Philippine military to welcome first transgender officer

The Philippines military said on Thursday that it was about to welcome its first transgender officer.

"In taking in applicants to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), whether in regular or reservist force, we do not discriminate with respect to gender. Our gender and development programme guarantees that," said AFP public affairs chief Col. Edgard Arevalo.

Arevalo said Geraldine Roman recently approached the office of the AFP deputy chief of staff for reservist and retiree affairs to express her intention to join the reserve force "but with regard to physical application form, there's none yet", Xinhua news agency reported.

On Wednesday, Roman said she will be applying to become a military officer in the Armed Forces reserve force. She will be the first transgender if her application is subsequently approved.

On the uniform that Roman will be wearing, Arevalo said court has already approved Roman's petition to change her gender to female.

However, Arevalo could not immediately say if Roman's birth certificate, one of the requirements in the application, already bears her new gender.

--IANS

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