South Korea’s first transgender soldier, Sgt. Byun Hui-su, who underwent a gender reassignment surgery to become a woman has been thrown out of the army
Sgt. Byun Hui-su had expressed hope of continuing to serve in the female corps before a military panel voted to throw her.
The army said in a statement that while it will make efforts to protect soldiers’ human rights and prevent discrimination, the surgery left Byun unable to continue to serve, a ruling that Byun Hui-su had vowed to “fight.”
Speaking at a press conference at the Center for Military Human Right Korea on Wednesday, Sgt. Byun Hui-su said: “I will continue to fight until the day I can remain to serve in the army, I’ll challenge the decision until the end, to the Supreme Court. It was an extremely difficult decision to let my base know of my identity, but once I did, I felt much better. I thought I would finish serving in the army and then go through the transition surgery and then reenter the army as a female soldier. But my depression got too severe.”