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Equal Opportunities Commission
Hong Kong

Transgender patient 'humiliated' by nurse

Rights advocate awaiting surgery to become a woman says she was loudly addressed as 'Mr' and lodges complaint with equality watchdog

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Angel, who is in her 20s, says a nurse at the Prince of Wales Hospital deliberately exposed her gender identity disorder. Photo: Dickson Lee

A transgender person awaiting surgery to become a woman has complained to the equality watchdog about a nurse who insisted on loudly calling her "Mr".

Angel, who dresses and regards herself as a woman, says the nurse's loud use of the male honorific had drawn attention to her gender identity disorder and made her feel humiliated.

The transgender-rights advocate in her 20s went last Friday to the psychiatric unit of the Prince of Wales Hospital, where her disorder was diagnosed in 2010.

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She was seeking a medical certificate for a mainland friend who is also a patient and says the nurse turned "emotional and unfriendly" after saying the friend would have to come in person.

"She called me 'Mr' loudly. Everyone addresses me by "Ms" or calls me Angel as they can tell I'm a woman by seeing me," the rights advocate said.

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"I felt I was humiliated and my condition of having gender identity disorder was deliberately exposed by my being called 'Mr' in front of everyone in the lobby."

Angel said it was the first time she had been addressed this way since she started dressing as a woman and the nurse had previously called her Ms.

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