Updated: [ February 9, 2009 ] :: 15:28:56
THE TRANSGENDER ISSUE IN THE USA
http://www.pattayadailynews.com/showfeature.php?FeatureID=0000001048For most Americans, their first encounter with transgender individuals may have been when they were stationed abroad in the military, in such places as Iraq, Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, where the phenomenon, especially of ladyboys, is well known; many Arabs having visited Thailand, Lao, Malaysia or Indonesia; countries with a significant transgender population.
To find, however, that there were, in fact, a large percentage of people of a transgender persuasion living amongst them in mainland America probably came as rather a shock. In reality, according to statistics published by the American Psychological Association 1 in 11,900 men and 1 in 30,400 women are uncomfortable being in the body they were born in and wish they were of a different sex. "A lot of people think there aren't transgendered people here. But that's not right. We're everywhere. We're your neighbors, the person at the store checking your groceries, your social workers. We're not just in big cities like Chicago. We're everywhere," so says Trey Polesky, a 27-year-old man from Bloomington, who asserts he was born a man in a woman's body.
In Thailand, the phenomenon of katoeys, or ladyboys, is not only well known, but an established part of the culture, such individuals featuring prominently not only in the media, but also in the monkhood. This is in stark contrast to Indonesia, a largely Muslim country. Indonesian ladyboys face discrimination, especially when it comes practicing their religion as Islam doesn't recognize a third or intermediate gender and forces them to conform to their apparent gender role, segregating them in places of worship.
