Promoting and Protecting Human Rights in relation to Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Sex Characteristics A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions KEY POINTS: CHAPTER 3 • Transgender men, transgender women and those who identify as a third gender or as non-binary exist in all parts of the Asia Pacific region. • Direct and indirect discrimination affects transgender people in all aspects of their private and public lives and leads to social exclusion. This includes systemic bullying of transgender and gender diverse students at school and discrimination at all stages of the employment cycle. • Transgender women continue to be criminalised under laws that prohibit cross-dressing and are frequently targeted by laws criminalising homosexuality, even though they are not gay men. Public nuisance and vagrancy laws and criminalisation of sex work also disproportionately affect transgender women. • Transphobic violence is a form of gender-based violence directed against transgender people. The majority of transgender people killed because of their gender identity are transgender women. There is emerging evidence of high levels of sexual and physical violence against transgender men within their families or in intimate relationships. • Legal gender recognition is a fundamental civil and political right that is necessary to realise other rights. Having the correct name and sex or gender identity on official documents enables transgender people to be recognised as a person before the law and to have legal protection. • Gender-affirming health services are medically necessary for many transgender people and are a component of the right to the highest attainable standard of health. 64