The Court recently denied the petition of Rommel Jacinto Dantes Silverio, a
transsexual, to change the entries in his birth certificate in the Office of
the Civil Registrar -- specifically, his gender from male to female and his
first name to "Mely." This despite the fact that Silverio had undergone what is
technically called a "sex- reassignment surgery" in Bangkok in 2001 to become a
biological woman. The Court, however, ruled that while the petitioner "may have
succeeded in altering his body and appearance through the intervention of
modern surgery, no law authorizes the change of entry as to sex in the civil
registry for that reason. There is no special law in the country governing sex
reassignment and its effect. This is fatal to petitioner's case." The Court
concluded that it is up to Congress, if it chooses, "to determine what
guidelines should govern the recognition of the effects of sex reassignment."
The riveting story of Rommel/Mely Silverio is detailed in an intimate Internet
account titled "My Life as a Transsexual Woman," which he/she divides into: (1)
pre-gender transition from birth to 1995; (2) pre-surgery days in Hawaii from
1996 to 2000; and (3) post-surgery life in the Philippines from 2001 to the
present.
It was as a doctoral student in Sociology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa
that I came to know Rommel very well. His late mother Anita I knew back in
Manila. He was all of 230 pounds but over time I could notice a gradual change
in his appearance. He had embarked on a regimen of female hormone pills and
estrogen shots. I teasingly told him one day that he was becoming "sexy" but to
be "careful." By the end of 1996, he had already lost 50 pounds. He continued
the routine until he lost another 30 pounds. So by now, he was down to 155
pounds evenly distributed in his 5'8" frame. He was becoming a woman and
gaining a "greater sense of self-esteem and confidence."
He went on to defend his dissertation on youth sexual behavior in 2000, and had
acquired a "boyfriend" who consented to have him go to Bangkok for the sex
change. For about three hours, a renowned Thai surgeon performed vaginoplasty
and breast augmentation, increasing her breast size from A to D. Her recovery
and post-surgery therapy lasted 18 months, after which she introduced her
boyfriend, the man she was going to marry, to her family.
While Rommel had become Mely, for which she was ecstatic, several problems
arose. The name on her passport was that of a man and inspectors couldn't
reconcile this with the tall, svelte and well-dressed woman standing in front
of them. She had to have two sets of documentation all the time to attest to
the fact that Rommel and Mely were one and the same. Bank personnel would do
all sorts of checking, so she would seek out only those that already knew her
to avoid any confusion and embarrassment. And so on. She could have easily come
back to the United States where she wouldn't have these hassles.
But discriminatory comments such as that the Philippines is not ready for
transsexual women like her only increased her resolve to be treated equally and
justly. Such remarks only "added fuel to my desire to be regarded as a
professional colleague, to be treated with respect as a woman, and to be given
a fair chance at life in general." She escalated her personal struggle to
attain "full legal recognition as a woman here in the Philippines, my country
of birth" by petitioning the courts to change her gender and first name. The
Court of Appeals denied her petition, which was a devastating blow. I am
certain that the Supreme Court verdict upholding the lower court was even more
devastating.
So, what now? I have great compassion for Mely -- whom I will always remember
as Rommel -- who is really a very bright and likable individual. What does it
matter really -- Rommel or Mely, man or woman -- it's the same human being! And
she has gone through the whole process with extreme pain of validating the
essence of her identity and humanity. What more can we ask? But the law as they
say is cruel, but it's the law.
As a footnote, the large majority of transsexual (TS) transitions work out very
well over the long term as documented in Lynn's "Transsexual Women's
Successes." However, in some cases, complete TS transitions "fail to meet very
unrealistic expectations, and way too late the transitioner may realize that
undergoing sex reassignment surgery (SRS) was a BIG mistake." Among the
"regretters" is Renee Richards, who was born a male but transitioned as a
female via surgery in 1975 at age 40 and became a famous tennis player. She
wished she had not done it, but too late. She realized she would always be seen
as a transsexual and never as a real woman that she had earlier hoped to
become.
My only hope for Rommel/Mely is that she won't regret the biggest decision she
made in her life, and that society will become increasingly tolerant, if not
accepting, of diversity in all its possible senses and meanings.
Belinda A. Aquino is director of Philippine Studies at the University of Hawaii
at Manoa, where she has been professor of Political Science and Asian Studies.
