Cross-dressing students get own bathrooms at rural Thai school

[Shana A]

Cross-dressing students get own bathrooms at rural Thai school

By AMBIKA AHUJA , Associated Press
Last update: June 18, 2008 - 4:26 AM

http://www.startribune.com/world/20290354.html?location_refer=World

BANGKOK, Thailand - 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.

[mickie88]

wonderful, now everyone will know who to beat up because they don't fit standards. i don't see good coming from this at all. but i could be wrong, i really doubt it tho.



Warrior Princess Mickie

[Mnemosyne]

200 out of 2600. A rather small minority but a larger number than what I expected.

[tekla]

In that culture its seen in a very different way than it is here, a comparison might not be valid.

[Purple Pimp]

Wow, 200?  Even for Thailand, that seems like a large number.  They must be including all gender-deviant folk rather than full-blown kathoey.

Lia

[mickie88]

and you wonder why i said what i said. i know it might be seen differently over there, but that doesn't mean we should be treated "special" if you will say. i'll let everyone else ponder over their own "special" meaning.

words hurt just as much as guns, knives, and gas, if not moreso.


Warrior Princess Mickie

[Shana A]

yet more

http://www.gantdaily.com/news/36/ARTICLE/23248/2008-06-18.html

[NickSister]

I think this is great.

I understand the sentiments of those against it. It is a kind of segregation. Yet within the context of Thai culture they are making allowances for the 'third gender'. It is not making them out to be special - it is simply what was requested by the students. It is a public acceptance of their difference and they get their own bathroom just like everyone else.

[mickie88]

i just hope it never happens, especially at work. EVERYONE  would know if i was forced by law to use that bathroom, not that i have ever had any problem using the ladies. but i know how those people are and would demand a law that we have to use that bathroom fo our safety, baloney. if i was forced, i wouldn't last a day around here. just my opinion but i really hope it doesn't happen, unisex bathrooms with locks i can live with, but i will always find ->-bleeped-<- toilets offensive.

Warrior Princess Mickie 

[jenny_]

and you wonder why i said what i said. i know it might be seen differently over there, but that doesn't mean we should be treated "special" if you will say. i'll let everyone else ponder over their own "special" meaning.

words hurt just as much as guns, knives, and gas, if not moreso.


Warrior Princess Mickie

If by we you mean transsexuals then yes being treated differently is wrong and hurtful.

But not every transgender person is transsexual, and not everyone is binary identified.  And then having three different toilets for women, for men and for those who don't identify as either, is surely treating them all equally - everyone gets a toilet for their identity.

I think problems come, not from what toilets a place has, but from being forced to use one that you're uncomfortable with.

If I'm not made to use a "->-bleeped-<- toilet", then i have no objection to them.

[mickie88]

and basically that's what all the Christians and narrow minded people want here in the U.S. is that transgnedered people especially male to females either be forced by law, that they have to use either the men's room or a unisex bathroom. the female to males would get off easy(no offense to anyone here), but everyon here knows that this argument is ONLY one way, and hasn't for years. it's the same argument OVER and OVER, they don't want MEN in the women's room, but it's ok for female to males to use the men's. Humans and Vulcans should both find this kind of thinking completely illogical. it's completely backwards thinking. i'm a strong believer and backer of the federal policy of The Path Of Least Astonishment. men use the men's room use the men's (no matter how you're a man), women use the ladies'(no matter how you're a woman), anybody else can use the one they are most comfortable with, even in this crappy state of Ohio, i have never heard or seen any football size men hiding out in the ladies room waiting to do the misconcepted ideas of America on unsuspecting women and children. if so, I wouldn't even use the ladies room. adults need to think and act like adults, and children need to act like children, not the other way around.


Warrior Princess Mickie