Teen lb contest in Chaiyaphum (Isaan Province)

[rxpharm]

This is a Youtube video of a few minutes of a teen lb contest in Chaiyaphum Thailand. I have been told by my gf friends, that this school has the most lbs of any school in Thailand.

[girish]

This is a Youtube video of a few minutes of a teen lb contest in Chaiyaphum Thailand. I have been told by my gf friends, that this school has the most lbs of any school in Thailand.

They are delicious.

[George Pill]

Very entertaining to watch. Don't know why they say Thailand discriminates against gays. Seems the opposite. Best place to be a Ladyboy. Best place to vacation and number 1 international destination for tourism. What a place! Come on you guys. Give free 1-year tourist visa stamps at arrivals.

[rxpharm]

There is discrimination against lbs in Thailand, it just isn't as overt as many countries. Lbs cannot have their passport or official id changed to reflect their gender status, even if they are postop. This makes for complications when traveling internationally - especially to western countries. They don't have legal status as females, so they cannot claim to be victims of sexual assault under Thai law. They have limited job options for higher paying positions. This is improving very gradually, but should have changed more by now.

As for the video - these students are between the ages of 14-17, and most of them started hormones at 10-12 years of age. These are the next generation of lbs, and most will be super passable as hormone usage is beginning younger with each new generation of lbs.

[Easyguy]

There is discrimination against lbs in Thailand, it just isn't as overt as many countries. Lbs cannot have their passport or official id changed to reflect their gender status, even if they are postop. This makes for complications when traveling internationally - especially to western countries. They don't have legal status as females, so they cannot claim to be victims of sexual assault under Thai law. They have limited job options for higher paying positions. This is improving very gradually, but should have changed more by now.

As for the video - these students are between the ages of 14-17, and most of them started hormones at 10-12 years of age. These are the next generation of lbs, and most will be super passable as hormone usage is beginning younger with each new generation of lbs.

I don't know why they can't just travel on their current passports. When arriving in a country the immigration officer just checks your passport photo and whether you have anything in your bio that suggest criminal activity. He could care less how you dress or act. A lot of feminine gays come through immigration and they don't have any trouble. Why would a LB?

[rxpharm]

Easyguy - it's a combination of things - first Thailand is considered a high risk country for overstaying in more developed countries. Second, some immigration officers get suspicious when the person standing in front of them appears female, but their passport says male (some make assumptions this is a disguise for nefarious reasons). This usually triggers extra screening, and sometimes refusal to entry - even if there is no record of criminal activity. It is improving in some countries, but Thai lbs definitely are under more scrutiny.

[Rockheart]

The other thing is single ladyboys travelling alone to other countries are going there to escort 98% of the time. Immigration officials know this and will definitely be suspicious of any non-passable or clocked ladyboys. Even though Thai ladyboys are some of the most passable, they always have "male" on their ID which is dead giveaway. Otherwise if they are passable and have and F on their passport there is little suspicion.
Also airlines tend not to allow people on planes that don't match the picture and sex on their ID. Often ladyboys will not look anything like their Thai passports. When getting a Thai passport they must tie their hair back, wear no makeup and everyone has to wear the same blazer they provide. So a ladyboy will generally just look like a man on their passport but they would never go out in public looking like that.

[Rockheart]

As for the video - these students are between the ages of 14-17, and most of them started hormones at 10-12 years of age. These are the next generation of lbs, and most will be super passable as hormone usage is beginning younger with each new generation of lbs.

There is actually much outrage that an elementary school would organize a ladyboy show for such young children.
In some ways they may not be letting the children to develop naturally and present being a ladyboy as a choice at a young age.
Gender isn't really a choice or profession but it seems in Thailand it is. Given that many gays in Thailand choose to be ladyboy because it is more acceptable, there will be a number more than other countries. It is also a good way to avoid Military and Monk service which is mandatory for all males, but not confirmed ladyboys.

The fact that parents are allowing 10 year old children to go on hormone treatments is slightly disturbing also.
Unfortunately some parents are thinking they are investing in the future as a ladyboy may often be able to bring home more cash than a boy.
Many parents in the country don't thing twice about sending their children to work in bars either.

Hopefully this school doesn't consistently have the most ladyboys in Thailand as this would point to manipulation of the children or some kind of environmental issue. The odds of the area having the most ladyboys naturally all the time seem very unnatural and something that would not normally happen in nature. It's not like ladyboys are having many children and passing on some type of ladyboy gene.

[rxpharm]

Interesting comments, Crag - as my girlfriend and her friends also feel these young lbs are starting hormones at too young an age. They can't afford the strategy recommended for tg kids in developed countries - give them anti-estrogen (for ftm) or anti-androgen (for mtf) blockers until they are old enough (typically just around or slightly after puberty), to confirm if they really are transgendered. Then they would start hormone therapy - and with no effect from testosterone or estrogen, they would develop almost the same as a regular woman or man.

Surprisingly enough, many parents do not know their ladyboy children are taking hormones until quite some time afterwards. In Thailand it is very easy for children to buy the cheap generic oral contraceptives (or arrange someone to buy for them), and start when they are 10-12 years old.

I have been told this school has had the highest percentage of lbs for the past few years. I have asked why, and there does not seem to be any good answers.

[Rockheart]

Even in the Canada and USA I am alarmed at how fast parents these days will assume their kid is transgendered.
Even here somehow they are getting on hormones early. I believe doctors agree that neither the blocker or hormones are safe for natural development. Maybe one treatment is better than the other, but still. Having little testosterone is not good for anyone.
If a kid shows signs of being TG and then you give them hormones, that will ensure they remain TG.
Through natural development they could turn out far different or not think the same.

While Bangkok has many ladyboy, the sheer number that come from the country side is incredible.
Then you find large pockets like this and it just seem very unusual.
Even taking out the ones that are only in it for money, and there is still an abnormal percentage of "natural" ladyboys.
I don't believe all parents in Thailand are encouraging this but most don't seem to care much either way.

There does seem to be much peer pressure in Thailand, even more than other countries.
So this could account for some of the reasons there could be many in the same school or area to an extent.
This was the reason they put an age limit being orchidectomized in Thailand because it was becoming trendy for kids to get one.

You also have to wonder about environmental issues as one other person has posted about.
It can all but be assumed that industrial waste is getting into the waters that flow in the rice fields and rivers of the area.
In places like Florida this has been detrimental to wild life causing sexual gender abnormalities from the waste.
Consider people wading around in this all the time, even pregnant mothers.

Many children have hormone issues from using plastics such as water bottles that leech out estrogen-like chemicals.
It is recommended that a water bottle only be used once due this and bacterial factors. However everyone in the countryside is always drinking out of old plastic bottles 24 hours a day. They save the big plastic bottles and fill them with water and freeze them.
Using these same bottles hundreds of times is not safe, especially for children and embryo.
It is not clear if standards for plastic water bottles are even adhered to by manufacturers in these regions.
They say gender is decided by a burst of hormones in the womb.

This paper has some amazing revelations on this subject.

http://www.undp.org/content/dam/aplaws/publication/en/publications/environment-energy/www-ee-library/chemicals-management/chemicals-and-gender/2011%20Chemical&Gender.pdf

There is an established link between poverty and the increased risk of exposure to toxic and hazardous chemicals. Exposure of poor people to toxic chemicals is often strongly correlated to geography. In urban settings, low-income or minority populations typically reside in neighborhoods considered undesirable, such as areas adjacent to industrial zones. These places can be major sources of environmental exposure to toxic chemicals, originating from factories, landfill sites, incinerators, and/or hazardous waste dumps. In rural areas, where three-quarters of the world€™s poor live, most chemical exposure is linked to pollution brought by polluted water sources as well as the use of pesticides in agriculture. The improper use, management, and storage of pesticides and chemical fertilisers can result in contamination of air, food, soil, and drinking water (e.g., through pesticide and nitrate run-off), leading to increased human exposure and associated health risks.

For instance, in agricultural communities in developing countries, men may be at higher risk of direct exposure to chemical pesticides during application, while women (and sometimes children) may be more likely to be indirectly exposed during planting and harvesting. At the same time, biological factors€“notably size, physiological, hormonal, and enzyme differences between women and men, and between adults and children€“also influence susceptibility to health damage from exposure to toxic chemicals. Many examples also show that there are certain especially sensitive periods to specific chemicals during fetal and child development.

Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) Endocrine disruptors are substances that can cause adverse effects by interfering in some way with the body€™s hormones, causing harm to adults or their children. Under the control of the central nervous system, hormones are secreted by endocrine glands, thyroid, ovaries, testes and adrenals, into the bloodstream and travel through the body to specific organs, where they exert control over cells by binding to specific cellular receptor proteins. Hormones can then cause their receptor to interact directly on the DNA. These hormone receptors control or regulate key bodily functions and processes including development, growth and reproduction. There are many examples of industrial, waste, pesticide and cosmetic chemicals that have been shown to interact with these hormone receptors in the same way as hormones, with different potencies, or as inhibiting the hormonal functions. These are commonly referred to as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) or endocrine active substances (EAS). Many of these chemicals are persistent and bioaccumulative, such as POPs; while other examples include many currently manufactured chemicals, such as the industrial chemical Bisphenol A, which is used in plastics that humans are continuously exposed to. More examples are given in Table 1. EDCs differ from other toxic substances because they can interfere with normal blood hormone levels and have effects at very low doses. They can disrupt the hormonal regulation of normal cell differentiation, growth and development, metabolism and reproduction throughout life. Such effects can occur at levels far lower than those of traditional concern to toxicologists, and they also interact in an additive manner so that exposure to many EDC chemicals increases the risk of health effects.

The health effects associated with EDCs include the following:
» Increased risk of breast, testicular and prostate cancers
» Decreases in sperm counts and quality
» Increased incidence of defects in the male reproductive tract
» Changes in sex ratio (declining proportion of boys)
» Neurological and behavioral disorders in children
» Impaired immune function

[George Pill]

Funny I have always wondered as a doctor whether food animals have been given too much Diethylstilbestrol (DES) which is a feminizing hormone injected into cattle to increase meat weight and tenderness. Same as castration. This drug has already been banned in the USA many years ago for fear of drugging the population like the antibiotic Tetracycline used in cattle to counter the stomach ulcers resulting from too much corn feed to fatten them. The high acidity of corn digestion causes it, and antibiotics helps alleviate it. The danger is antibiotic resistance. Remember MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staph aureus)? And the ever increasing incidences of bacterial resistance to every antibiotic in the Physician's medicine cabinet? Will bio-engineered antibiotics be the next frontier.

I was lucky to be watching TV one day and there was mentioned that drugs can take up to 50 years to reach the underground drinking water reservoirs. Isn't it 50 years ago that birth control pills were released into the market? I remember the 60's was the height of the Vietnam War and the hippies craze with its free sex culture all made partly possible by birth control pills. This can be an important factor in male sterility. Drugs are everywhere. In the world.

Then I have wondered whether Thai boys may have been corrupted at monk camp like the perverted Catholic priests. I have asked several ladyboys if Monks make them queer. All said no, but I still remain suspicious with so much news about them. Especially about the monk hiding in a compound after being accused of ripping off an investment firm. So now you have corrupt monks along with corrupt pharmacists, corrupt government, corrupt cops, corrupt drug dealers, and so on and on. It am beginning to think many of the fun things I do in Thailand would not have been possible without corruption. Thailand there's no place in the world like it.