'...Judging by the amount of PM's I receive asking about all aspects of life in LOS (Land of Smiles), I thought I would start to post things of interest or humour from this side of the world.

They will be chosen carefully as I have no intention of flooding this specialised forum with unrelated stories and they will be very infrequent.

I hope you will enjoy some crazy stuff from this crazy part of the world'.

Thai Schools' Introduce Transgender Toilets




The Kamphaeng School in Si Sa Ket, in northeastern Thailand opened separate toilet facilities to accommodate hundreds of transgender students.

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.

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

"They used to be teased every time they used the boys' toilets so they started using the girls' toilets instead. But that made the girls feel uncomfortable. It made these boys unhappy, and started to affect their work.

"They (girls) don't have problems with transvestites but going to the same private area, like a toilet, makes them uneasy," he said.

"The transvestite kids may behave even more effeminately than the girls do, but their anatomy is still like that of a boy."

Student Tanisorn Khantivong, aged 17, said: "It was inconvenient when we didn't have our own toilet.

"Then we had to use both male and female toilets when there were no people in them. It was a bit uncomfortable."

Mr Sumontha said the students were no longer allowed to use female toilets but could still use the male toilets if they wanted to.

Predominantly Buddhist Thailand is relatively tolerant of homosexuality and Bangkok is a global centre for sex-change surgery.

A technical college in Chiang Mai province set up a similar facility for its transvestite students in 2003, using a pink lotus as the logo.

(Personal note: Thai people are the most tolerant in the world and do not judge others. However, it is very difficult for a stiff-upper-lip Brit to get used to seeing schoolboys, dressed in their school uniform but complete with full make-up and in some cases false eyelashes going to and from school).


Source: themagician