Burmese makeup artist meets signs of acceptance after sex-change operation

Yangon, Myanmar, July 4 (efe_epa). —  Just weeks after undergoing gender reassignment surgery at a hospital in Bangkok, Ma Htet, 34, is experiencing acceptance of her new outward identity, an epa journalist on the scene reported.

On a trip to Yangon’s majestic Shwedagon pagoda Sunday, people happily greeted Htet and asked to take photographs with her.

That reception came despite the conservative nature of Myanmar, where, in the eyes of officialdom, Htet is a man because Myanmar law doesn’t allow citizens to change the gender on their ID cards.

Before travelling to Bangkok, where she received the sex change operation at the Navamin 9 hospital at a cost of some $10,000, according to the Myanmar Times newspaper, she faced cool reactions to her identity.

“My mother did not want to accept it. It took my brother years, though he later became my great support,” she told Efe last month.

Since she returned to her native Yangon from Bangkok, Htet has been able to return to her job as a celebrity makeup artist.

Myanmar might not have the same resources or respect for transgender people as Thailand however superficial but perhaps the kindness Htet faced at Shwedagon is a hint of more social openness in the future.