Society didn't accept him but is changing with her
Updated: 2012-07-04 10:13
By Xu Wei in Chongqing ( China Daily)

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2012-07/04/content_15547612.htm

Wang Maoli says she doesn't regret the sex reassignment surgery she underwent 21 years ago.

But that doesn't mean life has been easy, she says.

She has spent the past two decades in the media spotlight as the first person known to have undergone the surgery in Chongqing municipality and the second in the country. She's also perhaps the country's first person to change the gender on her ID card.

"I might not have survived if I hadn't done the surgery," she says.

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Shift toward tolerance of LGBT group
Updated: 2012-07-04 03:24
( China Daily)

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-07/04/content_15546601.htm

Youths are leading the shift toward tolerance of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual community. Xu Jingxi in Guangzhou and Cheng Anqi in Beijing report.

Xu Hui's parents locked him in a mill, hired an exorcist and psychologists, and forced him to undergo acupuncture that accidentally pierced his lung, in order to "cure" his feminine behavior. The boy enjoyed playing with his sister's Barbie dolls and wore bras stuffed with tissue. "I increasingly felt like a girl but didn't think too much about it," says the 22-year-old, who now considers herself a woman.

"My mom thought I was a freak and made me do farm work to build my muscles."

Xu has been bedridden since 2009, as the acupuncture hole in her lung means it doesn't fully expand when she inhales. Her mother cares for her in their village in Hebei province.

Xu says locals aren't open-minded and don't understand transgender people. Many parents of other transgender children in the village kick their kids out.