Thai homosexual culture is unique and yet complex and shows that real development in terms of legislative protection has taken place recently against its image of being a gay-friendly tourist country.
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IN February 1998, a teenage transgender Muay Thai boxer, Parinya Kiatbusaba, refused to disrobe fully during a pre-bout round. Kiatbusaba had achieved global fame by racking up an impressive record of eighteen knockouts in twenty-two bouts in just two years.
The match that followed saw the largest ever crowd accommodated in the boxing stadium and the sixteen-year-old defeated his opponent, who had taunted him for not being a real man and then planted a consolation kiss on the cheek of the loser opponent.
This is one of the many incidents in history that may make one believe that Thai culture has welcomed diverse identities.
Recently, Thailand’s House of Representatives passed a Bill recognising same-sex marriage by an overwhelming majority.
Thailand is known to be one of the most tolerant countries towards LGBTQIA+ rights as promoted by the country’s tourist industry. It is also known for its transgender beauty pageant, Miss International Queen.
Recently, Thailand’s House of Representatives passed a Bill recognising same-sex marriage by an overwhelming majority.
But what is not very well known about Thailand is that its LGBTQIA+ population is not accorded any legal protection. They face systematic and institutionalised discrimination in every aspect of their lives.
Moreover, behind the global image of being one of the gay-friendly countries for tourists lies its hidden institutionalised male prostitution trade.
According to a 2016 report, Thailand is a source, transit and destination country for children trafficked for sexual exploitation. Since the majority of those are women and girls, much less attention is paid to male children who are often at the centre of male prostitution.
Also read: Thailand set to legalise marriage equality
The predominance of male homosexual culture can be traced to the sex trade, which young Thai males are often forced to do owing to extreme poverty and many other factors.
The predominance of male identity in Thailand
Thailand was never formally colonised. However, it had contact with several major European powers that established missions and colonies in Southeast Asia, Starting with the Portuguese and followed by the Dutch, French and British. It sided with the Allies in World War I and the Japanese in World War II, coming under Japanese influence for a few decades.
The long exposure to European culture and the close association with the Japanese for a considerable length of time resulted in European notions of sexual politics seeping into the Thai political and social consciousness.
Sodomy became a punishable offence under the Siamese Legal Order to conform to European norms of civilisation. However, the influx of European ideas was limited, as can be gauged from the decision of 1956 through which criminalisation of sodomy was removed.
Unlike in the West, where every identity is given a name, Thailand never found it necessary to label gender non-conforming identities. In Thailand, male-to-male sexual identities have dominated the space for gender and sexual minorities without their behaviour being labelled as ‘gay’. Rather, the Thai gay culture has evolved differently from the West.
Gay is an English word, which is more loosely known to the Thai public as gà’tuhy.
Gà’tuhy has been given meanings such as transsexual and effeminate male but, more generally, it refers to homosexual males.
Some scholars state that there is a difference between gay and gà’tuhy. The former comes from the Western notion of defining those who are emotionally and sexually attracted to other males. The latter is a general term widely used for those who do not conform to Thai gender norms. That is why, there are various versions of gà’tuhy.
One of the lesser-known versions of gà’tuhy is Krathoey. It is a Thai word for ladyboys, shemales, transgendered males, transsexuals and transvestites. A scholar writes that while crossdressing is common among heterosexual males in Thailand, transsexuals most commonly dress as women.
Behind the global image of being one of the gay-friendly countries for tourists lies its hidden institutionalised male prostitution trade.
Apart from their significant place in society, the gà’tuhy dominated media and entertainment.
During the late 1980s, gà’tuhy, as a social identity, became a centre of debate and people started to question if they were bad for society. The media was blamed for glorifying them so young people emulated them. This led to a government decree banning effeminate actors and gà’tuhy slang from television.
This coincided with the phase where the Western influence of masculine-identified male identity also influenced gà’tuhy.
In 1991, Thailand went through a military coup and the ban continued. The decree, however, had a limited impact on society’s behaviour towards them. In 1992, a democratically elected government took over and this signalled a return of “gay” stars and gà’tuhy on television media.
Also read: A chequered year for the rainbow community
However, the predominance of gay identity made gà’tuhy considered more frequently as loud, uncultured and even criminal.
Apart from gà’tuhy, lesbian identity started to be developed in Thailand culture. Lesbians in Thailand are known as tom-dee.
It is interesting to note that in gender identity and sexual orientation studies, lesbian culture remains underdeveloped. This was, however, not the case for lesbians in Thailand. But that does not mean that they do not face discrimination. They face comparatively more social resistance than gà’tuhy and remain at significant risk of being raped by men.
The reality of Pink Tourism
The Tourism Authority of Thailand has promoted the “Go Thai Be Free” campaign to promote pink tourism. Against this is the significant presence of male sex trade and trafficking. However, both are regulated by law and are considered illegal.
Some scholars trace the connection of the prostitution industry in Thailand to the 1954 Vietnam War. It is said that during the Vietnam War, prostitution in Asia significantly rose.
During the war, Thailand offered ‘rest and recreational’ facilities to US troops employed in Vietnam which brought considerable income to the country.
In 1967, the US concluded a pact with Thailand for such facilities, which soldiers referred to as “intercourse and intoxication” facilities.
The consequence of the pact was US military “fueled Thailand’s search for foreign capital through the bodies of Thai women”.
A scholar writes that the Vietnam War was responsible for injecting “16 million dollars” annually into the Thai economy, money that tourism would have to replace after the war ended.
As Bangkok became the centre for military prostitution during the war, and without any law to regulate the trade, Thai women became more vulnerable to abuse. Some scholars write that often soldiers would use the same prostitute making women believe that they loved her. These women were referred by soldiers are “minor wives”. At the end of the war, the minor wives were left with children referred to as “souvenir babies”.
This created a vicious cycle for Thai women who had no option but to continue as a prostitute. That is why Thailand is also known as a sex tourism destination.
The predominance of male homosexual culture can be traced to the sex trade, which young Thai males are often forced to do owing to extreme poverty and many other factors.
This was one of the reasons that the Thai government started regulating prostitution as early as in 1960s as it resulted in sexual exploitation and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STD).
While Thailand has no laws protecting the LGBTQIA+ community in general, it has laws for curbing sex trade and the spread of STDs such as the Entertainment Places Act, 1966 and the Prevention and Suppression of Prostitution Act, 1996.
In a 2021 research Sexual Exploitation of Boys and SOGIE Youth in Thailand, an in-depth interview of 20 boy sex workers aged between 15 and 24 years in Chiang Mai Bangkok was conducted.
Some of the factors reported for vulnerability to sexual exploitation were extreme poverty, the cultural practice of adults touching or playing with boys’ genitals in infancy and early childhood, access and exposure to pornography and increased access and exposure to the internet.
Factors such as taboos surrounding sex and sexuality, belonging to an ethnic minority group and living with one or more disabilities were factors least considered by service providers who engaged males as sexual workers.
While the LGBTQIA+ community finds it easier to reveal their gender identity and sexual orientation at places such as gay clubs and bars, they are reluctant to do so when it comes to high-status jobs. The LGBTQIA+ community faces discrimination even in accessing socio-economic rights.
This reveals the two opposite sides of the homosexual culture in Thailand.
Legal developments
Since 1997, certain legislative developments have taken place. For instance, in 1997, the penal code was amended to conclude the age of consent to be fifteen years regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Health stated that homosexuality would not be considered a mental illness or disorder.
Apart from gà’tuhy, lesbian identity started to be developed in Thailand culture. Lesbians in Thailand are known as tom-dee.
In 2007, the government expanded the definition of sexual assault and rape to include both men and women.
In 2015, Thailand enacted a comprehensive anti-discrimination law, the Gender Equality Act, which prohibited discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. However, scholars question whether the law extends protection to transgender persons.
Thailand has no law that allows a transgender person to change their identity. The only protection available to transgender persons is under Section 27 (equality provision) of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand (2017).
Initially, during the drafting of the 2007 Constitution, a proposal to include specific mention of “persons of sexual diversity” was rejected by the Constitutional Drafting Assembly. Instead, a document issued by the assembly recorded that the word ‘sex’ (known in Thai as ‘phet’) in the draft Section 30 (now Section 27) would be understood to mean the difference between men and women, and also the “difference between individuals whose gender identity, gender and sexual diversity are different from their physical sex”.
As compared to a liberal legislature, the judiciary has been against it.
In 2021, a constitutional court of Thailand interpreted Section 1448 of the Civil and Commercial Code to only recognise marriage between a male and female.
Section 1448 states: “A marriage can take place only when the man and woman have completed their seventeenth year of age. But the court may, in case of having appropriate reason, allow them to marry before attaining such age.”
Section 1458 (agreement to be married) defines marriage only between a man and a woman.
The judgment was termed homophobic because it referred to the LGBTQIA+ community as a different “species” that needs to be separated and studied as it is incapable of creating the delicate bond of human relationships.
It said: “The purpose of marriage is to allow a man and woman to live together as husband and wife, so they can establish a family unit to have children, to maintain the human race according to the natural order and to further allow the passing of wealth, inheritance and bonds between father, mother, sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles. But marriage between LGBT+ persons cannot establish such delicate bonds or relationships.”
In 2007, the government expanded the definition of sexual assault and rape to include both men and women.
In 2022, certain Bills were introduced in the National Assembly to recognise a separate category of civil partnerships for non-heterosexual couples. However, the Bills were not adopted as the assembly was dissolved.
In 2023, elections took place and after the government came to power, the cabinet approved a draft of the same-sex marriage Bill in December 2023.
Current status
The bill remains to be tabled before the upper house of the National Assembly, the Senate. Once the Bill becomes law, Thailand will become the first Southeast Asian country to recognise marriage equality.
But whether that changes internal homophobic attitudes, only time to tell.
