Jul 29, 2008
Transgender or Gay?
Here's a seriously interesting story from Thailand: Thai school offers transsexual toilet.
"The headteacher, Sitisak Sumontha, estimates that in any year between 10% and 20% of his boys consider themselves to be transgender - boys who would rather be girls."
"A ratio of 10% to 20% of boys calling themselves transsexual in a provincial high school does seem very high, but Mr Sitisak assured me that in his experience it was not unusual."
"[The headmaster] said that, in his 35 years of working in the Thai education system, he had come across many boys like this, and they never changed. Many go on as adults to have sex-change surgery, while others will live as gay men, he said."
So how many of the boys are transgenders (either transexuals or transvestites) and how many are gay or bisexual? There's a huge difference, of course. And how many are intersexuals? This is not a possibility discussed in this article. And what about the girls? Inquiring minds want to know. Seriously.
"The headteacher, Sitisak Sumontha, estimates that in any year between 10% and 20% of his boys consider themselves to be transgender - boys who would rather be girls."
"A ratio of 10% to 20% of boys calling themselves transsexual in a provincial high school does seem very high, but Mr Sitisak assured me that in his experience it was not unusual."
"[The headmaster] said that, in his 35 years of working in the Thai education system, he had come across many boys like this, and they never changed. Many go on as adults to have sex-change surgery, while others will live as gay men, he said."
So how many of the boys are transgenders (either transexuals or transvestites) and how many are gay or bisexual? There's a huge difference, of course. And how many are intersexuals? This is not a possibility discussed in this article. And what about the girls? Inquiring minds want to know. Seriously.