A glance at the life of third gender in Public Universities

• Main Author: Farok Zakaria
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://discol.umk.edu.my/id/eprint/9004/1/Paper%20%209.pdf; http://discol.umk.edu.my/id/eprint/9004/
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Kelantan

The third gender as labeled by Discovery Channel ( 2003) has been a common scene in Asian countries from as far as India to our own country Malaysia. The Malaysian National stream newspaper Berita Harian ( 2011) mentioned that there is a growing phenomenon of the Third Gender or transvestites ( In Malay language it is refered to as “makyah”) and gays in recent years in Malaysia. Another report refers them to as a woman trapped in man’s body. The disturbing scene of the Third Gender has been haunting many public universities in Malaysia. In the early nineties, a study has been conducted by some universities in Malaysia pertaining to the growth of the transgender population in public universities. The report had alerted many parties especially the administrators of the University’s student affairs office in Malaysia, hence allowing them to be more aware of the growing needs to cater to this special group of student’s population. It was true when universities started organizing seminars and courses on how to tackle transvestite and gay students in university campus such as having separate hostel rooms for them to stay. On the other hands, the third gender has proven themselves to be very intelligent in academic performance as well as having high soft skills quality that has allow them to penetrate the barrier of university’s student intake. Many of them have proven to be successful graduates by becoming Fashion Designers, Interior Decorators and Journalists, let alone Managers. However, many are inclined to be in the limelight of the creative industry. Despite their popularity, their backgrounds are discreet and unknown to the masses. Many questions linger in the mind of their peers and people living with them as to their profiles and the factors that had contributed toward their special, yet peculiar behavior. This paper addresses the profiles of the third gender in the public universities especially the transvestites. It also attempts to describe the contributing factors towards becoming a transvestites and the measures taken by universities in Malaysia in handling this marginalized queer community in campus