CARNAL NATION

It is no secret that some men will go to great lengths to avoid compulsory military service. The fine art of draft dodging has taken many forms from sudden homosexuality to self-induced medical afflictions to simple flight. But how many men would undergo gender reassignment surgery in order to escape boot camp? This is a question that South Korea has been grappling with since 2006, but the South Korean Supreme Court, in conjunction with the nation's human rights agency, has decided that such an extreme transformation is unlikely to have been motivated by mandatory two-year military service. South Korea currently bans gays and lesbians from serving in the military.

As traditional Korean culture has relaxed in recent years, more and more sexual and gender minorities have begun to come out of the closet. In 2006, the Supreme Court allowed transgender individuals to register their change of gender in official records; however, the court ruled that men who had not yet performed their military service had to do so before they could begin transitioning. The rationale at the time was that some men would use their transgender status to escape military service. This week, the court has dropped this requirement. "The link between draft-dodging and sex change is hard to know, so we have decided to remove the requirement," said Judge Kim Hyeon-Bo.

There still remain several strict requirements for transgender people in South Korea. Individuals seeking to transition to another gender must be unmarried, have no children, and be older than 20. They must also obtain written consent from their parents and medical certification that surgery will render them incapable of reproduction. Since the initial 2006 Supreme Court ruling, forty-eight men have officially changed their gender to female. If these women identify as heterosexual, there should be no reason under current Korean law why they could not serve their country. Then again, the Supreme Court could also overturn the ban on gays and lesbians serving in the military, which would obviate the whole ridiculous issue.