NATION’S FIRST TRANSGENDER SOLDIER FOUND DEAD

[Anchor Lead]

The country’s first transgender military officer was found dead in her home. She was forcibly discharged after undergoing a sex-change operation while in active duty. She was about a month away from a trial to overturn the forced discharge decision when she presumably took her own life.

[Pkg]

Former Army Staff Sergeant Byun Hee-soo was found dead in her home on Wednesday. She was forcibly discharged after undergoing a sex-change operation. The police went to her home and found her body after receiving a report from a local mental health counseling center that Byun could not be reached since February 28th. Judging by the advanced state of decomposition, the police determined she died quite some time ago.
No suicide note has been found yet.

[Soundbite] Neighbor : "She went about all alone. Nobody knew. Everyone thought she was a woman."

The former staff sergeant was serving in an army base in northern Gyeonggi-Province when she went abroad to undergo a sex-change operation in 2019. She wanted to remain in the Army but military authorities discharged her after ruling that she had a level 3 physical disability. When her petition to be reinstated was rejected, she filed an administrative suit against the Army Chief of Staff to withdraw the decision. She took her own life before the trial was to begin on April 15th.

[Soundbite] Kim Seong-su(Chief, Cheongju Seongan Patrol Division) : "She was found dead when we arrived at the scene and opened the door together with firefighters."

The Cheongju District Court had accepted her request to change her gender on the family registry and she has been marked as female since then. Last December, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea determined that the Army’s decision violated her human rights and recommended the Army Chief of Staff reverse the forced discharge decision and the defense minister revise the system.