I refer to the letter VIPs with transsexual leanings, arise.

The writer mentions that parents and society should be educated on how to prevent their children from becoming transsexuals and that society must recognise transsexuals at an early stage and offer some form of a rehabilitation programmes.

But transsexuals are not made by parents or society. They are born that way. Although there is no statistical data in Malaysia as to how many children are born each year with ‘ambiguous genitalia’, few thousand babies are born in the US every year with such a condition.

Every embryo, male and female, begins with the same embryonic tissues. At around eight weeks, a ‘chemical chain of events’ causes the male embryo to form. The female embryo develops due to the absence of such an event.

Much of this process is not yet fully understood, but as many as 30 conditions may lead to a child being considered intersexed. If the external genitalia, which forms around the ninth week, does not match the internal sex organs, this is one way a baby can become intersexed.

Chromosomal abnormalities can also lead to intersexed children, with additional X and Y- chromosomes to blame.

So then how can a person be blamed for something he/she is born with? If you have an extra finger on your hand you can surgically remove it. But if you are a man in a woman's body, the Malaysian government doesn’t want to hear or know about you.

What is wrong with a sex-change operation? Who are we to judge how an individual should live? The National Registration Department should just let people change their gender if they have had a sex-change operation.

The inclusion of those outside traditional realm of male and female is essential for the creation of a society where everyone is valued equally, regardless of gender differences.