Transvestite bathrooms in Thai schools...

[69billy]

Thai school gets transvestite bathrooms

By AMBIKA AHUJA €“ 11 hours ago

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) €” For teen boys who prefer to dress as girls at one rural high school in Thailand, taking a bathroom break no longer means choosing between "male" and "female" restrooms. There's now a "transvestite toilet."

The Kampang School in northeastern Thailand conducted a survey last term that showed more than 200 of the school's 2,600 students considered themselves transgender, said school director Sitisak Sumontha.

So, when classes resumed in May, the school unveiled a unisex restroom designated by a human figure split in half €” part man in blue and part woman in red. Below it are the words "Transvestite Toilet."

Three transgender students praised the new restroom as they plucked their eyebrows and applied face powder in front of the mirror outside the stalls.

"I'm so happy about this," Vichai Sangsakul, a teenager with a pixie hairdo pulled back with a pink barrette, told Thailand's PBS news channel on Tuesday. "It looks bad going to female restrooms. What would other people think?"

Most rural Thais are conservative in many ways, but the trailblazing toilet initiative at the school in northeastern Sisaket province reflects another aspect of Thai society: its tolerance of the country's very visible transgender community. The term describes a wide range of identities including cross-dressers, transvestites, transsexuals and those born with the physical characteristics of both sexes.

"These students want to be able to go to the restroom in peace without fear of being watched, laughed at or groped," said school director Sitisak Sumontha.

He said the concept reflected a growing need at Thai schools and universities.

Kampang is not Thailand's first educational institution to set up unisex washrooms, though Sitisak said he believed it was a first for a secondary school. A 1,500-student technical college in the northern province of Chiang Mai set up a "Pink Lotus Bathroom" for its 15 transvestite students in 2003.

Deputy Education Minister Boonlue Prasertsopar recently said the ministry plans to count the number of transgender university students.

He said he was not promoting transgender interests, "but if there are a lot of them in a university and it's a problem, we may have to consider building toilets and dormitories for them."

Transgenders are regularly seen on TV soap operas and throughout Bangkok, working at department store cosmetics counters, popular restaurants, in office jobs and in the capital's red-light districts. Thailand also has transgender beauty pageants.
http://ap.google.com/article....1CDBAO0

[Road Runner]

More than 200 students out of 2600 consider themselves transgendered!

I just don't believe that - maybe that includes those who are gay/transgendered/don't know/confused.

I guess in a way this is a good step - but then again the 'real' T-girls just want to be thought of and treated as girls.


I laughed at one bit though....

"These students want to be able to go to the restroom in peace without fear of being watched, laughed at or groped"

I used the toilet's in Herself's school 2 or 3 times. My fear was not was not being watched, laughed at or groped.
It was being eaten alive by the huge swarm of mosquitos! Reminded me of that film where the soldier ants eat their way across a South American jungle.


RR.

[stogie bear]

Oh my God. This story AGAIN!

At least once a year the Thai dailies reveal the shock and horror of a school that has a toilet for trannies. In fact this story reads word for word like another story rolled out about 6 years ago in the same newspaper.

They must be having a writers strike or something!

[dummy_plug]

(Road Runner @ Jun. 19 2008,06:56) I laughed at one bit though....

"These students want to be able to go to the restroom in peace without fear of being watched, laughed at or groped"

I don't find it funny - its probably a reality in some schools. I don't know how prevalent it is, but I'm sure that some really bad stuff happens to LBs in men's restrooms. Not even harassment but even violence and rape.

[stogie bear]

I think that the joke is that having these rest rooms is going to attract more negative attention than not having them.

It may be a well intentioned idea but at this moment in time it's still provocative and even a little bit radical for the Thai conservative society.

The Kampang School in northeastern Thailand conducted a survey last term that showed more than 200 of the school's 2,600 students considered themselves transgender, said school director Sitisak Sumontha.

Who knows the veracity or competence of this survey... but even if the total were less that's still a lot of people busting for a pee in potentially hostile or embarrassing places.

The issue of violence and rape is obviously serious but this can happen to anyone anywhere regardless of gender or orientation. I don't think that being transgendered makes you more vulnerable to sexual abuse.

[dummy_plug]

(stogie bear @ Jun. 19 2008,11:12) I don't think that being transgendered makes you more vulnerable to sexual abuse.

I don't know - there's several documented cases in the US where people were targeted due to the fact they were transgendered individuals. I can't say for sure, but I believe that being transgendered in an all-boys school as many high schools in Thailand are arranged, would make you more susceptible to harassment - which could include sexual violence. Maybe its not directly related to being transgendered perhaps, but there's many documented cases in the US in prisons, mental institutions, schools, and detention centers of sexual abuse where the strong usually prey on the weak. With the exception of the few LB muay thai boxers, I would say LBs fall in the "weak" section of the populace making them more likely to be face these types of things.

[Looker]

(stogie bear @ Jun. 19 2008,11:12) ... but this can happen to anyone anywhere regardless of gender or orientation.

Exactly! You don't need to be a student LB into make-up to get raped in Thailand.
Women get it all the time, especially in the countryside. Thai men are fucking around with ZERO protection spreading HIV and impregnating without any respect for the female sex and without taking any responsability of their acts

BTW, Mr. Stogie, given your creativity making you venture into new LB niches, how about some (toilet)bathroom scenes

[Road Runner]

Hello Dummy_plug,

Yes it was a poor choice of words.

I've spent a few hours at my ex-girlfriend's school  -  a medium sized mixed school in NE Thailand.
She used to put her makeup on as she went to school or at school  -  her grandfather did not like to see her as a girl.
That suggests to me she felt safer 'dressed' at school.

While I was there I saw two ladyboys  -  they are required to wear boys uniform  -  but were wearing makeup and had unisex hair styles.
They seemed comfortable with the other pupils and vis-a-versa.

I think the fact that there is a much higher level of toleration for gay and transgendered people in Thailand means
that attacks due to gender are much less likely than we see in the west.  This I think applies in the schools also.


RR.

[kathylc]

Your right. Trannies inthe USA in a lot of places have a big dilema when it comes to using a restroom. Some places will arrest yu for using the wrong bathroom as they label you a pervert or peeping tom, others you run the risk of getting the hell beat out of you if caught in say a mens room dressed as a chick. I have heard lots of stories concerning this. For awhile once a month a group of trannys or CD's would come in and plop down and have supper and drinks at a local piano bar and restroom use got to be a big issue. So much in fact it made the newspapers and had a few arrests nivolved with it not ocunting a few "cat" fights as well. Go figure a guy will knock the hell out of a guy in a mens room with a dress on, yet they would never call the cops or hassle a chick that just happens to patronize the mens room. I have seen unisex restrooms in New Orleans, but never used them so who or what is in them is anyones guess and that cold be quite interesting expecially in New Orleans.

[Somchai]

I think toilets for trannies avoids the real issue. How can there really be 200 gender confused students out of 2600?

The problem is many Thai LBs ( cant speak for elsewhere) are assigned their female gender at birth by loving Mama regardless of them having male genitals. Whilst in Thai culture this is considered perfectly ok "up to Mum", elsewhere it would be considered a very severe form of child abuse. Toilets for school age transsexuals seems to very much miss this point.

I also agree with Stogie ( Oh no not again). Seperate toilets seem a bit discriminatory and most student ladyboys have been happily using the girls toilet without problems for years. Where there are problems is where a headmaster does not recognize ladyboys and makes them sport short hair and boys clothing. Its in schools like this and in their boys toilets that there will be a problem of bullying.

Somchai

[Naang Faa]

I think toilets for trannies avoids the real issue. How can there really be 200 gender confused students out of 2600?

The problem is many Thai LBs ( cant speak for elsewhere) are assigned their female gender at birth by loving Mama regardless of them having male genitals.

Gender confused? or what Thai would refer to as a ladyboy i.e any boy who has hair past
the collar or ankle socks pulled up it seams

Saying that though, two of the girls in our group are friends with another group of
five other girls who were all in one of two classes in high school (5 in one 2 in another)..
...and they are all post-op..
I have to add also not a single girl i know was raised as a girl by their parents..
x

[stogie bear]

The problem is many Thai LBs are assigned their female gender at birth by loving Mama regardless of them having male genitals...

Good grief. Where did you get this from? I hope you are NOT being serious.

[PigDogg]

(Somchai @ Jun. 19 2008,11:02) How can there really be 200 gender confused students out of 2600?


Somchai

It gets even worse. I assume that most the gender confused students have male genitalia so that makes 200 of 1300 students or 15%

Where is this school again?