Gulf countries consider medical checks to bar transgender expats

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Gulf countries consider medical checks to bar transgender expats

Saeed Kamali Dehghan
theguardian.com, Friday 11 October 2013 18.30 BST

The Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) will next month consider a proposal from Kuwait to introduce medical checks to prevent transgender people from entering the six-member Arab countries as migrant workers.

The Saudi-based Arab News reported this week that authorities in Kuwait's ministry of health have proposed "genetic tests" aimed at detecting transsexuals who wish to enter and work in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, where the 2022 football World Cup is scheduled to be held.

Medical screening designed to determine the sex of migrant workers has already been in place for some time in some Arab countries but the new proposal specifically targets members of the transgender community.

"Undergoing the test will become mandatory for an estimated 289 health centres across the GCC if the health council approves the proposal of tighter controls on gender tests for migrant workers," Tawfiq Khojah, a GCC health official, told the English-language newspaper. In 2012, Khojah said, more than 2 million expatriates underwent the gender tests.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/11/gulf-countries-medical-checks-transgender-expats

[xfundy]

1. Wow. So much need to look in everyone's pants.

No, there's nothing else as important. At least, not to me, in 6th grade.

[Crowman1979]

2. We really need to stop giving these countries any of our money at the gas-pump.

As well as not shedding blood for those sons-a-bitches. All the more reason we need to focus more on renewable energy.