SOCIETY'S ACCEPTANCE OF TRANSGENDERS

[Anchor Lead]

A controversy had erupted when the Korean Army discharged a soldier who had undergone gender-reassignment surgery, even though she wanted to continue serving in the military. In another first for the country, a transgender woman was accepted into a women's university. Here's another story about the evolving acceptance of transgender people in Korean society.

[Pkg]

Last week 23-year-old Miss A, received an acceptance letter from Sookmyung Women's University's College of Law. This person underwent a gender-reassignment operation in Thailand last August.

[Soundbite] (TRANSGENDER WOMAN(VOICE MODIFIED)) : "Starting in 9th or 10th grade, I couldn't relate to my male friends and hated my body."

After the surgery, even applying for the nationwide scholastic aptitude test wasn't easy because the legal gender status still remained the same.

[Soundbite] (TRANSGENDER WOMAN(VOICE MODIFIED)) : "An employee at the application office asked me to wear something inconspicuous, something that wouldn't make other male students uncomfortable."

It was only a month before the test that miss A's gender was reflected on the social security number.

[Soundbite] (TRANSGENDER WOMAN(VOICE MODIFIED)) : "I was marked as a male in my transcript. I asked Sookmyung Women's University what to do since my resident number and the one on the application were different. They said I should just send all the papers."

"A" became the first transgender female in Korea to be accepted by a women's university. "A" hopes that people wouldn't see her any differently.

[Soundbite] (TRANSGENDER WOMAN(VOICE MODIFIED)) : "There's nothing special. I'm not the only one who got accepted. I want to become a lawyer to protect social minorities."

Miss "A" aspires to become a lawyer that helps social minorities.