You're so right about Thailand.
I didn't even realize how oppressive the USA gender binary is until I moved to a country where people choose their own reflexive pronoun genders as they speak-and can change them during the day at will, and people are allowed to present themselves gender-wise as they please.
I have seen a man with beard, jeans, and lumberjack shirt with perfectly coiffed hair, earrings, necklaces, and heavy make up, while selling knives at an open market, pre-op/no hormone transwomen working as saleswomen in shops, running tailor shops and managing marriage decorations, etc.
In Nakhon, my two neighbors seemed to be identical twin pre-op/no hormone transmales, both with wives. These tiny, pretty, feminine transmales wore only men's clothing, drove motorbikes with their wives riding behind, etc., moved and spoke like males.
I didn't ask them about it because in Thailand gender issues are a non-issue, and Thai Buddhism accepts a Third Gender.
I try to skirt along the line, designing and sewing my own clothes to barely pass as female while mostly dressing and living as an androgyne non-binary transmale.
But I live six minutes from the beach, drive a motorbike for a car that costs $1. 33 to fill with gas, and my rent for a 5th floor apartment in a new building, with a balcony, including utilities, wi-fi, cable TV, 24-hr guard, key card entry, elevator, under-building parking, and laundry is $150 a month!
Plus, there is public transportation everywhere that is cheaper than driving my motorbike!
