Hong Kong law must change to recognise my true self, transgender activist says
Angel has waged a painful struggle for years and dreams of gaining the same sort of acceptance as achieved in Taiwan
Transgender activist Angel says she first knew she should have been born a woman in her early 20s, when she increasingly desired to inhabit a woman’s body.
During this time, she recalled trying on one of her mother’s dresses when she was about 15 years old – perhaps an early sign of contemplating her gender identity.
“It started with having certain feelings inside; I longed to have a woman’s face and body shape,” she says. “But most importantly, I wanted to be treated as a woman in society. Yet at that point, I had no knowledge about the issue and I didn’t know what to do next.”
Soon after her revelation dressing as a woman, Angel says, became one factor in persuading her doctor in Hong Kong that she was serious about having gender reassignment surgery.
But the former hair stylist says she lost her clients after she began wearing women’s clothes at work.
My mother told me: ‘If you go down this path, then I will throw you out’