A 73-year-old former New Zealand soldier is to undergo a sex change and the government has agreed to pick up the 30 000 New Zealand dollar (R136 200) cost of the operation, a report said on Saturday.
After the operation, transsexual Vicki Harvey will be able to change the gender on her birth certificate to “female” legally.
Harvey, who served 20 years in the New Zealand Army during which she drove Centurion tanks, was part of a lobbying campaign that resulted in the government agreeing last year to fund a small number of “gender reassignment” operations.
“I am entering the latter years of what has been a troubled life. I have no wealth, no income, and I have a gambling habit,” Harvey told the Taranaki Daily News.
“Having the surgery will allow me to at least fulfil myself as a woman before I die.”
Harvey went to a battalion reunion this year in a skirt and blouse.
She said that after a troubled life she finally declared herself a woman in 1998. — AFP