Gulf countries consider medical checks to bar transgender expats
Saeed Kamali Dehghan, theguardian.com, October 11, 2013 13.30 EDT

The Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) will next month consider a proposal from Kuwait to introduce medical checks to prevent transgender people from entering the six-member Arab countries as migrant workers.

The Saudi-based Arab News reported this week that authorities in Kuwait's ministry of health have proposed "genetic tests" aimed at detecting transsexuals who wish to enter and work in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, where the 2022 football World Cup is scheduled to be held.

Medical screening designed to determine the sex of migrant workers has already been in place for some time in some Arab countries but the new proposal specifically targets members of the transgender community.

"Undergoing the test will become mandatory for an estimated 289 health centres across the GCC if the health council approves the proposal of tighter controls on gender tests for migrant workers," Tawfiq Khojah, a GCC health official, told the English-language newspaper. In 2012, Khojah said, more than 2 million expatriates underwent the gender tests.

Hi baby! This news does not come as a big shock. I almost fear the same thing being implemented here as the conservatives are growing stronger where I live and are coming after people like us big time with new laws and stuff. I think the louder they complain about us the more stuff they have to hide in their own closet's. Think that is a possibility? I think I would actually run for a political office, the only thing that stops me is the fact that the campaign message would get lost and suppressed by my transition. Do you ever think a transgender person will ever get to congress? I hope you feel better today. Love you girl!

No wonder why i hate my own arab country & religion and fled to europe for political asylum. prefer live in europe without papers forever than in my muslim country treated as a animal everyday.

Beauty, I am so sorry you had to leave your own country for peace. I do applaud the fact you had the fortitude to leave though. I can not even imagine how that would feel to leave what you know and are comfortable with. So you get...BIG HUG!

Quote from: Evolving Beauty on October 12, 2013, 11:16:16 AM
No wonder why i hate my own arab country & religion and fled to europe for political asylum. prefer live in europe without papers forever than in my muslim country treated as a animal everyday.

Got a pm from Jossef-FtM not long ago, he lives in an Islamic controlled country and his life has recently turned into a living hell, hope he is ok but haven't heard from him since.

Kuwait official calls gay and transgender ban just a proposal
James Withers, October 20, 2013

A senior Kuwaiti official is downplaying the plan to keep gay and transgender foreigners from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries.

'It is a mere proposal that Kuwait will present to fellow GCC members in order to look into the possibility of amending the medical checkup rules for foreigners wishing to work and live in the GCC,' Khalid Al Jarallah, the foreign ministry undersecretary, said, according to Gulf News.

Earlier this month it was revealed by Yousouf Mindkar, Kuwait's director of public health, that health centers will take stricter measures in order to detect gay people.

'Health centres conduct the routine medical check to assess the health of the expatriates when they come to into the GCC countries,' he said to local daily Al Rai.

'However, we will take stricter measures that will help us detect gays who will be then barred from entering Kuwait or any of the GCC member states,' Mindkar continued.