Thai school offers transsexual toilet

  female
chana_batata | 30 Jul 2008 - 11:24am

With its spacious, tree-lined grounds and slightly threadbare classrooms, there is nothing obviously unusual about the Kampang Secondary School.

It is situated in Thailand's impoverished north-east, and most of the pupils are the children of farmers.

Every morning at 0800 they all gather outside to sing the national anthem and watch the flag being raised.

Then they have a chance to use the toilets, before heading off the first classes of the day.

Kampang is proud of its toilets. Spotless, and surrounded by flowering tropical plants, they have won national awards for cleanliness.

But there is something else about them too. Between the girls' toilet and the boys', there is one signposted with a half-man, half-woman figure in blue and red.

This is the transsexual toilet, and outside, in front of the mirrors, some decidedly girly-looking teenage boys preen their hair and apply face cream.

[ok now the serious part of the article]

The Kampang school's initiative, far from stirring up controversy, has instead prompted a discussion in other schools over whether they should be providing the same facilities.

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.

I asked the headmaster whether they were not too young to be making decisions about their gender.

He 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.

Thailand is well known for its tolerance of transgender men, and they are very visible in everyday life. Sex-change surgery has become a speciality of the Thai health industry, and it is relatively inexpensive; patients come here from all over the world for the operation.

full story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7529227.stm

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maleshaka | 30 July 2008 - 12:26pm

An interesting step forward, I must admit I had no idea Thailand was such an advanced country from that point of view. However, I'd say that eliminating all distinctions would be an even better idea. We have common toilets at my university and we fare just perfectly.


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malefly-in-the-space | 30 July 2008 - 1:34pm

Thailand bit different now, some things very strange. i have heard half-men, they use "sHE" for them, but i haven't heard half-women, are they women who act like men?
anyway it's normal there, no one care about that much Very happy


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maleEdIsBack | 30 July 2008 - 2:36pm

Don't they consider transexuals to be a third sex?


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femaleMean Kitteh | 30 July 2008 - 4:50pm

I am surprised this made national news! Laughing


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maleredhorse | 31 July 2008 - 1:51am

I have no problem with unisex toilets. Toilets are things that there really cannot be too many of.

malejoby | 31 July 2008 - 10:49am

Ditto, at my age I am always looking for one. I dont care if it is transexual or not, as long as it works or and is clean.

femalekimmy16 | 25 August 2008 - 12:01pm

What's the deal. You just pee in those things. I'd even go to the man potties if I have to pee. I don't get it why they make special rooms devided by sexes.


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maleEdIsBack | 30 August 2008 - 1:56pm

Bit off putting to go for a slash with a woman next to you.


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Horizon wrote:

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malejimmy_blue | 31 August 2008 - 2:31pm

The whole idea behind transsexual bathrooms is allow people to go the bathroom without having to follow gender identification. Transsexuals who are biology women but identify themselves as men often are welcomed in either mens or womens restrooms and vice versa. I agree that as long as there are plenty of restrooms, I do not see any problem. Everyone, whether confused about their gender or not, has to go to the restroom.