A DEGREE from Curtin University, Western Australia, and a regional management position in a large logistics organisation. And, she's a transsexual!
'When you say transsexual, a lot of people immediately think of Changi Village and Desker Road,' she says, referring to two of Singapore's most notorious vice haunts.
'People harbour so many stereotypes. Not all of us are prostitutes. In fact, a lot of us lead and want to lead very normal lives,' says the articulate professional whose company and colleagues know of her status.
Transsexuals - people who do not identify with the gender they are born in and sometimes change their bodies through surgery or hormone therapy - in Singapore have Bugis Street to blame for this albatross hanging around their necks.
Before it made way for urban development in the mid-1980s, the street - and nearby Johor Road - was world-famous for its transgendered denizens peddling their bodies for profit.
The stereotype still dogs Juliet and members of her community, although many hold down respectable jobs in law firms, engineering companies and government departments.
They live with many other tags, including widely held beliefs that they are mentally sick and sexually deviant.
Make-up artist Lynette Leong aka Ginger, in her 30s, says the community has to put up with many derogatory names, including ah kwa and bapok.
The Singapore Polytechnic graduate, who has a diploma in mechanical engineering, says: 'Even the Chinese newspapers describe us as ren yao (human monsters). How can society accept us when they perpetuate this nonsense?'
Not surprisingly, many transsexuals choose to live their lives as privately as possible. This makes it hard to determine how big the community is.
In 1988, psychiatrist Tsoi Wing Foo - Singapore's foremost authority on the subject - carried out a study on the prevalence of transsexualism in the country.
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