Androgynous Thais are out to change the country’s new constitution, says edward loxton |
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Visitors to Thailand may soon be asked to fill out immigration forms asking them to which of three genders they belong: male, female or other.
The third category is designed to embrace transsexuals, Thailand's high-profile community of mostly androgynous citizens called, in Thai, katoeys.
Katoeys, ranging from cross-dressers to young men who have completed the surgical process of becoming women, have long been an accepted and colourful section of the Thai community. Now they are pressing for full legal recognition of their status.
Ironically, their campaign received a boost with last September's coup that brought a straitlaced military junta to power. The generals are working on a new constitution, and katoeys see a chance of enshrining their rights in the new charter that has to be |
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| Katoeys have long been an accepted section of the Thai community |
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completed by the end of the year.
Among the changes they want to see is an official recognition that a third sex exists in Thailand. Such recognition would be enshrined in all Thai documentation - including identification documents, passports and any form requiring personal details.
At present, many Thai transsexuals have difficulty obtaining passports and other identity documents because they are unable to declare conclusively to which gender they belong. Even though the cost of sex-change operations in Thailand (the equivalent of about £1,500) is low by international standards, most transsexuals have difficulty raising the money and have to settle for breast implants and hormone treatment.
"They live in a sexual limbo," says Rapeepun Jommaroeng, assistant secretary of the Rainbow Sky Association, a gay rights organisation.
"Male or female, these people are still individuals and have their rights," says Nathee Teerarojjanaponse, president of the Thai Political Gay Group. "The new 
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