Thai army to introduce ‘third category’ for transsexuals

[Ecstatic]

BANGKOK: Thailand’s military will stop branding trans-sexual conscripts as mentally disturbed, and will list them in a new “third category” as neither male nor female, a senior officer said on Wednesday. Thai men are required to report for the draft once they turn 21. Under the current system, trans-sexuals are rejected as suffering from “a mental disorder.” Gay rights groups complained that the label penalises trans-sexuals for the rest of their lives, because men are required to prove if they have completed their national service when they apply for jobs or bank loans. When trans-sexuals submit their military rejection forms declaring they have a mental disorder, they are automatically disqualified from many jobs and mortgages. Lieutenant General Somkiat Suthivaiyakij, head of the defence ministry’s Reserve Command Department, said the military would immediately stop using the mental disorder label. “The military is trying to find a new word for a third category that is neither male nor female, that would not discriminate against trans-sexuals,” he said. Until the army decides on the new category, trans-sexual conscripts will be turned away with a form saying they have an illness that cannot be cured within 30 days. afp

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\03\20\story_20-3-2008_pg4_4

[peggygee]

Westerners or farang, will call the transwomen of Thailand kathoey or
katoey. Kathoey is a word of Khmer origin, and could include effeminate
men, transvestites, and other types of the gender variant.

I get the sense that this would be for whom this new ruling would be
indicated.

As you might imagine I am curious as to how this might apply to the
post op women of Thailand.

E, for the edifications of the readers of this thread, phet thee sam,
technically is the term that refers to a third sex. Wheras sao (or
phuying) praphet song ("a second kind of woman") would connote a
female sex identity.

[Ecstatic]

Westerners or farang, will call the transwomen of Thailand kathoey or katoey. Kathoey is a word of Khmer origin, and could include effeminate men, transvestites, and other types of the gender variant.

Indeed. Traditionally (prior to the 20th century and Western influence), katoey referred to the intersexed, but over the past century and especially the last several decades it has become extended to encompass male transgenders and even male homosexuals. Thai culture (going back over 2000 years to Lanna culture in north Thailand) has long recognized three sexes, so it's interesting to see the Thai military coping with this now.


I get the sense that this would be for whom this new ruling would be indicated.

As you might imagine I am curious as to how this might apply to the
post op women of Thailand.

I'm wondering the same, and whether perhaps this indicates a shift whereby transgendered Thai (or at least post-op Thai) can change their sex status to Female. At present, if you are born male, you are always male, which severely limits one's social and economic mobility. Since all Thai males must enter military service at the age of 21, and those who are transgendered have been rejected as suffering from a mental disorder, this plagues them for the rest of their lives. Such a change could have profound impact.


E, for the edifications of the readers of this thread, phet thee sam, technically is the term that refers to a third sex. Wheras sao (or phuying) praphet song ("a second kind of woman") would connote a female sex identity.

Good points, Peggy. As Sam Winter and Nuttawut Udomsak point out in Male, Female and Transgender: Stereotypes and Self in Thailand (2002, The International Journal of Transgenderism v. 6, n. 1), Thais often use more precise terms to distinguish themselves, such as kathoey phom yao (long-haired kathoey) and kathoey tee sai suer pha phooying (kathoey dressing as a woman), thereby distinguishing those who are transgendered from those who are very effeminate gays and dress as women.

As Winter and Udomsak note, the Buddhist Vinaya text historically denotes four sex/gender categories: "males, females, ubhatobyanjanaka (hermaphrodites) and pandaka (males displaying a variety of other non-normative anatomies or sexual preference)."

Regarding terminology, Winter writes: "We asked our 190 [kathoeys] to say whether they thought of themselves as men, women, sao praphet song ["a second kind of woman"] or kathoey. None thought of themselves as male, and only 11% saw themselves as kathoey (i.e. ‘non-male’). By contrast 45% thought of themselves as women, with another 36% as sao praphet song... Unfortunately we did not include the category phet tee sam (third sex/gender); conceivably if we had done so there may have been many respondents who would have chosen that term... Around 50% [of non-transgender Thais] see them as males with the mistaken minds, but the other half see them as either women born into the wrong body (around 15%) or as a third sex/gender (35%)."

In his paper Of transgender and sin in Asia, Winter writes: "The Thai language offers other terms for transwomen; e.g. ‘sao (or phuying) praphet song’ (‘a second kind of woman’), and ‘phet thee sam’ (‘the third sex/gender’). Unlike the word kathoey (which suggests a subset of male), these terms portray transwomen as either a subset of female or an entirely different gender." Herein lies the distinction between effeminate gay male, MtF transgender, and intersexual ("hermaphrodite").