In Vietnam, Chu Thanh Ha is the Founder and Executive Director of IT’S T TIME, a transgender-led organization working as a technical advisory agency for the Ministry of Health during the drafting of the Gender Affirmation Law and promoting for the legal gender recognition process since 2015. He has always been a transgender advocate and senior researcher who is passionate and has 10 years of professional experience in advocating for the voices, visibility, and effective participation of the transgender and gender-diverse community in Vietnam through policy advocacy, community mobilization, movement building, and public education. Some notable achievements include the legalization of legal gender recognition for transgender people through Article 37 of the Civil Code 2015 and the subsequent drafting of the Law on Gender Affirmation with the Ministry of Health. Ha also represents IT'S T TIME in various organizations and working group, such as C4TRANS (Coalition for Transgender Rights in Vietnam) and other international forums.
At the regional level (Asia-Pacific), he has conducted various regional studies and research to fill in the gap of knowledge regarding gender study and transgender rights. Ha has been engaging with APTN since 2016 and joined as Hate Crimes and Violence Monitoring Officer under the advocacy department in 2022. Ha is currently serving as Trans Representative of the ILGA Asia Executive Board Member for 2022-2024.
