Kuwait Times

Published Date: August 22, 2008

KUWAIT: A number of local transsexuals met on Wednesday with several MPs, handing the parliamentarians a petition asking them to support cross-dressers because they suffer from an illness, reported Al Watan. The letter complained that recently-introduced legislation did not take transsexuals' psychological and physical circumstances into consideration.

In their letter they said, "We are citizens who fate made different, and this difference made us criminals in a crime that may be stupid, but was not created by us. The letter continued, saying that they were "writing this complaint not to ask for pity, but to speak to your minds in the names of those who have been treated unjustly due to the result of this oppressive law".

The letter continued: "Every law is built around well thought-out foundations, but the laws that are built on unknown and unstudied foundations or on social and religious foundations deprive a large group of people who may not be related to the law, such as we who are concerned with this complaint...we hope that you look into this letter with your hearts and consciences, and not only with your minds.

The letter included a number of suggestions to deal with transsexualism, "based on medical reports, which state that the psychological condition of the [transsexual] is based on a sexual identity complex, on which no doctor will differ with another as professor from Kuwait and abroad had testified. As they said, this illness has only one solution, which is a total sex change. We suggest that you take those reports into consideration because they comes from a specialized authority in this field (offering Qu
ranic verses as support), and this report gives legal immunity to the individual suffering from an illness.

They added that these views are based on the expert opinions of many religious scholars in Kuwait and abroad who agreed that transsexualism is a case of sexual alteration related to a confusion over sexual orientation, as well as the testimonies of several religious dignitaries and scientists, who unanimously agreed that transsexualism is not related to homosexuality and sodomy which are forbidden by Almighty Allah and His Messenger (PBUH).

The letter went on, "At the suggestion of many legal specialists and lawyers who insist that this law is unconstitutional, we suggest that you reconsider the text of this law, particularly its definition of acting like the other text, and the cases that fall under this category, so that these issues do not get muddled and confused".