As I am married, the doctor said to me that he will give prescription for HRT if I visit his office with my wife. I simply did not, although that was a personal recommendation of the doctor. I guess he requested it, because he probably got a lot of complaints and even legal sues by the wives of m2f people who underwent HRT by him without their approval. The doctor is the most famous SRS physician in Korea, and his most successful patient is Ha Ri Su.
Technically, Korean law requires that transsexual people should be divorced legally before SRS. This is just a document of official divorce, and transsexual people can anyway maintain their family union regardless of the law, if they wish and agree.
Like other countries, there are many things beyond the law, and those things can be more important than the law de facto.
Young people are more accepting compared with old generations. Those people who ask me such classical questions like "what does your wife think about it?", "how about your parents?", "how about your kids?" are always aged people. Young people never ask that kind of question. Also, educated people tend to be more careful in questioning, regardless of age. Most aged people do not tell between gay and transgender.
As I teach in a university, my long hairs can be an issue. When interviewing for the position here, one guy asked me about it. Legally, long hair can not be a factor in qualifying job candidates. But they can find other excuses, if they indeed do not want the candidate. In contrast to the aged professors here, the students here do not care about my long hair or other feminine stuffs. Some professors sometimes mentioned my long hair, recommending me to tie my hair, at least during a kind of official events. Those complains from aged faculty members now nearly disappeared, as they become accustomed to my long hairs. I have never worn skirts in the campus, but my colleagues know very well that I sometimes wear skirts.
Once, a kind of reality TV show here broadcast about several volunteered m2f transsexual people who undergo SRS. The term transgender nearly equals to entertainment here. I heard that there are several thousand transsexual people here in S. Korea who underwent SRS and changed their legal gender and name, but most of them just disappear from the radar of media reports. They keep their own life quietly. Exceptional is a few entertaining stars like Ha Ri Su.
As I teach and research well in my work place and sustain my family well, nobody can dare to find fault with my own unique life style. A few ignorant people did do, but I just quietly reminded them of the salary difference between them and me. The incomes of those people are usually far below than the average here.
In any society, your power (i.e., social and political) determines the limit of what you can do. Even power can change the law. Without enough power, then adjust your limit and negotiate your desire with the social limits. Sometimes money can buy power, but not always. This is my opinion on any captialistic society.
barbie~~
