’m surprised that there are still employers who think the clothes an employee wears or which restroom he or she goes to is more important than his or her abilities,” said Josephine Ho (何春蕤), chair of National Central University’s Center for Gender/Sexuality Studies.
“The hospital said Chou was fired because of poor work performance, but he always received top grades in his work evaluations over the past five years,” she said.
Gender/Sexuality Rights Association Taiwan secretary-general Wang Ping (王蘋) said that by -treating Chou differently, such as asking him to get permission before leaving his desk, the hospital was in violation of the Gender Equality Employment Act (性別平等工作法), which prohibits such acts by employers based on an employee’s gender or gender identity.
Chou said he was preparing to file a lawsuit against the hospital.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS