Comments by "exnihilo415" (@exnihilo415) on "Asian Boss" channel.

  1. Beauty is about money and effort and ladyboys spend a ton of both. Nothing mysterious about it.
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  2. Trans or not she’s a lady to me.
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  3. Gays can't get legally married so such a position is comically absurd. Listen up gays, sit on your hands most of your adult life until same sex marriage is legalized when you're too old to even get an erection anymore.
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  4. Tolerance is better than intolerance of course but Thailand also still has a long way to go for trans equality. My wife is a Thai trans woman. We can't legally marry in Thailand and she can't change her legal gender. There is also quite a bit of structural discrimination in employment. It's for these reasons we live in California and not in Thailand.
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  5. Obviously it wrecked him for life. He's doing all he can to pretend he's not gay when he simultaneously can't even imagine other gays not having sex with 150 - 550 guys in a lifetime. This is what a homophobic society does to gay people. Turns gays against themselves and breaks them. Thankfully times are changing but he's stuck as a teenager in 1975. Sad.
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  6. Straight people declare their sexuality all the time. Talking about who is cute, who their boyfriend or girlfriend is, including their former partners in stories they tell about themselves, introducing people as their husband or wife. Meanwhile gays in Korea have to hide in the closet and never talk about any of that. That guy's answer was incredibly sad to me.
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  7. We’re legally married. That’s literally what the county clerk said. “Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife... I now pronounce you husband and wife.” Go ahead. Tell me that didn’t happen.
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  8. The point is not that this video is about trans women. It’s lamenting the fact that, yet again, the stories of trans men are not being told. The aggregate media coverage is 10x on the side of telling trans women’s stories and not trans men’s stories.
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  9. Thanks for commenting. My wife is a Thai ladyboy and while we are legally married in the US we want to legally marry in Thailand with my wife’s family. I hope the Thai law changes soon.
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  10.  @陈明-n6i  If you're attracted to the trans girls in the thumbnail you're not gay. Gay guys aren't interested in trans girls.
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  11. The word ladyboy in Thailand doesn’t have the same subtext it does in the west. The west also doesn’t have a cultural history of trans people that goes back hundreds and hundreds of years. Gender and gender expectations don’t have the same historical religious underpinnings to Thai society it does in the west. Nor is the west monolithic. It’s a simple compound noun that Thai people can say and remember. That’s it. The fact that a whale is actually not a fish isn’t that important when you’re just trying to describe a large swimming sea animal with fins using very few simple words.
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  12. Of the many Thai trans women I have known, including my wife, this is absolutely not true. Sure, in the history of mankind I’m sure some complete scum bags for parents have sold their daughters into prostitution or human slavery but raising a ladyboy as some kind of business plan is terrible given the hormone costs and surgery costs and limited earning potential. No, Thai trans women transition is their own free will to match their gender identity. Go ask a bunch and they’ll tell you they felt like this from a very early age.
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  13. ​ @陈明-n6i  Happy to answer. TG girls do a lot of self examination to understand sex and gender. They face a lot of difficulties in life and often have to endure a lot of hardship. That often makes them very reasoned but also compassionate as they know exactly what it's like to be discriminated against and how to be mentally strong enough to transform yourself into the version of yourself you want to be despite all the challenges. That level of introspection changes a person because you take very little for granted. Femininity for many cis girls is like Dad bought them a Porsche when they turned 16. There is a real taking it for granted. TG girls on the other hand worked thousands of hours to buy that Porsche at great personal cost and they know everything about that car and love it like nothing else. I really like femininity and even my previous girlfriend (a cis woman) fully acknowledges that my tg wife is much more feminine than she is. It's a combination of things. The love of their own femininity. The compassion for others who have been discriminated against. The mental strength to overcome obstacles. Honestly, it really adds up to an attractive package deal. The fact that a lot of guys aren't interested in all is great news for me. It just makes it easier to find a really beautiful partner who are often very appreciative of someone who can love them and be proud of them and take them home to Mom. Happy to answer any other questions you have. Just ask.
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  14. The only reason LGBT people have vast number of legal rights, including marriage, discrimination protection, adoption, military service, hospital visitation, etc in the west is that they came out and organized and built a political apparatus that has made an enormous positive impact in their lives. Coming out and being visible cannot be divorced from the mechanism that improves the lives of LGBT people in society. Korea has a long way to go in this regard.
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  15. I'm very sorry to hear that, Aim. Here's to the world becoming less transphobic in 2021. It's time.
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  16.  @陈明-n6i  I married a Thai trans girl. Best decision I ever made. Have you talked to many trans girls before? It's a lot more than just appearance.
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  17. Trans woman are women but like any skill you can get better at guesstimating trans people by visual inspection when you know what to look for. Yes, there are trans people that are unclockable and there are folks that seem trans but are not. That said, the point still holds. My wife is a trans woman and I play this game all the time with her and unknown others.
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  18. Situation: Bleak Remediation Strategy: Leave Immediately. Run if you have to.
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  19.  @cheersbud328  Glad to hear it. More for me. I ended up marrying a Thai trans woman.
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  20. I have no interest in having children nor does my wife. What’s the point of maintaining a biological apparatus you’re never going to use? Let me be clear. I don’t believe in the concept of a biological woman. Gender is in the mind and not the body. It doesn’t depend on the presence or absence of various biological structures. Women without a uterus are still women. If it does for you, that’s great. Makes no difference to me. I’m happy in my life with my wife.
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  21. Pro tip: If someone says their wife is transgender don’t even bother with your transphobic Jesus influenced nonsense. We’re not interested.
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  22. It’s funny because it’s true. The case that involved decriminalizing gay sex in the US literally involved cops busting in the bedroom door to two gays having sex. Lawrence v Texas.
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  23. There is nothing forbidden or dirty about being transgender.
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  24. You’ve got nothing. I’m a middle aged white dude. My wife is a middle aged Thai trans woman. We’re both in good shape. We’ve been together for 18 years. Thanks for your concern.
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  25. She was the only way I could make it through the video. You're our hero, face mask girl!
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  26. I’m sexually attracted to her as I would be to another beautiful female. The body operates on a fairly simple system wherein the levels of estrogen and androgens determine many biological characteristics. Everyone has a X chromosome after all and the Y chromosome codes for very few actual changes beyond spinning up the endocrine system which can easily be replicated. Switch those hormone levels and you’ve transitioned. You’re welcome to believe whatever you wish including in the existence of your God. I’ll do the same.
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  27. Plenty of cis women spend plenty of money and effort on plastic surgery and looking beautiful. Nothing wrong with that.
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  28. It doesn’t have the same subtext it does in the west. Ladyboy is used all the time in Thailand when English is used. It’s just an easy word for non native English speakers to remember and say.
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  29. I feel sorry for decent Thai folks needing to put up with foreign homophobes telling them how to feel about something that’s been a cultural part of Thailand for hundreds and hundreds of years.
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  30. Without that drama laws don’t get changed. That’s why Thai trans women can’t change their legal gender and marry their husbands and both are possible in the US. Doing nothing gets you nothing.
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  31.  @betht840  My wife is legally female and we are legally married. I delight in negative comments. Be as negative as you wish.
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  32. I’ve been bisexual since the day I was born. I’ve had long term romantic relationships with cis gay men, cis straight women and trans straight women and now I’m legally married to a Thai trans woman. We’ve been together for 18 years and it’s been the best decision I ever made. I have no second thoughts about trans people. They’re fellow humans just trying to live their best life just like everyone else. I live my life for myself not random internet commentators. If that disgusts you then it disgusts you. Not much I can do about that.
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  33. It’s not quite so simple. Thailand has a long way to go to do right for trans Thai citizens. Thai trans women can’t legally marry their husbands. They can’t change their legal gender and name on ID and passports. There is no public accommodation law so Bars and nightclubs can discriminate against trans women by class. These are common legal rights now in the west denied to trans women. There is plenty of employment discrimination in management against trans people. Yes there is a high level of tolerance in Thailand but there also is quite a long way to go for social and legal equality.
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  34.  @lailaraden9461  Why shouldn't gay people be accepted and be able to marry the person they love?
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  35. Her job is cleaning the bathroom, not strong arming people down to the security office.
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  36. Endocrinology is biology. Why are you wasting your time arguing with someone that has no connection to your reality?
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  37. Plenty of people in the US fully support LGBT people. In the US, Trans women can legally marry their husbands and they can legally change their gender.
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  38. Thailand has a vast history, culture and economy. This perception says much more about us and our focus on sex work than it does on Thailand.
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  39. Not gayyyyyyyyyy. Biiiiiiiiiii. 50% better than gay or straight. Literally doubles your relationship options.
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  40.  @tony-lam  Good god, man. 1:05
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  41. I know. This bothered me too. I wonder why Sauce didn’t pause and say something. I guess she didn’t want to start a confrontation in the middle of the interview?
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  42. Some people have more experience talking with trans women so they can conjecture more accurately that an unknown someone may be trans. Voice training is difficult.
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  43. Name of the documentary? I’m not sure what a few isolated examples is intended to prove. It’s not as if some other terrible families have not sold their daughters into prostitution as well. Most trans women in Thailand are not involved in sex work. You can see them working regular jobs all around Thailand every day.
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  44. Praying away the gay or beating them in public for being gay. Sigh.
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  45.  @陈明-n6i  Thank you. Happy to talk about this. I'm from California. I'm 44 . My wife is a Thai trans woman. She's 40. She's dual citizenship, US and Thai. In Thailand trans women can't legally marry their husbands and can't change their legal gender on their ID or Passport. In the US, this is no problem. She's legally female and we're legally married here in California. I imagine things are very difficult for trans people in China, and for people who love them with (I imagine) a lot of family pressure to have their own biological children. Is that right? Are you in Taiwan or Hong Kong? Have you visited Thailand before? Flights to Bangkok and Chiang Mai are quite inexpensive from all over eastern Asia. It's pretty easy to meet Thai trans girls in Thailand.
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  46. The only way to get to a future where coming out as LGBT is as uneventful as coming out as left handed is for the vast majority of heterosexuals to be very comfortable with LGBT people. The only way that happens is with exposure to LGBT people and you don’t get there by never mentioning it. In a dozen countries in the world you can do hard jail time just for being gay. Only a small percentage of countries have legal marriage equality. The world has a long way to go. This isn’t about what you do in the bedroom. It’s about who love in public and the legal rights you have to protect your relationship.
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  47.  @cheersbud328  She's a trans woman that's had sexual reassignment surgery.
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  48. What’s so threatening about bisexuals?
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  49. She’s just acknowledging that Trans women go through a lot to become comfortable in their own body. That’s all.
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  50.  @chris30555  What part about being bisexual is difficult for you to understand? I've had long term relationships with cis females. I've had long term relationships with gay men. I've had long term relationships with trans women. I know exactly how gay it isn't to date a trans woman because I've dated actual gay men. My wife is also legally female. How much actual experience dating gay men and dating trans women and dating cis women do you have to compare and contrast? I've had a lifetime's worth.
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  51. You do understand that the only reason LGBT people in any country have any legal protection for their relationships and to be legally recognized as their gender identity is because many people made it a point to be public about their sexual orientation and gender identity, right? Experience changes hearts and minds. If you’re young and bi and in the west and comfortably ensconced inside of the legal framework that LGBT civil rights leaders spent generations fighting for to put LGBT people on a level social playing field with heterosexuals, then yes it can seem not particularly important to publicly declare your LGBT status to others. That’s a privilege. For others living in places where this is absolutely not the case it is a vastly different experience and building public support is essential to get to the very place you take for granted. In a dozen counties in the world simply being LGBT is punishable by hard jail time. Others it’s more subtle with vast discrimination, social ostracism, etc. It is still a big deal in Korea and LGBT people thereby have a very long way to go to reach legal equality and social parity as is evidenced by this video.
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  52. Yes, as a bisexual I would have no problem being in a same sex relationship, that is factually correct. What is it that you’re trying to say about being gay? Use your words, man.
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  53. I'm glad to know that east Asian BL dramas have such a powerful reach. Thanks for letting us all know. My wife is a Thai trans women we're legally married in California. The world sure is a lot smaller than it used to be thanks to the internet.
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  54.  @grandanse5827  The Thai word is kathoey, which itself has changed in the Thai language over time. But there are other Thai words now too. Trans people have existed in every culture around the word into antiquity. Thai speakers adopt and adapt English words all the time, and sometimes they don't match their English meanings all that well. Language is a malleable thing.
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  55. Apathy is not support. Society is better when couples like this are accepted and have the right to legally marry. Just like these guys said, that's not going to happen by itself.
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  56.  @texasgun2731  LGBT leftist here. Not shocked, nor are any LGBT leftists I know.
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  57. @TatzRules Yay Plenty of Thai trans women are complaining about not being able to get legally married or change their legal gender. While Thailand is tolerant it has a lot of room for improvement and many trans rights that are commonplace in the west are completely absent in Thailand. My wife is a Thai trans woman and we’ve been waiting many years to be able to legally marry in Thailand. In California we’ve been married for many years already.
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  58. It’s all pretty much Theravada Buddhism in the Thai tradition, actually. Thai people are actually quite devote. Look at any survey of religious affiliation in Thailand and temple attendance. 95% of the population in surveys identify as Theravada Buddhists. There are are few percent of Muslims in the Deep South. That’s about it. You’re somehow confusing religious devotion with killing or hostile discrimination against LGBT people.
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  59. Satan doesn’t have a Thai visa. He was turned back at Suvarnabhumi.
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  60.  @2muchfun190  My wife is a Thai trans woman. We’re legally married in California. She’s legally female here. Her US passport days female. Her medical insurance in the US is required by law to pay for all her transition related health care. It is illegal to bar her from any place a woman could go. When we go to Thailand to visit all that changes. I can’t legally marry her in Thailand. Her Thai passport and ID reads male. We’re glad of course that Thailand has a high level of tolerance for trans people. Hopefully before long we can have a big wedding with her family as I know this is very important to her. Anyway, just sharing my perspective. We both love Thailand but we also just the lives of Thai LGBT people to be improved.
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  61.  @HenryTheBoilermaker3rdYear  I'm aware of the mythology. There are aware there are almost no Christians in Thailand, right? Consequently they have no use for your mythological stories about God or Satan. They're getting along just fine without these stories demonizing Thai LGBT people, thanks.
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  62. The best thing about being an American is not being subject to America’s foreign policy.
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  63. I mean wife. My wife is legally female. The county clerk said, “I now pronounce you husband and wife. “
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  64. What part of the previous seems unclear to you? : “ Let me be clear. I don’t believe in the concept of a biological woman. Gender is in the mind and not the body. It doesn’t depend on the presence or absence of various biological structures. Women without a uterus are still women. If it does for you, that’s great. Makes no difference to me.” Talk all you like, this is the position I’m taking to the grave.
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  65.  @sthirukk  We're doing well. We're hoping Thailand gets it's act together and passes some LGBT rights laws. While there is a great deal of social tolerance in Thailand there are few legal rights. I can't legally marry my wife. She can't legally change her gender. There is no public accommodation law and very weak discrimination and adoption law. It's for these reasons that we live in California now that has none of these legal problems but hope by the time we are ready to retire that Thailand gets it together. Know hope.
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  66. Gay people are not going to live in the closet just so you can pretend everyone around you is heterosexual. That’s not acceptance that’s homophobia.
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  67.  @simfonik6725  It's absolutely relevant and I'm not going to hide my sexuality in the closet for anyone's benefit. Your sexual orientation is a big part of your life. It's who you love. Why is this difficult to understand?
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  68. Step ahead of you, bro. Married a Thai trans woman years ago. Best decision I ever made.
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  69.  @jehielhernandez8152  You know that male pattern baldness is caused by dihydrotestosterone, right? This is how all treatments for androgenic alopecia work. Disrupting this mechanism. You know that trans women on hormone replacement therapy are suppressing testosterone via medications like spironolactone and have female levels of estrogen by taking Estradiol, right?
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  70.  @000snow000  I wouldn't say that it's nearly so sharply defined as that. Plenty of trans girls will refer to themselves as Ladyboy or Kathoey, even after having SRS or think of themselves as female without having SRS. Sure, there is a cultural role for 3rd gender people all across south Asia of course from the Kinnar in India to the Waria in Indonesia but simultaneously there is a growing western LGBT sensibility in Thailand. It is a country of 70 million people after all and a diversity of opinions is to be expected, including huge block of people that will always see trans woman as just Kathoey and not as women. My wife is a Thai trans women. I've known her before and after SRS. SRS is usually centered more around alleviating dysphoria than gatekeeping womanhood. Happy to chat about it.
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  71. So you’ll point out the data as long as it casts LGBT people in a negative light. Aha. Thanks for clarifying.
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  72.  @binchen  If you want to find horrible people and put them on TV you can find them in every country in the world. At the end of the day individual relationships are what matter. Generalizing negatively about groups rarely makes the world a better place.
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  73. In the west, it is degrading but the word doesn’t have the same meaning in Thailand. It has none of that negative subtext. It’s just an easy word to remember, say and pronounce for Thai people who (as a whole) are not very proficient English speakers. Thailand has a great number of loan words from English that do not match the English meaning exactly. My wife is a Thai trans woman so this is a topic I’m quite familiar with.
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  74. Thailand sure is a lot more progressive on LGBT issues than Japan is.
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  75. There is social tolerance but there are no laws to help ladyboys in Thailand live their authentic lives. Ladyboys can’t change their gender on their ID card or passport no matter what surgrry they have. Ladyboys just can’t marry cis men. There is vast employment discrimination in government and white collar jobs. HIV job discrimination is vast in Thailand. There is soft social acceptance but it’s a legal black hole for trans people in Thailand.
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  76. True enough until you want to change your legal gender or get legally married. Then you’re out of luck in Thailand. Both of these rights are common in the west.
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  77. This is my story as well. Well my friends were fine, only family. Eventually my mother came around after my father died. I wouldn’t change a thing either. I’ve never had a better relationship. Thai trans girls are amazing. We’ve been together 19 years at this point.
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  78.  @wox851  As a bisexual I've dated gay cis men. I've also dated straight cis women. I've been happy and proud to be in both relationships. I know exactly how gay it isn't to date a trans woman. Believe me, I'd be happy to tell you all about how gay it is to be in a relationship with a trans woman, if that actually were the case. It just isn't. That seems like a wealth of comparative relationship experience that you just don't have.
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  79.  Cian MacGana  I’m bisexual. Thanks for your all interest in my sexuality. I’ve had long term relationships with cis women, gay men and trans women. I know exactly how gay it isn’t to be in a relationship with a trans woman because I’ve had relationships with gay men and with cis women. Seems like a lot of life experience that you haven’t had. If you want to really understand it yourself, get into some relationships with trans woman and then get into some relationships with gay men and then you’ll know the difference yourself. Otherwise you’re just armchair quarterbacking.
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  80.  @chris30555  So, you're just overlooking the heterosexual aspect of bisexuality and all the heterosexual relationships I've had with cis women? What part about being bisexual is so difficult for you to understand?
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  81. Being LGBT is not illegal and everyone has the autonomy to not choose stoicism as their personal philosophy. It’s differential enforcement to rail on the hedonism of the LGBT community while ignoring the vast and pervasive heterosexual hedonism on display practically everywhere. Feel free to say that was a simple oversight and continue your schoolmarmish campaign against hedonism. I’ll be as effective now as it ever has been.
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  82. Correct.
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  83. Many thanks, Emo Duck. I do know that but thanks for saying so. Everyone has the right to their own opinions, transphobic or otherwise. I have a happy life with my wife and no amount of internet banter can change that. Mostly I find it sad that the lives of other LGBT people in much less ideal circumstances is such a needless struggle because of These attitudes. Know hope!
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  84.  @autisticphaglosophy7128  So you know "all the data" but can't find anything anywhere about LGBT people that could cast them or their contributions to society in a good light? Were you born that homophobic or did you have to work your way up to it?
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  85. Thai people don’t care much about religion? Surely you’re joking. There are over 40,000 temples in Thailand.
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  86. You are aware of bisexuality, yes?
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  87. Still a man to you. A woman to me and millions of others that support trans people in their gender identity.
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  88. Travel to some places where being LGBT is very much discriminated against and you’ll see LGBT banding together intentionally for companionship and community when they are rejected by broader society. That was the way it was everywhere not so many years ago.
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  89.  @faz3662  It's true. The awesomeness is contagious. Happy pride.
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  90. You do realize that every professional medical and psychological association in North America and Europe follow a “WPATH standard of care” which includes medical gender transition. That is, anyone that goes to a licensed doctor or psychiatrist with persistent and consistent feelings of gender dysphoria will begin a medical treatment to transition the body to match the mind. Doctors in Thailand are also following the same standard. Feel free to not believe me and look it up for yourself. When it comes to medical and psychological issues, you’ll understand that I choose to follow standard practice, as Sauce has as evidenced in this interview.
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  91.  LeGM  Pretty sure growing hair isn't that difficult.
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  92.  @chris30555  Can't even engage in the idea of bisexuality, eh? That challenging is it?
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  93. My wife is a Thai trans woman. Thailand can be a mixed bag for trans people. Social acceptance and harmony is good. That said there is a no LGBT law in Thailand. I can’t marry my wife in Thailand she can’t change her legal gender. In that west such things are commonplace today.
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  94. Not complicated at all. You can say something about a baby’s genitals or the baby’s chromosomes but not gender. That’s self determined and only when the baby grows up enough to tell you how they view themselves in the world will it / can it be known. Sure, for 98% of people there is no incongruity between mind and body but imposing a gender upon someone against their will seems counterproductive at best and cruel at worst.
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  95.  @julioduan7130  That only applies if you are afraid of being considered gay. Seems to me China's homophobia is killing China's own traditions.
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  96. Not to me
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  97.  @Ilovegrunge123  Legalizing gay marriage isn’t so easy when you don’t even have a functioning democracy at the moment. There are bigger problems. I say that as someone that’s been waiting years to marry my trans wife in Thailand.
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  98.  @xiaomi198  Nope. Gender is in the mind, not the body. My wife is a trans woman. She’s legally female. The county clerk said, “I now pronounce you husband and wife” when we were married. When you get to know many trans women personally you’ll come to understand that there is more to gender than chromosomes and endocrinology. No matter the religion you believe in it doesn’t change the gender someone wants to be been seen as and how they see themselves.
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  99.  @thelingeringartist  Most of the hateful ones get deleted, thankfully.
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  100. Isn’t that discomfort actually transphobia? I bet if you got to know a trans girl it wouldn’t be an issue.
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  101.  @xiaomi198  Well, I’ve been with my girl for 18 years now and legally married for 8. We’ve built an entire life together and are looking forward to retirement together. So, I’m guessing not on the sooner side, then? 😀
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  102. thicc
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  103. The only way to get to this future you imagine where coming out as LGBT is as uneventful as coming out as left handed is for the vast majority of heterosexuals to be very comfortable with LGBT people. The only way that happens is with exposure to LGBT people and you don’t get there by never mentioning it. In a dozen countries in the world you can do hard jail time just for being gay. Only a small percentage of countries have legal marriage equality. The world has a long way to go. This isn’t about what you do in the bedroom. It’s about who love in public and the legal rights you have to protect your relationship.
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  104. Legal marriage is hugely important to LGBT people. There are a vast number of legal rights and protections that are only available via marriage. The concept of marriage is important too. No one sings songs about civil unions. Many people, gay and straight dream about their marriage day. There are hundreds of thousands of same sex marriages around the world, and it’s important to them. Ask some. If LGBT people and straight people are to be seen as equal having the very same laws, rights and responsibilities for their relationships is a fundamental part of that.
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  105. Dead Rose thank you. We’ve been together for 16 years and legally married for 6. I don’t mind stepping into the breech to show others that Thai trans women exist in 3 dimensions with a full life including love and marriage.
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  106. Loving your spouse and having a sexual relationship with your spouse is not wrong. Any religion that says otherwise is not worth considering.
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  107. Laila, How enjoyable do you think life is for LGBT people hiding in the closet for fear of social or religious persecution? Governments need to be based on fair laws not religion.
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  108. Indecent acts are already illegal. Trans women are women and deserve to be treated as women. It is the law in most of North America and Europe that trans women are legally allowed to use the women’s restroom. Literally millions of trans women use the women’s restroom there everyday without incident. There is not an epidemic of men impersonating trans women in women’s restrooms.
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  109. It does. Quite the challenge to learn, though. Writing system is rough. Not Chinese or Japanese tough but still tough.
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  110.  @shadokiru1509  Hello truck. See, was that so hard?
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  111. Vusk: I’m legally male and my wife is legally female, and that’s how we think of ourselves. Thanks for your support.
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  112.  @asilaslapt1510  That maintains the discriminatory status quo which leads to gays and lesbians loving less fulfilling less successful lives which is ultimately bad for the country having a few percentage twisting in the wind instead of contributing fully to a more supportive society. Look at demographics in other western countries where gays and lesbians are supported and see the huge benefits to their lives and to broader society.
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  113.  @陈明-n6i  My best friend's ex boyfriend (a gay couple) is Chinese (Shanghai but living in California). He ended up working out an arrangement with a Chinese lesbian couple to have a kid via IVF in Shanghai to make both of their families happy. The boyfriend's parents and the lesbian are taking care of it while he's here in California. Everyone seems happy. Seems completely absurd and ridiculous to me.
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  114.    She's a woman to me. Gender isn't chromosomes.
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  115. ​ @andywilson9787  Gender identity is how you view yourself and how you want to be viewed by others in friendly conversation. In hostile conversation, it doesn't matter. It's all insults all the way down anyway. Male and female have existed for countless thousands of years before the scientific method and the reality is people are just guessing by visual inspection and following social conventions. Different gender roles have existed in many cultures across time. Hijra, Muxe, Waria, Fa'afafine, Ashtime of Maale, as well as the Kathoey in Thailand. In addition, you have no chance of knowing if someone is a actually an XX female or if they're XY and have complete androgen insensitively syndrome, nor does it make any difference. Call someone what they want to be called or exchange unpleasantries and call it a day, same as ever. Myself, I have no interest in being embraced or accepted by homophobes or transphobes nor will I ever respect them. I much prefer seething hatred as it's bracing and honest.
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  116. Well, the vast majority of people who demonize her are religious and use religious reasoning to do so. Consequently the question seems completely valid to me.
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  117.  @yerri5567  You are aware that trans people are willingly consenting to visit doctors to ask for help with their gender dysphoria, right? Slavery has no concept of consent. The medical establishment has actually studied this issue at length and come to the conclusion that "accepting yourself and what nature gave you" has worse negative mental health outcomes than helping alleviate their gender dysphoria by helping them make a medical and social transition. Peer reviewed studies bear this out. Sauce, the trans woman in the video, is clearly doing fine with her life and is not impacting yours in the least.
    19
  118. Agreed. It’s getting better. Hang in there.
    18
  119. Seems you don’t speak Thai, then. There aren’t 3rd person gendered pronouns.
    18
  120. @Sterling Mae The word ladyboy isn't derogatory in Thailand. It has none of the subtext that it does in the west. It's just a simple compound word that Thai people can remember and use largely for the benefit of English speakers. Thai people have their own Thai words.
    18
  121. Given that trans women are women, it is transphobic. It is the law in most of North America and Europe that trans women are legally permitted to use the women’s restroom. Millions of trans women use the women’s restroom everyday without incident.
    17
  122. Good for you. Enjoy your life.
    17
  123. There is no need to differentiate. If she looks beautiful, she is beautiful. Why overthink it?
    17
  124. Very open unfortunately does not include the ability for trans women to change their legal gender, nor can trans women legally marry their husbands. Thailand is a legal black hole for LGBT people. My wife is a Thai trans woman and it’s for reasons like this that we don’t live in Thailand. Thailand needs to do right by it’s LGBT citizens,
    17
  125.  @OYah137  Time to update your sources. My wife is trans. We have sex all the time. Don't take my word for it. You have the entire internet at your disposal. Plenty of trans women on youtube talking about their sex lives. Sure, there are some trans women that have difficulty with penetrative sex. There are also cisgender woman where this is also the case. Anal and oral sex is also a thing. The entire body is sensual.
    17
  126. Virginity is a sad sexist fictitious concept better thrown on the ash-heap of history than reconstructed on the operating room table.
    16
  127. Homophobia doesn’t deserve respect.
    16
  128. And lesbians have even lower transmission risk than heterosexuals.
    16
  129.  @陈明-n6i  Marriage works a lot differently in the US and Thailand. It's much more of an equal partnership. My wife and I share common expenses and big purchases and otherwise the money we make we keep for ourselves. We're not interested in kids and both of our parents don't care about that either so that's not a problem with our families. It took a while before my Mom could accept that my wife (girlfriend then) was trans. Eventually she understood and was cool with it.
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  130. @다이아나다이아나 You have no idea how long Gretchen's been taking hormones or what her strength actually is. That janitress gets a really good workout everyday cleaning. The janitress may very well be stronger. No I don't see how biased the media is. I see a trans woman who needed to pee and a transphobic janitreses thought she could get away with making Gretchen's life miserable by strongarm-ing her down to the security office. It didn't work out that way and it's an object lesson for others to leave trans women alone who just want to pee in peace without being harassed.
    16
  131. You’re welcome to see gender as in the body all you like. For me it’s in the mind. My wife is legally female. The county clerk said, “I now pronounce you man and wife.” That’s good enough for me. If it’s not good enough for you, that’s fine. We all have free will and can see the world differently.
    16
  132. Don’t let the ageist racist haters get to you. Thailand is an amazing place to live.
    16
  133.  @grassguy1154  Believing in supernatural religious fairy tales is childish. That said you have every right to believe in childish things. What is abhorrent is denying someone the human right of legally marrying another consenting adult that they love so their relationship can be legally protected. This is is a basic function of government and Indonesia is failing it's LGBT people.
    15
  134.  @shadokiru1509  My sanity is fine. I simply respect the gender identity of others, truck.
    15
  135. Transgender people in Thailand and elsewhere have a diversity of opinion on the topic. It surely doesn't help that in Thailand one can't legally change one's gender the way one can in much of the west. It surely doesn't help trans women identify as women when your own ID card betrays you.
    15
  136.  @beeu6314  Languages borrow words and assign them their own meanings all the time. Thai people have their own Thai words for trans people, plenty of which are problematic also.
    15
  137. You should travel more. There are trans people in every country around the world.
    15
  138. Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. This was exactly my point. As a bisexual male whose Christian father disowned me until the day he died, whom is legally married to Thai ladyboy (in the US we can’t in Thailand) whose Thai Buddhist family is completely accepting of us, it’s a topic I’m intimately familiar with. Honestly, it’s defined most of the struggles of my entire life.
    15
  139. Obviously Thailand has bisexuals and lesbians too.
    15
  140.  @anniet494  My wife is a trans woman. I've also had long term relationships with cis women. I'm keenly aware of all the microeconomics involved here.
    15
  141. MMDbuddy, thanks for saying that. Finding guys to date who are curious isn’t usually difficult for trans girls. What’s a lot harder is finding guys to date that will take you home to mom, introduce you to friends and family, coworkers etc. There is a lot of stigma against guys dating trans girls too. Unlike trans girls whom have had years to think about and plan their transition, guys who find a trans girl attractive and go on a couple dates are immediately thrown into the position of wondering what friends and family they may lose as a result. My own father never talked to me again after I came out to him as bisexual. I wasn’t willing to have his transphobia and homophobia control and define my life. We all can make the world a better place to live for LGBT people by treating LGBT people and those who love them with respect and dignity and helping them achieve full equality under the law for their relationships.
    15
  142.  @Qui95Qui How you view yourself and how you want others to view you in society are not contingent on having or not having particular biological apparatuses or their reproductive capacity. Women have their uterus removed. Men have their prostates removed. Some women can bare children. Others cannot. How you view yourself and your own gender identity is your own agency. I cannot, as an observer on the sidewalk, know anything about someone's chromosomes, genetic profile, gene expression, or endocrinology nor is knowing that information important for civic life. We all gender others by casual visual and auditory inspection and go from there. That's just civic life. If someone has Klinefelter syndrome, Complete androgen insensitivity syndrome , chimerism and a host of other intersex conditions the physicality between the genders is extremely blurry. But that's Ok. When interacting with someone in a polite way, you use their name without asking them for 3 forms of photo identification. You can take gender just as it's given as well. It's just not that hard to do. Sure, if you want to interact with someone in an impolite way it doesn't matter. It's insults all the way down anyway. Trans women are under no illusion they've suddenly lost their Y chromosome during transition but nor is it doing much of anything after HRT. Some mammals don't even have a Y chromosome. It certainly doesn't keep a trans woman from looking like a woman or feeling like a woman. Pretend engaging in some type of biological witch hunt and gatekeeping about who is or isn't a real woman is counter productive to civil harmony at best and at worst creates an permanent underclass of people that are an economic drain, scuttling around at the edges of society. This is clearly visible in many oppressive societies around the world where trans people are pushed and pulled into sex work when legit alternatives are scarce due to employment discrimination and as some way, any way, to actualize their gender in reality. Happy to talk more and answer any questions you have.
    15
  143.  @mau6068  The writing system is tough and the tones are challenging to hear but at least the grammar is quite simple and if you can read it, pronouncing it is very accurate. It's like the opposite of the challenges of English in some ways.
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  144. Trouble with your pet theory is that taking steps to ameororate gender dysphoria with transition related medical steps has been clinically shown to reduce suicidal ideation and improve mental health outcomes for trans women compared to any other course of action. You know, regular doctor stuff. This is why every major medical and psychological association in the world supports gender transition for those that have gender dysphoria.
    14
  145. and... no one is surprised.
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  146.  @blk7747  Yep. They are famous Thai trans girls.
    14
  147.  @peliphonica  why thank you, elly. That is very nice of you to say.
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  148.  @pandaonsteroids5154  My wife is a Thai trans woman. We live in the US now. She was very anxious and proud to change her ID and passport to be female in the US but still can't in Thailand. I know very few Thai trans women in the US that don't change their legal ID in the US when they have the opportunity to do so.
    14
  149. AIDS is not a death sentence. Magic Johnson and Greg Louganis are doing just fine.
    14
  150. If one Identical twin is gay the other is vastly more likely to be gay. This is proven. There is a biological component to sexual orientation. It’s not the only component, but it is a component. Either way, determined at birth or not, people do not choose their sexual orientation.
    14
  151.  @载一路月光  You’re never going to stop dedicated telecom engineers from accessing porn. I guarantee it. Take down every ISP and outbound router in Thailand if you like, makes no difference. Just raises the price. Satellite. Point to point wireless oner the Laos border. International Dial up. Stopping the internet is impossible. If you want porn at the South Pole that too is completely possible with the right engineering team.
    14
  152. Plenty of internet commentary from people whom have never been to Thailand. Unfortunately transphobia is very common.
    14
  153. @다이아나다이아나 Those women can complain all they want. Gretechen has every right to be in the restroom and the job of the janitress is to clean the restroom not to drag people down to the security office. The janitress has since issued an apology letter.
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  154. The bible doesn't speak. It's a book. Discrimination however does speak, and often loudly. These trans girls in the video hear it all the time.
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  155. I’m bisexual. A trans woman looks and feels nothing like a man. The trans women in the thumbnail look nothing like men.
    14
  156. Look at the crime data about molestation. The overwhelming majority of occurrences is by a cisgender male relative in someone’s home, not in a public restroom by a stranger and definitely not by a trans women whom is primarily concerned about her own safety. If you want to improve the security in restrooms pay to have a restroom attendant stationed in the restroom who can radio security in case there are any problems.
    14
  157. Exactly!
    13
  158.  @lgbtgotnolife9415  I will never support LGBT discrimination. All religions should change to support LGBT people. Abrahamic religions did a reversal on slavery and they can do it again. It’s simply a question of enough people recognizing that it is wrong to discriminate against LGBT people.
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  159.  @pandaonsteroids5154  There is also a long cultural history of a 3rd gender social role in South Asia and SE Asia going back centuries. Hijra in India. Hhwaja sira in Pakistan, etc. Europe and it's colonies didn't have this tradition so it's consequently less common although surely gender nonbinary people do exist, and these folks are asserting their identity as is their right to do so.
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  160. Trans women in much of the west can get married to men and change their legal gender. It is not a “toxic political environment” to be able to form a legal relationship with your spouse. It’s the right thing to do and all of Asia needs to do right by it’s LGBT citizens.
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  161. Trans women are women to me.
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  162. Black women are women. Trans women are woman. They both bring unique and important attributes to the sphere of womanhood that should be acknowledged and celebrated.
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  163. It surprising how few people realize such a basic fact.
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  164.  @a.o721  You realize that in a pluralistic society including hundreds of thousands of Thai trans people the answer can only be both, right? Trans people, like all people, have different convictions and circumstances and they consequently do what feels right for them individually.
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  165. 1. You’re not likely to get an answer from lookgate whom hasn’t been active in the thread for many weeks. 2. It’s an opinion that there are many trans women in Thailand whom have many different views on ideal gender identity legislation? It’s completely impossible for that to not be a fact. 3. What exactly are you trying to ascertain? Are there LGBT activists pushing for their own unique legislation? Yes. Are there trans women uninterested in politics and satisfied with the status quo? Yes. It’s a country of 70 million people, a few percent of which are trans and you’re expecting that all trans people are going to feel exactly the same way?
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  166.  @tiptoe38  Trans people do accept the fact that they are trans. Every country around the world has trans people. Who are you to tell others how they live their own life?
    13
  167. Exactly this.
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  168.  kokam2  She’s a trans woman. Everyone we know knows she’s a trans woman. She’s not deceiving anyone about anything. I fail to see why this is disgusting. Explain it to me.
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  169.  @dameraya5532  Bisexual. I like all the chocolates in the box. If you want to reduce your potential relationships by 50% right off the top, that’s up to you.
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  170. Most people who have HIV per capita are heterosexuals in Africa. If you’re interested in making law by HIV transmission risk, heterosexuals are a higher risk vector than lesbians. Let’s make heterosexual sex illegal then. You can see the absurdity of such policy.
    12
  171.  @kai-fc1ny  I’m sure you can see why I care more about his topic than most people.
    12
  172. While it seems so, trans women can’t legally their husbands and trans women can’t legally change their gender and there is little enforceable discrimination law and that severely impacts LGBT folks in Thailand. My wife is a Thai trans woman and it’s for these reasons we live in California and not in Thailand.
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  173. @다이아나다이아나 Trans women are women to me and to millions of other people that support LGBT people. Believe whatever you wish.
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  174. Found the transphobe.
    12
  175.  @yerri5567  Ah, Bill C-16. It is entirely appropriate for gender identity and expression to be added to the list of identifiable groups for hate speech. Hate speech directed at trans and gender non binary individuals should be treated the same as hate speech on the basis of race, religion, or sexual orientation. C-16, as you know, doesn't criminalize proper pronoun usage. Offensive, sure. But criminal? No. Not unless it was accompanied by some other really nasty speech that promoted hatred towards trans and gender non-binary folks. If that's the case, I'm more than happy to be your direct enemy on this issue.
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  176. None of the above.
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  177.  @grassguy1154  That is correct. As I said, you have every right to believe in magical supernatural childish things. Knock yourself out. I’m never not going to think such things are stupid but you have every right to them. The world is a marketplace of ideas. What the government doesn’t have is a right to denying consenting same sex adults who love each other the ability to get legally married to legally protect their relationship and to participate fully in society. This is a basic human right and a basic task for a functional government to do right by her citizens. It is also the better socioeconomic choice having LGBT citizens fully integrated and contributing to society earning the most taxable revenue instead of oppressed and scuttling around on the margins of society. In time this will change in Indonesia as it has in the many and increasing number of countries around the world.
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  178. Centuries, in fact.
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  179. Very few Thai people aren't Christians, for one thing.
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  180. I’m an atheist too. That said, in Thailand, as compared to the west I see a lot of people going to the temple very regularly. I have no doubt that that there are many others like you but all the same Thailand is actually very religious as a whole in comparison to many other western countries. That’s all I’m saying. Maintaining 40000 temples doesn’t happen if few people are religious in Thailand, after all.
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  181.  @inkyheaven  Too few men that love trans women speak up for them in public. I'm just trying to do the right thing and let people know that trans women and the people that they love exist are just regular people living regular lives and are deserving of full social equality and legal equality for their relationships.
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  182. Hello. Yes. As I said many comments ago the county clerk said “I now pronounce you husband and wife.” We are legally married in the US but can’t yet marry in Thailand, but laws are quickly changing there. Why not marry a cis woman, you ask? Well, I didn’t fall in love with a cis woman. I fell in love with a trans woman. You marry the person you fall in love with, not what strangers on the internet think you should do. Given that I have zero interest in having children, a trans woman is more ideal. No pregnancy risk. I’ve known many trans woman and I find that they have a pretty enlightened view of sex and gender that comes from deep existential and philosophical examination of themselves and overcoming substantial adversity in their lives. I find it makes for very good relationship partners. There is also a supply and demand part of the equation. Plenty of guys, like yourself probably have no interest in trans woman. Decent looking stand-up guys with good jobs that are not afraid to take a trans woman home to mom are not that common. Honestly I can pull beautiful intelligent trans woman way above my weight class compared to the comparative cis woman I could woo. Anyway I could go on. You get the idea. If I rerolled the random circumstances in my life it’s possible that I could have ended up with a cis woman. I’ve had longterm relationships with cis woman before. I’m perfectly happy now, so no regrets at all.
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  183. Don’t try to force me to think that she’s not a real woman . She’s a real woman to me and she can expect that many other people will think so and treat her as such.
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  184. The existence of trans men and trans women makes you uncomfortable? Why? No one is forcing you to interact with them.
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  185. Thank you for this. So many comments here from people that have no experience with trans women.
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  186. Ask some Chinese trans people how difficult it is to be trans in China and you’ll have your answer. Visibility is a function of transphobia and discrimination. The less their is, the more you will see.
    10
  187.  @asilaslapt1510  RT is just Russian propaganda and not surprisingly they propagate anti LGBT and anti American messaging. A very small percentage of the population is gay or lesbian as you would know if you took a serious look at any LGBT survey. 6 out of 10 (60%) is just fantasy. Besides, limited population decline is a good thing, and it is often the case that gays and lesbians have children by IVF or surrogacy. The world has 8 billion people consuming tremendous resources. We need less consumption, not more if the planet's growth and future is to be sustainable. Japan is not western, is not pro LGBT, and is also facing population declines. What the few percent of actual gay and lesbian people do or don't do with respect to reproduction makes no difference to the broad fertility rates. You need to look into this topic a lot more. The number of misconceptions you have that are not backed up by data is fairly astonishing.
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  188. The only freakish thing here is your transphobia.
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  189. If you would trade the small competitive advantage and difficulty in evaluating competitive fairness in some select sports due to a statistically larger skeleton (trans women on HRT for a year are no stronger than cis women) for ALL the key civil rights that improve millions of trans people’s lives every day like being able to marry their spouses and change their ID and not be fired from their jobs immediately upon transitioning then you have no sense at all of proportional justice. Trans people needs to suffer for generations twisting in the wind legally so straight people can feel more comfortable? Give me a break. Justice delayed is justice denied, said Dr. King. Put a goddamn asterisk next to trans women’s names in pro sports if you must but subjecting a class is people to second class citizenship over it is patently absurd.
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  190. @Ghetto No one has ever been under the illusion that vaginoplasty or phalloplasty changes chromosomes. The point is that gender identity and chromosomal sex aren't the same thing. The point of transitioning is to alleviate gender dysphoria which is why it's viewed at standard treatment by all professional medical organizations.
    10
  191. Hide from what?
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  192. People don't stop to think about this. I like to tell people in the west to imagine dressing up in drag and going on some job interview today, 10 years ago and 20 years ago and then stop and think about why people didn't transition.
    10
  193. Like a fish needs a bicycle.
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  194. Right. Just sit around and wait for 40 years for same sex to be legalized before ever having sex and you die of old age in the meantime.
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  195. @Anvith Shetty Asia is a big place. Depends on where and to what parents this non-straight child is born. My wife is trans and her parents have always been pretty good to her. Zero problems with our marriage today.
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  196.  @wearewatchingyouhumans6956  Basically awesome.
    10
  197.  @Insert-Retarded-Reply-Here  Russian food is terrible, it always leaves you hungry for power.
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  198. The world is changing. Trans people are being accepted more and more. You just have to hang on. My wife is trans. We're legally married and our surviving parents all embrace us. Know hope, girl. Hang in there.
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  199. @다이아나다이아나 Laws are a function of political will which is an extension of belief at scale. Eventually the SOGI bill, or one like it will pass just as it has in dozens of other countries all around the world.
    10
  200. Again, gender for me is in the mind and not the body. You’re welcome to disagree.
    10
  201. Trans women are women to me. You’re welcome to think anything you like.
    10
  202.  @Beautifulworld-pq4cz  I'm bisexual. Perhaps you've heard of it? It's only been a thing for a few million years.
    10
  203. Only if that’s what you’re into. Most trans girls aren’t interested in being a top anyway.
    10
  204.  @yerri5567  You clearly don't understand the legal language in Bill C-16, your majesty. I already spelled out what C-16 does. At any rate, there is zero chance of you convincing me of anything and there is zero chance of me convincing you of anything. What's the point of typing at each other at this point?
    10
  205.  @littlekiwi8964  Here is to hoping that the trans women of India are treated with more dignity and respect. I know there is a very long way to go to get to Thai levels of gender identity equality. Know hope.
    10
  206.  @pleng6678  Not chill enough to allow trans women to legally marry their husbands or legally change their gender. My wife is a Thai trans woman and while we’re legally married and she’s legally female in California we can’t get legally married nor can she legally change her gender in Thailand.
    9
  207.  @S_u_n_Flower_  The World Health Organization, the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association, say being transgender is not a mental disorder. It's an dysphoria between mind and body. You do realize that all these professional health organizations fully support transgender people medically transitioning as standard treatment, right?
    9
  208. Sickenly awesome, that is.
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  209. They are real women to me. Gender isn’t biology by definition.
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  210. I'm calling him Sir right now because I'm sure in a few years I'll be working for him!
    9
  211. If you feel itchy, disgust and dirty watching these completely loving and wholesome guys that have taken care of each other and love each other for 17 years then the problem is clearly with you. You should see a doctor about your homophobia.
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  212. Exactly. You can't go outside of any casino in Vegas without someone handing you a card with nearly naked woman on it with a number for escort services. The San Fernando valley in California is the porn capital of the world. Somehow then the US isn't then thought of as a giant brothel whereas Thailand is. I don't get it. There is sex work everywhere in the world. Hell, the US made the very internet upon which serves up billions of dollars of sex industry content every year. What gives?
    9
  213. The transphobia in many other countries is severe. They can hardly imagine a trans woman just living their life in public. It’s quite sad.
    9
  214. Ah, yes. Because Jessica Yaniv exists all trans women around the world should now suffer. When a cisgender criminal does something illegal do you blame all cisgender people for their actions too? You are aware that in most places in North America and Europe it is completely legal for trans women to use the women’s bathroom, yes? That’s public accommodation law. If someone (of any gender) is doing something illegal in a restroom there are already laws that cover that. Millions of trans women use the women’s restroom everyday without incident. There is not an epidemic of sexual assault happening in restrooms by trans women or men pretending to be trans women.
    9
  215. @다이아나다이아나 That's what they all have said in every country before LGBT equality laws are passed. It's very much a priority for LGBT people. This too will come to pass.
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  216. Every modern English dictionary has the word cisgender in it. Webster, OED, et al. I’m going to use words found in the dictionary whether you like it or not. Thanks for playing.
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  217. All words were made up at some point, pal. Again, if it’s in all the dictionary I’m going to use it. Simple as that. Your reality isn’t mine. We all have free will. Think whatever you like and I’ll do the same.
    9
  218.  @frutillasparatres  Thanks. Everyone can see the world the way they wish. I'm just calling it how I see it from a perspective few people have. Cheers.
    9
  219.  @domlee5902  Lee Jonah's self hating homophobia is harmful and dangerous. Look up all the ex-gay ministries that have fallen apart. Exodus International. Love in Action. Love Won Out. Read the "Former Ex-Gay Leaders Unite in Opposition to Conversion Therapy" open letter. Changing someone's sexual orientation does not work. Thankfully it's illegal now in a growing list of jurisdictions, sadly Korea isn't yet among them.
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  220. I’ve been plenty of places, including many of the 28 countries around the world that have legalized same sex marriage. If it’s such a waste of time why are you here talking to me about this waste of time topic?Prove to me how valuable your time is by not responding.
    9
  221.  @drowsretsam6861  You're not the enforcer of God's will.
    9
  222.  @KitchenWitchery  It really isn't. Anyone who knows anything about LGBT Thailand would know at least two of these trans girls by name from the thumbnail. They're quite well known.
    9
  223.  @tabithamartin4092  Thanks for posting that. More people need to understand this.
    8
  224. In the west, yes. It doesn’t have the same negative subtext in Thailand.
    8
  225.  @joynataliasidabutar4565  You have every right to believe in supernatural fairy tales.
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  226.  @grassguy1154  No contradiction here, pal. I don’t care who you demean. Demean your heart out. Hate gay people all you like. That’s what a pluralistic democracy looks like. The point is that religion is legal and same sex marriage should be legal. This isn’t hard. You’re not going to convince me that fairy tales are true so I’m not going to believe in some supernatural religion. Everyone is free to find their own path without oppressive government intervention regarding the consenting adult that you love.
    8
  227.  @RolandRhoads  My wife and I are married in the US (but can't in Thailand). We live in San Francisco, now. I quite like New Mexico. If you haven't visited Thailand before, you really check it out someday. It's really a lovely place and it'll be even better once they get some LGBT laws on the books.
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  228. My wife is a Thai trans woman. The maintenance required is fairly minimal. She gets a shot of estrogen every 2-3 weeks. Normal sex takes care of any dilation needs. Honestly doing makeup everyday is 10x more effort. If you have any other questions just ask.
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  229. I’d you look up ex-gay ministries you’ll discover that the ex-gay men running them invariably break down and become ex-ex-gay. Look up Exodus International. Trying to change your sexual orientation by force of will has an incredibly poor track record.
    8
  230. A dozen other countries have a lower fertility rate. Having less people in the world is not a bad thing given a world of finate resources and rising pollution. The rate of HIV in Thailand is 1.1% and there are 39 other countries ahead of it in the world. It’s double the rate of the USA at 0.6%. When on standard ARV treatment for HIV, life expectancy is in the normal range. It’s not a death sentence in the least. What is it exactly that you’re trying to get at in such an indirect manner?
    8
  231.  @ksuki7282  Until you want to get married to a trans girl. Then, not so much.
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  232. Citation needed. Just because a couple voles don’t have a Y chromosome doesn’t mean it’s disappearing in thousands of mammal species.
    8
  233. Yeah. Asian boss needs to learn the word cisgender.
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  234. Plenty of Ladyboys are from two parent households.
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  235. On May 17, 2004, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state and the sixth jurisdiction in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. It was a decades long civil rights fight to make that happen costing millions of man hours and many millions of dollars. At that time anyone in the US could have driven to MA to get married.
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  236. Face mask girl gave me hope, tho.
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  237. Looks like your comment didn’t post. Maybe it was held for moderation for containing a link? Dunno. I can only read the first line.
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  238. If ladyboys thought it was wrong they wouldn’t be ladyboys. This completely misunderstands what gender dysphoria is and how it’s treated by all professional medical organizations.
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  239. My wife and I can’t have kids which is perfect because we don’t want kids. It takes a uterus and fertilized eggs to have children, both of which she doesn’t have. That said, there is a fair amount of progress on the science front with uterus transplants and in-vitro gametogenesis. Give it 20 years. Adoption is fairly common for folks that want children in same sex or trans relationships. There are plenty of existing children awaiting good homes, after all.
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  240. What exactly is pedophilic about finding an adult human sexy? Explain.
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  241. A small percentage, just like anywhere.
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  242. If you travel to places where trans people aren’t brutally suppressed by the society in that place you’ll surely see some. A big part of the answer of “Why are there so many trans women in Thailand” is that Thailand has a live and let live social tolerance for trans people and so consequently trans women do transition instead of living miserable lives in the closet due to well justified fears, as trans women do in many places.
    8
  243.  @subzeroprincess  Trans women are women and need to be legally permitted to use the women's restroom as is the law in most of North America and Europe. Trans women are not the ones perpetrating spycam porn. Any man can put up a "restroom closed" sign on the door, put up an orange cone and install a spycam somewhere in there. Transwomen are not doing this.
    8
  244. There is nothing sacred about language. It’s just vibrations from your vocal cords. Pretending that it just wasn’t made up as it went along over the ages and evolved as times changed defies linguistic understanding. It’s not like anyone is doing a karyotype analysis on someone before they dare drop a pronoun. It’s all just visual inspection. As many undetectable trans women exist it’s all just what someone wants to be called in polite company. Simple as.
    8
  245. It’s 2021. If you’re not aware of the possibility that any person you meet could be trans, you’re mistaken. If you don’t want to date trans girls, that’s fine, just put it in your profile. Problem solved.
    8
  246.  @jlra5734  A man without god is a like a fish without a bicycle.
    8
  247.  @mystyk5896  Exactly this! Unfortunately it’s very difficult to reverse such a trend once it’s started. It’s going to be a long process to change enough hearts and minds to reverse these attitudes and build the political will to change these laws. Thailand is getting close but there are so many problems with their democracy working at all at the moment, it’s not high on the priority list. Know hope!
    7
  248.  @mystyk5896  Education is really key to understanding both the pros and cons of the way things used to be prior to colonialism. I’m with you. The transformative power of a better educated population can’t be underestimated. To see so many cultures adopting this frozen in time version of Victorian ethics is so frustrating when the west has realized long ago the toxicity inside it. It’s true that Thailand avoided some of the worst of it, but was certainly not immune in its precarious position as buffer state between Britain and France. Buddhism and the animistic practices of Thailand also contributed a great deal to a culture of LGBT tolerance, too. The Philippines, Catholicism aside, also managed better than most at protecting LGBT people and creating a social space for them to exist. All the languages and islands probably helped in slow rolling the force of colonialism as well. Unfortunately the historical record of marginalized communities is never very good. “Gender Pluralism in South East Asia since early modern times” does a pretty good job if you’re looking for an academic book length treatment.
    7
  249.  @mystyk5896  My wife is a Thai trans woman so this topic hits pretty close to home. On one hand, conditions have improved greatly for LGBT people in the aggregate but at the same time it’s hard to deny how far many places still have to go.
    7
  250. Literal transphobia.
    7
  251. I married a trans woman. If you have questions, just ask away. We don’t want kids, so that part was easy for us. If you do some web searches for in-vitro gametogenesis you’ll see that research is proceeding at an advanced rate so this actually could be possible in the future. In the mean time, there is surrogacy and of course adoption is always a good choice. There is no reason to be confused. If someone looks beautiful they are beautiful. No reason to overthink it or let others control your life with their own transphobia.
    7
  252.  @grassguy1154  Nope. I’m comfortably middle aged with a science degree, but thanks for asking.
    7
  253. In Thailand trans women and cis women have their own different beauty pageants.
    7
  254.  @davidyu194  Thailand would be a strong contender.
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  255. Millions and millions of trans people use the restroom of their preferred gender every day without issue. Honestly this is not a big problem.
    7
  256.  @alexo.1388  If you get to pick Jessica Yaniv to represent all transgender people I choose Pol Pot to represent all cisgender people.
    7
  257.  @ItsBrittanyLajoyce  That's a form of conversion therapy to me. Trying to talk someone out of their sexual orientation to appease a homophobic society and religion is abuse and should be illegal in Korea as it is in some places.
    7
  258.  @ludlow7369  Shows what you know. They are well known famous Thai trans girls easily verifiable with a casual google search. From left to right, Rinrada Thurapan aka Yoshi, Chananchida Rungpetcharat aka Blossom and most famously Treechada Petcharat aka Poyd. If you don’t know this you obviously know anything about Thai trans girls.
    7
  259. Uterus transplants are not disturbing to me at all. On the contrary this is a breakthrough for those who want to have heir own children that don’t have access to it. Combined with in vitro gametogenesis it’s a complete game changer for fertility challenged heterosexual and same sex couples. I couldn’t be happier about it. My wife doesn’t get her estradiol from a government entity. I can literally get that from hundreds of different international sources, including going overseas myself. She doesn’t magically turn into Hugh Jackman if she doesn’t take them for a few months particularly after SRS in that she isn’t producing any T. That’s just not how endocrinology works, love. Of course you’d know these basic facts if you had any experience with trans people and trans pharmacology. I have a lifetime’s worth. Ask any questions you have. I’m not worried about the low probability future of some reactionary government suddenly extorting trans people by denying their medications. I’ll simply leave and never come back. Why would I pay taxes to support my own oppression? That’s just silly.
    7
  260.  @jacobalvord3480  I'd rather (and in fact do) have both cultural freedom and legal freedom with my wife who is a Thai trans woman living in San Francisco. AND is better than OR. I can inventory all the reasons that LGBT equality under the law is important if you like but I suspect you know all that already.
    7
  261.  @icyfriday8571  My wife is a Thai trans woman. There certainly is no shortage of quiet and covert discrimination in Thailand against LGBT people but things are steadily improving in younger generations. If only marriage equality could be passed but there are so many other bigger problems with democracy in Thailand, it's certainly not the highest priority.
    7
  262. To whom?
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  263. Exactly. Do something for Pride month Asian Boss aside from highlighting the work of an ex-gay ministry.
    7
  264. The news isn’t that Thailand accepts trans people. The news is that so many other countries and areas do not accept trans people and consequently they lead lives of quiet misery wishing they could transition without crushing discrimination, violence and social ostracism. Many who would take steps to transition don’t and drift into substance abuse and suicide quietly instead. Remember this when you marvel at Thailand’s ladyboys.
    7
  265. Because you are afraid of trans people? Literal transphobia.
    7
  266.  @Pakaiotaknya  Millions of people are left handed. Billions of people are right handed. Should left handed people be forced to be right handed?
    7
  267. It is obvious but sadly many people don't seem to care about trans people.
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  268. You can’t imagine that someone is simply trans for their own reasons?
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  269. Unnecessary? When gays and lesbians and trans folks can’t marry the person they love anywhere in Asia? I don’t think so. It’s more necessary than ever.
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  270. British and Americans go everywhere. That doesn't explain anything. There have been trans women all over South Asia before Columbus sailed the Atlantic.
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  271.  @JessieR2023  Nah. Most Thai trans women in Thailand are not employed in sex work. You'll see them working retail and salon jobs all over Thailand.
    7
  272.  @LeNoLi.  A trans women is a woman to me.
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  273. Obviously the Japanese are signaling their support of 1400's English longbowmen fighting in the English army at the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years war. Everyone knows those who were captured by the French had their index and middle fingers cut off so that they could no longer operate their longbows, and that the V sign was used by uncaptured and victorious archers in a display of defiance against those French losers. Duh!
    7
  274. Thank you. It looks like something will happen but it’s going to be short of full marriage equality. It’s a civil partnership and will include greater property, inheritance and succession rights and make medical decisions if their spouse is ill. It looks like it doesn’t cover the right to adopt children, use surrogates and the right to social welfare. Not sure about being able to take the last name of your spouse either. It’s a first step. Most other countries had a civil union / partnership step before true marriage equality also. It’s still a first for all of Asia!
    7
  275. On the contrary, one must see a psychiatrist to help one begin gender transition. All professional medical and psychiatric organizations follow the “wpath standard of care” which includes medical steps to transition. You do actually just get to change your gender. Go down to the courthouse and make it happen. My wife is legally female.
    7
  276. My wife is legally female. That’s all the clerk needed to know. Now we’re legally married. Thanks for your support.
    7
  277. You threaten my wife with violence and you want to have a conversation? How about you just F off and take your conspiracy theories with you.
    7
  278. I don’t see Thai people actually eating very much soy. Mostly it’s sesfood, pork, chicken, beef and rice or rice noodles and vegetables. Soy sauce sure but that’s not really much soy.
    7
  279. Not just that. Thai culture has a had a cultural role for trans people for hundreds of years. Lots of familiarity. Buddhism is also very tolerant and 90%+ of Thais are Buddhist. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions, just ask.
    7
  280. Cis women in Thailand don’t care if trans women use the women’s restroom. My wife is a Thai trans woman and has never had a problem.
    7
  281. I can and will base my arguments on what happens in other countries. LGBT people are living better lives in those countries with considerably less injustice because of a few very simple common sense laws that cost nothing to implement. I want that for the the LGBT people of the Philippines. Abortion is off topic. Let’s focus on LGBT issues.
    7
  282. Transphobia should be outlawed.
    7
  283. Speaking from personal experience, sex also counts and it’s a lot more fun for both parties.
    7
  284. Which law are you referring to?
    7
  285. You just think you have no problem identifying one’s sex. You claim it’s based on biology but no actual genetic tests have been done to know with any genetic certainty. Again, you and everyone is just guessing. Clearly you live in a world where no androgynous people exist where you can’t make the determination. If someone tells you directly, “no, sorry that’s not my sex” that doesn’t seem correct to you, do you demand a karyotype test right there on the spot? Additionally given your figure for accurately identifying sex you clearly know little about intersex conditions. How are you going to know someone with complete AIS has XY chromosomes?
    7
  286. The vast majority of trans women in Thailand are not sex workers. You can see them working regular jobs all across Thailand. Point blank.
    7
  287. Lesbians have a lower chance of getting hiv than heterosexuals. Female to female transmission of HIV is almost impossible. Curious that this is almost never mentioned. It’s almost like people are cherry picking facts to make all LGBT people look bad. Nah, that couldn’t be. Yes, gay men have been hugely impacted by HIV. Blaming the victim is really a good look. Keep it up. Dance on their graves while you’re at it. I completely understand how serious HIV is. I was alive before the ARV cocktail transformed HIV from a death sentence to a once a day pill that eliminates it’s impact. LGBT people are human and deserve equality under the law. We’re just trying to live our best lives the same as anyone else.
    7
  288. @Myrtel My Gender isn't biology. Trans women want to look like women and be treated by those they love as women. No one is under any illusion that any genetics are being changed but the endocrinology changes of estrogen and androgen suppression are quite significant over time. Trans women are women to me. If they aren't to you, that's fine. We all have free will here. There is no scientific law that says I must karyotype test everyone I meet on the sidewalk and if I detect a Y chromosome or SRY gene I then I must use male pronouns to refer to them or Charles Darwin will rise from the grave and eat my brains.
    6
  289. Clearly you don’t speak Thai and know few Thai trans women. Thai trans women use the women’s bathroom everyday in Thailand and refer to themselves as sao praphet song (สาวประเภทสอง) or “women of the second type” all the time while using Thai female particles and pronouns.
    6
  290. It really isn't. Most Thai trans women are not sex workers. You can see them all over untouristed Thailand working retail, restaurant and salon jobs.
    6
  291. I’m glad you said that. I’ve found that many trans girls have a very reasoned and thoughtful personality. Having the fortitude to make all these changes and take on the expected gender role that one was assigned really forces one to lead a deeply examined life. I highly recommend dating some ladyboys.
    6
  292.  @grassguy1154  Happy to displease you and it's very flattering that you think I'm so youthful. That's a win / win from where I'm standing.
    6
  293. Why is that so hard to believe? Don’t ladyboys deserve love?
    6
  294. Damn right!
    6
  295.  kokam2  Why am I disgusting?
    6
  296. Women's room. Unfortunately there is no legal right to do so, not that is really needed since Thai people are pretty relaxed about restroom use. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any other questions, just ask.
    6
  297.  @Afternoonsun-c9y  You're summarizing hundreds of undeclared individual laws in hundreds of jurisdictions and deeming them all fair. Any law, and there are many across the middle east that singles out LGBT people with fines, imprisonment and death is barbaric. The reality is that if LGBT couples are held to a different standard than heterosexuals are than any law is, ipso facto, not fair. This is not about public sex. This is about not committing a crime against the state by being in a relationship with someone you love. It's almost 2020. It's time to welcome our LGBT brothers and sisters to an equal place in society.
    6
  298. I know, your transphobia is quite disgusting. Kind of hard to believe.
    6
  299. Most trans women in Thailand are not employed in sex work or in tourism. You can see trans women working retail and salon jobs all over Thailand.
    6
  300. Powerfully absurd. Plenty of gay men are happily married in monogamous relationships in America and Europe which our good pastor here is on record saying is practically impossible. I’m all for adults doing what they want, I’m completely not in favor of LGBT kids being “willfully” dragged in under threat of disownment to convert to being heterosexual to appease their homophobic parents.
    6
  301. They're pretty synonymous.
    6
  302.  @chyffon5454  Not convincing. 25 other countries allow trans women to change their gender on their ID card. No one is forcing trans woman to change her ID. It's voluntary and I'm sure any trans woman that wanted to be legally female would be happy exchanging a astonishingly small health risk in an emergency situation that would somehow be gender specific for hot having to dealt with transphobia literally every time she hands over her ID card to someone. If it was that much of specific situation a medical alert card could be placed in the wallet in front of the ID card so that way it's both available in emergency situation to first responders and the trans woman doesn't need to present this medical alert card to random people who just need to see ID to do an age check, etc.
    6
  303. Same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland will be legally recognised by 13 January 2020.
    6
  304. Just ask or put in your dating profile that you’re not interested in trans girls. You don’t need to “be careful”. No one want to waste their time after all. Easy as that.
    6
  305. You owe it to yourself to talk with a ladyboy or two. They have a very unique take on gender and meaning and you’ll discover, as with the interview with Sauce here, that they live a very considered and thoughtful life. Careful though, you might get hooked. I ended up marrying a Thai trans girl, which was the smartest thing I’ve ever done.
    6
  306. The only real question is what chutney to pair them with.
    6
  307.  @texasgun2731  Nothing weird about being gay. Millions of people all over the world in every culture are gay.
    6
  308. I hear this all the time from conservative media, yet I never have seen a trans person do this in real life. When last have you have experienced this personally?
    6
  309. Certainly is. lol
    6
  310. Being gay is a weakness? How do you figure?
    6
  311. Thai Trans women use this word about themselves in Thailand all the time. It doesn’t have the negative subtext that it does in the west and it’s easy for people with limited English skill to remember, pronounce and understand. Obviously Thai people have their own Thai words, plenty of which are themselves problematic.
    6
  312. Don't go to Thailand if you're transphobic.
    6
  313. Asian culture? Look how many different countries there are in Asia. They’re extremely different from one another. Besides, trans women aren’t gays.
    6
  314. Illegal to be gay in Thailand? That’s funny. Not at all. There are gays and lesbians and trans everywhere, even in parliament. This isn’t Iran. Have you been to Thailand?
    6
  315. Only the transphobic think it’s weird. Trans people exist in every country in the world. How many you see in any given country is a function of how much discrimination trans people face in their daily lives.
    6
  316. The safety of trans women clearly is not a concern for you.
    6
  317. in your mind.
    6
  318.  @missxmarvel  You would be wrong. From left to right in the thumbnail. Rinrada “Yoshi” Thurapan, Chananchida “Blossom” Rungpetcharat and Treechada “Poyd” Petcharat They are very famous Thai trans women. Look them up and you’ll see how wrong you are.
    6
  319. You’re asking the wrong person. Trigger Happy was the person who put forward such a claim in a previous comment.
    6
  320.  @mumberto3557  Not even. Plenty of Intersex conditions exist if we're just talking about hardware (and I'm not). Google is your friend.
    6
  321. Unfortunately no legal freedom in Thailand. Trans women can’t marry their husbands, can’t change their legal gender and can’t adopt. Legal problems everywhere, sadly.
    6
  322. The history of cultural interaction is the history of tradition destruction. It’s been that way throughout recorded history.
    6
  323.  @bethany2658  Many thanks! The wife and I are doing great. We both feel like we landed a rare catch, and that's probably a good place for a relationship. Lots of straight guys (as opposed to bisexual guys like myself) have a very difficult time rapidly adjusting to being with a trans women due to social stigma. It is a culture shock for many that are not in supportive LGBT environments already. They need to navigate that space of not necessarily having their relationship accepted by default by everyone they meet. They suddenly need to do all sorts of stuff they never thought they'd need to do, like come out to their parents that they love a trans girl. Later, wonder what their coworkers are going to think. Wonder what their boss will think. Wonder what the USCIS immigration official is going to say when you want to build a permanent life with a trans girl from far away. At every step they wonder what bridges they are burning with those that are secretly transphobic. There can be losses. My father never talked to me again until the day he died. Don't get me wrong, it's nothing compared to what trans girls like you and my wife go through but it's also a big challenge. I'm not surprised that a lot of guys come for play time but don't return calls when the sun is up. They have the luxury of being incognito and they take the path of least resistance. I try to do my part and be the stand up guy and defend trans women and those that love them in public. Not enough guys do that, but times are changing. I hope that your transition is going (or has gone) well, the people you love are supportive and that you're getting your medical needs met whatever they may be. Thanks for your thoughtful comment. Wishing you the best from California.
    6
  324. The vast majority of Thai ladyboys are not sex workers. You can see them working retail and salon jobs all across untouristed Thailand.
    6
  325. These two words mean many different things to many different people. There isn’t a specific set of criteria for either one. Trans women is very much a word of western creation. Ladyboy is a word that’s easy for non native English Thai speakers to know and pronounce to use mostly for the benefit of English speakers. Neither word denotes anything specific about medical transition nor surgery. I’ve known ladyboys that are fine calling themselves ladyboys that have and also have not had SRS. I’ve known trans women that are fine calling themselves trans women (and would absolutely hate to be called a ladyboy) that have had and also have not had SRS. Generally speaking the LGBT community in the west hates the word ladyboy for a number of valid reasons. This isn’t the case in Thailand as the word doesn’t have any of the subtext there it does in the west.
    6
  326. You’re that transphobic?
    6
  327. There are pride parades and rainbow flags all over in Thailand. Kindness is a two way street.
    6
  328. I've got 1000 Won that says if you sent a hot Korean male stripper over there in his underwear Lee Jonah would be ex-gay in name only. I think he's one round of chemotherapy and one blowjob away from putting the bible back in the drawer and trying to grab at the last shred of happiness available to him in this life.
    6
  329. The word doesn’t have the same negative subtext in Thailand that it does in the US. True of many other adopted English words also. Plenty of trans women in Thailand refer to themselves as ladyboys. My wife is a Thai trans woman.
    6
  330. It’s not even close to that figure. You’re just guessing by visual inspection. Or even audio inspection when speaking to people over the phone.
    6
  331. There's a dark history of desperate parents doing desperate things like selling their daughters into prostitution, also. That is not the origin story of trans women in Thailand which goes back hundreds of years into antiquity as it does all across south Asia. A small percentage of the population will always be trans. How many you actually see in any society depends on the discrimination they face. The more discrimination there is the fewer you will see up to this small natural rate. Sex work is more common among trans women around the world because plenty of employment discrimination exists against trans women in Thailand and around the world.
    6
  332. It impacts their lives more than any other. Many of us want to hear from trans folks about issues that impact their lives. Unlike you, we actually care about trans people and their lives.
    5
  333.  @justaviewer904  I, in fact, don’t tolerate everything. I don’t tolerate your transphobic intolerance. This is the paradox of tolerance. Karl Popper. I fully support LGBT people and their integration into society. It leads to better outcomes for everyone.
    5
  334. The interviewer could have done better for sure. Some of this lost in translation, too though. The word cisgender is fairly unknown for Thai people (even more so 2 years ago) and there isn’t really a Thai word for it. When making distinctions between cis and trans it’s pretty useful. My wife is a Thai trans woman so I can see both sides of this.
    5
  335. ​ @mystyk5896  Education is really key to understanding both the pros and cons of the way things used to be prior to colonialism. I’m with you. The transformative power of a better educated population can’t be underestimated. To see so many cultures adopting this frozen in time version of Victorian ethics is so frustrating when the west has realized long ago the toxicity inside it. It’s true that Thailand avoided some of the worst of it, but was certainly not immune in its precarious position as buffer state between Britain and France. Buddhism and the animistic practices of Thailand also contributed a great deal to a culture of LGBT tolerance, too. The Philippines, Catholicism aside, also managed better than most at protecting LGBT people and creating a social space for them to exist. All the languages and islands probably helped in slow rolling the force of colonialism as well. Unfortunately the historical record of marginalized communities is never very good. “Gender Pluralism in South East Asia since early modern times” does a pretty good job if you’re looking for an academic book length treatment.
    5
  336. Glad to hear that Thailand avoided another transphobic tourist.
    5
  337.  @grassguy1154  That’s not a bug, that’s a feature. You’re as young as you feel.
    5
  338.  @grassguy1154  Your ageist attempt to shame the old by calling them young is fairly humorous. We should all be so fortunate to receive such abuse. Besides, there is no need to make more complex demeaning statements when simple ones will do. I’ve got to take it easy on my my alzheimer's addled brain, as not believing in magical eternal afterlife I really need to focus my efforts here after all rather than phoning it in until eternal happiness (or damnation) arrives.
    5
  339.  @grassguy1154  I like to have my feelings hurt. Abuse me with your savage wit, young buck. Flagellate me with wanton abandon. Encore, religious edge lord.
    5
  340.  @dianaufal1260  I don’t want respect. Disrespect me all you like. I love it. I simply don’t believe in supernatural nonsense. You’re welcome to do so. I’m just interested in equality under the law for gay people, which includes legal same sex marriage. What’s so challenging to understand about that?
    5
  341.  @dianaufal1260  I’ll think about being more cordial when LGBT people are treated better by religious people. Compared to the systematic abuse and discrimination LGBT people face everyday a benign insult like childish doesn’t even rank. I’m not a political ethicist. If you set my world on fire I’m telling you to F off with no apologies.
    5
  342.  @johnnielson4341  My wife is a Thai trans woman. We've been together for 20 years. She is legally female in the US but not in Thailand. Nor can we legally marry in Thailand (but are legally married in the US). Most of my friends are Thai LGBT people both in the US and in Thailand. I've spoken to endless Thai ladyboys and many are close personal friends of ours. To pretend that you know more about the enormous diversity of opinion of Thai LGBT people with your cis het resume is pretty humorous. What's next? Are you going to tell me how to give a bj? lol Trans women can be legally female in many countries in the region. Korea. Japan. Taiwan. Vietnam. China. Go look it up. There is no reason that Thailand won't make this happen after marriage equality, which is the current legislative priority. กบในกะลา
    5
  343.  @mboihk3796  Safety, for sure. Other discrimination, I doubt it. No marriage equality, that’s quite poor.
    5
  344. Women in Thailand have easier lives? Not hardly.
    5
  345. Mostly due to desire.
    5
  346. Parents want their children to be happy. Parents don’t have a say in the sexual orientation of their children. They are who they are.
    5
  347.  @TarTw45  I do remember seeing those inflatable dinosaurs during the student protests. I know there are a lot of reforms that need to happen. I wish you guys the best of luck to make that happen. It won’t be easy.
    5
  348. That kid in the red shirt knows his stuff.
    5
  349. The US is a very diverse place, unlike Thailand. Acceptance of LGBT people really depends on where you are. The difference between West Hollywood and Tupelo is night and day. That said the difference between Pattaya and Yala in the Muslim south very significant also. It works both ways. The US could learn a lot from Thai culture and Thais could learn a lot from US culture. The good thing about modernity is that this cross cultural exchange happens quite a bit. Plenty of Thai expats in the US (LA even has a Thai-town) and plenty of US expats in Thailand.
    5
  350. Do you think LGBT people in Indonesia feel good about most of those comments in the video? LGBT people are treated vastly better in the west and its difficult for many foreigners to imagine their LGBT friends and family treated that way. Thus the comments.
    5
  351.  @DongWang-m4n  Sure thing, internet tough guy. Obviously you're tougher than all pro fighters in Thailand that have spent their entire life doing it. Yawn.
    5
  352. Conflating crimes with non-crimes, eh? What’s wrong with trans women living their best lives? They’re to, what, live loveless lives in the closet so you can pretend they don’t exist?
    5
  353. I have no conflict with trans people in the west at all. I accept them. Simple as that.
    5
  354. Imagine a mad scientist captured you and transplanted your brain into the body of a woman and threw your old body into a shredder. Now what? Do you now live as a woman, with everyone calling you she or so you start on a medical path to change that cursed body you now have into a man’s body? I know what I would do.
    5
  355. ...and sell your organs to Chinese scalpers and grind your bones into flour. After that, she'll throw down a couple of Ya Ba and slam a M-150 and ride on the back of an enormous, yet auspicious, water buffalo and then go after your family, Kill Bill style.
    5
  356. There are well documented histories of trans people in cultures all over the world going back to antiquity. Muxe in Mexico, the Hijra / Kinnar in India and Pakistan, the Bakla in the Philippines, the Waria in Indonesia, the Fa'afafine in Samoa, the Mahu in Hawaii, the native american two-spirit, the Ashtime in Africa. The list goes on and on. Pretending that trans people just aren't simply a rare but natural occurrence is just absurd. I've known many trans people personally and exactly zero have been through sexual trauma. There are hundreds of Thai ladyboy interviews on youTube were you can hear all about their normal childhoods.
    5
  357.  @korre83  I really see it the other way around. That transgenderism is a rare but natural phenomenon clearly present in dozens of independent cultures all around the world since antiquity. Which isn't to say that some people who are trans (or LGBT in general) haven't been more often through abuse. It is also the case that some people who are LGBT are more vulnerable to abusers and are more likely to be abused, in a similar way to non-LGBT girls being abused. Either way, that doesn't make their gender identity or sexual orientation less valid. There are many ways of living in this world. I'm bisexual and I've been happily married to a Thai trans woman for over 10 years and we've been together for 20. Neither of us have been abused in any way and we have a happy and healthy life together.
    5
  358. There are vanishingly few Christians in Thailand and don’t have any use for the transphobic Christian god.
    5
  359. Rest assured China can apply plenty of economic hurt on Hong Kong's citizens. They have no need for Tienanmen levels of embarrassing thuggery.
    5
  360. Trans people have existed in cultures all around the world since antiquity. Her family had nothing to do with her transition. There are trans people who come from accepting families who love and support their gender identity and condemning families who disown them.
    5
  361. The woman with the facemask and red hoodie is the only thing that kept me watching to the end. Just about nope'd out at Adam and Eve.
    5
  362. Money falls from the sky after you transition? Amazing!
    5
  363. The self hating gays know how to self hate, that's for sure.
    5
  364. The word Ladyboy doesn't have the negative subtext in Thailand that it does in the west. Some of this is just lost in translation. I've known many ladyboys in Thailand who are happy to call themselves ladyboys. It's just a simple compound noun for non expert English speakers to know and remember. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions, just ask.
    5
  365.  @Afternoonsun-c9y  Many are, some are not. The Thai population is diverse in ethnicity and race, comprising citizens of Thai, Chinese, Mon, Khmer, Lao, and Indian descent.
    5
  366. Well, I hope so. After all they are famous former trans beauty contest winners. They’ve spent more on make up, clothes, hormones and surgery than every girl in your school combined.
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  367. They are women to me.
    5
  368. Being trans is a terrible business plan. Watch some videos of Thai trans women talking about their lives and you’ll discover that the vast majority felt like a woman and wanted to be seen as a woman from their earliest memories.
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  369. It’s not weird because that’s not really the way it works.
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  370. She’s a woman to me.
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  371. Yes. I am referring to your earlier post. There is room for both. That is, you need pride parades and you need to win hearts and minds with heartfelt conversations across kitchen tables with family and coworkers. In fact both are critical. If you study the history of LGBT rights, you’ll discover that both serve a key role. Legal rights are extremely important and without them LGBT people are left twisting in the wind. All of Asia needs to do right by it’s LGBT brothers and sisters.
    5
  372. If they dislike trans people than the reason doesn’t really matter, they’re going to dislike them anyway. I guess they can use Yaniv’s specific name instead of some general “Man in a Dress rapist”
    5
  373. Take the Holland tunnel into NYC and you'll see plenty.
    5
  374. Homophobic people are sick. You should avoid everyone.
    5
  375. All those haters will never understand genetics or endocrinology at this level.
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  376. In the DSM-V it is not a mental disorder. Specifically, says the APA, that psychological distress and disability aren’t inherent to being trans, so being trans doesn’t meet the definition of a mental disorder. It’s a condition or simply dysphoria. All major medical addictions treat gender dysphoria follow the WPATH standard of care which can and often does include medical steps to transition. Your stigmatizing and factually incorrect language is categorically unhelpful. She is living the best life she can under the guidance of medical professionals.
    5
  377. Rest assured, most trans people are satisfied with their transition and don’t need your cheerleading for staying miserable.
    5
  378. Legal equality for trans people under the law for their gender identity and relationships is not unimportant. Thai trans women cannot change their legal gender nor can they legally marry their husbands. This is important and can and will be changed regardless of what you think they deserve.
    5
  379.  @mrbateman136  There are many books about everything, including trans people.
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  380. Nah. You’ll still run into more trans women on any given day in Thailand compared to the US. Thailand is ahead of the US when it comes to social tolerance.
    5
  381. Want to put some money on that? They’re actually quite famous Thai trans women.
    5
  382.  @Trysaratop  Wouldn't have it any other way, pal. You can't take it with you when you die. YOLO
    5
  383.  Jeff Bardot  Meaning?
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  384. I’ve had several years long committed romantic relationships with gay cis men, straight cis women and straight trans women. There is nothing finally about it. Open and proud bisexuals have existed throughout time.
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  385. Thailand has a live and let live attitude to what most people do that are not impacting others. It's much less confrontational than the west. That's good and bad, actually. It's bad in that there is very little traction gained for doing anything about LGBT laws. Thailand is an LGBT rights desert. Trans women can't legally marry their husbands. Trans men can't marry their wives. Trans people can't change their legal gender. These are common place legal rights in the west, now. My wife is a Thai trans woman and it's for these reasons we live in California and not in Thailand.
    5
  386. As a straight guy you should want as many guys to be gay as possible. Less competition.
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  387.  @y0n_8  No doubt that there are many trans woman comedians. Do realize that such media representation where trans woman are always the jokers partly to laugh with but also partly to laugh at, is also in itself problematic. Read or watch The Celluloid Closet for more information, or watch?v=6nbvNnLGFTo to see a Thai trans woman talking about this poor media representation.
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  388. Women are complaining about 1% more people in society using their restroom and making the line longer? You must be joking. Do they also complain when a female baby is born? Oh, no. I may have to wait behind this person in line for the restroom in the coming years! The horror!
    5
  389. You won’t be missed. Thanks!
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  390. C-16 is the Canadian law. You’re taking about Canada or you’re not? Talking about what unspecific laws might do is pointless. Depends on what’s in them. I’m completely fine with whatever absurd pronouns someone wants to use . Its just like their name from my perspective. It’s only a thing because English has gendered pronouns. Having gender free pronouns seems like a step in the right direction to me, anyway.
    5
  391.  @devinpeirce7152  Unlikely as once a trans person is employed they'll be in a much position to access health care, receive a diagnosis of gender dysphoria from a doctor and begin treatment and transition which is supported by the APA, AMA and the WHO and all major professional medical organizations.
    5
  392. I wouldn’t mind at all. You have a 10 of 10 wife. I’d die a happy man.
    4
  393. The word ladyboy doesn’t have the same negative subtext in Thailand it does in the west.
    4
  394. The majority of trans women in Thailand are not doing sex work. You can see them working retail and salon jobs all across Thailand. Trans women want to look like women. It’s as easy as that. There are trans people in every country in the world.
    4
  395. LGBT people pay taxes and deserve full equality under the law. Trans women are women.
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  396. It’s just their religion promoting homophobia.
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  397. That and vast array of extremely skilled surgeons at affordable prices to most Thais to help those ladyboys transition with less gatekeeping.
    4
  398.  @rosebud4387  Plenty of LGBT laws have been passed by a democratic majority. Polling on LGBT rights is at an all time high among the general public, essentially everywhere. Please continue to be a transphobic jackass pining wistfully for the days when LGBT people cowered in the closet. Those days are gone.
    4
  399.  @MrSnoopydupy  I have and that's not my experience which is why I wanted to bring some objectivity to the discussion. I've actually known many Thai ladyboys that don't have particularly large hands and feet.
    4
  400. I know many Thai ladyboys too. You’re not factoring in hormone blockers like Lupron at puberty into the equation which is now standard treatment. The entire difference on hand and feet dimension is due to androgen (testosterone) exposure. Remove the androgen exposure medically and you are not going to have hand and feet masculinization. It’s just endocrinology. Now it is the case that many older Thai trans girls have not had the benefit of doing this and their hands and feet are somewhat larger. All the same, the difference is not particularly dramatic in many places. Lots of it depends on how large dad was himself.
    4
  401.  @Lu-yw7vv  29 other countries allow same sex marriage, and the Netherlands legalized it over 20 years ago. Sure, plenty of countries in the Middle East and Africa are vastly worse to he LGBT but Thailand and Vietnam still have a long way to go for legal equality and social parity. My wife is a Thai trans women and we’ve been waiting over a decade to get legally married in Thailand. Know hope.
    4
  402. There are open gays and lesbians everywhere in Thailand and plenty of LGBTs even publicly elected to government positions.
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  403. Five tones to be exact. High, low, mid, rising and falling.
    4
  404. So you’re saying that trans women are the clouds and cis women are the bushes?
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  405. I pray that he’ll go to a therapist that can help him make sense of his mom’s suicide and he can rethink his recent choices.
    4
  406. Trans women are not embarrassing. Transphobia is embarrassing.
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  407. Thailand was proud of it's transgenders long before Columbus sailed the Atlantic.
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  408. You seriously think that there is pedophilia at Pride parades? How many Pride parades have you been to yourself?
    4
  409.  @dianaufal1260  I’m not apologizing for calling religious people childish because they believe in supernatural things as they use they use that belief in childish supernatural things to demonize my community. You’re perfectly welcome to have a moral problem with that but I don’t.
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  410.  @mau6068  My suggestion is to learn how to say about 40 or so Thai words. Mostly vowels but a few nouns and know how to make some simple sentences based on those. Then you'll want to learn the Thai script since it helps tremendously to learn everything accurately. There are a lot of Apple iOS apps in the app store that help you learn the script with quizzes and such. Pocket Thai Master and Thai Reading and Write Thai and Thailes were the iOS apps that were the most helpful. After that you're well on your way. Good luck.
    4
  411. Why would that be good for mankind? Banning anything just moves it underground and causes all sorts of problems.
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  412. Well, more Thai trans women are out of the closet then American trans women. Less aggregate discrimination over a longer period of time. There has been a cultural role for trans women in Thailand (and all across South Asia) for hundreds and hundreds of years.
    4
  413. That’s more a commentary that you don’t accept trans women as women. Rest assured if Ladyboys in Thailand could change their legal gender like they can in the US, they would. Ladyboys call themselves a lot of things in Thai, among them, sao praphet song or women of the second type. Rest assured, It’s just a matter of time before Thailand allows trans people to change their legal gender as dozens of counties from Iran to Japan to Ecuador to South Africa. It is not just the US or the west. I certainly do accept trans women as women in any country and I’m hardly alone in respecting the gender identity of others.
    4
  414.  @johnnielson4341  No, it is actually a direct translation of Thai. (ผู้หญิงประเภทสอง) Plenty of interviews with Ladyboys on YouTube saying exactly this. Watch some. Trans women are legally female in dozens of countries as has been established. Rest assured, in few more years trans women will be legally female in Thailand as they are in dozens of other countries all around the world.
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  415. ​ @johnnielson4341  Invented? You are more clueless about LGBT law than I realized. No wonder you're confused. Being legally female is being able to change the sex/gender on your State ID / Driver's license, Passport and Birth Certificate. California form DMV form DL-329, State Department form DS-11, California Department of Vital Records form VS-24, respectively. Go look it up.
    4
  416.  @johnnielson4341  You're making a distinction without a difference. This is the Thai language equivalent of saying a trans woman, which, incidentally some Thai ladyboys also do. Their gender identity is that they are women. I've known many Thai ladyboys, including my wife, that have changed their legal gender in other countries. To pretend that thousands upon thousands of ladyboys don't want to do that in Thailand is absurd. They're spending tens to hundreds of thousands of baht to have surgery to look like women, in some cases removing their p3nis and turning it into a vag, taking estrogens and androgen suppression hormone therapy to further feminize their body, use plenty of Thai female speech, use the women's restroom and to pretend that they wouldn't want to pay a hundred baht to update legal gender on their ID and Passport is just absurd. Listen to yourself.
    4
  417.  @johnnielson4341  My wife's US passport says "Sex F" Her California Driver's License says "Sex F". These are LEGAL forms of ID. Only a matter of time that LAWS are passed in Thailand that HAVE been passed a dozens of other countries (like the US) to allow sex change on your legal ID. What is so difficult to understand about this? Yikes. You clearly understand very little about LGBT law.
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  418.  @johnnielson4341  Do you deny that Tran women can be legally female in Korea. Japan. Taiwan. Vietnam. China. Not to mention dozens of counties in North America and South America? Female. Not a 3rd gender. On their legal ID. Do you deny this? Explain why the trans women of Thailand would not want this also? You do understand that Thai trans women have actually moved out of Thailand and changed their legal ID in other countries, right? Let’s take the famous Thai trans singer, Belle Nuntita. She got married. Moved to LA. Changed her legal gender to Female on her ID proudly on Facebook. How do you explain this? Someone had a gun to her head? You pay attention to yourself. You are saying there are no black swans when there is one swimming in the pond, right there.
    4
  419.  @johnnielson4341  That’s your rejoinder? Stick to topics you actually have some experience with.
    4
  420. ​ @johnnielson4341  Sigh. It was not a same sex marriage. She legally changed her sex before the wedding in 2012. She was legally female already. Read the USCIS memo and date on it, I referenced earlier. Second, you need to read up on the K-1 Visa. It is not given to spouses who are already in the US, as I already had mentioned that she was on a student visa in California. Thus it is an “Adjustment of Status” under USCIS rules as I already mentioned. Look it up. I’ll wait.
    4
  421.  @johnnielson4341  No K-1 visa. Again, she already had an F-1 visa as she was already in the US. Again, this an Adjustment of Status. The K-1 visa is to GET the spouse into the US legally. Not needed if they are already in the US. Go read up on this. My wife was legally female in California at the time of our wedding in 2012. She had her legal sex changed in court and at the DMV prior to 2012. All that was needed at the county clerk's office when were legally married was her California ID which said female. Right after that we did the USCIS Adjustment of Status and then began the whole process I already detailed earlier. We could have got legally married a lot earlier in California (or in a different state with same sex marriage like Massachusetts which was legal in 2004) but that would not have helped at all (for the purposes of immigration) because that USCIS memo came out in 2012. Is it so inconceivable to you that trans people change their gender and get married? It happens everyday.
    4
  422.  @johnnielson4341  No, there is not a godlike AI fact checking posts. Long comments vanish all the time. I have no idea what keywords and patterns it is searching for. I have spent plenty of time in Thailand over the last 20 years with my wife. No doubt you have as well. The difference here is that you really don't know LGBT Thailand and LGBT life in general very well since that is not your life. Are 90%+ of your friends and acquaintances LGBT people?
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  423. So What you’re saying is that you are unable to give us the names of these gay Thai Gods. How do we know they exist if you can’t name them?
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  424. You do realize that trans women and gay men aren't the same thing, right?
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  425.  @makimaninkopegi3845  Care to explain why not?
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  426.  @fiermoncunningham5978  Most in fact do not. A sizable minority do but it isn’t the majority. Bring trans in Thailand (just like being trans in western countries) is your gender identity and it isn’t necessarily tied to the economics of sex work. It si simply the way they want to live their lives.
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  427. The irony is that the religion they’re using to justify that hate with is a choice.
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  428. Glad to hear your story. Not much is ever said about trans girls from the south. I hope that Thailand changes the law so your ID and passport says Female.
    4
  429. A trans woman is not a sin. That’s her life and she’s not hurting anyone.
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  430. Now you know how it feels for girls in crowded nightclubs I guess.
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  431.  @kn7636  I agree, actually. There is a big temptation to want to cover SRS in great detail but that's really basically the same stuff for everyone, like having heart bypass surgery. There should have been more questions related to her and her life.
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  432. There are plenty of ladyboys in upcountry rural villages too. I should know, I married one.
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  433.  @WillJ99999  And then after emergency situation is are stabilized and the patient is revived and identified, the patient's medical records transfer happens. How do you think medical care is provided for in literally dozens of countries where transgender people have legally changed their gender for decades? You're acting like this is uncharted territory, here. It is not. Everyone has the option to wear a medical alert bracelet that informs EMS of critical medical conditions, including trans people.
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  434. I trust medical doctors and professional medical organizations over random internet conspiracy loons like you. I can and will support my LGBT brothers and sisters. Feel free not to do so. We all make our own choices in this world and I’ve made mine.
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  435. Thai people actually eat very little soy.
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  436. Not enough women to go around? What are you talking about? There are more cis women than cis men in Thailand. The vast majority of Thai trans women are not sex workers.
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  437.  @eatinsomtin9984  Buddhism is not Atheism at all. It just isn't Abrahamic.
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  438. Some you can tell, others you can't. One one is clocking Yoshi Rinrada by her shoulders.
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  439. Donating blood is pretty unimportant in the grand scheme of things. You can just donate $20, too. Thailand actually has a very long way to go to LGBT equality. It’s hardly the LGBT paradise people assume it is. There is no marriage equality in Thailand so trans women can’t legally marry or change their legal gender.
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  440. I agree. It’s nice to hear from our LGBT brothers and sisters. 🌈
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  441. That’s what all the anal virgins say.
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  442. Absolutely.
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  443. Sadly so. I've been waiting many years to marry my Thai wife who is trans. The government is behind on a lot of topics. It's hardly even a democracy at this point.
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  444. All those people in the video mysteriously drowned in swimming accidents in Victoria Harbour.
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  445. You're thinking of the Philippines.
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  446. This makes no sense. Thailand was on our side during the Vietnam conflict. There are more trans people in Thailand than Vietnam where we did spray all kinds of deforestation agents.
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  447.  친구찬Chingu Chan  I'm absolutely sure about the US and Europe. Look up public accommodation law. Literally millions of trans women use the women's restroom everyday with any issue. It is simply not the case that there is an epidemic of men posing as trans women to assault women in women's restrooms. If you care about 'restroom security' then lobby to have restroom attendants in every restroom that can radio security in case there are any problems. Install panic buttons in restrooms to security can be alerted. Have more security guards in the building.
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  448.  @DJ_TRON  That’s a green flag for me.
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  449. Exactly!
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  450. There are trans men in Thailand too, it’s just not what this video is about.
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  451.  @aliciabell6688  I fail to see what this has to do with trans women. Sure LGBT people have raise children on average than heterosexual people but since there are so few LGBT people (just a few percent) it's not a significant source of a population decline. It's heterosexual cisgender people having fewer children since that's 95% of the population. HIV mortality rates are not impacting Thailand's population in a significant way, nor is having HIV a barrier to reproduction. I fail to see what dots you are trying to connect. There are 7.7 billion people in the world, growing by 83 million every year. I honestly fail to see the problem with people voluntary having fewer kids. You are aware that the planet has finite resources, yes?
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  452. And today I find it strange that in 2022 that people don’t realize that being trans is just an uncommon aspect of the human condition.
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  453. Step into a Muay Thai ring with a Thai pro fighter and test that theory.
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  454. Every country has trans people. How many you see in a given society depends on how much discrimination they face for living the way they want.
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  455. They are distinct from men quite obviously. Many are indistinguishable from cis women.
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  456. Not true. You can see plenty in Mexico City and Oaxaca.
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  457. The reason the LGBT community is loud in the west is because westerners aren’t nearly as good at minding their own business as Thai people are and so this is a reaction to decades of vitriol against their communities where the only way to get anything is to fight aggressively for it. At the same time all this noise has resulted in meaningful legal changes in the west which have greatly helped LGBT people over the decades. This is not the case in Thailand where Ladyboys cannot legally marry their husbands, can’t adopt, can be barred for being trans from private businesses and many other quality of life quality of life issues. Thailand is the world leader in sex change surgery. Doing as much as the rest of the world combined. Many Ladyboys in Thailand get surgery also. Satisfaction rates are about the same everywhere. There are plenty of mental health problems in the trans community in Thailand as well. These usually come down to difficult family, economic and social histories and are often intertwined with substance abuse. You’re just simply less likely to hear about these Thai stories in English. My wife is a Thai Ladyboy. We’ve been together for 20 years both in California and in Thailand and I know many LGBT people in Thailand and the west. Happy to answer any questions you have.
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  458. Yes, trans people exist. What about it?
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  459. Hugging a boy? Kissing a boy? What if your son murdered someone? What if your son stole a car from someone? Would you disown him on all those circumstances as well? What is your threshold for disownment?
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  460. But mostly no.
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  461. Thai people actually eat very little soy. Watch some Thai people eat sometime. Chicken, pork, seafood, veggies and herbs rice and noodles are the vast overwhelming majority of what Thai people eat. Too impossible to imagine a country that just treats Trans people decently so they’re not afraid to come out of the closet, is it?
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  462.  @vlogafter3054  Some do and some don’t. Depends a lot on what they do for a living.
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  463. Careful. You’ll end up marrying a trans girl like I did. Best decision I ever made.
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  464. His worldview and psyche was completely wrecked by his mom killing herself and blaming him. He blames himself and can only escape that guilt by pretending that he’s not gay. Changing your sexual orientation is next to impossible. Try it some time. He needs some therapy to work out these issues with his mom’s so he can actually be gay and be able to sleep at the same time. Ex-gay ministries such as this always fall apart as the self hating gay men running them invariably break down. Look up Exodus International.
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  465. Don’t turn a blind eye that most Thai trans women aren’t sex workers. You can see them working regular jobs all across untouristed Thailand. Plenty of Thai trans interviews all over youTube and they clearly have different personalities like any other human.
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  466.  @aen9321  I know it’s really shocking for you to believe, but I'm not suppressing anyone's personal opinions. Feel free to expound as many transphobic opinions at any length you desire for as long as you wish. You've got the mic, let's hear it!
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  467. This has nothing to do with CEOs. Trans women dominate nothing except dealing with tons of discrimination.
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  468. This is exceedingly rare. If someone is so transphobic that they couldn’t stand to talk with a trans person then the onus is on them to put this in their dating profile. It’s easy. “Not interested in trans women.”
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  469.  @StarChomp  Um, South Korea please. We don't want Asian Boss getting anyone killed outing them in North Korea.
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  470. Born impotent? Are baby boys born with raging erections 24/7? Lol. No one is forcing anything. Watch some interviews with Thai trans women (there are literally hundreds on YouTube) you’ll discover that they had to fight long and hard to be accepted by their families and society. Most Thai trans women are not sexual workers. You can see them working salon and retail jobs all over Thailand.
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  471. As you get older your parents will have less control of your life and you can do as you wish.
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  472. Who uses “it” as their pronouns? All the Thai Ladyboys I’ve known have been fine with “her” and are actually using Thai female speech. They’re putting in a ton of work to look female .
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  473. @chulalakkul
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  474. Thailand is 90% Buddhist and has little use for the Abrahamic god or this crazy numerology of yours. They’re doing just fine.
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  475. Found the racist transphobe.
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  476. Trans women are women to me. Why should trans people listen to you over themselves?
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  477. You’re living your life for other people or for yourself?
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  478. What does the crime of child prostitution have to do with law abiding trans women?
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  479. This video wasn’t about gay people.
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  480. You say that like it’s a bad thing.
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  481.  @shaebrown2872  Glad to hear that you think it’s a great thing.
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  482. What other LGBT myths do you believe in?
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  483.  @afrosamurai4465  How many Thai trans women have you talked with to know their life history so well that you can make such sweeping generalizations? You can’t imagine the possibility that someone just wants to use their freedom to look the way they want? You are aware that Thailand and much of South Asia has had a cultural role for trans women since antiquity, right?
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  484.  @Lumantrix  Tell me about it. I ended up marrying a Thai ladyboy. Best decision I ever made. If you have any questions, just ask.
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  485. Unbelievable denial of self caused by childhood traumatic events.
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  486. The poll metrics from every developed country show a steady increase in support for LGBT marriage equality and equal rights. If that’s failure, I want more of it. Go look them up. Gallup and Pew are The gold standard in the US polling. Whatever we’re doing is working and working well. Sure it will eventually level off and you’ll never get that last 15%, in the same way that that a small segment of people will never support interracial marriage. I’ve been around a long time and I’ve seen the entire sea change in LGBT rights in the west and the bad old days when the approval ratings were upside down. Asia still has a long way to go but Taiwan, Thailand and Hong Kong are leading the way, slowly.
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  487. Nah, man, I can quit at any time... /Notification goes off /watches video
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  488. Lots of the hateful comments have been removed. What remains is not representative.
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  489. Powerlifting MMA fighting lesbians with a vast criminal history of female sexual assault are allowed in women’s restrooms. The rate of trans women assaulting cis women in public restrooms is almost nonexistent. Slip and fall injuries in restrooms is a vastly bigger problem by comparison. Bottom line is that trans women are women to me and to millions of others that support trans women. As such their place is in the women’s restroom. In dozens of countries around the world this is the law, there are not endemic problems there and so it should be too across the Philippines. Disagree all you like. No words you could put together could possibly change my mind.
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  490. To you, not to me and many others that support trans people in their gender identity.
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  491.  @AutumnFallsOver  There are billions of people on this planet in hugely varied circumstances . “Coming out” can be as uneventful as coming out as left handed in a progressive place. or it could mean that you’re arrested and jailed for decades in the Middle East. The key is understanding that it’s the history of convincing heterosexuals through repeated exposure that being LGBT is natural and normal and then hearts and minds change. Sometimes a little in a progressive place or sometimes a lot in an ultra conservative place. Some level of discomfort is simply the price that LGBT people have collectively paid and do pay to enact a sea change in collective LGBT treatment in that society. Uncomfortable conversations matter but of course you can choose to do whatever you wish. I’m just asking you to see this in broader context.
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  492. Yes and no. There are no LGBT laws in Thailand. Ladyboys can’t legally marry their husbands and can’t change their legal gender on their ID in Thailand. These are commonplace in many western countries.
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  493. It’s not the moral high ground. It’s what every country that has marriage and full LGBT legal equality has done and what every country that doesn’t has failed to do, including Japan. Asia is also not a monolithic block. The differences between Japan and Thailand are night and day and Thailand is on the cusp of legalizing same sex relationships and taking a big step forward to do right by it’s LGBT citizens because they have done this activism, awareness raising and public debate AND simultaneously winning hearts and minds.
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  494. Mark K, what you’re saying is GENERALLY true but you don’t speak for each and every trans woman from Thailand. This is millions of people and in any large population you’re going to have a diversity of opinion. Some see themselves as men. Some see themselves as a 3rd gender. Others see themselves as outside the gender binary in various ways. Some see themselves as women. My wife is a Thai trans woman. We moved to the US. She’s legally female here. We’re legally married. “Husband and wife” so said the county clerk. She changed her name. She uses female pronouns. She sees herself as female and others, many of whom don’t know she’s trans, just think of her as any other woman.
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  495. That trans women exist?
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  496. Is it? Trans women can’t legally marry their husbands nor change their legal gender in Thailand. Nor can they adopt and a huge host of other legal rights that are standard in the US. My wife is a Thai trans woman and it’s for all these reasons we live in California and not Thailand.
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  497.  @thisismetoday  We’ve walked down the streets in Charlotte and all over the US and as well as Thailand. No one imagines that she’s trans in the US. Bangkok has way better food options compared to Charlotte so she’d probably prefer that street. That said, she does love pulled pork, crab bisque, shrimp and grits and doesn’t mind peach cobbler although it’s pretty sweet for her Thai tastes. Happy to answer any other theoreticals you have. We’ve been together for 20 years and have been all around the world.
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  498.  @razatiger22  No women over 60 have children or have periods either. Having periods or the ability to have children isn’t what makes someone a woman. Gender is between your ears not between your legs.
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  499. This.
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  500. It depends. Opinions vary widely in the US from total hatred in some communities to almost universal acceptance. Rural Mississippi is nothing like downtown San Francisco. There is no marriage equality in Thailand so trans women can’t legally marry their husbands and also can’t legally change their gender. These rights have been commonplace in the US for many years now.
    4
  501. There have been trans people all around the world since antiquity. Nothing new.
    4
  502. Gender isn't biology.
    4
  503. This is mostly urban folklore. There have been trans women in Thailand (and all over South Asia really) since antiquity.
    4
  504. The vast majority of trans women in Thailand are not sex workers. You can see them working retail and salon jobs all over Thailand.
    4
  505. Trans people exist and they deserve support. That’s all there is to it. All media is a circus on every topic. If you don’t like circuses don’t watch. Easy as that.
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  506. Should we have an entry for biological hair color and chemically dyed hair color on ID cards too? Where does it end? There are many types of intersex conditions. List those all too on their state ID? Why not have your entire DNA sequence stored on your ID? That should clear up any biological ambiguity. When someone starts hormone replacement therapy their entire endocrine system is no longer operating as did previously and X chromesome gene expression starts operating. Endocrinology is biology. Dozens of countries in the world allow trans people to change their gender on their legal ID and allow trans people full equality under the law. That’s not a minor and it’s made a substantive positive impact in the lives of trans people.
    4
  507.  EccentricSage  Endocrinology is biology and everyone has an X chromosome and the SRY gene actually does very little aside from spinning up the endocrine system. It is so unimportant that some mammals do not even have a Y chromosome. What is and what isn't biological sex is not so simple. There are a dozen intersex conditions: 5-alpha reductase deficiency, AIS, CAH, Klinefelter, mosaicism, KRKH, Swyer, Turner, etc. If someone wants to make any medical condition known they always have the standard option of wearing a medical alert bracelet. If not, there is no expectation of liability by EMS in the vanishingly few instances where in the stabilization of a patient such determination would matter and would clearly be held harmless in a court of law in such cases. The point of legal identification is not detailing someone's complex medical history, of course. I see trans women as women. They are not deceiving me in the least. You're welcome to think otherwise.
    4
  508.  @mrbateman136  Gender isn’t biology, bro.
    4
  509.  @preductdj8731  Check your local library.
    4
  510.  @Nolan-p2v  Any with a gender studies section.
    4
  511.  @Nolan-p2v  You are welcome to think that but gender isn’t biology.
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  512.  @Nolan-p2v  I’ll save you a seat.
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  513.  @mrbateman136  Gender exists apart from biology no matter how smart we are or aren’t.
    4
  514. ARSD, That many people would not go somewhere due to the humane attitude to trans women in that location, says quite a lot about the morality of those people. Makes me sad for the trans people obviously afraid to come out of the closet where you are without the resources to move away. Go to Thailand. Air travel is cheaper than ever. It’s an amazing place.
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  515.  @springroll703  Trans people per capita is the only thing that matters when you are doing country to country comparisons. Obviously China or India have the most trans people TOTAL because they have the largest populations.
    4
  516. Just ask. Easy as that.
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  517. Imagine letting transphobia rule your life like that. There are trans women in every country in the world. I’d recommend never leaving your basement.
    4
  518.  @bjornblackman2337  Because there are trans people there? That was your original assertion. Have you ever talked with a trans woman before? They're just people trying to live their best life, same as you. Trans woman are going to let you know they're trans. No one wants to waste their time, after all.
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  519. @다이아나다이아나 Pretty sure you're using a computer or phone designed and engineered in Western countries and using YouTube based in Western Countries. They're not that dumb, plus I'm pretty sure life is much better for LGBT people in those same western countries. You can actually marry the person you love. Maybe they're onto something, no?
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  520. @다이아나다이아나 100% accepted? Now you're moving the goal posts. There is not 100% acceptance that the earth is round. This is about legal equality and equality under the law for LGBT people which the Philippines does not have and most western countries do have, brought to you by those dumb people who make all the advanced technology you own and who make this entire conversation possible. I have zero interest in you accepting me. Bottom line is that the west does right by their LGBT citizens in a much better way than the Philippines does.
    4
  521. It’s a useful word found in every modern dictionary. Feel free to hate it or not use it, as is your right. It’s my right to use the words I want.
    4
  522. I think people should do exactly what they want to do as long as it isn't illegal. There are millions of trans people in the US spanning the entire spectrum of crazy and disrespectful to not crazy and respectful. As always, it depends on the individual.
    4
  523. What would people say? That's sad and a plane went down in the mountains. What more is there to say?
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  524.  @BlueWithoutBiu  Thank you. I know that not all people are like this. My trans wife and I are very happy. I’m not offended by the opinions of others. It’s important to demonstrate that there are men that honor, respect sometimes love and sometimes even marry trans women. Being a trans woman is not easy and there is a world of hardship and disrespect that they face. If we won’t support them, who will?
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  525. @Moonchild you shine Many thanks for your support and for supporting other LGBT people. For many it is not an easy road dealing with discrimination, intolerance and unjust laws. 🌈
    4
  526.  @kevinsjournal  Depends on the hardware and what you both are into. Every erotic relationship is somewhat different as it is. It’s a sensual learning process as all good sex ultimately is.
    4
  527. To appease an imaginary creator whom can't be reached for comment you condemn actual living people, harming no one, from just trying to live their best life fully supported by the entire medical and mental health establishment. What's wrong with this picture?
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  528. Because a vast chunk of the Thai population are ethnically Thai Han Chinese, that’s why.
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  529. Not just white men, for sure. Lots of ethnicities and genders are trans amorous.
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  530. It seems like you understand that LGBT discrimination in society is wrong (no same sex marriage is discrimination) but you won’t dare consider the possibility that religious leaders are simply incorrect for perpetuating terrible public policy. LGBT people deserve full equality under the law. It’s not as if there aren’t plenty of things that were accepted in ancient times like slavery that are condemned today.
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  531. Why thank you, Arjan.
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  532. No complaints here! Given that we don’t want to adopt a child there won’t be any trouble at all. Other LGBT couples that do certainly face many challenges in Thailand. Thailand will get there, but there is no shortage of political problems slowing everything down.
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  533. Wolfgang548 Some trans girls can be great wives. It all depends on the trans girl. There are plenty of guys that could never see themselves dating a trans girl, which is understandable. For me, that’s great. Much less competition. I mean... There is this group of hot amazing women who really look after themselves and know how to dress that have done a ton of deep introspective soul searching about what sex and gender really mean to them AND that hardly anyone wants to date? Sold! Where they at?
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  534. I’ve been bisexual since the day I was born. Clearly you didn’t read this thread. Thanks for your interest in my sexual orientation, though.
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  535. Plenty of men from all over the world are interested in beautiful Thai trans girls.
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  536. As if American trans women weren’t born that was also. What difference does geography make? You don’t think there are Thai American trans women?
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  537. Bisexual and proud of it. Thanks for your support!
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  538.  @liltree8382  Not going somewhere because there are trans people there is literally transphobia. Look in any modern dictionary and you’ll find the word, if you need assistance understanding it.
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  539. Millions also, like myself, take an active stance defending LGBT people because they know and love many LGBT people and want the best for them.
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  540. It’s true. So many people Dont realize the sexual orientation of trans people Is much more varied than that of straight people.
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  541. Same plastic pipes in Malaysia and China and not this level of trans people. Guess again.
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  542. And thus medical tourism was born. Thailand does as much SRS as the rest of the world combined. Results are great too. Win / win.
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  543. Those are pretty famous Thai trans girls in the thumbnail.
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  544. Nah. She's quite content with her transition as are the vast majority of trans girls in Thailand. Gender and biology aren't the same thing. She's not fooling anyone about anything. She simply wants to live life as woman and has the freedom and agency to do so. That's that freedom and free will is all about.
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  545. It's no problem at all. Hundreds of thousands of Thai trans women use public bathrooms everyday without issue.
    3
  546. It is a scooter and motorcycle nirvana.
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  547. Sadly not.
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  548. The world ladyboy in Thailand just doesn’t have the same subtext it does in the west. Many Thai trans women in Thailand refer to themselves as ladyboys. Don’t take my word for it, look for Thai trans women on YouTube saying so.
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  549. Never send a human to do a machine's job.
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  550.  @bosshub777  Bi. Literally doubles your relationship choices. YOLO!
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  551. If someone looks like a woman and tells me they are a woman, they’re a woman to me. Simple as that. I’m not in possession of any biological facts when I meet someone. You’re running karyotype tests right on the sidewalk are you?
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  552. Nothing wrong with SRS. For trans people with dysphoria it is incredibly helpful.
    3
  553. If they look like women, act like women and think of themselves as women what’s the difference?
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  554.  @rosebud4387  It's an issue for trans people every time they use the restroom, unlike non trans people. Ipso facto, it impacts trans people more than non trans people. The difference is you don't care about trans people at all, and I do. Therein lies all the difference. Trans women are women to me. In most of north america and europe it's the law the trans women are legally allowed to use the women's restroom.
    3
  555. It’s sad that elsewhere in SEAsia LGBT people remain so hidden.
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  556.  @MrSnoopydupy  Do a google image search for "women's vs men's shoe size distribution" and you'll see there is quite an area of overlap. There is even more of an overlap in Thailand as Thai men vs women are much closer in shoe size than their more sexually dimorphic European or American counterparts. The average US women's shoe size is actually 8.5 which is EU 39. Ladyboys are generally on the smaller end of the male population distribution as well. In addition this preassumes that the trans woman in question wasn't taking androgen hormone suppressors during adolescence. No/less testosterone exposure, no/less outsized enlarging of the hands and feet. That's just how it works. I have no doubt that on average that Thai ladyboys feet are somewhat larger than cisgender women's feet. All the same there are many cis women with large feet (particularity those with PCOS or whom are overweight) and there are many cis guys in existence that are just small and consequently have a small shoe size.
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  557. Trans woman are women to me but if you’re not into trans girls, just put that in your dating profile. Problem solved.
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  558. It's not easy to get interviews with the three famous Thai trans girls in the thumbnail.
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  559. I’ve seen plenty of less attractive women.
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  560. Suporn Watanyusakul
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  561. What’s gross about LGBT people? There are LGBT in every country in the world. The difference is how they are treated in those countries.
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  562. If so they’ve been doing it for hundreds and and hundreds of years before the advent of science in societies all Around the world.
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  563. You need to travel more. There are trans women in every country.
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  564. Many people have daddy and mommy issues and they aren’t trans. Many trans people don’t have daddy or mommy issues. Has little explanatory power.
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  565. That makes me very sad for the gay and trans people in your country, living desperate closeted lives hiding in the shadows.
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  566.  @NCXitlali  Your ID should say jackass. She’s legally female and there is nothing you can do about that.
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  567. Equality requires special legislation for LGBT people because they are already in an unequal position. If two gay people love each other and want to legally marry they can’t do that without specific legislation for them to make that happen.
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  568.  @greengnome2008  Makes sense! Many thanks! Have you visited Thailand before? The biggest thing for me that wasn’t in this video is that trans women can’t legally marry their husbands and can’t legally change their gender. Such rights are commonplace now in many progressive countries but Thailand has a long way to go on LGBT law.
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  569. There are pros and cons to being the squeaky wheel. The west has a vast number of LGBT legal rights and protections including marriage equality and the right of trans people to change their legal gender on their ID. The non confrontational nature of Thailand means there are none of these things there. My wife and I (a Thai trans woman) have been waiting over a decade to be able to legally marry in Thailand.
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  570. Unlikely she’s had vocal cord surgery. I’m sure she would have mentioned it. Recovery is tough. Just voice training / falsetto control and female affectation are very effective. To a small degree bieng on birth control during puberty and the androgen blockers and later hormones and finally SRS may have lowered her testosterone enough that vocal cord lengthening didn’t fully occur, preserving more of a female vocal range. Look up Belle Nuntita for an example of a Thai trans woman who can do amazing things with her vocal range.
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  571. Transphobia is pretty disgusting, I agree.
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  572. Then you thought wrong. Most trans women in Thailand are not employed in sex work at all. You can see them working retail and salon jobs all across Thailand. They’re trans because they want to be seen and treated as females, not as a costume to make money.
    3
  573.  @somebodyontheinternet7743  I don’t need your validation, defending LGBT people is it’s own reward.
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  574. Gender isn’t biology.
    3
  575. Way more than gender roles in some species. Look up the Clown Fish.
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  576. @ediblelipscrubs9466 Clown fish literally change biological sex. You’re also making unfounded accusations. Rest assured, I always respect the gender identity of everyone. Others define their gender for me, I do not define gender for others.
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  577.  @johnnielson4341  You are just not reading carefully. I can't provide a timeline of the history of LGBT law in a youtube comment. Previously you didn't even understand that legal gender change was even possible. You even said that I made it up. That's what I was responding to with the current forms. Lol. AB1121 just made the process of gender change easier, and there have been many iterations after that. Legal sex change has been possible in California for a very long time. Look up Barbara Ann Richards. She changed her California legal ID at court in 1941. New Jersey was the first state that determined that post-operative trans people may marry in their post-operative sex in 1976. (MT v. JT, Superior Court of New Jersey). Honestly, this just isn't your area.
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  578.  @johnnielson4341  Ah, yes. I should have said a K-1 gets your future spouse (fiancee ) into the US. I fully admit this single error in this regard.
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  579.  @johnnielson4341  You're just not reading carefully enough and trying desperately to disprove my life and marriage like Inspector Clouseau which I have now successfully debunked, at length. I'm not responsible for youTube's comment filtering system. It's made for quick comments, not long form discussion. My 90%+ cohort of LGBT friends and stunningly distorted view is a view of life that you are complete tourist in regards to, which is the exact topic up for discussion here. Keep on straightsplaining, dear. You're doing great, hun.
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  580.  @johnnielson4341  You're a tourist to LGBT life, my friend. That's my point. Gender change in California was legal long before 2012. You just pulled the date on related legislation (AB1121) that makes things easier and pretended that's when it all started. It didn't. No miscues at all. We can relitigate anything you want. I fully admit I have a distorted view of life, proud of it, but that distortion of being in LGBT spaces all the time and talking to Thai LGBT people all the time makes me understand that distortion better than you actually ever will. If you want to understand it better, divorce your wife and be LGBT. I doubt you're that interested, so QED. The ladyboys of Thailand are a population several hundred thousand deep. To pretend that you speak for all them is absurd. I don't and you don't. Some very much do want to legally be women. We can see that in those that move abroad (like my wife and others) that then go and change their legal gender. Others are happy in a 3rd gender space in between, as has existed across South Asia since antiquity. Others see themselves as effeminate gay men. Some even like cis women or other trans women primarily. For some trans people they go from one to the other over their lifetimes. It's a big spectrum.
    3
  581. Why should I respect beliefs that go against human rights? LGBT people deserve full equality under the law, including employment discrimination protection and marriage equality.
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  582. Thai people honestly eat very little soy. You’ve been to Thailand and watched Thai people eat?
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  583. The truth is that gender isn’t biology.
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  584.  @Bradley_Lute  The trouble with being LGBT in Thailand is that you can’t legally marry your spouse and you can’t legally change your gender. I’ve been waiting over a decade to marry my Thai wife (she’s trans). Justice delayed is Justice denied.
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  585. On the contrary, the legal acceptance of trans women in the west is vastly higher than Thailand where it is zero. Trans women can’t even legally marry their husbands. Biology doesn’t define the realness of a woman. It’s gender. India and Pakistan actually legally define trans women as a 3rd gender. Again, it’s not biology that we’re talking about. My wife is a Thai trans women. Ask me anything.
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  586. Trans women are women to me.
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  587. So you want trans men like Buck Angel in the women's restroom? You clearly haven't really thought this through.
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  588. There have been ladyboys in South Asia since before Jesus was born. Don’t worry about it. There are almost no Christians in Thailand. When the Sun goes nova in a few billion years it’ll wipe all the life off this planet.
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  589. Ladyboys are natural. They’ve been a documented historical part of societies and cultures all around the world for hundreds of years. A small percentage of people are LGBT. Nothing unnatural about what occurs in nature.
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  590. Bingo. Why so few people realize this is beyond me.
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  591.  @suckapunch565  Maybe, if you're willing to wait 10 years for lab-grown tissue to be commonly adopted and able and willing to pay Beverley Hills boutique clinic prices, maybe. A handful of cis women getting experimental vag implant surgery is hardly mass adoption and that takes a lot of time and the wheels of the medical establishment turn slowly. I know one thing, Thailand is certainly not going to be on the vanguard of that. Surgical techniques are one thing, high tech biotech stuff like that is quite another. If you've been to Thailand you'll know what I mean.
    3
  592. The boys were Ladyboy adults who supplied themselves. There have been trans women all over South Asia since antiquity. Nothing new.
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  593. So mockery and violence isn't always the answer? I dunno. That's pretty hard to imagine. /s
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  594. As if someone willing to commit sexual assault is going to be deterred by a sign on the door.
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  595. There are plenty of cisgender women that are bigger and stronger than trans women. Most people can’t successfully defend themselves against an attacker with a weapon and the element of surprise. That’s life. It is the law in most of North America and Europe that trans women are legally allowed to use the women’s bathroom. Millions of trans women use the women’s restroom everyday without incident. There is not an epidemic of trans women attacking women in restrooms nor cisgender men pretending to be men attacking women in restrooms. Do you not know this?
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  596.  @franzesnicolesayson4921  It's high time the Philippines did right by it's LGBT citizens, as has been done in the west. There are disrespectful and rude people of every gender. Disrespectful people also need to use the bathroom. There already laws that cover any illegal activity that may happen in a restroom, no matter who commits the crime.
    3
  597. The vast majority of a Thai trans women are not sex workers.
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  598. She’s already free.
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  599. Cross dressing and gender identity aren’t the same thing. Jackie Gleason and Kim Petras couldn’t be more different despite both having worn female clothes.
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  600. Your vocal chords lengthen and consequently lower their pitch with exposure to testosterone. That's just how it works in adolescence for cis boys and later in life for trans men.
    3
  601. Because trans people exist in every country in the world.
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  602.  @nerd2544  You deny that trans people exist?
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  603.  @nerd2544  You’ve never seen a trans person before? Sheesh. Where are earth do you live?
    3
  604. Those guys are motorcycle taxi drivers driving around downtown Bangkok seeing tens of thousands of people every day. Rest assured if you drove a Taxi around London's west end nightclubs you're going to see two a night also. I have no doubt at all that Thailand has a higher per capita rate of Trans women, of course but it's not 10x.
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  605. Trans women don’t always have a deep voice, just FYI.
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  606. Says no professional medical organization. Not the APA, not the AMA, not the WHO.
    3
  607. Differences vary if you’re pre-op or post-op. If you’re pre-op and stop androgen suppression and estrogen your body will slowly masculinize. Mostly the reappearance of body hair and male fat distribution. If you’re post-op there is no need for androgen suppression so it’s essentially a lack of continued breast development and more female fat distribution. There are cognitive differences also. Nothing particularly serious physiologically, but the changes can be quite disturbing psychologically as one’s body is changing in a way the patient doesn’t see themselves thus causing dysphoria. Any other questions?
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  608.  @WillJ99999  I never said without consent. Check your reading comprehension. The people who read our comments will be the ones who judge who knows more about trans people and the issues they face. I've made made case.
    3
  609.  @WillJ99999  You clearly don't know what the word revive means in that sentence. Family can also consent and inform medical personnel. People whom want to transmit important medical information to EMS staff have a standard way to do that, with a medical bracelet. The vast overwhelming majority of conditions where someone arrives in the ER comatose and unresponsive is not subject to gender differentiated techniques for resuscitation.. Again, tens of thousands of hospitals in dozens of countries where trans women can legally change their gender are very much aware that transgender people exist. If you don't want to acknowledge this reality, that's up to you. Are we done here? Clearly you're never going to convince me of anything and I'm never going to convince you of anything.
    3
  610.  @WillJ99999  I have every confidence that my wife whom is legally female will do just fine in an emergency situation in the hospital if she was hit by a car and was delivered unconscious to the ER. I have vastly more at stake personally in such a hypothetical than you do and my wife and I are not worried about it in the least. If some other trans person believed as you do (again, not something I've ever heard mentioned by an actual trans person) that their medical care was going to be completely substandard because the doctor in the ER didn't know they were trans then they have the option of not changing their gender marker. It's not mandatory. Maybe they'd rather die as a woman than live legally as a man. Who are you to make that determination for someone else?
    3
  611. ​ @WillJ99999  Let's just stop pretending that you're interested in the health and safety of transgender people when you say that trans people are lying. That is not the position of the APA nor the WHO on gender dysphoria which are names you should be aware of as someone that's so deeply concerned about medical efficacy. All professional medical organizations support transition for people with gender dysphoria up to and including legal recognition. Do some homework. I'm someone that's witnessed first hand the manifold benefits to the quality of life of LGBT people of being able to legally change genders, marry their spouses, adopt children and socially integrate over the last few decades. Not that you care anything about that. Take your thinly veiled transphobia masquerading as health concerns, elsewhere. Again, dozens of the most advanced countries in the world allow trans women to legally change their gender and they're doing just fine. The legal system is not straining under the increased legal load of medical professionals treating unknown trans people. Crime investigators are not working overtime to handle a gargantuan workload of such cases. You're grasping desperately for any plausible reason to deny trans people the right to legally exist as the gender they identify. Disgraceful.
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  612. Dackson, What’s a very common problem? This comment thread is several thousand words long.
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  613. There have been trans women and trans men socially integrated in South Asia continuously for hundreds and hundreds of years. Rome had nothing to do with South Asia. There is nothing degenerate about the existence of trans people, nor can that be considered having no social norms or an anarchy. Read “Gender Pluralism in Southeast Asia since early modern times” if you actually want to understand this rather than prudish pearl clutching.
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  614.  @bpavilion8994  I do not take the APA and the AMA with a grain of salt as the members of these organizations are some of the best medical minds on this planet. I trust medical science over random commentators on the internet.
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  615. A lot of this is lost in linguistic and cultural transition. She’s really just saying that she’s not denying she’s a trans woman. She’s asserting her femininity in her speech. That said, Thailand and South Asia has a more pluralistic sense of gender. In India and Pakistan trans woman are legally a 3rd gender and have been thought of as such. It depends on the influences and age of the trans person. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions, just ask.
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  616. Speaking as a gay tourist, would surely elevate Singapore on my travel list.
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  617. Exactly. How many trans women you see in any society depends on the social hostilities towards trans women in that society.
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  618. There have been ladyboys in Thailand for hundreds and hundreds of years. Nothing sad about it.
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  619.  @angelbaby9020  The idea is that both social acceptance and legal protections are required. In that measure, Thailand and the USA both have a long way to go. The USA is vast, and clearly not the same everywhere. There are very progressive cities in the US with social acceptance and many LGBT laws in place.
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  620. Such technology does not exist at this point. Adoption is always an option. In the future uterus transplants and IVG do provide a path forward for trans women to carry their own genetic offspring but such things will be very expensive and many years down the road.
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  621. Social acceptance, yes. Legal acceptance, no. My wife is a Thai trans woman and it's because of the black hole of LGBT rights law in Thailand we live in California.
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  622.  @jilldent5514  I'm an American. My wife, who is trans, is also Thai. I quite like the sound of the Thai language. It's a tonal language which by necessity needs to go up and down. There are tonal languages all over South Asia. It sounds like you have very little experience with such places and languages, right?
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  623. I’m gay and I’m happy. Who are you to tell me otherwise? I know dozens of gay people and dozens of straight people. Some are happy and others aren’t. We’re all human. It’s not an iffy topic it’s an important one. Having this segment of society twisting in the wind without legal equality and social discrimination is a grand injustice in the world and a source of vast unnecessary misery. There are definitely more than 2% in America and Europe and 1% elsewhere. How many people come out of the closet is a function of how difficult it is to be a LGBT person in that place. Look at Thailand. There are plenty of trans women and gays and lesbians. Certainly more than 2% per capita. Now look at the Middle East where you can be put in jail for being gay. It doesn’t take a genius to deduce that how many out and visible LGBT people a society has is a function of how much repression there is in that society.
    3
  624. Lots of time, lots of effort and lots of money. Being beautiful isn't easy.
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  625.  @orangutanshades2423  The more people know and see transgender people in media and in real life the more difficult it is to believe untrue negative things about them. If you look at acceptance rates of LGBT people around the world it all comes  down to a personal connections. The more trans women that come out of the closet and transition the more other trans people are willing to do that as well and it becomes a feedback loop where familiarity grows and hatred wanes. It takes time but it works and people with privilege like Ian have an important role in this.
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  626. Linguistically the languages aren't similar at all. That said, many Thai people are partly ethnically Chinese as many Chinese people migrated there over many hundreds of years. That said Thai is easier to learn than Chinese. There is no getting around the absurd memorization of writing in Chinese, sadly.
    3
  627.  @aliciabell6688  What about Taiwan, Portugal, Singapore, Poland, Greece, South Korea, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Macau, Spain, Hungary, Croatia... They all have lower fertility rates than Thailand.
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  628. That’s the best part!
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  629. She’s a trans women.
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  630.  @leokashung3743  Makes sense to me. I ended up marrying a Thai trans girl.
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  631. As it turns out they didn’t interview each and every trans woman in Thailand. Shocking, I know.
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  632. Trans women are women to me. I call people that I want to talk to what they want to be called. To do otherwise is just being a jackass. No one is paying me to adjudicate everyone’s DNA.
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  633. You have it exactly backwards.
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  634. Bos The last thing you should do is to take YouTube comments as some kind of indication of how most people feel about something.
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  635. Ask a dozen ladyboys if they would like to legally change their gender to female and legally marry their husbands and see what the say. Having done that many times, I already know the answer.
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  636. Ladyboys = Part of Thai culture for hundreds and hundreds of years before any endocrine disrupting pollution.
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  637. Because Thailand treats trans women with more dignity and respect than other Asian countries?
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  638. Asian Boss does street interviews. That’s just what they do. Obviously if you want a better answer you’d interview a Thai Ivy League school Sociologist professor. That said, it is interesting to see what regular people on the street say.
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  639.  @meditationmusicmix3931  GASP! I'll alert the authorities. I imagine the UN internet special forces will be doing a HALO jump over the Asian Boss offices within the hour to bring them before an internet crimes tribunal.
    3
  640. Unfortunately this dreamland doesn’t allow trans women to legally marry their husbands nor legally change their gender. My wife is a Thai trans woman and this is our situation.
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  641. Save your pity. Trans women in Thailand are doing much better than in other parts of the world. Thailand is a wonderful place.
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  642. My wife is straight, she just happens to be trans. Not so dangerous after all. ;)
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  643. Do you enjoy the thought of your own child being homeless?
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  644. So you love your children conditionally rather than unconditionally. What else will you disown your children over?
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  645. I’ve known many ladyboys and they all have known since they were children that they wanted to be ladyboys since they were very young. They were not forced. If anything they were all forced to try to not be ladyboys and they hated doing masculine things. Watch some ladyboy interviews on YouTube and you’ll see this clearly.
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  646. Uterus transplants in trans women will be possible in the very near future. Just a matter of time.
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  647.  @xavierlauzac5922  In as much as he can, and that’s great, but there is a tremendous way to go politically for much of anything to happen with legislation.
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  648. Transphobia is shameful.
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  649.  @afrosamurai4465  You already have. We’re being social and YouTube is indisputably media.
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  650. Not really. You can hear the words used interchangeably by trans people in Thailand.
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  651. I agree that the Muxes need to be better supported in Mexico.
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  652.  @oliviat.1930  It’s very sad. Muxes need to be helped and protected so they can better integrate into society.
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  653. The number of ladyboys who are completely unclockable, whom could also possibly conspire to get her own family and friends to collude on this deception from the husband and the husband’s family, whom also would find a husband willing to marry without having sex first is an impossibly vanishingly small risk set. Honestly, that’s some kind of James Bond ladyboy level action. Honestly, get me this ladyboy’s phone number. I’ll divorce my ladyboy wife and marry her! We can be double agents together and play the KGB off the CIA. The risk this represents to straight guys is minuscule compared to the benefit it represents to ladyboys. Flying to the Middle East as a ladyboy with Male on your Thai passport is literally taking your life in your own hands.
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  654. No gay sex is good? That’s your plan for integrating LGBT people into society? Die loveless virgins, y’all.
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  655. There are no trans people in your country?
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  656.  @Shushu_Vibes  What country is that?
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  657. That’s not what I get when I type in “LGBT rights in Kenya” or “LGBT rights in Ethiopia” . I get that gay sex is illegal in both places. Do you have any sources that you can name that show gay sex is legal in These countries?
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  658. Nah. Plenty of Thai trans women have both present and supportive parents. Ask some and see.
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  659.  @OlofKarlsson-d1v  There are no comprehensive lgbt statistics taken in Thailand. I simply have known many Thai trans women for which this is not the case and also many Thai fatherless households where no kids are trans.
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  660. Which is why the surgery to reduce the size is extremely common for trans women in Thailand. Just a few hundred $ and outpatient.
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  661. No mental health authority calls gender dysphoria a disability. Not the APA and not the WHO. Suicide is a big problem for trans people but It has been clinically shown that transition helps alleviate this distress. Of course people like you making their lives miserable all the time does not help with their depression. Fortunately more and more people are standing by their trans brothers and sisters and supporting of them through life despite your best efforts to grind them into the dirt with your transphobia.
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  662. There were a lot more street carts before the junta banned them from many places.
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  663. There are plenty of wealthy trans people where the pure economics of transition are profoundly net negative. You can’t imagine trans people transitioning because they simply want to? Too impossible to imagine?
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  664.  @ViceN53X  So I’m an American and my wife is a Thai trans woman. This is sadly an inaccurate view of Thailand as some kind of trans / LGBT utopia. It isn’t. Trans women can’t change their legal gender in Thailand and they can’t legally marry their spouse. I can’t marry my wife in Thailand and she’s not legally female there but we are married and she is legally female in the US. America varies widely by community in its social acceptance of LGBT people. Thailand varies less as a smaller more homogenous place. Thailand is less socially progressive than San Francisco and vastly more than rural Georgia. Either way, there is no LGBT law in Thailand and there are many Thai LGBT organizations fighting and protesting to change that. Happy to answer any questions you have, I have a lifetime of experience with this exact topic.
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  665. Correct.
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  666. Don’t worry, your transphobia is well understood.
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  667. A.) How many ladyboys per capita is a huge amount to you? 0.5% 1% 2% 5% 15% ? No one is quantifying numbers so everyone can have a different relativistic sense of a “huge amount” based on what they are used to. B.) what do you think explains why there are so so few out and visible trans women in your country?
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  668.  @justaviewer904  No tears, just pointing out your ugly transphobia and fictitious causality.
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  669. You really won’t believe it when you marry a trans girl: I did. Best decision I ever made.
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  670. Trans women ARE women to me. Thailand can do whatever Thailand wants. Less than 2% of the Thai population are Christians.
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  671. Shame? For treating trans people decently?
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  672. Still a girl, just a trans girl.
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  673. That's essentially due to testosterone exposure. If you block puberty with meds like Lupron and go on estrogen during adolescence that doesn't really happen.
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  674. My wife is a Thai trans woman. It's a complex picture. The US has been very successful in passing important LGBT rights like the ability of trans people to change their legal gender and to be able to get legally married. Both of these are impossible in Thailand, despite years of effort. That change didn't happen by accident in the US, it took a great deal of political pressure to make that happen. You may just see it as annoying but being vocal and building political coalitions has been instrumental in improving the lives of trans women in the US. SEAsian people are just less sexually dimorphic than the average American and so it's vastly easier for trans women to pass. That's not a level playing field. Thailand also does as much trans related healthcare as the rest of the world combined and has some of the world's best surgeons at very affordable prices. Thailand is just a much less adversarial society in general where people mind their own business and clearly this impacts your perceptions as well.
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  675.  @আনাহিতা১৬১  There are many Thai words that Thai trans women use to describe themselves. sao praphet song for example carries none of this connotation. Thailand’s trans community and self identification is not monolithic. There are plenty of Thai trans woman saying so in interviews on YouTube.
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  676. The person who said that is a taxi driver (the vest gives it away) in downtown Bangkok seeing tens of thousands of people everyday. Of course he's going to see some trans people. If you drive a taxi in downtown LA, SF or NYC you're going to see trans people every day as well. I see trans people all the time in the US. No big thing. Obviously in more rural Thailand they'll be a lot thinner on the ground.
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  677. Being trans and gay are not the same thing.
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  678. The Thai people interviewed didn’t seem to think there were many. Is ~1% of the population, many?
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  679. Lol. Two Y chromosomes. Check your 7th grade biology textbook for the details on the XY sex determination system which tells us nothing about gender.
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  680. Shame on you for believing that folklore.
    3
  681. Trump could care less about a better world. He's only interested in selling South Korea down the river to win the Nobel Peace Prize so he can be in a better position win reelection and to set himself up for an empire of exclusive real estate deals after his presidency is over. Other people are merely a means to an end.
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  682.  @ubacow7109  Many Thai trans women 20-30 years ago took birth control pills as HRT. They’re also simply less sexually dimorphic than others races so passing is easier. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions, just ask.
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  683. Thankfully you don't have the full authority of the Canadian government behind you.
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  684. Nothing scary about it. If you’re not interested in trans women just put it in your dating profile. Problem solved.
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  685.  @ainerdal3431  I’m going to support trans people in their gender identity. You’re free to do as you wish, of course. Free will and all. I am absolutely a heretic, I have no use for religious dogma whatsoever.
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  686.  @ainerdal3431  You don’t get to control my feelings and reactions. If someone insults me, I’m going to be insulted. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think it’s an insult or not.I have my own agency as do you. If someone discriminates against me, I’m going to think they are jackasses and if applicable seek legal remediation. I can call anyone whatever I like, the same as you.
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  687. The 90’s called and they want their tired boomer joke back.
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  688. There are vanishingly few Christians in Thailand. Thai people have little use for your transphobic religion.
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  689. There are trans women in every country in the world. How many you see in any given country depends on how much discrimination they face.
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  690. Thailand’s economy does not revolve around sex tourism. All tourism is about 10% of the Thai economy. Trans women choose to live as women because they want to, not as some kind of occupation. Most Thai trans women are not sex workers. You can see them working regular retail and salon jobs all across untouristed Thailand.
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  691. That is her natural hair you realize, right?
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  692. There are almost no Jews in Thailand. How would that even work?
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  693. This isn’t about US immigration. Let’s let other countries talk about their lives and struggles for a change.
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  694. That’s why I married a Thai trans woman and took her back to America. Problem solved!
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  695.  @blackticalmayhem8461  Is your trans girlfriend Thai or is she in the US? (or both?)
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  696. No way. It’s clearly Illuminati chemtrails.
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  697. Not one that you recognized at least. Keep in mind these guys are taxi drivers downtown in one of the biggest cities in the world seeing tens of thousands of people everyday.
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  698. And plenty of non white guys. Trans women need love too.
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  699. Famous Thai ladyboys, in fact.
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  700. Seems like you're spending the better part of 1 million Baht on surgery before you make anything, and you're spending months earning nothing and paying bills in recovery. Pretty poor ROI on this business model where you can only really earn in your 20's to say nothing of the opportunity costs of forsaking your desired relationship future and unexpected STD drawdowns. If you have a million Baht you can definitely just open up a small business and earn decent money. Millions of people in Thailand do that every day.
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  701.  @abelincoln7346  My wife is a Thai trans woman. What do you think I don’t understand? Identity politics is literally everywhere in Thailand. PTP, Phak Kao Klai, Royalists, rural vs urban, Buddhists vs Muslim south, hi-so vs lo-so. Identity politics are a facet of every culture and country.
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  702. Watching porn and having a partner are not mutually exclusive. Some couples even watch porn together. It is 2020.
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  703. Keep in mind they’re using the English word here at all, just for your benefit. Many subtleties are lost in translation. Thai people have their own words in Thai to describe And identity trans folks. There is a cultural history of trans people in Thailand (and all over South Asia really) for hundreds and hundreds of years and the evolution of LGBT rights and culture is not on the same evolutionary path as the western model. My wife is a Thai trans women. She doesn’t think of herself as a ladyboy. Her command of English is also quite above average for a Thai person so she understands the western subtext now in ways other Thai people do not. There are also problematic words in here used in Thai, as you can find discussed deep in the comments below. It is not helped that Thai trans women cannot change their legal gender in Thailand no matter what they do and that does take a toll On the agency you have over over your own gender identity when your own identity card betrays you. If you have any questions just ask, this is a topic I know quite a bit about as you can imagine.
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  704. Ok. At the same time the word has come to mean different things in the west vs Thailand. Thats the case for hundreds and hundreds of borrowed words from English with different meanings and subtext in both places. It’s also complicated because Trans people can’t change their legal gender nor can they legally marry their opposite gender spouses. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions about LGBT Thailand, just ask. Cheers.
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  705. Oh, please. The cultural history of trans people in Asia goes back thousands of years.
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  706. More urban folklore than anything. There a handful of examples of all sorts of terrible things, doesn't mean it was at all typical. No doubt a handful of parents sold their cis daughters off into sex slavery also. Not typical either.
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  707. You keep trying to draw a social distinction between trans women and cis women that I will never recognize. It does not matter if one woman is stronger than another because they are both women to me. Any argument you could use for trans women imperiling the safety of cis women I could also apply to cis women with a criminal record. Statistically people with a criminal record are more likely to commit more crime than people without a criminal record. Yet no one is suggesting that we should bar cis female criminals from women’s restrooms, or because they are criminals send them in with the men whom can better defend themselves against crime. That is because we recognize the inherent femininity of cis female criminals. I recognize the inherit femininity of trans women. You do not. That’s why this entire back and forth is pointless. We are on opposing sides of this argument. There is zero chance of you convincing me of anything and zero chance of me convincing you of anything. What point is there in continuing?
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  708. Discomfort around trans women, in the restroom or otherwise, is transphobia. I will never see it as anything else. Just you would see banning Caucasian women from women’s restrooms because they’re stronger women on average than Asian women or banning another ethnicity’s women from women’s restrooms because they statistically more likely to commit more crime is racism, I see banning trans women from women’s restrooms as transphobia. Again, nothing you say can convince me otherwise. Yet we continue in sheer pointlessness wasting each other’s time.
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  709. What’s the point of posting the same line of argumentation with two different accounts minutes apart? First, no one will ever read this far down this thread. Second, it’s completely apparent to anyone that it’s you.
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  710. @x x I'm insensitive about this. You're correct. You're welcome to not like my approach. That's not going to change the way I do things. We each decide how we want to conduct ourselves.
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  711. That’s a really great story. Thanks for sharing.
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  712. Gay people are gay. They’re not going to suddenly find women attractive because of this hocus pocus. Ex gay ministries fail spectacularly. Look into the history of them.
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  713.  @_alessandra__  Thanks. I've had many decades to think bout this. I've had the fortune to visit a number of different countries. I'm also old, so I remember how things were and what changed hearts and minds of the general population in various places and what didn't. I'm bisexual. My wife is a Thai trans woman. I've had long term relationships with cis women, gay men and trans women so I can see this from many sides. I also viscerally understand homophobia and transphobia and times were much worse in those early days. As it is the case that in many places you actually have to make sacrifices (sometimes big, sometimes small) to lead an open LGBT life, it's a lot easier to adopt a "My LGBT life is none of your business" attitude because it leads to less cognitive dissonance because underneath it all most everyone realizes that the more LGBT people that are out and visible is a collective good for the LGBT community. Familiarity begets comfort begets understanding and support from allies that help laws get passed that help the LGBT community and reduces social discrimination and hostility.
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  714.  @andynonymous6769  No disagreement here. That’s what I’ve been saying throughout the thread. I don’t know about everyone under 25 being bisexual, though. I live in one of the most progressive places in the world and actual practiced bisexuality just isn’t that common, millennials and zoomers included.
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  715.  @siunaldosuwiiiiii  I'm always happy to displease homophobes.
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  716. You don’t think laws can change mindsets and actions? Pretty sure this janitor wouldn’t have forced this trans girl down to the security office if she knew the SOGIE law had passed and knew what would happen to her if she did that.
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  717. Thailand (and many other countries in the area) has had trans women / 3rd gender people for hundreds of years, going back to the Kama Sutra. It’s neither new nor unusual from a historical perspective. Western Europe and it’s colonial expansion were particularly condemning of LGBT people and you’ll find the laws against sodomy where enacted during this time for the first time in many countries. As countries tried to modernize in the face of aggressive colonial expansion local LGBT people were often thrown under the bus. Thailand is unique in SE Asia in that it wasn’t never taken over by a hostile foreign power so some of these traditions are better preserved. Buddhism is also vastly better than abrahamic religions at personal autonomy. From my point of view the question is not “Why are there so many trans women in Thailand” but rather why do other countries repress their trans women so much that they hide and are driven to suicide? My wife is a Thai trans woman. We live in the US now. What questions do you have?
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  718.  @Opal5674  Spent much time in Thailand, have you? My wife is a Thai trans woman so this is a topic I know quite well. She didn’t suffer any sexual abuse nor did any of her Thai trans friends. There really aren’t really that many trans people per capita in Thailand. A percent or so per capita. Seems like more because you see a lot doing sex work in tourist areas but in the countryside it’s far less common. Best estimates for California is 0.6% (Williams institute study) and growing as social hostility and discrimination is becoming less severe by the year. If you want to call people exercising their freedom to dress and love life as they want as a “contagion” that’s on you. I just call it personal freedom.
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  719.  @Opal5674  There are way more Thai trans women than sex trafficked children in Thailand. How much time have you spent in Thailand talking to Thai trans women?
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  720.  @brucehwang9789  Rest assured, I'm very aware of the differences between the LGBT west and L:GBT Thailand up to and including the unfortunate lack of most LGBT law in Thailand that leaves many Thai LGBT people twisting in the wind. That said, as you know, Thailand's democracy is in a pretty deplorable state and getting anything constructive done is quite a logistical challenge. That said, there is hope on the horizon for marriage equality first and then transgender gender change later as is the case in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan.
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  721. Ladyboy is just an easy word for Thai people as basic English speakers to remember and pronounce. Only the person in question can tell you about the gender they identity as. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions, just ask.
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  722. ​ @eksdee3709  Why do heterosexual people get to be open about their spouses and families and LGBT people get to hide in the closet twisting in the wind without full legal equality? This is just a defense of the status quo where LGBT people suffer and to defend it is to be complicit in that suffering. In every country, dozens now, there have been fears that too much too soon would lead to a backlash that would slow down equality. It has been proven wrong every time in completely unique cultural circumstances from South Africa, to Uruguay to Spain to Iceland to Canada. Honestly, go look. It is the case. The public needs to understand that LGBT people exist, are being marginalized and that this is a real human rights problem that needs addressing to do right by it's own citizens. If that's uncomfortable for some, great. More will rise to offer support. There is nothing uniquely western about successful political action. You also do not speak for all of Asia. Thai ladyboys are as Asian as they come and they've been living openly for hundreds and hundreds of years before Columbus landed in the Bahamas.
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  723. Trans women are women to me and I don’t care what you have to say about that tbh. I call people what they want to be called. It’s the only decent thing to do. I have no way of ascertaining any biological facts anyway nor is it any of my business.
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  724. Myself and millions of others see trans women as women. Nothing you say will change that.
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  725. Ladyboy does not mean that. Plenty self identifying ladyboys have had GRS and plenty have not. Transsexual isn’t really used as a useful term anymore. It’s all under a broad umbrella of transgender. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions, just ask.
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  726. Ladyboys love ladybugs too. 🐞
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  727. As if the word ladyboy wasn’t a western word. Thai trans women have their own Thai words to refer to themselves.
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  728. Thank you for your support.
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  729. They would say the same about your transphobia.
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  730. Did you ask those children if they were happy drressed / presenting that way?. That’s the key question. Many trans children should be so lucky to have such accepting parents.
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  731. You’re that afraid of seeing a trans person? You may never want to leave your house. There are trans people in every country in the world, after all.
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  732. Most Thai trans women are actually not sex workers. You can see them working retail and salon jobs all over untouristed Thailand.
    3
  733.  @cloudyheart5148  Can't stop. Won't stop. My wife is a trans woman and she's legally female. No one knows what it's really like to be another person, male or female. Plenty of women (cis and trans alike) can't have their own children. Doesn't make them any less of a woman. Gender is in the mind, not the body. Feel free to disagree. I'm going to be here supporting trans women (and trans men) in their gender identity. Feel free to promote whatever exclusionary practices you like.
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  734. That is a big difference. That isn’t true in many other countries among middle aged people.
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  735.  @Pedro-pl6to  I’m Not interested in supernatural mumbo jumbo. Thai people are 90%+ Buddhist and have no use for Jesus either. Better luck elsewhere buddy.
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  736.  @kinndah2519  She’s a woman to me. Gender isn’t the same thing as biology. It’s a cultural role and an identity.
    3
  737. There never is the same MTF to FTM ratio anywhere.
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  738. Ladyboy in Thailand is just an English word used largely for the convenience of English speakers. Thai folks have their own words in Thai with their own subtext.
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  739. My wife is legally female and the county clerk said, “I now pronounce you husband and wife”. Love is love. Disapprove all you like, I’ll just love my wife more the more adversity I face. It’s like a daily reminder to appreciate what you have. Thanks!
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  740. Very sad. Here’s to hoping conditions for LGBT people improve in Malaysia.
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  741. That’s what all the homophobes and transphobes say.
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  742. That’s what all the homophobes and transphobes say.
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  743.  @ichsanabdilah4724  I am absolutely certain that there is nothing wrong with being bisexual. It is as normal and right as being left handed. Your “my friend” gaslighting homophobia is as sad as it is passive aggressive. Your naïveté about sexual orientation is an embarrassment in 2021. LGBT people deserve nothing less than full equality under the law for their relationships, anything less is 2nd class citizenship.
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  744. Have you spent much time in Thailand talking to Thai ladyboys?
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  745.  @janemadrid2845  Do you know trans people personally in the US?
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  746. There isn’t all that many in Thailand. 1% of the population or so. There are trans women in every country. Thailand is very tolerant and has been for quite some time. Lots of countries have a lot of hostility and discrimination against trans people so a lot fewer actually transition which is changing now that trans people are being more accepted. Know hope!
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  747.  @torogenghis1609  No cis women over 55 are getting pregnant either. They’re still women. Fertility isn’t femininity.
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  748. ​ @gaafailok3719  Transgender demographics are quite difficult to ascertain but one can get in the ballpark. Lets look at rates of prevalence. In the US the Williams Institute, estimated with the best available data that 0.58% of U.S. adults identify as transgender. That's about 3 in 500 people, or about 1.4 million for the US as a whole. Are the rates higher in Thailand. Absolutely. But how much higher? For that one needs to actually go to Thailand in various places and do observations for a sustained length of time keeping in mind that some trans women are completely unclockable, but only about 10% would really fall into this category to someone with a trained eye. Having done that I'm going to put the metrics at about 3 per 100 people or 3%. It's less in the country side there are fewer and in Bangkok there are more. There are number of factors that make it seem like there are more trans women than they are. 1. Publicity. Thailand is famous for this so everyone is looking for this. There are a number of ladyboy cabaret shows which are well publicized and marketed to tourists. 2. In the tourist areas there are a number of red-light districts with many trans women in them that tourists are going to see by visiting. Soi Cowboy, Nana Plaza, Patpong, Soi 6 / Walking Street Pattaya. In other, less tourist-ed parts of the country there really are a lot less. There is a cultural tradition of 3rd gendered people in many countries in the world that western europe / US doesn't have. Muxes in Mexico. Waria in Indonesia. Hijra in India. Two-spirit people in Native Americans, and yes Kathoey in Thailand. They have all been part of the cultural landscape for hundred and hundreds of years without a strong social prohibition. This is very much not the case in the west. Discrimination against trans people has only in the last 20 years lessened. It wasn't until the mid 1970s that many US cities (Chiciago, Houston, Denver, etc) made cross dressing not against the law. Trans people still face a great deal of discrimination but it's clear that in the last 20 years that the number of new patients at gender clinics in the US and the UK has gone up by a tremendous year over year increase every year. For many people in the west the risk of living publicly as trans wasn't worth the cost but that equation is now changing and more and more people are transitioning. In San Francisco, I run into almost as many trans women as I do in Bangkok. It's also much easier to access transgender health care in Thailand and the costs are fairly low. There is very little gatekeeping involved unlike the west. These are the factors. If you have any followup questions, just ask. This is a topic that I know quite a bit about.
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  749. You are aware that Thailand is 90%+ Buddhist, right? This Transphobic God of yours isn’t very applicable to the vast majority of Thai people.
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  750. Sadly, all those haters will never understand genetics or endocrinology at this level.
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  751. I never beat off to trans people unknowingly. I insist on it!
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  752. That’s correct, RPG. Best thing I ever did. We’ve been together for 16 years and legally married for 6 years. We live in Califnornia now but will retire to Thailand eventually. Things are going great. Thanks for asking!
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  753. That’s a hot take. I like trans women no matter where they are from but I did end up marrying a Thai trans woman. A lot of this anti trans sentiment being stirred up is political in the US, just like gay marriage was in the 2000s. It was a winning issue for conservatives until it wasn’t and now conservatives never talk about it. Funny that.
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  754. ​ @maurice2014  Nothing contradictory about gender being a social construct and wanting to medically transform your body to look a certain way. To think so is to fully misunderstand trans people.
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  755. The trouble with that theory is that most Thai ladyboys aren’t sex workers. Plenty also have university degrees.
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  756. Christians are less than 2% of the population in Thailand.
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  757. Silicon Valley tech companies all have ultra strong LGBT support. Look at any of their hiring pages and massive support at local LGBT pride marches in San Francisco and all over the bay. So a Samsung phone... running Android OS from Google in Mountain View, California. You realize that at Google headquarters all transwomen can use the women’s bathroom, right? Odd that they can be so brilliant and get something so wrong (according to you) isn’t it?
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  758. And California law that trans women are legally allowed in women’s public restrooms? That trans women in California can change their legal gender? That trans women in California can update their birth certificate? That gays and lesbians in California can legally marry their same sex spouses? That insurance in California must legally cover transition related health care. Silicon Valley has always been behind all LGBT rights initiatives in California. How did all these brilliant and amazing engineers get it so wrong? Maybe the answer is that you have it wrong.
    3
  759. This is just semantics. Trans people in the US understand that they are trans women. Thai trans women in the Thai language address themselves as female all the time.
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  760.  @muayboran6111  Dozens of countries allow trans people to change their legal gender. It’s not a problem there, why would it be a problem in Thailand? Many of those countries have vastly more expensive and comprehensive free health care than Thailand does. Sweden. UK. Canada. Etc.
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  761. A part of their culture can’t be progressive?
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  762. Thailand doesn’t have this level of English subtext to the word. It’s really just for the convenience of English speakers like us and it’s easy for non native English speakers to remember and say. They obviously have their own words in Thai.
    3
  763. Lol. They are actually famous Thai trans women.
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  764.  @missxmarvel  Changed your mind about the thumbnail being pictures of biological women, I see.
    3
  765.  @herasanchez2346  Yes. Emma didn’t even have the courage to admit that she was wrong even after it was proven who these trans girls actually are.
    3
  766.  @dirrrtyA  Again, gender for me is in the mind and not the body. You’re welcome to disagree.
    3
  767.  Winter Wyvern  Yep, longer than that now, actually. Neither of us want kids. I’d rather retire early and work part time at a meaningful nonprofit or charity doing something in life that helps others who are in need.
    3
  768.  @MariaJose-vm1gd  No worries. It’s just fun to talk about and I have a lot of experience with this topic that most people don’t have.
    3
  769. If they disappeared that would seem to indicate more of a problem, not less, would it not? I don’t see why a trans person having a position of authority would be problematic. I’d vote for a trans prime minister if I liked their policies. Aren’t trans women called Waria in Indonesia? Genuinely asking.
    3
  770. Momo Chan First, The Life Partnership Bill was approved in late December but has not yet been voted on and the new government will still need to do that. Second, the Life Partnership bill isn’t true marriage equality and does not include state welfare, personal income tax deductions, or adoption rights and there will be many legal challenges surrounding this new legal status that does not exist for marriage. Third, this bill does nothing to help ladyboys change their legal gender and update their IDs and Passports as they can in a couple dozen other countries. Fourth, thanks for your support.
    3
  771. It's different. In the US trans women can get legally married and change their legal gender. This is impossible in Thailand. In this respect it's a lot less open than the US. Then again Thai social tolerance and transgender awareness and the ability to mind your own business is much better in Thailand compared to the US. Trans people have been a part of Thai culture for thousands of years. If you have any questions, just ask. My wife is a Thai trans woman.
    3
  772.  @phonegamerz269  You are wrong. Look up the Hijra, Kinnar, Waria, Muxe, Mahu, fa'afafine and two spirit people. I’ll wait.
    3
  773. It’s an English word that’s easy for Thai people who are not native English speakers to say. That’s all. Obviously Thai people have their own words.
    3
  774. You're pushing transphobia. Double sad.
    3
  775. It does? Completely different language families.
    3
  776. Trans women in Thailand call themselves that. Should they stop calling themselves that because you say so?
    3
  777.  @EnigmazGuide  God doesn't exist. The only thing that matters is how we treat each other.
    3
  778.  @randomly_random_0  You are correct. Billions of people in Asia have no equality under the law for their spouses and to protect their lives and relationship. This is second class citizenship and more countries, like Taiwan, need to do right by their LGBT brothers and sisters.
    3
  779. That ultra liberal Thai military junta is clearly at it again. The next thing you know they’ll be allowing people to vote! 😅
    3
  780. I ended up marrying a Thai trans woman. Best decision I ever made. If you have any questions, just ask.
    3
  781. That's pretty unfair. I've seen lots of cute Phil ladyboys.
    3
  782. I’m not sure how that applies to Thailand. Thai people are very religious. There are Buddhist temples everywhere.
    3
  783. Ladyboys have been a part of South and SE Asian culture for thousands of years.
    3
  784. The Thai are 70 million people. What you can be assured of is a diversity of opinion. Many do yes. Others see them as male. Others see them as female. Unfortunately Thai trans women can’t their gender on their ID as can be done in dozens of other countries, regardless of what medical steps they take.
    3
  785. And thousands of years prior to that.
    3
  786. But I do want it!
    3
  787. Ameteur hour. Marry one like I did.
    3
  788. And what foods are they eating? Before you say Soy, honestly there is more soy in the average western diet in processed foods than the average diet in Thailand which is chicken, pork or seafood, rice, rice noodles and veggies.
    3
  789. As a gay man I feel the same. I’ve followed the train wreck of ex-gay ministries around the US for the last 20 years. It all ends the same way. Huge group of disgruntled angry gay guys that felt deceived as the leaders finally broke down themselves unable to live a lie as well. I’m not at all happy about what he’s doing to his clients but at the same time I mostly feel pity for what concentrated homophobia can do to these vulnerable people.
    3
  790. There is quite a lot lost in cultural translation here. My wife is a Thai trans woman. I'm an American and have spent quite a bit of time in Thailand. The word ladyboy is just easy compound noun for Thai people (whom as a whole are not great English speakers) to remember, say and pronounce. It has none of the subtext that it does in the west. There are many examples of loan words borrowed from English that do not match the same definition as the west. There is plenty of mainstream employment of trans women in blue collar jobs but it is also the case that significant white collar discrimination exists against trans women. There is also no marriage equality in Thailand and trans people can't change their legal gender. This also means I can't marry my wife in Thailand (but can in California). It's a legal LGBT black hole there. If you have any more questions, just ask.
    3
  791. ...or he could just be lying about not being attracted to men now because he blames himself for his mom’s suicide and this is the only way he can mentally cope. We’ll never know.
    3
  792. English loan words don’t have the same meaning in Thailand that they do in the west. Thailand isn’t all that accepting. Trans girls can’t legally marry their husbands nor change their legal gender on their ID and Passport. Such rights are common in the west.
    3
  793. Sure it does. If it didn’t matter trans women would never transition.
    2
  794. Gotta live a little, tw. Don’t forget the ant eggs and silk worms. They’re delicious!
    2
  795. They’re just much less confrontational about their judging. On the other hand that lack of confrontation does make it difficult for LGBT rights to gain traction. There is no same sex marriage in Thailand and trans people Can’t change their legal gender. It’s a mixed bag.
    2
  796. Check again. It’s the law in most of North America and Europe that trans women are Legally allowed to use the women’s restroom. Look up public accommodation law.
    2
  797. This just simply false. The vast majority of Thai trans women have no history of sexual exploitation.
    2
  798. Why would you be sad for people making the choices they want to make?
    2
  799. That's part of the reason I married a Thai trans woman.
    2
  800.  @theroyalcrownedtiger2946  Sure am. Best decision I ever made.
    2
  801.  @ProudFemaleFBIAgent  You can make that happen.
    2
  802.  @bosshub777  Bi. Literally doubles your relationship options.
    2
  803. Nah. There are tons of gays and lesbians in Thailand, too. This isn’t Iran.
    2
  804. A few desperate parents also sold their daughters into sex slavery. Such rare occurrences aren’t representative of anything, and it doesn’t explain the existence of trans women under 45 when the Vietnam war was over 45 years ago.
    2
  805. Democracy is not four wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
    2
  806. Very few ladyboys are lesbian. There are lots of lesbians though.
    2
  807. Reading and writing Chinese is way harder than Thai.
    2
  808. Are you seriously suggesting there is no difference between a trans woman and a cisgender man?
    2
  809. They’re all famous ladyboys, yes.
    2
  810. Sure but this is gender identity, not sexual orientation.
    2
  811. CAN YOU DO NO BETTER THAN THIS FOR LGBT PRIDE MONTH, ASIAN BOSS?
    2
  812. Let me guess, you’ve never talked with a trans person before?
    2
  813. Some trans girls have big feet but others don’t. There are small sizes of men’s shoes in every shoe store, right?
    2
  814. Korea, Singapore, Spain, Italy, Finland, Japan, Germany and Canada have a lower fertility rate than Thailand. The reality is that developed nations have a low birth rate. The primary reason for the high birth rates in developing countries is that having children is a way to have someone that can care for you when you get older or are injured. Developed countries simply have retirement systems and healthcare to accomplish this goal in a much more holistic way. It's vastly better mechanism for the ecology and preservation of the planet than adding more billions more people that the earth's environment can't sustainably support.
    2
  815. Proof?
    2
  816. There is a lot of tolerance but LGBT people can’t legally marry their spouses nor can trans people change their legal gender in Thailand or Vietnam. Thailand and Vietnam have a long long to go for LGBT equality.
    2
  817. Trans people all over South Asia have existed for hundreds and hundreds of years. Do a little research.
    2
  818. In the months after recovery dilators are really important. After the recovery it can be occasional and obviously sex works as well. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions, just ask.
    2
  819.  @chantreachea1467  First girl is Yoshi, second is Chananchida “Blossom” Rungpetcharat and the last is Treechada “Poyd” Petcharat. Poyd is easily the most famous. Amazing girls, each and every one.
    2
  820.  @chantreachea1467  Poy has done all sorts of acting, yes. She's a bit older and has a lot of experience now. Don't wrap up your self esteem with beauty that much. We all get older and time passes and the important thing is how we treat others and the good we bring into the world. It is good that trans folks are treated well in Thailand but what Thailand needs is marriage equality so Trans women (like my wife) can legally marry their husbands and can change their legal gender.
    2
  821.  @chantreachea1467  Sadly same sex marriage is not yet legal in Thailand. There is some progress on it but Parliament still needs to vote on civil partnerships. Note that those civil partnerships, which are not yet legal, are also not full marriage equality. My wife and I have been waiting for about 10 years to get legally married in Thailand. We are legally married in California. Few people seem to realize this, sadly. Rin certainly is amazing. You're quite the fan! Where are you from?
    2
  822.  @noeminoemi1350  What can we do to support and increase the success of this important program?
    2
  823.  @noeminoemi1350  But that’s only a very small percent of the population, even in Thailand. Many of the comments on this video are people saying that they rarely to never see any trans people where they are. Seems fairly unsuccessful.
    2
  824. All correctable with surgery, hormones and voice training.
    2
  825.  @arthurdanielles4784  My wife of many years is a Thai trans woman. Rest assured, I know all about it. The trachea shave is outpatient surgery and under $500 at many clinics in Thailand. Lots of girls have that done, actually. Some girls do have silicone hip and leg injections which is affordable but risky. Androgen blockers and estrogen at an early age, rare before but now increasingly common, and will give you slightly fuller hips and a more curvy lower spine. Some girls want the penile inversion technique (SRS / GRS) and others don’t and actually many who are sex workers would like to have it but don’t for employment reasons. Pre-op sex worker girls are vastly higher in demand. Happy to answer any questions you have, I’ve got plenty of “hands on” experience. 😀
    2
  826. The west has been more open to trans women for a relatively short period of time. Trans women in Thailand have been a part of Thai society for hundreds and hundreds of years. It’s not alone in that. India. Indonesia. And many places in South Asia. The year over year increased new patient caseload at gender clinics all over the west is proof that the west is catching up quickly as trans people feel more comfortable transitioning instead of burying their authentic selves in the closet until later in life when transition is much more difficult. This video is about trans women, not trans men whom also exist in Thailand. My wife is a Thai trans women. If you have any questions, just ask.
    2
  827. My wife is a Thai Trans woman and I've certainly met trans girls that I didn't think were trans at first. Rare but it happens. Happens the other way, also. I've certainly confused some cis women for trans girls, some lesbians in particular. It's a rainbow! :)
    2
  828. Westerners are more progressive in many ways. Thai trans women can’t legally marry their husbands nor can they change their legal gender. All commonplace in the west for many years now but impossible in Thailand. Unfortunately that’s the situation I’m in with my Thai trans wife.
    2
  829.  @islamandchristianityhater5713  Agreed. Its incredibly sad for LGBT Indians.
    2
  830.  @wooeidikd9412  One of the most accepting in the world where there is no same sex marriage and trans women can’t change their legal gender? How exactly are you doing your acceptance calculations?
    2
  831.  @wooeidikd9412  "One of the most accepting in the world" when the Netherlands has had same sex marriage for over 20 years already. Top 100 countries, but certainly not not top 20.
    2
  832.  @wooeidikd9412  Whatever party, as long as LGBT people are not legal second class citizens. That’s the main thing.
    2
  833.  @wooeidikd9412  Glad to hear that some positive change is happening. Know hope!
    2
  834.  @rainxcviii1612  Your question is a good one and not easy to answer. My wife is a Thai trans woman. We live in California. She changed her legal gender and we're legally married in the US. Both of those things are not legally possible for her to do in Thailand. Everyone has the right to identify as the gender that they want. If Sauce wants to be considered "not a woman" that's great and perfectly her right. Gender non-binary people exist and that's great too. In the video, if you know the slightest amount of Thai you'll notice that Sauce uses the female ending particle "Ka", which is essentially self declaring her gender as female in the language. It's key to understand here that in South Asia and SE Asia there has been a 3rd gender social role for effeminate men / trans women for centuries that's part of the cultural landscape in a way that Europe and it's colonies never had. Hijra in India, Hhwaja sira in Pakistan, Waria in Indonesia. So too in Thailand. I don't know if Sauce actually sees herself as "not a woman", as a member of this 3rd gender class, or that's just the way she's been taught to respond to a question about her not being a cisgender female. There is a lot of nuance to language here. It surely doesn't help matters that Thai trans women can't legally be female on their ID card. That piece of plastic is more trans-formative and epistemic than one would at first understand. It allows one to hold the line and point and say, look here, I am legally a woman that cannot currently be done with a M on your ID. In many ways Thailand hasn't grappled with this yet, and the reality of legal LGBT relationships, and it's non-confrontational style of change management is not particularly speedy. In the west, this transformation didn't happen overnight, either, of course. The difference being that we're all too happy to tee off on each other over injustices, make alliances and flags, and slug it out ugly style on the evening news. For better or worse.
    2
  835. Reading and writing is brutal. Spoken Thai isn’t too bad.
    2
  836. Only his oncologist has any hope of doing that.
    2
  837.  @sacredserpent9667  Nah. Legal gender change is legal in a couple dozen countries. Millions of trans people have done it.
    2
  838.  @sacredserpent9667  And proud of it, sweetheart.
    2
  839. … if you’re transphobic.
    2
  840. Ah, I’ve never been to Da Nang. I didn’t see any ladyboys in Hanoi. I sure do want to visit someday though. Generally speaking there is always a LGBT migration to the most progressive cities. London, Paris, New York, San Francisco, Hollywood, Berlin, Bangkok, Tokyo, etc. Life’s just easier when there is more of a critical mass. You should visit Bangkok someday when you can. You’ll see quite a few, I’m sure.
    2
  841. Just like Sauce in the video said, most trans women that you’ll ask have felt from a very early age that they should be female. Given that many cultures all over the world have trans women in them, it seems like a naturally occurring phenomenon like being left handed.
    2
  842. Completely normal in West Hollywood or San Francisco.
    2
  843. 1990 called and they want their joke back.
    2
  844. Ladyboys need love too, no?
    2
  845. They have a king, they are not ruled by a king. The big problem is the army interceding into the democratic process.
    2
  846. A lot is lost in cultural translation in this video.
    2
  847.  @clarissadickinson7044  Nicely said, Clarissa. More people need to look into the track record of other ex-gay ministries. As these ex-gays in leadership can't keep up the charade any longer they become ex-ex-gay. Everyone should do a youtube search for Exodus International.
    2
  848.  @jeffreykam3748  What's your problem with trans people?
    2
  849.  @aesvpa1856  ใช่มาก
    2
  850. Yes and No. Yes there is a lot of tolerance and people have a live and let live attitude. That said Thai trans women can't get legally married to their husbands. Nor can they change their legal gender. Businesses can also legally discriminate against trans women at entry. "no trans women allowed" You see this at bars and nightclubs sometimes. None of these legal things are a problem in much of the west. My wife is a Thai trans woman (we live in California now) and it's a complex topic.
    2
  851. You’re reading translation subtext that just isn’t there.
    2
  852. He wants the Nobel Peace prize and isn't afraid to just accept NK's pathetic lies to broker a fictitious peace accord that leaves South Korea in a worse position. Honesty if South Korea wants Trump on their side, offer to knock over Namsan Seoul Tower and put a 100 floor Trump tower in it's place. If you want something from Trump you can never go wrong placating his gold plated ego.
    2
  853.  Janet Benz  This presidency is nothing but a publicity campaign for Trump, Inc. to broker bigger and more exclusive real estate deals.
    2
  854. Why shouldn’t people have autonomy over their own body? How are ladyboys in Thailand harming you?
    2
  855. Mine is helicopter airport. Let’s make this happen! 😀
    2
  856. Dysphoria isn’t just On or Off. All Trans folks are not dysphoric about the same things. There are plenty of non-op trans girls that are completely happy with their OEM equipment below the belt. The surgery is what it is and if it’s not for you, it’s not for you. There are a bunch of videos on YouTube of non-op girls explaining this from their POV.
    2
  857. Creating trans women in Thailand? Get real.
    2
  858. A woman is more than her reproductive equipment. A woman that doesn't want kids and has a hysterectomy is still a woman.
    2
  859. No legal same sex marriage = second class citizenship = lack of respect
    2
  860.  @somebodyontheinternet7743  Nah, dozens of countries have legalized same sex marriage and the LGBT people there have benefited greatly from it. Every country needs to do right by her LGBT citizens. Paying first class taxes and getting second class treatment under the law is simply unjust. Every consenting adult should be able to marry their spouse. It makes for a better country.
    2
  861. If you have no problem with LGBT why can’t gays get legally married? Why can’t trans women legally marry their husbands or change their legal gender as is commonplace in the west?
    2
  862.  @brixsumaoang7567  I can and will compare SEAsia to Taiwan where same sex marriage is legal and LGBT people have legal protections for their relationships. It’s a step in the right direction to do right by all our LGBT brothers and sisters across Asia who effectively now have 2nd class citizenship.
    2
  863. ​ @brixsumaoang7567  I’m trying to prove that unless the Philippines legalizes same sex marriage, they do in fact have a problem with LGBT people which is your original assertion. They are systematically discriminating against them, as has been shown. Your failure to realize this fact is, in a small way, perpetuating the problem of second class citizenship for LGBT people.
    2
  864.  @brixsumaoang7567  Society includes the government. Society also does not treat LGBT relationships at parity with heterosexual relationships so it is clearly a society problem, also. Your lack of endorsement of same sex marriage here is quite telling. Obviously every country is different from every other, what is important is that in each and every country that LGBT people have full equality under the law for their relationships.
    2
  865.  @somebodyontheinternet7743  Simple. It is the task of civilization to protest and seek remedy to unjust practices and make all adult citizens equal under the law. Every country needs to do right by it’s LGBT citizens.
    2
  866.  @somebodyontheinternet7743  Marriage is a civic and legal institution, not exclusively a religious one. Religion is under no obligation to perform or care about same sex marriage. This is simply a marriage license like a driver’s license or business license which is issued as a function of government. There are a number of rights and protections that every committed couple should have under the law to protect their relationship, for straight couples and gay couples alike.
    2
  867.  @somebodyontheinternet7743  Religion does not have a monopoly of what marriage is and what it does. This has been proven time and time again in every pluralistic democracy in the world.
    2
  868.  @somebodyontheinternet7743  You must have a religious ceremony of any of the 6 legally accepted religions but that requirement isn’t what marriage is. It’s a function of government as a license which accords rights and responsibilities and relationship protection. Laws change as they have in the two dozen and growing list of countries that legally allow same sex marriage. Times change and Indonesia will as well as enough people recognize the structural injustice of such LGBT discrimination. I’m not saying it’ll be soon. It may take 20 or 200 years but it can and will be recognized as a basic human right in the long arc of history.
    2
  869.  @somebodyontheinternet7743  Sure but where has not trying ever achieved anything? The point is to try and fail a billion times before you or your relatives succeed. Indonesia is hardly the worst country in the world and it’s because of people who cared enough to improve things that it’s where it is in the world today and not dead last in everything.
    2
  870. There are less I would say, and there is vastly less publicity. That said there are quite a few.
    2
  871. Everyone decides for themselves what’s right for them. Some girls want it gone, others do not.
    2
  872. Everyone who signs up for SRS knows exactly what they are getting. Who are you to tell people what to do with their own bodies?
    2
  873. The God of Abraham? That’s the god you had in mind?
    2
  874. A few. About 4%-5% of Thais, mostly in the south bordering Malaysia are Muslim. About 1% of the population are Christian. Everyone else, 90% + are Buddhist and have little use for the God of Abraham.
    2
  875. It’s not easy. I’ve been at it for a while.
    2
  876. Get a ladyboy makeover.
    2
  877. Gays and lesbians are people too. They want to marry their same sex spouses and just live life without overbearing discrimination just like heterosexuals do. It is a colossal civic injustice that this is so controversial.
    2
  878. There is nothing to peek at in a restroom. The stalls have doors. Besides lesbians use restrooms everyday. You’re telling me there are no perverted lesbians?
    2
  879.  @johnnielson4341  Nope. I understand the LGBT community better than you ever will, straightsplainer. I have extensive experience in Thailand also over the last 20 years and I’m certain I know vastly more Thai LGBT people than you ever know both as expats in the US and in Thailand proper. I advocate for LGBT people to have the legal choices to make up their own minds about who they are and what they want, unlike you who clearly speaking for a community which you are obviously not a part of.
    2
  880. Fair enough. My wife is a Thai trans woman. Unfortunately we cannot get legally married in Thailand which is why we live in California now and are legally married here.
    2
  881. Read up on the penile inversion technique and then come back and ask some questions. My wife is a post op Thai trans woman and I helped her through the whole recovery process.
    2
  882. Spoken like someone that’s never experienced gender dysphoria. The way to understand this is not to tell trans people how they should be from a perspective of not understanding their struggle, but to listen to them tell you about their struggle and trusting the medical and psychological establishment whom have decades of experience with people with gender dysphoria to make the right decisions about their medical and mental health.
    2
  883. There are trans people in every country and airplanes fly around the world every day. Better avoid dating for the rest of your life just to be safe, after all you may inadvertently talk to a trans person. Obviously your life would be over at that point.
    2
  884.  @malakatan3235  Unfortunately ARVN just didn't have the numbers and popular support to make that a reality, but that said it was just a meatgrinder and it was just better for it to be over than to be used as shooting gallery for Sino/Soviet arms and US arms for another decade after 1975.
    2
  885.  @connecthertohealing  That’s quite a recommendation. I’ll have to check it out tonight.
    2
  886. It is normal for gay guys to not be interested in women.
    2
  887. Amazing until you want to get legally married or change your legal gender, both of which are legally impossible. My wife is a Thai trans woman. I know how awesome it isn’t.
    2
  888.  @wythra5183  We're legally married in the US and have been for many years now but we're legal strangers in Thailand and she's still legally male there. There are good points about being trans in Thailand to be sure but LGBT legal rights are not among them unfortunately. We're just hoping things improve before we retire there. Know hope! You should visit Thailand someday if you haven't already. If you have any questions about LGBT Thailand, just ask.
    2
  889. You feel incorrectly. You can see trans women all over Thailand, India, Philippines, and many other countries who transition because they want to often times at a great socioeconomic negative cost.
    2
  890.  @fiermoncunningham5978  Gods are the stuff of supernatural fantasy. Trans people are not doing anything wrong.
    2
  891.  @fiermoncunningham5978  That’s what they all say, pal. That’s what they all say.
    2
  892. Fortunately commenters here are not making the law. You’d be doing 30 years of hard labor in a maximum security prison for that.
    2
  893. You're also explaining Thailand (and a lot of south Asia really) which has a cultural history of trans people for hundreds and hundreds of years with terms invented in the west in English less than 50 years ago.
    2
  894. Trans girls have done a vast amount of self examination. soul searching and reflection and know very well what it’s like to be harassed and looked down upon. This sort of class isn’t uncommon in trans girls.
    2
  895. It’s that easy to clock the trans girls in the thumbnail?
    2
  896. Yep, small town America is often pretty deplorable when it comes to LGBT acceptance. It really just comes down to a lack of personal experience with LGBT people. Most LGBT people leave for progressive places like NY or SF so it can be hard to change hearts and minds since to do that you have to put up with a lot of BS. I know I left midwest American as soon as I could. While there are certainly a lot of open trans women in Thailand they are still pretty rare, too. My wife is a Thai trans woman. We live in SF now. It's good because you have both social acceptance and the law on your side. Thailand unfortunately has no marriage equality and trans women can't change their legal gender. It's a legal black hole for LGBT people. That's most of the reason we don't live there.
    2
  897.  @maelsyt23  Do a web search for "Buck Angel" and then tell me that a trans man such as this should be required to use the women's restroom. That's going to cause quite a scene.
    2
  898. Thailand isn't China, and thank goodness for that. Mao 2.0 is nothing I want any part of.
    2
  899. It is and the quality is as good as anywhere in the west.
    2
  900. Transgender is just about your gender identity, not your surgical status.
    2
  901. Depends on how many you think the word many represents. It’s 1 or 2 percent which some people think is a lot and others don’t. You can find trans women all over Issan or Lanna working in salons and retail jobs.
    2
  902. She’s got her own YouTube channel and posts occasionally.
    2
  903. Asking the important questions, right here.
    2
  904. Don’t give them any ideas.
    2
  905. Weirdly amazing. unnaturally beautiful freakishly adorable monstrously brave ladyboy!
    2
  906.  @imissminghao  Not a bad plan if you’re LGBT. It’s Indonesia’s loss for not having better policy.
    2
  907. Often true but not always. There are plenty of trans women on YouTube with perfectly feminine voices. There is also vocal fold surgery which tightens your vocal cords.
    2
  908.  @anikathu  It was nice talking with you. Stay dry out there!
    2
  909. It’s true that Thailand has a long way to go for real cis / trans equality. That said there is a high level of social tolerance all across Thailand and a lot less haters and violence is extremely rare. Unlike the west, there has been a distinct cultural role for trans women across South Asia for hundreds and hundreds of years. That distinction isn’t necessarily transphobia. It’s simply. It the same cultural interpretation of gender pluralism as the west. My wife is a Thai trans woman.
    2
  910. Money, time and effort. Trans women, as a rule, put in a ton of work into being girly.
    2
  911.  @aenhutv4877  Easier but not exactly easy, that’s for sure.
    2
  912. Unfortunately transphobia isn’t impossible.
    2
  913. ... and ladyboy Muay Thai fighters also. Look up nong toom and nong rose.
    2
  914. What makes you think that Thai trans women are all that different than trans women in America?
    2
  915.  @suckapunch565  What are you looking to have done? SRS? FFS? Anything else?
    2
  916.  @anonymous-cx7ng  She’s legally female. The county clerk said, “I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
    2
  917.  @anonymous-cx7ng  Her passport and ID say female. No wardrobe required.
    2
  918. @ᴄᴏᴜʀᴛɴᴇʏ ᴡʜɪᴛᴍᴏʀᴇ No worries. That’s part of the plan, to show others that some guys can, will and do respect trans women. In time maybe we can grow that “some” into a “lot” and the world will be a better place for trans people. Know hope.
    2
  919.  @hardyzme  I do not. My wife is legally female and marriage is a legal document. The country clerk said, “I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
    2
  920.  @camihiena  My wife is a woman to me and she is legally a woman. I've had long term relationships with gay men, cis women and trans women. Rest assured, I know exactly how gay it isn't to be in relationship with a trans woman having been in relationships with gay men and cis women. Seems like a world of actual experience you just haven't had. You are of course welcome to think absolutely anything you like, as am I.
    2
  921. False dichotomy. It’s both.
    2
  922. There are plenty of and actually a rapidly accelerating number of trans men.
    2
  923. Read some news articles about the new incoming patients at gender clinics, if you want to know about the metrics on trans men. I’d be happy to vote for a trans man being man of the year.
    2
  924. I accept trans men on an equal level with men. I’m hardly alone in this. Millions of others do as well. Don’t you?
    2
  925. You do realize there are vanishingly few Christians in Thailand, right? Trans women aren’t gay. Gender identity and sexual orientation are two different things.
    2
  926.  @xpandora-6697  Who is? Ladyboys in Thailand? Not even. Only a few % of the population are Muslims in the south. Thailand is >90% Buddhist.
    2
  927. Femininity is in the eye of the beholder and consequently if they view a trans woman as a woman (as I do) then the sex they are having is heterosexual in their mind. Sexuality is also a spectrum. Plenty of Kinsey 1 or Kinsey 2 bisexuals out there that are mostly into women but don't mind a walk on the wild side once and a while, so why not?
    2
  928. It’s because it’s very difficult to be trans in many other countries so a smaller percentage of the trans population actually transitions. That makes Thailand seem like a lot by comparison.
    2
  929. It’s all good either way.
    2
  930.  @Renwoxing13  I'm not interested in the word trap because it doesn't originate from trans people themselves as an identification. It is a word forced upon trans people and not one they have chosen for themselves. It's basically hotness from the eye of the beer holder, with extra baggage. As a pansexual I can't be trapped. You can't trap the willing, after all.
    2
  931. Trans women have been a cultural part of many countries in Asia (and around the world) since antiquity.. Hijra in India. Khawaja Sira in Pakistan. Waria in Indonesia. Fa’afafine in Samoa. The list goes on and on. The sexual exploitation of women is a story as old as humanity itself. The reality is that the vast majority of trans women working non sex work jobs in salons and retail all over Thailand today. Sure, trans women and cis women alike in Thailand cashed in on the gold rush of sex work that proliferated during the American War in Vietnam and after which is the case wherever many single men and/or war come together. It is however, not the origin story of trans women which is as old as humanity itself.
    2
  932.  @jo3546  To do any of this justice would require an entire wing of a library, of course. I'll just say that gender pluralism in south east Asia in the historical record is much more complex and varied than the western binary convention. For all the details you can read Gender Pluralism: Southeast Asia Since Early Modern Times by by Michael G. Peletz. I'm not interested in litigating the role of reproduction in historical global conflict here so much as I'm interested in respecting the dignity of trans people, ladyboys, Toms, and 3rd gender individuals and recognizing their lives as fully faceted and meaningful and distinct from sex work itself that they may or may not be engaged in. My wife is a Thai trans woman. Marrying her was the best decision I ever made. I for one am glad that content producers like Asian Boss bring more awareness to this topic so that the attendant sociology here can be explored by more people from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds.
    2
  933. You’ve never seen a trans person? Where do you live? How difficult would it be to be trans in the society where you live? The answer to that last question may be why you see any.
    2
  934. I live in San Francisco. I see a handful of trans people every week. I mean, I don’t know they are trans for a fact but I do know what I’m looking for as my wife is a Thai trans woman (obviously she’s not included in my counts). Clearly I see more in Bangkok. I take it you haven’t been to Thailand or the Philippines or India?
    2
  935. My wife is a Thai trans woman and we have no interest in having children. If you have any questions, just ask.
    2
  936. Ok, poor reader.
    2
  937. Plenty of Thai trans girls can been seen working regular retail and salon jobs all over Thailand. There has been a cultural role for trans women all over South Asia long before Columbus sailed the Atlantic. Trans women transition because they want to look like and be treated as women.
    2
  938. The vast majority of Thai trans women are not sex workers. You can see them all over untouristed Thailand working retail and salon jobs. Every high school graduating class has a few.
    2
  939. Gender is a social construct, performance and/or an identity. It isn’t biology. You can have a female voicemail system voiced by a computer or a female mannequin. That said, intersex people exist. Look it up.
    2
  940. Gender isn’t biology.
    2
  941. Do a google search for Buck Angel and tell me that he should be, as a trans man, in the women’s restroom.
    2
  942. Very few people are completely happy with their look. Passing some arbitrary test of beauty should not be the bar for getting into the bathroom of the gender that you know you are in your heart.
    2
  943.  @wolvygrei9908  I do believe it but it’s more like 20 out of 100 for T and 10 out of 100 for GLB. Not exactly great.
    2
  944. If you're someone's friend, why wouldn't you care?
    2
  945. That happens very rarely. No one wants to waste their time, after all. Pervasive transphobia exists for many reasons apart from the low number of occurrences of this.
    2
  946. Genetically a trans woman is XY, in most cases, but a trans woman after an orchiectomy and shooting estrogen is not hormonally male. Endocrinology is biology. The Y chromosome has very little information on it and most of it is about creating structures which also change hormone balance that the trans woman has had removed. If you read up on edge cases like androgen insensitivity syndrome you can see this clearly. Trans woman in Thailand can’t legally change their gender. Nor can they legally marry their husbands.
    2
  947. Sex changes go back a long way. First US citizen to have one was Christine Jorgensen in 1952, in Europe. The first one done was in Europe as far back as 1930. Thailand does do as many sex changes as the rest of the world combined today, though. Interesting to hear about ladyboys during the Vietnam war. Not much is written about that. Were you at U-Tapao?
    2
  948. There are trans people in every country. No big deal. You’ve never met a trans person before?
    2
  949. I lead a quiet circumspect life too, my wife just happens to be trans. You should visit Thailand someday. Take care.
    2
  950. The trans girls in the thumbnail are that easy to clock?
    2
  951. Not to me.
    2
  952. Like a box of chocolates there is an insert that describes all the confections in the box. You can just ask someone nicely if they're trans and they'll tell you. Easy as that.
    2
  953. Why would you think that? I'm gay and I mostly just pity the poor guy.
    2
  954. Completely untrue. No one speaks for all Thai transgender people, firstly. Secondly it would not be mandatory as only the individual can ascertain what gender they feel they are. There are many Thai trans organizations and individuals that advocate for this all the time. Former trans politician in Nan province and the head of the Transgender Association of Thailand, Nok Yollada. Thitiyanun Nakpor-Doi, The Representative of Thai Transgender Community, Sisters Advocates for this all the time also. Jakkaphong Jakrajutatip, CEO of JKN Global Media and head of Life Inspired For Transsexuals (Lift) advocates for this as well. The dangers faced by trans women traveling abroad with a passport that reads the opposite gender as they’re presenting as are very real. Particularly in countries where being LGBT is illegal. I’ve known many Thai girls whom have immigrated elsewhere and have changed their legal gender. This is hardly unprecedented, at least a couple dozen countries around the world allow it. This is a topic I know a vast amount about. My wife is a Thai trans woman. She’s changed her legal gender here in the US and so have many of her trans friends. If you have any questions, just let me know.
    2
  955.  @WillJ99999  I know how hospitals work quite well, thank you. When you're a new patient at a new hospital you transfer your medical records from your old hospital to your new hospital and meet with your new doctor to review your medical history, current and past medications, immunizations and allergies. This is standard practice. Have you never transferred your medical records to a new hospital before? As to traveling while transgender, let me quote the US state department from their own website: " Update Your Passport: Some transgender travelers have reported difficulties entering a country on a passport bearing a name and photo that no longer correspond to their gender identity. To change your name only, see the Change or Correct a Passport page. To update the sex marker on your passport, see the Change of Sex Marker page. If you were born abroad, follow the instructions on how to Replace or Amend a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA) to update gender marker." Again, all of the previously aforementioned Thai transgender advocacy organizations fully support trans women having the right to update the gender marker on their passports and ID. Any cursory web search will inform you of the difficulties that transgender people face while traveling with a gender marker that does not match their their gender presentation.
    2
  956.  @bpavilion8994  There is a standard protocol in place called the WPATH standard of care that licensed psychiatrists and doctors follow which carefully outlines the steps of each individual that has gender dysphoria and what treatment is right for them. It has been developed over many decades. If some people decide not to take particular steps or decide to not to continue transition that's completely understandable and completely fits within the model. It's about outcomes. Simultaneously the existence of detransitioners does not invalidate the wishes of those that wish to transition and stay transitioned. At the end of the day it doesn't matter at all what you think or what I think. This is a private decision between a patient and their health care provider, not an internet poll.
    2
  957.  @bpavilion8994  Talk therapy was tried and efficacy was poor, hence the WPATH standard of care today via Harry Benjamin. Rest assured, I know all about it. That said, gender dysphoria is not monolithic it's specific and varies per patient thus differential specific ameliorating treatments with the patient operating under informed consent.
    2
  958. The moral judgements of others aren’t my concern. Do you live your life according to what I think is right and wrong? Of course not. You live your life according to what YOU think is right and wrong. From my point of view and the point of view of those that support LGBT people there is no moral fault with being lovingly married to a trans woman for many years. If you don’t accept that, that’s fine. Many others do.
    2
  959. That’s a structural problem. If trans women can’t legally marry their husbands, and husbands face all kinds of social and family stigma for being in a relationship with a trans women then they’re going to be out there hassling people and begging and doing sex work.
    2
  960. By the attitudes in this video, they're going to need it.
    2
  961. The only way to know is to try.
    2
  962. If you see yourself as male and are attracted to the female form it’s heterosexual.
    2
  963.  @sugakookies8063  In that case, yeah. If you’re also attracted to guys then that seems bisexual or pan sexual. I’m bisexual too. I ended up marrying a Thai trans girl. She was just too cute to let her get away. 😀
    2
  964. Respect and full equality under the law, up to and including legal gender change, marriage equality, public accommodation law and adoption.
    2
  965. If you're not homophobic I'm sure you'd say the same thing about a straight man who wanted help being gay, right?
    2
  966. Some of the Thai language is actually problematic which is mentioned in a comment below. You should visit Thailand and see what it’s like. My wife is a Thai trans woman but we live in California now.
    2
  967. Because there are trans people there?
    2
  968. You’ve been to Thailand and asked a lot of Thai trans women about this, have you?
    2
  969. The point stands no matter if you’re trans or not. You’ve been to Thailand and talked to a lot of Thai trans women about this, have you?
    2
  970. If you really want to be sure, this is the angle of use. Tell her you’re interested in ladyboys and you’re asking to make sure she is a ladyboy and not a cis woman. Then when she tells you she is a ladyboy then you can make your excuses and go. If she vehemently denies being a ladyboy then you’re set. Generally this level of subterfuge is not necessary as one can just ask. No one wants to waste their time.
    2
  971. Being mistaken for being trans is not an insult. There are plenty of trans guys that are muscular and handsome. Besides, Miss Universe Spain 2018 is a trans girl. Thai girls I know would not be insulted by such a question asked discretely after getting to know them. Besides all one needs to do in Thailand is to check the ID card. Trans girls in Thailand can’t change gender on their ID.
    2
  972. It’s just street interviews with non experts. What do you want to know?
    2
  973.  @nominalweb  There is no question that the VAST majority of the world is a worse place to be transgender than Thailand. No argument there. It's the best place to be Trans in all of Asia. That said Thailand is a LGBT legal black hole as any LGBT Thai person will tell you. Trans women in Thailand do not have a legal right to use the women's bathroom. They can't legally change their gender. Trans women are barred as a class from entering some establishments and this is legal. They can't legally marry the person they love. Adoption is a problem. Employment discrimination is weakly enforced. In many countries in the west these are common legal rights for trans women. It's for these reasons my Thai wife and I live in California and not in Thailand. What country do you live in?
    2
  974.  @nominalweb  I have heard some reports of how hard it is for trans women there. Like you say, leaving for somewhere more progressive seems like the best option. Sad. Do you know many trans women in the DR?
    2
  975. ​ @nunewsmama3461  Unfortunately there just isn’t much in the way of records before the 14th century in Thailand. There are trans people all over South Asia from the Kinnar / Hijra in India and Pakistan, Waria in Indonesia, and trans women present in all the surrounding countries. The records in India of gender pluralistic people go back to ancient times. Western imperialism did a huge disservice to Asian LGBT people, no doubt. My wife is a Thai trans woman so it’s a topic I’m very familiar with.
    2
  976. Americans always making everything about themselves again. Stay predictable.
    2
  977. You fall in love and marry her. That's what I did. Best decision I ever made.
    2
  978.  @tomp658  Thank you.
    2
  979. Trans women are women to me. Plenty of other guys feel the same way.
    2
  980. You don’t think that every trans person has the agency and right to decide this for themselves? Who are you to tell them what to do?
    2
  981. Online dating is dumb. Just go to Thailand and chat up some trans girls in real life. Easy as that. I ended up marrying a Thai trans girl.
    2
  982. No worries. My wife is Thai trans woman so It’s always a popular event in our household. They have those same contests every year so you can always check out prior years on YouTube as well.
    2
  983.  @Catcatcat299  Attempting to change your sexual orientation to appease religious doctrine is ridiculous. The history of ex gay ministries is the history of failure. Don’t take my word for it. Any casual web search reveals such.
    2
  984. Some trans girls do, some don't. Only one way to find out, right? YOLO!
    2
  985. She’s amazingly eloquent and is doing a great job for her community.
    2
  986. This!
    2
  987. Exactly this. If you can't support your LGBT child you have no business being a parent.
    2
  988. yet Thailand has almost no legal LGBT rights and protections while the US has them by the dozen.
    2
  989. I’m an American. My wife is a Thai trans woman and is finally a US citizen. I’ve been all over the US and all over Thailand. In Thailand I can’t marry my wife, meanwhile I am legally married in the US. In Thailand, my wife’s ID and Passport all say male and it can’t be changed. Every time she hands her Thai ID over everyone knows she’s trans. I know just how hateful the US can be in some places. I also know that in a small number of US cities it’s a non issue for everyone I’ve met. San Francisco. West Hollywood. In the other adjacent Asian Boss video, the trans woman Sauce details her experience with bullying in Thailand. It’s not perfect anywhere. Laws are also very important when you need them. LGBT people need both.
    2
  990. The trans women in the thumbnail look like men wearing wigs?
    2
  991.  @DJ_TRON  I’m keepin’ it Nasty. I figured you’d approve. 😀
    2
  992. You gotta FIGHT... For your RIGHT... to Jeeeeerrk Iiiiit. (Extra Beastie Boys)
    2
  993. Plenty of real men exist in Thailand. Get into a Muay Thai ring and you’ll see what’s up. Adult prevalence rate of HIV is 1.1%, not even in the top 40 countries in the world. Preventing HIV is easy. Take one Truvada a day. Clinical studies have demonstrated this for years. Why are you so afraid of HIV or talking to a trans girl? Aren’t you a real man that can handle such things?
    2
  994. Most ladyboys are not sex workers. They’re working retail jobs or salon jobs as one can easily observe all across Thailand.
    2
  995. Some of this is lost in language and cultural translation. The subtext is not the same nor are there any legal trans rights in Thailand.
    2
  996. Is two trans people a lot for a taxi driver in a downtown metro of millions of people who sees thousands of people every day?
    2
  997. Only insecure people care about being labeled a sex tourist.
    2
  998. There is more to life than economics. Trans people transition because they deeply feel the need to do so.
    2
  999.  @jilldent5514  Actually New York, Sao Paulo and Madrid have the largest pride parades. 4M or so in attendance. Tel-Aviv only clocks in about 250,000. Big for Asia but not for the world.
    2
  1000. My coworkers are constantly bombarding me with heterosexuality. Heterosexuals do not keep their heterosexuality a secret. I get it. Who you love and live with and care for is a gigantic part of your life. Why then should gay people have to hide in the closet? Their love for their spouses is no less valid. Why are you so fragile that you can't handle knowing that a man really cares about another man? The more love there is in the world, the better the world.
    2
  1001.  @ini_gem  You're beating a straw man. I'm talking about consenting monogamous adults, not humping young dead animals. If you can't see the difference between child rape and two lesbians that love each other and care for each other and have been together for decades then there is nothing more to say. Dozens of countries have full marriage equality and they're doing just fine. How did you become so homophobic?
    2
  1002. Citation needed.
    2
  1003. What’s wrong with loving trans women? Do they not deserve love?
    2
  1004. Because trans women face less discrimination in Thai society, when compared to most other countries so more people who are trans actually transition instead of hiding in the closet. Simple as that.
    2
  1005. The Williams Institute has best effort transgender calculations for the USA and they’re higher than 0.3% double that. Thailand is surely higher than the USA for trans people by any way you want to measure it. The barrier to entry is way lower. There are a few percent of bisexuals that aren’t represented here. Particularly ones that are in opposite sex relationships. What is your reasoning behind your estimates for the rest of the world having half the LGBT people as America and Europe? What’s your source for 2% of LGBT people being in the closet? Just a guess? I don’t disagree that the number of LGBT people is small. I certainly never said it wasn’t small. At the same time I’m sure it’s more than 2% worldwide but probably less than 5%. The closeted and the bisexual and the closeted bisexual are larger than you’d initially imagine. There isn’t a way to get accurate stats at all given how forbidden being gay is in many places in the world. Being gay was just decriminalized in India for crying out loud and that’s a significant fraction of the world’s population. Just because it’s not billions doesn’t mean LGBT equality isn’t important.
    2
  1006. You’re that transphobic?
    2
  1007. You are the one not stepping foot in Thailand. No one has do do anything. That said, The definition of transphobia is: “dislike of or prejudice against transsexual or transgender people.” Just embrace it. The definition seems to fit you, does it not? Why fight the obvious?
    2
  1008. Trans women exist in every country.
    2
  1009. He’s just guessing about the trans girls that are clockable. Some people have a lot of confidence when they’re guessing.
    2
  1010.  @danielfontes3120  It certainly is not. Trans people have a cultural part of South Asia since antiquity. Kinnar in India and Pakistan, Waria in Indonesia, and Kathoey in Thailand. Look into the history of trans people and you’ll discover that this folkloric logic is vastly mistaken. Sure, some trans people have done sex work and some desperate families have sold their trans and non trans kids into sex work but that is not an explanation. Trans people have and always will exist, and the primary motivation is gender identity.
    2
  1011. I wouldn't go to the cheapest SRS surgeon in Thailand but there are many excellent Thai surgeons. Some things just aren't worth saving money on. Go to a good Thai surgeon like Suporn. It's still reasonable and the results are world class.
    2
  1012.  @stefansnellgrove  Marci does great work and it's nice that she's in the bay area now. A lot easier to get to than Trinidad, Colorado where she used to be. My wife had SRS with Toby Meltzer in Phoenix. No cost, covered by insurance. If it were me, I'd do my level best to some health insurance coverage that includes this. It's the law in many US states and even plans under the ACA cover it.
    2
  1013. You realize that many countries will reissue corrected birth certificates to trans women, right? Thailand isn’t among them yet, though.
    2
  1014.  @pxmaarch7998  Only if she's a ladyboy. :)
    2
  1015. Need any surgeon recommendations?
    2
  1016.  @islamayman6620  My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you need any advice for Thai surgeons let me know. Good luck on your journey.
    2
  1017. Ugh. Conversion Therapy is illegal in dozens of countries and many jurisdictions around the world. Unfortunately not Korea. Get on it, Korea. No more kids need to go through this psychological torture to appease their homophobic parents and society. Enough.
    2
  1018. I’m bisexual and my wife is a Thai trans woman. It’s just like a heterosexual relationship tbh.
    2
  1019. 1990 called and they want their lame joke back.
    2
  1020. It’s not a shame at all. Trans girls work incredibly hard to be beautiful.
    2
  1021. Sure, but a large percentage of trans and intersex people do see themselves as male or female. They are not necessarily here to do anything other than to be themselves and if that means they do see themselves as male or female I think we should fully support them in that. We’re all just gendering others by casual visual inspection anyway.
    2
  1022.  @leokashung3743  Ah, that's easy. We don't want to have kids. Since we don't want kids it's actually quite nice to never need to worry about accidental pregnancies or birth control.
    2
  1023. The following video released right afterwards is a long interview with a Thai trans woman, that's why.
    2
  1024. My Thai ladyboy wife and I have been to SF pride many times.
    2
  1025. I’m sure it isn’t. Surgeons are very skilled.
    2
  1026. If only.
    2
  1027. Beauty is always about money and effort and Thai trans girls spend a ton of both.
    2
  1028. Two people is a lot better than no people. Gotta support those that are supporting LGBT people. 🏳️‍🌈
    2
  1029. There have been ladyboys in South Asia for thousands of years. Of course the sun will go Nova in 3 billion years so you’ll be right eventually.
    2
  1030. As opposed to trans kids killing themselves because they can’t see a shred of joy in their future in a transphobic society? Sounds like progress to me, and the entire medical establishment agrees which is why transition is standard treatment.
    2
  1031. Their terminology is actually in Thai and there is quite a bit lost in translation here. Ladyboy in English in Thailand doesn’t have the same connotations it does in the west. It’s just an easy compound English word for non native English speakers to use that Thai people know you know. Thailand does have a long way to go in many areas, particularly legally but it is simultaneously culturally distinct from the west: Thailand has had a cultural tradition of trans people leading visible public lives for hundreds and hundreds of years, unlike much of the west. Life for ladyboys is in many ways socially superior to the west, particularly in rural places. You’d need to actually go there to understand it. My wife is a Thai trans woman. We live in the US now.
    2
  1032. He should be working in suicide prevention and battling social homophobia so that others don't don't go through the same trauma that he did with his mom's suicide over his sexuality.
    2
  1033.  @blackticalmayhem8461  Sadly discriminatory transphobic people exist everywhere. Here's to a better 2023!
    2
  1034. The Thai economy is not that bad. The vast majority of ladyboys are not involved in sex work.
    2
  1035. Not always. Look at Yoshi Rinrada or Nong Poy.
    2
  1036.  @small_dropin_the_big_ocean995  I'm not from India, no. I've just watched a few documentaries on Hijra / Kinnar in India. I'm from the US (California) and my wife is a Thai trans woman. Here is to hoping things get better for trans people in India.
    2
  1037. Ladyboys are trans women. Plenty of lesbians and trans men in Thailand, too. Just a lot less famous. Search for “Tom dee” and there are plenty of articles about them.
    2
  1038. Acceptance doesn’t change someone’s desire to want their genitals to look a particular way. Some trans people want SRS and others do not.
    2
  1039. It is already accepted among literally millions of decent non-transphobic people around the world. Sadly you’ll never be among them with that hateful attitude masquerading as moral superiority.
    2
  1040. You’re that afraid of ladyboys?
    2
  1041. I have. I’m married to a Thai trans woman. Can’t trap the willing. 🙂
    2
  1042. Thanks, Ron! No offense taken. I know that a lot of people don’t have much experience with trans women. Trans women are pretty amazing people. Takes a ton of courage and knowing yourself to make that kind of transition.
    2
  1043. There are trans women in every country in the world.
    2
  1044.  @Hoz-vk3sg  I get to determine how I address other people. I choose to let the other person tell me how they want to be addressed. It's called free will. You're welcome to exercise your own free will and not do that. Is that unclear to you?
    2
  1045. By any internet measure of upset, replying with “WHAT !?” is the greater degree of upset than my monotone declaration. Did I not say you could exercise your own free will in the last reply? I think we understand each other’s positions just fine. Comment transaction complete.
    2
  1046. If she’s pretty and hot why overthink it?
    2
  1047. ​ @edanya  ad hominem. Why not state your position directly instead of evading?
    2
  1048. True but sadly Thai trans women can’t legally marry their husbands in Thailand, nor can they be legally female. Thailand too has a long way to go for real equality.
    2
  1049. Trans women are women to me, regardless if they’re overacting or underacting.
    2
  1050. Struggle? PO is talking about disowning their child for being trans. Why become a parent at all if you’re just going to abandon your child?
    2
  1051.  @family_friendlykids  You have about the same odds of having a trans male son as a trans female daughter. That hypothetical trans male son would likely be into all those things you describe. Heck, there are a number of trans females that into those things too. I know quite a few of them, the reality is not all trans females are ultra girly. Bottom line is that the job of a parent is to support their kids. If that's not paramount and you plan on loving them only conditionally, then don't have kids. There are plenty of other worthy things to do with one's time and capital. You can also have more than one kid. It's a 50/50 dice roll to have a son or daughter whether they be cisgender or transgender. This is a topic I know and think a great deal about. I'm bisexual. I'm into hunting, fishing, working out, motorcycles and cars, and even girls too. Dad still disowned me. We never talked again after that day until he died of cancer 10 years later. I'm sure Dad was sorry he ever had a kid, and it made me wonder why he bothered at all. Something to think about at least, before you go and start manufacturing life yourself.
    2
  1052. Chicken breast and bratwurst go great together though. Combo set!
    2
  1053.  @amethyst1826  Some trans women think of themselves as a 3rd sex. There is a cultural history of that in many countries in SE Asia. Other trans women do think of themselves as women. It depends on the person, and that's fine. There are some trans men that transition. Some think of themselves as Toms, in Thailand. Others think of themselves as men. In general fewer trans men have bottom surgery as compared with trans women. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions, just ask.
    2
  1054.  @amethyst1826  Thai people have all their own Thai words to describe trans women. Kathoey and sao praphet song (women of the second type) are common. 3rd gender isn't a ranked list like a podium finish where you're getting the bronze medal. It's just a common historical way to describe someone not exactly in the gender binary in SEAsia. India for example has a legally recognized option for 3rd gender trans people that is not male or female. Some western countries do this as well for people that don't fit into the gender binary. Clearly all our genders are perfectly valid and one isn't better than another.
    2
  1055. Trans women are women to me and millions of others that support trans people in their gender identity.
    2
  1056. Being a trans woman is more difficult than being a man. Cross dress and go on some job interviews and see how you do. I’ll wait.
    2
  1057. What about trans men like Buck Angel in the women's bathroom?
    2
  1058. Radiation? From where? Thailand has no nuclear power or nuclear weapons nor any uranium mines.
    2
  1059. Unfortunately she is not a ladyboy.
    2
  1060. Observation bias plays a big role. FTMs are much more low key, aren’t visible due to sex work and once the testosterone masculinates the female body they are quite hard to spot. I’m not disputing that there are more MTF than FTM it’s just nearly as overwhelming as it at first seems. Look up some transgender statistics. The numbers of FTM are growing more rapidly as they gain their own unique social acceptance.
    2
  1061.  @sergiodelrioreyes7655  That’s kind of you to say. Here’s to a more wholesome 2024 where people can disagree with each other and not feel the need to virtually eviscerate each other. Know hope!
    2
  1062. I married a Thai trans woman. What do you want to know? I’ve never heard of anyone doing a karyotype test to determine chromosomes.
    2
  1063. Only several hundred other people in the comments.
    2
  1064. Thai trans women can’t legally marry their husbands in Thailand. Thai trans women can’t legally change their legal gender. Thailand is an LGBT rights desert. My wife is a Thai trans woman and it’s for these reasons that we live in California and not in Thailand.
    2
  1065. Thailand has no use for your Abrahamic desert fairy tales. There are vanishingly few Christians in Thailand.
    2
  1066. I just tell them my wife is a Thai ladyboy and confirm all their suspicions all at once. Saves time.
    2
  1067.  @StevanOutdoor  Thailand is a great place and the price is right if you can get a cheap flight. My trans girl and I have been together for 19 years now. Marrying her was the best decision I ever made. Good luck in your dating adventures!
    2
  1068.  @StevanOutdoor  500 euro is quite a bargain. The cheapest I’ve ever seen here in California is about 600. If wilderness survival is your thing, you should head to the north above Chiang Mai and make friends with some local not well off people that live very close to the land. It’s all survival all the time for them. There are also a lot of hilltribe native people like the Ankah or Karen that also live off the land quite expertly. Tons of independent tour guides would be happy to take you to some real native villages. You will be amazed at how far 10 euro worth of food and a 6 pack can take you sometime. You can be grilling giant water bugs and snakes under a bamboo lean to in a remote rice field drinking beers before you know it! Ha! Thai people have a lot good will and are generally quite interested at making friends with random foreigners. Especially if you’re buying which is pretty trivial compared to prices for anything in Brussels. The real problem Is the language barrier but a guide can really help with that. Good luck! If you have any questions, just ask!
    2
  1069.  @StevanOutdoor  I don’t have any girls or ladyboys that I could recommend to you in Bangkok, but that’s going to be easily done with any dating app like ThaiFriendly, Badoo or Tinder. I think you’ll really enjoy your time up north. November through Feb would be by pick. Temperatures are good and you don’t want to go when they are burning the rice fields and the air quality is low (from smoke) from March to April. The hot season (March to May) is also really hot there (but not as bad if you’re up in the mountains. If you’re into eating crazy things Thailand certainly has you covered! Good luck in your adventure tired up there! Your biggest danger will be liking it so much you may not want to come back! Ha! My wife and I will retire to Chiang Mai in about 10 years. Can’t wait.
    2
  1070.  @StevanOutdoor  Cool. Hope you have a good trip!
    2
  1071.  @saff4997  There is ethically produced porn, you realize. It is not hard to find.
    2
  1072. Nah. I don’t need to know if you’re trans or not.
    2
  1073. Aha. Ok. Now that makes sense!
    2
  1074. Gender is in the eye of the beer holder.
    2
  1075.  @afrosamurai4465  I’m all for inter species marriage. No argument here.
    2
  1076. No, that’s a trans man. Check the dictionary.
    2
  1077. My wife is a Thai trans woman. There are pros and cons of being trans in Thailand compared to the west.
    2
  1078.  @carolineJakovinen  Sure. The general population understands transgender women quite well. It's been a cultural aspect of Thai culture for hundreds of years. Thai people are almost all Buddhists and have never been colonized so they don't have a Christian derived sin / sinner mindset. Thai people are particularly good at minding their own business, in general. Harassment or violence is going to be a very rare event in Thailand which may not be the case in the west (depending on where you are). That said, it is a legal black hole for LGBT rights in Thailand. No marriage equality. No ability to change your legal gender. No adoption. Very weak discrimination law. My wife and I live in California now but look forward to retiring in Thailand in about 10 years. We've been together for 20 years and legally married in California for 10. It's very much worth visiting Thailand if you get the chance. Happy to answer any other questions you have, just ask.
    2
  1079.  @carolineJakovinen  That’s what happens when you don’t have a functioning democracy in Thailand, unfortunately. I’ve never been to Brazil. I hear a lot of conflicting reports about what it’s like to be trans there. Some good about acceptance and the necessary laws being in place but also reports of terrible violence against LGBT people. Is the trans violence mostly connected to the sex worker and drug world? I know that’s mostly the case in the US. Are you married or have a boyfriend (or a girlfriend) in Brazil?
    2
  1080.  @carolineJakovinen  Thanks for letting me know. I look forward to visiting São Paulo or Rio someday. Wishing you the best from California. Stay strong, girl. Cheers.
    2
  1081.  @carolineJakovinen  Many thanks. My wife and I try to make it to Thailand every year, if our schedule allows. Happy to answer any tourist questions you have, just ask! Be sure to get away from Bangkok and visit Chiang Mai in the north and Phuket and the islands in the south.
    2
  1082.  @linming5610  India has had third genders long before Columbus sailed the Atlantic. Why not blame them? Thailand took a vast amount of cultural capital from India, no?
    2
  1083. How do Thai heterosexuals sound gay when speaking Thai? Makes no sense.
    2
  1084. Sure. You can match gay guys on Tinder.
    2
  1085. Just substitute "Self Hating" in place of "Ex" and it all makes sense.
    2
  1086. I sure hope so too. It’s a vast waste of talent for every country that discriminates against LGBT people.
    2
  1087. I think she’s well aware that she’s a trans women. What’s wrong with complimenting someone?
    2
  1088. My father disowned me but eventually my mom came around after Dad died.
    2
  1089. SRS and breasts, including hotel is going to be somewhere around $25,000 from Dr. Suporn. From Dr. Thep SRS and breasts and hotel is going to be somewhere around $12,000. FFS varies quite a bit, depending on what you're having done. Some faces need a lot, others a little.
    2
  1090. Sure. What other questions do you have? My wife is a Thai trans woman so I know quite a lot about all things related.
    2
  1091. Not to me and millions of others that support LGBT people.
    2
  1092. Thailand is vastly better for LGBT people but they still have a long way to go on legal reforms and marriage equality. I’m bi my wife is a Thai trans woman.
    2
  1093. For many LGBT people all over Asia this is a VERY important discussion to have. Maybe you don't care but I'd bet you care a whole lot more if it was you that was facing all manner of social and state discrimination and legal inequality.. There is room for all kinds of content. Obviously covering other topics is important but so is this topic. If you don't like it, no one is forcing you to watch it. It's clearly labeled is it not?
    2
  1094. ​ @Rorschach771  I am reading what you wrote. There are no other videos from Asian Boss about transgender people in Indonesia aside from this one. I and many other people who care a great deal about trans people in many countries all over Asia do want to see this coverage. Honestly, I'd like to see VASTLY MORE coverage in EVEN MORE countries all over Asia about trans women and trans men. You're welcome to not watch them. I'll watch them twice in your honor.
    2
  1095.  @Rorschach771  You do you but the percentage of trans Asian Boss videos is really low if you actually evaluate the entire uploads folder. Happy viewing elsewhere.
    2
  1096. Yikes. Are you talking about Brazil?
    2
  1097.  @daisymururu1051  Wow. Ok. I see what you mean. That has to be one of the most difficult places in the world to be LGBT. I imagine gay or trans people just pretend to be regular straight people or suffer this kind of violence, right? I imagine some LGBT people try to leave to go to better places in Africa, right? Where would they usually go from Kenya if they can? Rwanda? Botswana? South Africa?
    2
  1098. Ha. Being gay was depathologized by the APA / DSM in 1974, not 2014. Were you even alive at that time? Here you are still making excuses.
    2
  1099. No doubt US trans adolescents face all kinds of abuse from other transphobic Americans. It's a different story in Thailand.
    2
  1100. Inexperience with trans people is what primarily perpetuates this fear. All polling shows that (generally) experience with LGBT people is the central predictor of support for LGBT rights unless there is a very strong religious component to their beliefs about sexual orientation that overrides it.
    2
  1101. Thailand has wide diversity of trans girls too. Look up Nong Rose or Nong Toom.
    2
  1102. Because bisexuals exist.
    2
  1103. And that’s part of the reason I married a Thai trans girl.
    2
  1104. Glad your perception is changing. Ladyboys are amazing and so is Thailand.
    2
  1105. Yep. You can select what you’re looking for on plenty of dating sites/apps, also. You mean Thailand specifically?
    2
  1106. Gifts can be returned. Otherwise it’s a burden, which is the exact opposite of a gift.
    2
  1107. harleyyy Hopefully you can make some LGBT friends locally to lean on to help you get on your feet so you can begin living your authentic self. Wishing you the best!
    2
  1108. Whenever a religion requires you to ignore human rights it’s time to reassess the religion. Let’s face it, ancient scriptures didn’t get everything right.
    2
  1109.  @minjiu__u  If you don’t support the legalization of same sex marriage you’re discriminating against gay people. Everyone should have equal protection under the law for their consenting adult relationships.
    2
  1110. In Thailand trans women boxers fight in the men’s division. There are some famous trans women boxers actually. Nong Rose and Nong Toom.
    2
  1111. Yes. Operation: MK Ultra sheer pantyhose.
    2
  1112. Heh. Not the gay Koreans in Itaewon that I know. Cheers!
    2
  1113. I can’t imagine how that was true. I think he was trying to imply something else that got lost in editing.
    2
  1114. As a taxi driver downtown in a metropolitan area of millions seeing many thousands of people a day, 2 isn’t very many.
    2
  1115.  @ViceN53X  YOLO! 😀
    2
  1116.  @peraltaisrael2598  Consult a dictionary to learn what these words mean.
    2
  1117. 2.8 millions views say otherwise. Trans people are interesting to many people.
    2
  1118. Why is being trans bad?
    2
  1119. Garden variety transphobia.
    2
  1120.  @justaviewer904  There is nothing corrupt about trans people, they simply are.
    2
  1121. Thailand has a long way to go for acceptance. Thai trans girls can’t legally marry their husbands nor can they change their legal gender.
    2
  1122. How is an ex-gay ministry a "A great and hugely Unspoken side of the LGBTQ movement in secular circles". Seems like the exact opposite.
    2
  1123. What’s inappropriate is your transphobia and and homophobia.
    2
  1124. You’re just proving Doc Holiday more right with every reply. Keep at it.
    2
  1125. Title isn’t wrong. It’s actually sociology class.
    2
  1126. Hang in there until you can. Rest assured Thai surgeons are excellent.
    2
  1127. There is quite a bit lost in translation and cultural translation here, to be honest. My wife is a Thai trans woman. The word ladyboy doesn't have the same subtext in Thailand that it does in the west.
    2
  1128. You can transition at any age. Save your money and move to a more progressive area and make it happen.
    2
  1129.  @tartholemew  Happy to. There is no marriage equality in Thailand. Thai trans women can’t legally marry their husbands, nor can they legally change their gender. Gays and lesbians also can’t legally marry. In short, it’s a LGBT legal black hole. My wife is a Thai trans women. We’ve been together for many years and can’t legally marry. It’s for these reasons we live in California and not in Thailand where we are legally married and she’s legally female. Thailand is not the LGBT paradise that people from the outside looking in seem to think it is. Happy to answer any other questions you have about LGBT Thailand.
    2
  1130. Trans women.
    2
  1131. What’s so uncomfortable about being around a trans person? You’re under no obligation to talk to them. They’re just trying to live their best life, same as you.
    2
  1132.  @rochefort.04  I can't? How do you figure? Investment visa or Elite visa. No problem. The Thai embassy is happy to make either of those happen every weekday.
    2
  1133. Are you aware that in North America and Europe, the standard treatment for gender dysphoria is gender transition? That is, if someone in these places goes to a licensed doctor or psychiatrist and consistently and persistently expresses not being comfortable in their gender, the doctor is going to follow the “wpath standard of care” which involves medical steps to transition. Literally all major medical and psychiatric organizations have studied outcomes for people with gender dysphoria and what has the best outcomes for a fulfilling life which is taking steps to make the body match the mind. You’re welcome to believe that trans people are weak, unethical or unnatural. That’s your right. I’ve known LGBT people personally that have taken their own lives because of family attitudes that have pressured them ceaselessly into being something they were not.
    2
  1134. The locals spoken with likely haven’t been all over the planet to do comparisons, and to see how badly so many countries treat their trans citizens. That’s particularly true of the Moto taxi guy in the orange vest. Thailand is socially very accepting but sadly trans women can’t change their legal gender. Nor can they legally marry their husbands. My wife is a Thai trans woman and this is one of the main reasons we don’t live in Thailand.
    2
  1135. What’s confusing about a transgender woman? She’s simply not a cis woman.
    2
  1136. Millions of trans women use the women’s restroom in North America and Europe everyday without incident. It’s the law there that trans women can use the women’s restroom.
    2
  1137. Different cultural context is all.
    2
  1138. So you’re telling me that Thailand as a top 10 tourist destination in the world, that everyone wants to visit trash dumps? Why are actual trash dumps not filled with tourists then?
    2
  1139.  @Uhoh11111  Which is illegal and represents a handful of the millions who visit every year.
    2
  1140. My wife is a middle aged trans woman and she looks quite beautiful.
    2
  1141. There is nothing wrong with being trans. A small minority of people have been and always will be trans, just like a small minority of people are gay. Plenty of Thai people don’t have the epicanthic eye folds. Talk with a number of actual Thai trans women yourself and you’ll see what fantastical post hoc rationalization this is. Thai society is very tolerant to trans people. There have been trans people and a cultural role for trans people all across South Asia for hundreds and hundreds of years going back to antiquity.
    2
  1142. Exactly right. Trans girls can be seen all over Thailand. My wife is a Thai trans woman. Hopefully soon we can legally marry in Thailand. Unfortunately this video didn’t touch on the complete lack of LGBT law in Thailand.
    2
  1143. Also, good luck learning Thai. It’s not easy. You pretty much have to learn to read Thai to speak Thai well, and that’s quite the mental challenge.
    2
  1144.  @RetiredInThailand  That is the nice thing about Thai. If you can parse those characters and the tone rules, you san speak very accurately. It makes me realize how sloppy English is. There aren't enough vowels and consonants when you think about it. Here are the iOS apps that really helped me. Thai Pocket Master, Thai Reading, Write Thai, Thailes (especially for the modern Thai script style) and Floating Mkt. You're north of Chiang Mai, I'm imagining. I quite like it up there in Mae Hong Son. The wife has a house in Chiang Mai. It's great except for the burning season and the hottest part of summer. Going down to the islands at that time of year is the way to go. The winters up north are just great though. Can't wait to get back.
    2
  1145. Try legally marrying a trans girl in Thailand and see how cool they are. I’ve been waiting 20 years to legally marry my Thai trans wife there. Still impossible. Know hope!
    2
  1146.  Thieuhua Co  I see America's bad sides on the news every day. Plenty of shows on American media show nothing but America's bad sides. I've been to 40 states. I know how good and bad it is in America. Only someone that's done the same will really know.
    2
  1147. It's exceedingly unlikely anyone in Thailand will say anything about a trans woman using the women's restroom but if someone does, and it's certainly happened, there is no public accommodation law in Thailand to legally give Thai trans women the legal right to use the women's restroom. Thai trans woman can't legally change their gender as they can in most of the west. There are bars and nightclubs in Thailand that specifically exclude trans women from entering. That is also illegal in much of the west. My wife is a Thai trans woman, if you have any questions, just ask.
    2
  1148. All you have to do is convince everyone in the world to stop having sex. It’s just that easy. That and IV drug use. Good luck to you.
    2
  1149.  @ktholmes2978  True enough. My wife is a Thai trans woman and we live in California now. What Thailand needs is marriage equality so trans women can Legally marry their husbands and change their Legal gender:
    2
  1150. Since the days before plastic. Trans women have been a feature of South Asia since antiquity. Look up the Hijra / Kinnar in India.
    2
  1151. Because in many other countries trans women face a ton of hate and discrimination, to the point that many trans women won’t transition. It’s difficult for many people in these cultures to imagine trans people being treated decently, partly because they are so few open trans women due to the aforementioned lack of visibility. It’s a sad cycle for many countries to break out of. Know hope.
    2
  1152.  @beverlykelly6270  Gender isn’t biology. Assuming it is, is a fundamental error. It’s primarily a social and personal construct in a society and gender pluralism in south Asia goes back hundreds and hundreds of years across many countries. Hijra in India, Waria in Indonesia, Kinnar in Pakistan, etc. Obviously, No one is doing sidewalk karyotype testing before dropping pronouns. It’s all casual visual inspection. All the same hormones do control quite a number of masculine and feminine characteristics and trans people are on HRT. No one uses the term hermaphrodite anymore; it’s intersex. A number of those intersex conditions are based on endocrinology and aren’t genetic. At the end of the day, Trans women are women to me. If they aren’t to you, then good for you. Have fun classifying people on karyotype tests you haven’t run on them.
    2
  1153. The word ladyboy doesn’t have the subtext it does in the west. It’s just a simple word used there primarily for the benefit of English speakers. Thai folks clearly have their own Thai words. Have you been to Thailand?
    2
  1154. And then the wanna be gangstas run home to their parent’s basement.
    2
  1155. I'd marry. Who's with me?
    2
  1156. They spend a ton of money and time looking good, that’s why.
    2
  1157. Careful. You might fall in love and marry a trans girl. I did.
    2
  1158. She’s a woman to me and millions of others who support LGBT people. Nothing you say changes that.
    2
  1159. Marrying a Thai trans woman was the best decision I ever made.
    2
  1160. My wife is a Thai trans woman. I fell in love with her. I’m bisexual. What do you want to know?
    2
  1161. In the west, yes. In Thailand plenty of trans girls there call themselves ladyboys. The word doesn't have the subtext in Thailand it does in the west. A lot of words are adapted from English and the meanings are actually significantly different.
    2
  1162. Voice training and perhaps some testosterone suppression, but mostly hard work with falsetto control. Look for some youtube videos on transgender voice control.
    2
  1163. Everyone will say it’s working while they duplicitously work on their own agendas. North Korea would have already been invaded by the US if NK didn’t have ability to level Seoul. Kim knows this and knows his own legitimacy resides only in his military and nuclear program.
    2
  1164.  @jesusforgivesjesusforgave4052  All organic life came from previous organic life over millions of years of evolutionary biology. We can see this clearly in DNA sequences. The earliest forms of microorganisms and the organic chemistry behind them are lost in the sands of time. All elements heavier than iron are from supernova or neutron star collisions, the rest are a product of previous stars which made up the nebula the solar system started with. Previous to that, all those atoms and their protons, neutrons and electrons came into being as quarks cooled down shortly after this universe formed.
    2
  1165.  @jesusforgivesjesusforgave4052  The mammalian sleep cycle is well understood by science. I got myself up, deity free just as billions of other mammals did.
    2
  1166.  @Pakaiotaknya  It's everyone's world. Left handed tools exist and when typing on a keyboard it doesn't matter if you're left handed.
    2
  1167. Is it difficult being a trans woman where you are in the Philippines?
    2
  1168.  @knockleball  That's for sure. The middle east and Africa is brutal. Is there any progress in the Philippines on civil unions or same sex marriage? How about changing your gender on your ID card? Any new legislation?
    2
  1169.  @knockleball  I'm sure a cutie such as yourself will have no problem capturing the attention of plenty of foreign guys. The good news is that it's easier than ever for trans girls to marry and immigrate to countries in the west. When my wife (Thai trans girl) and I did that a few years ago it was really challenging. It's much better now. Have you traveled to north america or Europe? Where do you think you'd want to go?
    2
  1170. San Francisco is as accepting as Bangkok is for LGBT people. The difference is California has same sex marriage, trans people can change their gender, health insurance is required to cover transition related care, there are a vast number of LGBT laws to help LGBT people. Thailand is way behind on LGBT law.
    2
  1171. Yes! The stories of the Hijra and Kinner need to be told.
    2
  1172. India?
    2
  1173. In my case I brought my Thai trans wife over to the US. You’re welcome.
    2
  1174.  @ainerdal3431  Gender isn’t biology to me. It’s a social identity. No one is doing karyotype tests on the sidewalk or strip searches before they drop pronouns. It’s all casual visual inspection. I don’t think women are a walking collection of reproductive organs. Seems pretty sexist and reductionist to me, but you do you. I’ll push whatever I like. You push whatever you like. Comments are public after all.
    2
  1175. Most trans women in Thailand are not sex workers. So much for that theory.
    2
  1176. The endemic transphobia in the Catholic Church surely doesn’t help. Plenty of exceptions of course but...
    2
  1177. Then those children born of early pregnancies perpetuate the same cycle, turning to the church for easy answers instead of higher education and science. My wife is Thai trans woman and we live in California now. We’re also hoping that Thailand also modernizes and has full LGBT legal equality before we both retire there.
    2
  1178.  @StreetDrilla  10% is All Tourism. That’s all hotels, airlines, taxis, tourist areas, malls, restaurants etc. Only a small fraction of that 10% is sex tourism. Like I said, only a small fraction of GDP. There is no other way to see it.
    2
  1179. She could have certainly been more respectful.
    2
  1180.  @BelugaGuy-ks5mp  Exactly. Commenters like this can’t imagine a society that embraces their trans brothers and sisters.
    2
  1181. Serious answer. They are actually quite famous trans women in Thailand. No need to have trust issues in humanity. They are just living the best life they can, same as all of us.
    2
  1182. Usually. It is really helpful to block puberty at the onset and begin hormone replacement therapy as soon as the trans person is confident they are malign the right decision. That goes a long long way to prevent all the irreversible masculinization changes that puberty produces.
    2
  1183. It’s time a second opinion. A few percent of people will always be gay. Build a bridge and get over it.
    2
  1184. You are aware there are vanishingly few Christians in Thailand, right? What would be the point of Satan going through all that effort when just a couple percent of Thai people believe in the Christian god anyway? Are they not all going to hell anyway in your view?
    2
  1185. If the vast majority of Thai people are going to hell anyway for not being a Christian then what is with this elaborate transgender stratagem? I just don’t get it. Satan already has their souls, no?
    2
  1186. Not to me and millions of others that support trans people in their gender identity.
    2
  1187. Seems like it, but the reality is that trans women can’t legally marry their husbands nor change their legal gender which are commonplace in the west. My wife is a Thai trans woman. It’s for these reasons we live in California and not in Thailand.
    2
  1188. Nope. Trans women are women to me and millions of other people that support the gender identity of others.
    2
  1189. Says who? My trans wife and I are very happy, thank you very much.
    2
  1190. All the people considering SRS know all about it. Every doctor that performs SRS will clearly explain it to you. It's not something you decide on a whim.
    2
  1191. Or the 99% of Thai males that are none of the above.
    2
  1192. Yes. Why more people don’t understand this is pretty alarming.
    2
  1193. No need for this drama. Just treat people how they want to be treated and call them what they want to be called. Easy as that.
    2
  1194. Can’t wait for the SOGI bill and for same sex marriage. 28 countries have beat the Philippines to doing so. It’s high time the Philippines did right by it’s LGBT citizens and gave them full equality under the law.
    2
  1195. Because you might see a trans person? I hate to break it to you but there are trans people in every country in the world.
    2
  1196. "While in America trans people are banned from bathrooms and trans girls have to use boys bathroom and so on." Many states and localities explicitly prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation in public accommodations. The following 17 states have explicit protections: California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington State, as well as the District of Columbia. More than 200 cities and counties also explicitly prohibit gender identity discrimination even if their state does not.
    2
  1197. Dr Thep Vejvisith is great if you don't have much of a budget. Dr Suporn Watanyusakul does amazing work but it will cost more. Any other questions?
    2
  1198.  @afrosamurai4465  Thank you. I already have. We were legally married in California in 2015. Once Thailand gets it’s LGBT law squared away we’ll be legally married there as well. Thanks for your support!
    2
  1199.  @afrosamurai4465  Don’t worry. CRISPR cas 9 gene editing will make this possible fairly soon. Know hope!
    2
  1200. It is not respect to deny a gay or lesbian the right to legally marry the person they love or to fire gays and lesbians from their jobs. Those are basic civil rights and anyone or any organization or religion that supports such subjugation is not worthy of respect.
    2
  1201. Now go back in there and talk with some Korean and Japanese trans women
    2
  1202. Those are the vampire ladyboys.
    2
  1203. Agreed. They need to send a crew down to phls also to compare and contrast.
    2
  1204. Why?
    2
  1205. Gay people don’t choose to be gay and as such hating the sin but not the sinner makes absolutely no sense. Gays are supposed to be depressed loveless virgins their entire lives to make you happy? Being gay is rare but completely normal. Gays in dozens of other countries have full marriage equality and those countries are doing better than ever. It’s time for Indonesia to step into the modern era with them.
    2
  1206. I know. Cringe.
    2
  1207.  Lzb Lmvm  Robot feminist propaganda, thank you very much. Make it a double.
    2
  1208. Thai trans women use the women’s restroom everyday. It is the law in most of North America and Europe that trans women are legally permitted to use the women’s restroom. Literally millions of trans women use the women’s restroom everyday without incident. I’ve used the restroom with trans people hundreds of times. Some folks you can tell are trans, others you can’t. Nothing unusual about it. Lesbian weightlifters use the women’s restroom everyday. So women with a criminal history of sexual assault. There are existing laws that cover any kind of abuse In women’s restrooms.
    2
  1209. Transphobia is disgusting, I agree.
    2
  1210. @the girl's misguided No but my wife is.
    2
  1211.  @grandanse5827  In Thailand?
    2
  1212. Thailand does have a ways to go, however. Thai trans women can’t legally marry their husbands. My wife is a Thai trans woman and we’ve been waiting for many years to marry. It’s for reasons like these that we live in California and not in Thailand.
    2
  1213. Rest assured, plenty of folks are interested in Thai trans girls. If that’s not you, great. More for the rest of us.
    2
  1214. Exactly backwards, as any Google search will indicate.
    2
  1215. No health care organization that studies HIV transmission risk thinks that criminalizing gay sex has any prevention efficacy. Gay sex has been increasingly decriminalized in North America, South America, Europe, and most of Asia simultaneously while new annual HIV cases has dropped every year for the last 23 years.
    2
  1216. In the west it is, in Thailand it doesn’t have the subtext is does in the west. Feel free to look that up on the internet. Thai people have their own Thai words of course, some of which are problematic too. They’re using the English word for the benefit of English speakers because it’s easy for a non English speaker to say and remember Being a simple compound noun.
    2
  1217. Rest assured, plenty of ladyboys in Thailand call themselves transgender women. They even do it in Thai: ผู้หญิงประเภทสอง
    2
  1218. If you pay for all them all, sure. Where do we send the invoice?
    2
  1219. You clearly don't know very much about Thailand aside from this video. There is a quite a bit lost in translation in the subtitles.
    2
  1220. You do realize your gender identity doesn't depend on your chromosomes, right?
    2
  1221.  @Rcck.7282  Gender is in the mind, not the body. Let's do a thought experiment. If I took your brain (assuming you're a cisgender female based on your pic here) out of your body and put it into a man's body, are you going to consider yourself to be man now? Are you going to want to do all the things commonly associated with men? Dress the way men do? Want to be treated as a man in society? Give up all the unique social things as a woman that you like to do now? I know I wouldn't. I'd see my doctor immediately and do my best to transition the new body I'm now stuck with to match my old body and how I see myself in my own mind with both hormones and surgery to make the best of it. Such is the position of transgender people, only in slow motion over their entire life. No transgender person cares about what chromosomes they have or don't have. XY chromosome transgender women are under no assumptions that they've changed their chromosomes. They haven't. That is missing the point. They simply want to live socially as a woman in society because that's the gender they see themselves as. Every professional medical association in the world (APA, WHO, AMA) supports social and medical transition for transgender people because it leads to the best mental outcomes for their lives. Trans women live perfectly harmoniously with others in Thailand and in many other places in the world. Unfortunately in many places in the world they are discriminated against, socially shunned and are targets of routine violence.
    2
  1222.  @Rcck.7282  How exactly are you going to do that? Are you going to sequence the DNA of everyone you meet yourself? You can do anything you want as long as it isn't illegal. You asked for an explanation and I explained.
    2
  1223. There is vast social acceptance of LGBT people (markedly less so in the deep Muslim south however) and particuraly trans people. You'll see trans people everywhere just living their lives. It's very safe for LGBT people there. Well, as long as you don't get a car accident which is vastly more likely. There are very few LGBT laws to help LGBT people. There is no same sex marriage in Thailand. Life for LGBT people in Thailand is quite good. The only places it would be better is in a few progressive western 1st tier cities where you have both the laws on your side and lots of social acceptance.
    2
  1224. I married a Thai trans girl so I can’t really say I disagree but looks and personality are pretty subjective.
    2
  1225. No need to be afraid of trans people. That’s literal transphobia.
    2
  1226. Oof, that’s rough. Thought of moving out of Indonesia?
    2
  1227. Seems like quite a compliment to me. Thai trans women are beautiful.
    2
  1228. If all parties involved are having fun they’re doing it right. Marrying a Thai trans girl has been the best decision I ever made. YOLO!
    2
  1229. You don’t love them if you’re afraid to go in a comfort room when they are in there. That’s completely contradictory. Trans women are women.
    2
  1230. Thailand has a long way to go. Thai trans girls can’t legally marry their husbands nor can they change their legal gender. Such basic rights have been common in the US for many years now. My wife and I have been waiting several years to be able to get married in Thailand but we are married in the US. There are progressive places in the US where being trans is not an exotic spectacle. It depends on where you are.
    2
  1231. Well he is a taxi driver working downtown in a city of tens of millions. You’re going to see all kinds of rare individuals when you’re seeing many tens of thousands of people everyday.
    2
  1232. The vast majority of Thai trans women aren’t sex workers. You can see them working regular jobs all over Thailand. The reality is that there not that many per capita.
    2
  1233. Can’t you just say, “ผู้หญิงประเภทสอง” ? English literacy in Thailand is not great. Ladyboy is a simple compound word and is easy to remember and understand for non native speakers with none of the subtext it has in the west. If you want to improve matters, move to Thailand and teach English. It’s In English for your convenience.
    2
  1234.  @kai-jm7bb  Enjoy your transphobic fever dreams, TERF.
    2
  1235. Yes. Buck Angel is going to make a lot of women nervous in the women’s restroom.
    2
  1236. Lots of cuties in the Philippines as well but I don’t disagree with you.
    2
  1237. My wife is a ladyboy so I’m pretty qualified to answer. Gender dysphoria is a difference in one’s mind between between the gender you feel and the body you have. That feeling in one’s mind is often quite fixed and the only path left to eliminate the dysphoria is to change the body to match the mind. Imagine a mad scientist kidnaps you and transplants your brain into a woman’s body and then throws your old body in a shredder. I sure would not be happy in a woman’s body and I’d be taking all steps possible to make the body i now have be as normal and male looking as possible. No one is going to talk me into accepting my new fate as a woman. That’s not happening. That’s essentially my wife’s experience, only in slow motion. Feel free to ask any questions you have.
    2
  1238.  @blinkinyourarea3897  Bottom line is that trans women are women to me and to millions of others that support trans women. Disagree all you like. No words you could put together could possibly change my mind.
    2
  1239. @x x I absolutely view denying a transwoman the right to use the women's bathroom to be transphobic. Trans women on androgen blockers and taking estrogen do not have the strength of men. That's just basic endocrinology. Nor does strength mean anything when someone has a weapon. Few transwomen have any sexual interest in women in the first place. Someone who wants to commit sexual assault is not going to care what sign is on the outside of the restroom door. A public restroom is also a terrible place to commit some kind of sex crime when anyone can walk in on you and it's incredibly loud in there. Again, millions of transwomen in other countries are legally permitted to use the restroom and do so everyday and the problems therein are essentially nonexistent. If increasing security in restrooms is the priority station a restroom attendant in every restroom that can radio security if there any problems. That keeps everyone safer no matter who the perpetrator is. Again, believe whatever you want. There are no words that can put together that could possibly change my mind. I've seen transwomen successfully use the women's restroom hundreds of times with my own eyes. It's honestly just not an issue. Again, believe whatever you want.
    2
  1240. @x x Let's review: You think trans women shouldn't be allowed in women's restrooms. I do. We're never going to agree. You think that trans women (or men posing as trans women) are going to substantially increase crime in women's restrooms. I don't. We're never going to agree. You think that banning trans women from women's restrooms is not discrimination or transphobia. I do. We're never going to agree. Why bother with the wall of text? This video is weeks old. No one is here reading this but you and I. I think our positions are clear. We're political enemies. We have zero chance of convincing the other of anything. Case closed, no?
    2
  1241. If strength is the important thing for you, then you should advocate mandatory medical strength testing and then have restrooms designed for people of low strength and people of high strength instead of by gender. 90 year old men with cancer are less strong than 35 year old healthy women on average, after all. I’m fine with unisex restrooms everywhere but it’s unrealistic to expect that massive capital expenditure required to retrofit a million bathrooms to happen anytime soon. You’re going to continue to give me walls of text where we talk past each other with zero chance of convincing the other of anything? What is the point of that? Again, a trans woman is as much a woman to me as an Asian woman, a Black woman or a Caucasian woman. You might as well ask me to support excluding Caucasian women from restrooms because they’re on average stronger than Asian women.
    2
  1242. If restroom safety is the goal than lobbying for increased security in restrooms with attendants, or panic buttons in restrooms and CCTV all over in buildings and ID checkpoints at every entrance and exit should be what you should be advocating for first. Is someone really going to commit a crime inside a building’s restroom when their ID has been scanned and their face Is all over recorded HD video elsewhere in the building? Exceedingly unlikely. This increases the security and safety of everyone without demonizing trans women as security threats to cis women and discriminating against them. Sure it costs money and time but if safety is the priority than that’s what it takes and it directly addresses safety concerns head on.
    2
  1243. Safety costs money. Checkpoints and building video cameras aren’t that expensive. Addressing safety directly for everyone rather than the minuscule risk that trans women represent in restrooms is where someone so focused on safety like yourself should be putting their lobbying efforts. There other parts of the building where women can be harmed after all. The parking garage in particular is a much more dangerous place for women, cis and trans alike.
    2
  1244. This strength argument is a red herring. Anyone can hit someone In the head with a rock when they aren’t looking and steal their stuff or assault them as they lose consciousness. If you can lift 5kg over your head you’re pretty lethal when taking someone by surprise and that’s almost everyone. The current Olympic guidelines allow trans women to compete in women’s events if they have low testosterone levels (below 10 nanomoles). Again, lesbian powerlifters with a vast history of convictions for sex crimes are allowed to go into women’s restrooms everyday. Are trans women more of a statistical risk than them? Absolutely not.
    2
  1245. Again, this is why this is pointless. Fundamentally, your priority is the safety of cis women in women’s restrooms and mine is that transwomen are treated equally as women under the law. What more is there to say?
    2
  1246. Safety is an issue that I care about but it’s not the only issue. Your priority is the safety of cis women in women’s restrooms and mine is that transwomen are treated equally as women under the law. You have your right to your opinion and so do I. I think we understand each other just fine.
    2
  1247. The only way to have perfect safety in a restroom is never to allow anyone into that restroom. You could slip and fall in there, after all. Trans women are no more dangerous than cis women when using restrooms. They are definitely less dangerous statistically than women with violent criminal convictions. Millions of trans women in North America and Europe use the restroom everyday and Issues are almost nonexistent. I get your paranoid perspective. If a handful out of millions of trans women using the women’s restroom cause a problem than that’s all the justification you need to think you need to discriminate against all trans women from using the women’s restroom wholesale. You’re welcome to feel that way. For me trans women are women and belong definitionally in the women’s restroom. It’s a question of priories. You have yours. I have mine. Preop trans women have no difficulty using toilets, btw. Where did you get that idea?
    2
  1248. I have no desire to convince you of anything. I know your side of the argument incredibly well, and clearly you now know my side of the argument. We’re political enemies and that’s that. It will play out in the courts and in the court of public opinion, and we’ll see in the coming decades who wins.
    2
  1249. @UCLKRIhmlF6JrEJJ-zPOI3hQ It's clear to me that all this talk of safety is just a smokescreen for your transphobia. There are stronger groups of women, more violent groups of women than trans women but that doesn't move the needle for you. You want to let in all the sketchiest groups of cis women into women's restrooms with zero restrictions, even those cis women previously convicted of assault or sex crimes against women, but definitely not trans women. That's too dangerous! I'm sure a 80 year old trans woman with no criminal record is going to be a real threat to the safety others in the women's restroom. You probably wouldn't want a trans woman use the woman's restroom if they were escorted in there in by an armed female police officer. Still too dangerous! Any talk of working on your paranoid safety issues directly by spending your efforts lobbying for security improvements to public buildings instead of scapegoating trans women as nothing but villains is seen as impractical because of the poor downtrodden Philippines. I get it, you can't stand to see trans women treated as women. That's your real focus here. Let's not kid ourselves. You're even double posting with two accounts to make it seem like you have twice the voice. Seems a little desperate, doesn't it?
    2
  1250.  @blinkinyourarea3897  I see, this is really all about God. You can't imagine trans women as women because that would invalidate your religious beliefs about the sexes and creation. That's what's really at play here. Let's see. Do you support trans women being able to change their legal gender? Do you support trans women being able to legally marry cis men?
    2
  1251.  @blinkinyourarea3897  You're the one that brought up God out of nowhere. It is curious that you refused to answer if you support trans women being able to change their legal gender or if you support trans women being able to legally marry cis men.
    2
  1252.  @blinkinyourarea3897  And again you dodge answering those two questions about trans women legally changing their gender and trans women legally marrying cis men. Instead you give me some vague generality that you support trans women's rights when you won't even let them in the restroom. You can see how I'm suspect of what you define as supporting trans women. I'll make it easy. You don't support those two things. There. Was that so hard to say? The interesting part is why don't you support trans women legally changing their gender and trans women marrying cis men. Doesn't seem like a safety issue to me so you don't have that reason to fall back on.
    2
  1253.  @blinkinyourarea3897  If you say you support trans women changing their legal gender and that you support trans women being able to legally marry their spouses that's great. I'm really glad to hear it. My goal is always to support trans women and LGBT people. Generally speaking I've seen Abrahamic religions be terrible to LGBT people. Consequently I'm not a fan and I feel fully justified in my suspicion given their atrocious LGBT track record around the world. Obviously I've met many good people who support Abrahamic religions that despite religious leadership, support LGBT people and obviously it's important to support allies anywhere they may be found.
    2
  1254. @x x Why so soon? Why shouldn't we waste another few more days of our time talking about this? You're welcome to hate me. Please do. I'm not important nor am I a victim. It's all a question of what sensitivities you care about, it's it? You surely don't care about the sensitivities of trans women that just want to use the women's restroom in peace because they're women. You're the insensitive one that's presuming hostile intent from these trans women who just want to pee in peace.
    2
  1255.  @blinkinyourarea3897  You are correct. I feel no shame for defending the rights of trans people and you are also correct in that I'm not sorry for doing so. I care about cis women's safety but not at the minimal risk represented by excluding some women, that is trans women. You do the same thing when you allow cis women with criminal records into restrooms. I fully accept that cis women's safety is your main priority. It is not my main priority here. We all accept a certain level of risk by being alive and the small amount of additional risk represented by trans women in women's restrooms is not worth the harm done to trans women by discriminating against them. Clearly you feel differently. We've been over this ground few dozen times already. How many different ways can we say the same thing over and over again? You were unclear in what your support for trans women actually entailed. You explained it and I understood. That's how dialog works. I'm completely insensitive to those that are transphobic, that is correct. That's not something I'll ever apologize for because I see it as the morally correct action. That's not something you should be surprised about given our conversation.
    2
  1256.  @blinkinyourarea3897  You're welcome to believe I'm wrong, that is your absolute right. I certainly don't and I believe I'm following the correct moral action. You're correct. I feel no shame for a person that supports another right. Again, this shouldn't be surprising to you. I also don't apologize for being suspicious of those who are on the opposite side of the debate. I see nothing wrong with that.
    2
  1257.  @blinkinyourarea3897  You do not set moral policy for me and I do not set moral policy for you. Is that controversial?
    2
  1258. @x x You're welcome to think I'm shameless or not. You're welcome to think I'm talented or not. That's all for you to decide.
    2
  1259.  @blinkinyourarea3897  I've already agreed with you that from your point of view I'm insensitive. Yes. I agree and fully concur.
    2
  1260.  @blinkinyourarea3897  I don't feel bad at all about about being suspicious of others on the other side of the debate. On the contrary that's just a good defensive posture. You're welcome to act otherwise.
    2
  1261.  @blinkinyourarea3897  I'm happy with myself regardless of what you think about me. I'm sure you don't care in the least what I think about you.
    2
  1262. If you’re happy with your transphobia (my perspective not yours) that’s great for you. Should we just insult each other back and forth now?
    2
  1263. If you keep arguing and taking shots at me instead of being reasonable and agreeing that we simply have different priorities here I can keep replying to this thread for months.
    2
  1264. I already agreed to this. Now what?
    2
  1265. I get it. You think I’m a bad person. And then?
    2
  1266. Go ahead. No one is forcing you to continue.
    2
  1267. Why not live a little? Never try, never know.
    2
  1268. Bisexual here married to a Thai trans woman. I’ve had long term relationships with both masculine cisgender men and feminine cisgender woman. Being with my wife is essentially just like being in a relationship with feminine cisgender woman. My ex cisgender girlfriend even admits that my wife is more girly than she is.
    2
  1269. Very sorry to hear about your loss.
    2
  1270.  @ATKT1000  You’re not obligated to pay attention or care. Your sexuality is a big part of your life and it’s important to be able to get legally married to protect your relationship and that’s not a legal possibility right now in Korea. The only way that changes is by public understanding through explore to LGBT people and their lives, that it isn’t a big deal.
    2
  1271.  @ATKT1000  Marriage is a legal, civil and social institution. It is not exclusive to religion. Millions of gays and lesbians are legally married in dozens of countries around the world. To deny gays and lesbians the ability to be legally married is homophobia.
    2
  1272.  @ATKT1000  Gay people and their spouses have existed long before any religion. Don’t worry, within 20 years Korea too will legally allow same sex marriage no matter how you feel about it, just like dozens of other countries around the world. Marriage is a social and legal institution today not a religious one and it’s a violation of equal protection under the law and due process to deny gay citizens the right to legally marry their spouse.
    2
  1273. Bangkok is 10x bigger than the next largest city so when it comes to cities, Bangkok is always THE city for everything. It's like Paris is to France. Plenty of trans girls can also be found in Pattaya, Phuket and Chiang Mai. A number of trans girls are employed in nightlife jobs, and so they go where the nightlife is but also many certainly also go for the more progressive attitudes in those places also. Trans men don't really have the same employment demographics so there aren't the same concentrations in places like Pattaya. Mostly Bangkok, I'd say.
    2
  1274. Terr Di, Run to a country less hostile to LGBT people. Thailand is unquestionably a better place to be LGBT.
    2
  1275. Bisexuals exist, Rifani.
    2
  1276. I highly recommend getting to know some trans women. They have a very unique perspective on life and often have been though a lot.
    2
  1277. Sex work is work. Nothing wrong with it. Quite a few young ladyboys do and that changes as they get older. There are more opportunities than ever to pursue other lines of work. There is less institutional discrimination than there used to be. Thailand like all other countries is improving the life experience of its trans citizens.
    2
  1278. Why not live a little? YOLO!
    2
  1279. A crime. You’re funny.
    2
  1280. He’s a moto taxi driver in downtown Bangkok. If you see tens of thousands of people in a day in a downtown metropolis of millions, you’re going to see a few trans people. You don’t think Taxi drivers in Makati run into a couple of trans girls a day?
    2
  1281. Face mask girl gave us hope though, yeah?
    2
  1282.  @Opal5674  There are millions of trans women in North America and Europe who are trans or their own volition and not involved with sextrafficking. Why is Thailand any different? Why can’t trans people be trans of their own accord?
    2
  1283.  @Opal5674  Most trans people were not SA’d. Clearly you know few trans people in real life. I’m happy for people to make up their own mind about what gender they are. If they transition back, that’s fine. Up to them. Nothing wrong with being trans from my point of view.
    2
  1284.  @NattapolPhorueng  I am familiar with the difficulty in passing true marriage equality in Thailand. I know there are competing ideas from the Move Forward Party compared with the Civil Partnership bill. Most other countries have had the same struggle, also. Many legalized domestic partnerships or civil unions before actual gender blind marriage equality. In the US, in all 50 states gay couples have the same legal rights to marriage as heterosexual couples. The Supreme Court made this the law in every state. Other countries like Ireland passed same sex marriage with a popular vote. It has been challenging everywhere, Thailand is no exception. My wife and I are simply waiting: Maybe in another 10 years things will change. We’ve been waiting 15 years already.
    2
  1285. Not to me and many other people that respect the gender identity of others.
    2
  1286. Caitlyn is 69 years old. They’re surgeons not miracle workers.
    2
  1287. These is no unified consensus about such things in Thailand. How can there be with hundreds of thousands of Thai ladyboys / trans women with unique perspectives? There can only be wide diversity of opinion. There are some that see themselves as crossdressers. Others see themselves as a 3rd gender which tracks the historical constructions that have existed in South Asia since antiquity. Others see themselves as trans women, phu ying praphet song (สาวประเภทสอง). Some see the definition of ladyboys as pre op and trans women as post-op. It really depends. Watch enough interviews of Thai ladyboys and trans women (or just talk to enough in Thailand) and you'll see this diversity of opinion on full display.
    2
  1288. That’s why I married a Thai ladyboy.
    2
  1289. If only the Thai government would allow Thai trans women to legally marry and legally change their gender. All commonplace in the US now.
    2
  1290. Embracing freedom to do what you want with your own body is a problem?
    2
  1291.  @debs138  If you have any other questions about LGBT Thailand, just ask. While a lot of people think that Thailand is an LGBT utopia, it really isn’t. There is a lot of tolerance but there is no LGBT law in Thailand. I’ve been waiting over a decade to legally marry my wife there and she can’t change her legal gender on her ID in Thailand. It’s for these reasons we live in California and not in Thailand. We’re hoping they finally make it happen by the time we’re ready to retire.
    2
  1292.  @debs138  Thank you. The only place where same sex marriage is legal in Asia is Taiwan. Trans women in a few countries in Asia can change their legal gender, but it's not easy and social acceptance or even tolerance is low outside of Thailand and the Philippines. There are more progressive areas of every country, though. Basically Asia has a long way to go but it's certainly way ahead of the Middle East and Africa in terms of quality of life. Where are you from? I'm guessing Brazil or Portugal by your surname.
    2
  1293.  @justemoi7610  For any trans woman, yes. Trans men have their own terms (Tom). Thai people are just generally using ladyboy in place of an existing Thai word (Kathoey). Thai people will assume that most non Thai speakers will understand the word ladyboy. It’s just a simple compound noun to remember and pronounce for Thai people who often aren’t great English speakers.
    2
  1294. And Thailand has a long to learn from the US. Trans women can't legally marry their husbands nor can they legally change their gender on their ID. Both of these have been legal in the US for many years. My wife is a Thai trans woman and it's for reasons like these that we live in California and not in Thailand. Thailand is a black hole for LGBT legal rights.
    2
  1295. For many trans women being feminine is the only thing that they can alleviate their gender dysphoria. They are going to continue to do that, under medical guidance and with the full support of every professional medical organization. Trans women have free will and are going to try to live their best life regardless of how you feel or what you say about that.
    2
  1296. Trans people have existed in different societies around the world for hundreds and hundreds of years. Waria, Hijra, two spirit, Muxe, etc. It’s rare but not unnatural. There is a difference.
    2
  1297. A trans woman is an actual woman to me and nothing you say will actually change that. In dozens of countries you can actually change your legal gender and literally millions of people actually do see trans women as actual women.
    2
  1298. No one is supposed to be anything. You’re not living my life for me. As a bisexual I’ve been with plenty of cisgender women and plenty of cisgender men. I fell in love with a ladyboy and married her. Honestly. It’s the best thing I ever did.
    2
  1299. My wife is legally female. We’ve been legally married for many years. I’ve been in multi year relationships with cisgender women and gay men. I’m bisexual. I know exactly how gay it isn’t being in a relationship with a trans woman. Go on, tell me you have more experience than I do with this topic.
    2
  1300. The term is derogatory in the west but really isn’t in Thailand. It’s easy for Thai non native English speakers to say.
    2
  1301.  @jangusroundstone5781  Sure thing. If you have any questions about Thailand or Thai trans girls, just ask. Cheers. Good luck in school. Play the field. It's the best time in life to make that happen.
    2
  1302. How? Explain.
    2
  1303. You should definitely go. Its a lovely place.
    2
  1304. Surgery is very good and inexpensive there as well if you want to have any work done. My wife is a Thai trans girl.
    2
  1305. Until you want to get married or change your legal gender, that is.
    2
  1306. I don’t respect the rights of the transphobic and homophobic just as I don’t respect the rights of racists and anti-semites.
    2
  1307. Nope. There are slightly more females than males in Thailand. Google it.
    2
  1308.  @thisismetoday  Thailand obviously has fewer safety concerns for trans people on the street, especially in backwater places in the US. Is that the point you're making? I'll make the point that the US has far more violent crime per capita compared to Thailand no matter who you are. That said, you can put pepper spray (or a snubnose .38 in some states) in your purse. You can't spray your own marriage license or adopt in Thailand. There are also many progressive places in the US where trans people do not endure street harassment. Consequently many trans people (and LGBT people in general like myself) move to these places where you can have both widespread social acceptance and legal acceptance. I see non passing trans women on the street in California every single day. Both legal and social acceptance are fundamentally needed. That's the point I'm making. It must be said that Thailand's social treatment of trans people also leaves a lot to be improved upon. Significant discrimination and gender identity acceptance issues exists that is not of the street harassment or violence variety. Of course it's putting this in context. There are many FAR worse countries to be trans than either the US or Thailand.
    2
  1309. Get to know them and ask them nicely.
    2
  1310. Most you’ll be able to notice right away by height and voice. As you get better with experience you’ll up that another 10% for the more stealthy ones. Ultimately there are 10% that there is no telling and with hormone blockers and better surgery that’s increasing every year. My wife is a ladyboy and so I really know what to look for but there are some trans girls that are simply undetectable unless you know them and find out.
    2
  1311. I couldn’t agree more. My wife and have been waiting many years to get married. That said, Thailand has a lot of other problems with it’s sort-of-democracy so there are a lot of other challenges to address too.
    2
  1312.  @malakatan3235  Plenty of Americans wanted nothing to do with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Just as plenty of Russians want nothing to do with the war in Ukraine. At the same time, how can you possibly be against sanctioning Russia for invading Ukraine?
    2
  1313.  @Slavaisusukhrystu  False analogy. Murder is a crime. Cancelling is not. The Dixie chicks have no right to have their music played anywhere. Maines should have known what the price of that freedom of speech would have likely been given her the demographics of people she's playing for. The offended country music fans also had their freedom of speech, thus the cancellation.
    2
  1314. Fortunately the internet exists and one can look and see that Thailand is about 39th in the world by “List of countries by HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate” with about double the rate of the US, 1.1% vs 0.6%. I have a difficult time imagining a “multitude” at 1%. It’s fortunate also that people with HIV who are on ARV meds can expect a normal lifespan.
    2
  1315.  @billbertboyce324  Is 1% or so of the population common? They’re rare in Thailand too. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions, just ask.
    2
  1316. There are some intersex ladyboys that undoubtedly have fairly unusual endocrinology, yes. Others know that some thing is different when they are young and when they mature enough to have language and consciousness they realize that they feel like women many begin transition when they have the agency to do so. That includes testosterone blockers and estrogen. Thai ladyboys use the women’s restroom.
    2
  1317.  @DA-dz8uc  Gender for me is in the mind, not the body. Trans women are women to me. What they are to you is up to you.
    2
  1318.  Ice lemon添シュン  Look into how VPN works.
    2
  1319. Yes!
    2
  1320. Careful. You just might end up marrying one and living happily ever after. That’s what happened to me.
    2
  1321.  @Christian988.  Skill! Lol. Visit Thailand and make it happen for yourself as well.
    2
  1322. Kinnar is the more respectful term, right?
    2
  1323.  DONT WRITE Comments please  Why do they ask for money on trains?
    2
  1324. That’s statistically true but all the same there is a sizable percent of guys that are totally fine with whatever is below the belt. I’ve been with my trans wife when she was pre-op and now she’s post-op. Shes as sexy in my eyes, either way but this was something that she really wanted to do.
    2
  1325. Because you're afraid of talking to a trans women? You do know that there are trans women in every country in the world, right?
    2
  1326. Spoken like someone who has no actual experience with trans women.
    2
  1327. I’m proudly bisexual. We’re legally married. She’s legally female. Rest assured, I’m not interested in you so I fail to see how it’s any of your concern what I am.
    2
  1328. Infinite transgender multiverses, in fact
    2
  1329. And the 99% of other children without fathers that don’t become transgender? What of those trans folks with fathers that fully accept them? Your theory has exceedingly poor prediction power.
    2
  1330.  @jamisedenari2449  I see. You're more of an authority in mental health than the hundreds of doctors from top research universities in neuroscience, biology, genetics, statistics, epidemiology, social and behavioral sciences, nosology, and public health that contributed to the DSM-V? Good to know. There are a manifold number of genetic, developmental, neurological, hormonal and environmental cofactors that contribute to the existence of trans people. No serious academic disputes this and to dumb it down as you do in your initial claim that "Ya daddy wasn't around" is as absurd as it is inaccurate. You already walked it back once by allowing for hormonal changes before birth. You're only a few dozen more case studies away from DSM consensus opinion. Keep going. You're doing great.
    2
  1331.  @jamisedenari2449  Hundreds of the world's best doctors have a small world view? Go ahead. Explain that. How are you more qualified than they are to determine mental health policy?
    2
  1332. We know, we know. You saw The Hangover 2.
    2
  1333. Their phone numbers and if they’re doing anything later tonight. 😉 You know, for educational purposes only. YOLO
    2
  1334. That's what she said, doesn't mean it's particularly accurate or representative. There have been trans women in Thailand and a cultural role for trans people in Thai society (and many other countries across south Asia) for hundreds and hundreds of years.
    2
  1335. This issue deserves to be publicized.
    2
  1336. Open your mind to transphobia? Hard pass.
    2
  1337. Not mutually exclusive. There are gay farmers.
    2
  1338. “The taste of world?” What’s that?
    2
  1339. I agree that more focus needs to be on trans men. At the same time, a small percentage of trans men have bottom surgery.
    2
  1340.  @LumeanTV  Sometimes it takes moving away to a place that's more accepting. Other times you can make it work where you are. Wherever you go and wherever you to, I hope that it goes well for you. I highly recommend a trip to Thailand. It really is great to see so many trans people out in public just living their lives. Cheers.
    2
  1341.  @LumeanTV  My wife is a Thai trans woman and I've been there many times. There are pros and cons to being trans in Thailand. The cons are that you can't change your legal gender, no matter what. There is also no same sex marriage. My wife is male there on her ID and we can't marry. That's a huge con. Limited rights same sex marriage will probably happen this year though, but that won't change the legal gender problem. There is also very weak LGBT discrimination law and terrible HIV law. There is quite a bit of structural transphobia in the workplace. On the plus side is that there are a lot of trans people living openly. No one bats an eye or is going to make comments at seeing a trans woman. Living in the closet as a trans person in Thailand is very uncommon whereas elsewhere it's quite common. There is world class access to all types of trans surgeries and hormones at reasonable rates. My wife and I are legally married in California and live in San Francisco, now. She's legally female here. Happy to talk more about that if you're interested. I mentioned Thailand since I figured you were somewhere in Asia and it would be somewhat easy to get there and of all places in Asia it's got to rank up there as one of the best places to be trans along with the Philippines.
    2
  1342. It’s quite cheap to fly to BKK from LAX or SFO as Long as it’s not July or December. It’s a popular destination for a reason. Great hiking and jungle in the north and great beaches in the south. The food is amazing and inexpensive and people are lovely. It’s really easy to travel there while trans. Definitely check it out. If you’re interested in any surgeries hospitals there are world class and affordable. Happy travels. Cheers.
    2
  1343. You should. It’s amazing there. There are inexpensive flights if you book far enough out during non busy periods.
    2
  1344. I don’t know how much experience you have in Thailand but a lot of this is lost in cultural translation. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions, just ask.
    2
  1345.  @ichsanabdilah4724  Proudly bisexual and standing against discrimination. LGBT people deserve to be able to legally marry the person they move. Anything else is 2nd class citizenship.
    2
  1346. No one operates on anyone without consent in Thailand. Thai trans women (and trans women around the world) feel they are women and take hormones and puberty blockers to make their body match their mind. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions, just ask.
    2
  1347.  @eugeniasyro7315  I’ve had many long term relationships with men and women and I’ve been happy in all of them. How do you explain that except for bisexuality?
    2
  1348. How do you mean?
    2
  1349. Which is great until you want to get legally married or change your legal gender. Neither of which Thai trans girls can do in Thailand which is commonplace in the west. My girl (she’s a Thai trans woman) and I have been waiting many years to get married.
    2
  1350.  @yourboykaster  That’s a lot of subtext to assume for Thai people who are mostly using these words for the benefit of English speakers and have their own Thai words to describe themselves. The word ladyboy just doesn’t have the negative connotations in Thailand that it does in the west. I say that as someone married to a Thai trans girl. There is also a cultural history of gender pluralism in South Asia that isn’t captured well in English.
    2
  1351. Nothing creepy about trans women. They’re just trying to live their best life, same as everyone else.
    2
  1352.  @xhagast  My wife is Thai trans woman. She doesn't seem creepy to me.
    2
  1353. You may be disappointed to discover that real life is not Doom Eternal.
    2
  1354. Such situations are vanishingly rare. No one wants to waste their time, after all. Plenty of bisexual men, like myself, are interested in trans women. How many trans woman have you actually dated to be such an expert?
    2
  1355. Not to me and millions of others that support trans people. For me gender is in the mind and not the body.
    2
  1356. ​ @mrs.rivers-z7z  I live in San Francisco now but I came from rural midwestern nowhere and my father never spoke to me again when I came out to him as a bisexual when he asked. I understand quite well what personal losses are like and while I was never beat down myself personally I've been threatened and pushed around plenty and had lots of homophobia directed my way. As you know, such was a common experience in earlier days. All I know is my path is just my own and I don't judge the paths taken by others. That said, the path to my level of openness has not been easy either but it certainly has been made better living in California. Simultaneously the world has also changed dramatically in the last decades and it's hard to believe the speed and magnitude of it all. Such things are possible all over America and the west now really and you can see progress everywhere. Our generation won the war for marriage equality and gender recognition but the next generation is probably better at winning the peace and hearts and minds. In some respects I know I'm still tilting at windmills from a bygone era. The kids by my reckoning are doing alright and they're really better off unburdened by not knowing intimately all the factors that dragged so many of our peers under. Some things you can't unsee and it's better for them viewed in a documentary rather than in memories of funerals for friends that didn't make it. It's doubtlessly true that most gay and bi guys aren't the most monogamous creatures under the sun. I know I've been with my girl for 18 years but I can only speak for myself. I've also known plenty of heterosexual guys that are poor monogamists and some of that difference surely may just come down to opportunity. My wife and I have had a good life together and it's clear from your descriptions that you and your husband have done the same. I think the LGBT community was lonelier in the past in comparison to today. I think there was more desperation in the ghettoized and marginalized LGBT life focused in bars and nightclubs. Today if you own an iguana it's probably more eyebrow raising then if you're an open LGBT kid in high school. It's a different time. Keep well as well Corinne.
    2
  1357.  @mrs.rivers-z7z  I'm pretty sure about the LGBT future myself. Support for LGBT people have never been greater. That's demonstrable empirically with gold standard Gallup and Pew polling in the US asking the same questions for decades on end. Marriage equality, trans rights, you name it. It's a complete sea change. Sure there are a vocal and shrinking religious minority that are increasingly desperate but they're losing badly the court of public opinion, left, right and center. I'm never going to take the invisibility path. You're welcome to take it, but that is not me. The reason we have the LGBT rights and protections we do under the law now is because people were willing to be visible and go to bat for them. Aimee Stephens. Lawrence v. Texas. Obergefell. Windsor. Frank Kameny. The reason we won cases and overturned earlier ones is because we changed hearts and minds over dinner tables all across the nation and changed public perception and politicians and judges knew they could no longer get away with taking cheap shots at LGBT people. That simply doesn't play any longer. You're certainly right (in my view) that older men on an ego trip go all over SE Asia to find a young girlfriend and fawning attention. Certainly so. That said who doesn't want an attractive partner that pays attention to you? Pretty difficult to fault them entirely. There is all kinds of illegal shenanigans to get around the Thai draft. It's a pretty miserable gig with little useful training and the whole time you're pretty much making no money. It's not really the case that very many Thai people transition simply to avoid 2 years of conscription. You need to have breast augmentation surgery to be exempted and that's a pretty high bar for someone not serious about transition. Whatever that would cost you to have surgery could just be used as direct bribe of an official to get you out of the draft in the first place. Rest assured, it's done every year. Corruption is rampant. This is Thailand. The poor mostly go and the rich mostly don't (unless they want to for some reason like they want to be career military). Up until 2011 trans women would be labeled as having a having a "permanent mental disorder” that haunted them when applying for jobs elsewhere. Thankfully activists were eventually able to get a court to stop this unjust treatment. Not that many trans women in Thailand revert when they get older, in my experience. Maybe they think they will when they're younger but the reality is that there isn't much of any social stigma against trans woman. You can see older Thai trans folks all over the place but sure they're less visible just like older folks in general as everyone is more of a homebody as they age. Some poor families do see the success of cis women and trans women in the village doing sex work so, sure, the allure is there in the big exciting city instead of hot backbreaking work farming rice or cassava in your boring cow town when you're 18. It's very unusual for mothers and fathers to send their girls and trans girls off to the chrome pole, anywhere in the world. Thailand is no exception and the reality is that Thailand is a actually a fairly conservative place. Lots of older lonely men are pretty gullible, no doubt about that. That said love is about vulnerability too. Can't really love someone without it. Again, pretty difficult to fault them entirely but yeah, plenty should know better.
    2
  1358.  @gremlin244  Sexual orientation and gender identity was not elaborated upon by Siddhartha Gautama, nor is there any reference or guidance for lay people regarding sexual orientation or same-sex behavior within the Pali Canon, the scriptural texts that hold the Buddha’s original teachings. The Vinyana, a Buddhist text for monks, forbids Buddhist monks and nuns from having sexual relationships with men, women and those of other genders. These textual references do not target LGBTQ people specifically, as everyone within the monastic order is expected to refrain from all forms of sexual relations. This practice is especially common within Theravada Buddhism, which focuses heavily on the monastic tradition.
    2
  1359.  @eigobike3929  Sure but that also implies that the idea behind transition is economic. Plenty of gay men can (and do) find a gay sugar daddy with no need to transition at all. Trans women transition and pay thousands and thousands of dollars for surgery, are unable to work for weeks due to surgical recovery and it's certainly the case that looking good as a woman with clothes and makeup is vastly more expensive than your average guy. That's a terrible business plan. No, trans women transition because they feel like women, see themselves as women and want to be seen as women and have since a young age. Talk to some Thai trans women and they'll be happy to explain their motivations to you.
    2
  1360. Somewhat free. Thai trans girls can't legally marry their husbands and can't legally change their gender.
    2
  1361. It is the law in most of North America and Europe that trans women are legally permitted to use the women’s restroom. Millions of trans women use the women’s restroom everyday without incident. There is no epidemic of men impersonating trans women to use the women’s restroom.
    2
  1362. @다이아나다이아나 Ah, yes. The white savior Ben Shapiro swoops in and saves all of Asia. Save our bathrooms, Ben Shapiro! You're our only hope! 4.463 Billion Asians can't possibly figure out anything for themselves. /puke Taiwan has same sex marriage. Thailand will be next. Japan has prefectures with same sex marriage. The dominoes are falling. Must be depressing being on the losing side. Watch Contrapoints clean Ben's clock. watch?v=9bbINLWtMKI
    2
  1363. @다이아나다이아나 Please. The very fact that trans women can't change their legal gender is discrimination. The fact that trans women can't legally marry their male husbands is discrimination. The list goes on and on. Just because a transwoman born to a family of politicians can win an election does not mean all issues of LGBT equality have been solved.
    2
  1364. Rinrada 'Yoshi' Thurapan - left Chananchida 'Blossom' Rungpetcharat - center Treechada 'Poyd' Petcharat - right
    2
  1365. Both parties? The transwoman In question, Jennifer Laude, committed no crimes. Way to justify murder, scumbag.
    2
  1366. Nothing immoral or liberal about the existence of LGBT people.
    2
  1367.  @mrs.rivers-z7z  No worries, Corinne. I know your heart is in the right place and longer comments on youtube often get removed. My wife has already had SRS (I was fine with that either way) so it's just an academic curiosity for me as an armchair WebMD. :)
    2
  1368. If you block puberty with anti-androgens one’s bones won’t be phenotypically male. That’s a function of testosterone.
    2
  1369. Well, I’m not trying to be a shrill killjoy, Richard. I’m surely not offended. I’ve just known a vast number of ladyboys that have different personally valid reasons for taking the medical steps they desire. Transparency is particularly good in Thailand. Generally speaking, Ladyboys are very social and most ladyboys know many other ladyboys to talk with that have taken any given medical step and can decide if that’s for them or not. My wife is a Thai ladyboy. She has many Thai ladyboy friends in Europe, the US and Thailand , all of which made their own decisions about what to do and what not to do.
    2
  1370.  @yudamarbun6682  Not to me and millions of others that support trans women.
    2
  1371. It’s because ladyboys are extremely feminine. Nothing unusual about straight guys being attracted to femininity. I married a Thai trans woman. Ask me anything.
    2
  1372. It’s multi media and mild cardio. 😁
    2
  1373. Check your rainbows at the door.
    2
  1374.  @gravityclarity  Hopefully laws will change by the time we’re ready to retire. Know hope!
    2
  1375. Over 50% of people are taking some type of prescription medication. What about it?
    2
  1376. No pensions in many countries.
    2
  1377. Beauty is a lot of work and they put in way more work than most.
    2
  1378.  @bjornblackman2337  You are aware that every major professional mental health and medical organization from the APA, to the AMA to the WHO support medical transition for trans people because it leads to better outcomes for their lives, right? How do you know more about best practice then the world’s leading doctors? There is nothing new about trans people. All across South Asia there has been a cultural role for trans people since antiquity.
    2
  1379. Faulty analogy. False equivalence.
    2
  1380. I call people what they want to be called. I fail to see the purpose in being a jackass to someone you want or need to interact with.
    2
  1381.  @jmh1101  If you don't want or need to interact with someone there is no need to call them anything.
    2
  1382.  @InNozArD  Sadly, not yet. The government approved the draft Civil Partnership Bill but no date has been fixed yet for the legislation to be presented in the National legislative Assembly for a debate and approval. Also, this isn't full marriage equality this is a civil partnership and it's still being determined what rights it includes what what rights it does not.
    2
  1383.  @InNozArD  1.5 years later, still no Civil Partnership Bill.
    2
  1384. Trans women are heavenly to me.
    2
  1385.  @g.h.7661  Sure thing. I’ve witnessed a vast sea change and improvement in my own LGBT life and in the lives of my LGBT friends and family in my 40 something years on the planet. Hiding in the closet was tried for decades prior to the 1950’s and got us nowhere. Being out and visible and proud of your life and relationship is what ultimately changed hearts and minds.
    2
  1386. Plenty of other countries have a long legacy of trans culture too. The are trans people in every country in the world.
    2
  1387. I think it’s pretty cool sounding myself. Just frustrating to put so much work into it and have so little to show for it.
    2
  1388.  @koDenverNuggetJeans  Let's get a panel of people on TV For and Against air travel disasters. Now that would be fair and balanced reporting!
    2
  1389.  @riverbionic  lamentablemente esto es cierto.
    2
  1390.  @aleera8257  Biological sex is just a useful but imprecise  shorthand for some biological functions that many but not all cis  women have. Intersex people prove that sex is not a binary system, it’s a bimodal distribution of biological function. Endocrinology is also biology and trans women on HRT are hormonally female. None of this is tied to womanhood which is about self identity and performativity. You’re welcome to think that’s deluded and I’m welcome to think you’re a naive gatekeeper. I would never treat a trans  woman as anything less than a woman or a trans man as anything less than a man. You can do whatever you want and think whatever you want and I’ll do the same.
    2
  1391.  @aleera8257  Like I said, think whatever you want and I’ll do the same. My wife is legally female, and we’re now legally married. That’s good enough for me. What you think is up to you. For me, trans women are women. You can think whatever you want.
    2
  1392.  @lanouek  It sure does. Hormone replacement therapy also makes huge changes.
    2
  1393.  @niverahamed8920  Many thanks. Here’s to a better world for trans women and cis women alike. It’s been a hard but rewarding road for my wife and I navigating all these social, family, legal and career challenges for the last 20 years. Wishing you the best for you and your relationships as well.
    2
  1394. Very few Muslims in Thailand, outside of the provinces bordering Malaysia.
    2
  1395. That happens everywhere. Everyone is attracted to what they want. Plenty of bisexuals out there also. It’s all good.
    2
  1396. There are Plenty of lesbians in Thailand.
    2
  1397. Ladyboy has a lot of subtext in the west it doesn’t have in Thailand where it’s just an easy word to say for non skilled English speakers. Thailand has a long way to go to be truly accepting. Trans girls can’t change their legal gender. Trans girls can’t legally marry their husbands. There is plenty of structural discrimination against trans girls in Thai society.
    2
  1398. Makes me question how many LGBT people you actually know personally in Thailand.
    2
  1399.  @bipolarmfs  Free to discriminate against LGBT people, that is.
    2
  1400. They are indeed trans. That’s why they are there in the thumbnail. Nothing confusing about beautiful trans girls. They’re amazing.
    2
  1401. Really? There are a lot of Kinnar in India.
    2
  1402.  @arunaabraham6445  The guy saying that with the orange vest was a motorcycle taxi driver in downtown Bangkok who sees several tens of thousands of people everyday as a function of his job. He sees enough people that he's going to even see an albino every day where the incidence rate is 1 in 20,000 rather than 1 in few hundred or so for trans people. I've never been to India before and I hear mixed reports about how many kinnar people see everyday, which is why I asked. I'm sure it depends on where you are in India, right? I'm sure if I was at the Koovagam festival in in Tamil Nadu I probably would see a lot more than 2. Some Indians say they see them everyday at the train station, hustling at traffic lights for spare change. Are there more trans people per capita in Thailand compared to India? Probably so. Thailand sure seems like a better place to be trans. It seems like a difficult life for trans people in India. My wife actually is a Thai trans woman. Happy to talk about this since it hits pretty close to home for me.
    2
  1403.  @arunaabraham6445  It's very possible to hide being trans. In some countries you will hardly see any at all no matter where you go. The more discrimination and hostility and economic impacts trans people face in any given society the fewer trans people you will see in that society. It is sad to think about all the trans people hiding from society and even denying it themselves and just doing what is expected of them. My Thai trans wife and I live in California now but look forward to retiring to Thailand eventually after Thailand legalizes marriage for LGBT people.
    2
  1404. The written language is brutal to learn. So many characters. Implied vowels and tones. No spaces. Ugh.
    2
  1405. You've gotta travel a bit more. Lots of LGBT people migrate to more progressive areas, for obvious reasons. Plenty to see in Berlin.
    2
  1406. The only abominable thing here is your transphobia.
    2
  1407. There are more trans women out and about per capita in Thailand than in California.
    2
  1408.  @mr.gunzaku437  Well, sure. My wife is a Thai trans woman. We're legally married in California. This is a topic I know quite a bit about, first hand. You?
    2
  1409.  @mr.gunzaku437  The best data in the US is probably from the Williams Institute, which had a transgender population in CA at 0.76%. Only DC and Hawaii are higher per capita which is understandable. Unfortunately it's not directly asked on the Census in the US nor in Thailand. Such demographics are pretty difficult to come by in Thailand for sure. I'd eyeball it at about 1.5 - 2.5% or so. More in younger generations both in CA and Thailand. Thailand is good on social acceptance but terrible on legal acceptance. Trans women (like my wife) can't legally change their gender. Nor can we legally marry in Thailand. California, on the other hand is excellent on trans legal rights. California is also much more divergent than Thailand is. The difference in opinion of people on the street in Lassen county vs San Francisco county are night and day. That's much less so in Thailand where social acceptance even in the countryside is quite good given the cultural role for trans folks in Thai culture. The wife and and I live in SF and visit Thailand quite often. Have you spent much time in both places?
    2
  1410.  @beverly1653  if you mean Thai law, Unfortunately not. The Thai cabinet approved the draft Civil Partnership Bill. But it still needs parliamentary approval. Keep in mind it is not actually legal marriage equality but does (when / if it is passed) enable partnerships to be legally registered. Gay couples will also gain rights including being able to adopt children and jointly own property, although they are not eligible for certain tax breaks. My wife and I (we’re married in California) are waiting for the day when we can be legally married as well in Thailand. We’ve been waiting many many years now. I agree that it is exciting that some movement is happening at least.
    2
  1411. Ladyboys can only Legally marry cisgender women. This is serious problem as most Thai ladyboys are only interested in men. Thai Ladyboys also cannot change their legal gender (which is legal in dozens of other countries). Thailand is incredibly weak on LGBT law. All the same Thailand is under military rule and is not a democracy so they have no shortage of issues to work out. Fortunately ladyboys are integrated well into Thai society and despite the lack of laws protecting ladyboys they live good lives free of much the violence and hostile discrimination that is common elsewhere.
    2
  1412. Welcome... to Jurassic Park. /dramatic music
    2
  1413.  @astrayagrarian  You realize that gender identity and chromosomal sex aren't the same thing, right? Everyone just assesses gender by cursory visual inspection. No one is taking a blood sample, putting in a sample in a Thermo Fisher Scientific karyotype analyzer and waiting for the results before dispensing a pronoun. I just take people at their word and call them what they want to be called. Seems like the decent thing to do and that way I don't need to trailer around half a million dollars worth of scientific equipment and wait hours to pick a pronoun. No one is paying me to adjudicate anyone's chromosomes. Do you demand to see a birth certificate if someone tells you their name is Josh, too?
    2
  1414.  @arifudin9151  There are trans women in every country in the world.
    2
  1415. They are famous Thai trans women. Do you want their names to verify this?
    2
  1416. There are almost no Christians in Thailand. Don’t waste your time.
    2
  1417. God doesn’t have a Thai visa. He was sent back from Suvarnabhumi to the Abrahamic hellhole that he came from.
    2
  1418. You do realize that 95%+ of Thai people are Buddhist, right? They have no interest in your God.
    2
  1419. It’s good to know Thailand just avoided another transphobic tourist.
    2
  1420.  @glassystudio  I highly recommend it. I ended up marrying a Thai trans girl.
    2
  1421. There are definitely better and worse US cities to be trans in. I see trans people in San Francisco all the time.
    2
  1422.  @dozlidadli391  Some are kind, sexy, and respectful. Others are the exact opposite. Asians are no different than any other people in the world. The key is finding compatibility about what you are both looking for. Takes time. I live with my wife in California but we spend a fair amount of time in Thailand, also. How about yourself? Where do you live?
    2
  1423.  @dozlidadli391  Nothing to do with US immigration is easy. Even getting a 2 week tourist visa is hard. Bank statements. Embassy interviews. Letters of reference. Completely opaque process filled with power tripping agents with little oversight. My wife is a US citizen now. We’re legally married now but we were long together before it was legal. Was a terrible time costing enormous amounts of money and several years and patience and plenty of transphobia in between. You can fly to Phuket on July 1st with no quarantine. It’s called the Phuket sandbox. Look into it. What other questions do you have? If it’s about trans women and Thailand, I know the answers. Lol.
    2
  1424. There have been 3rd gender / trans people in Thailand (and the entire region really) for hundreds and hundreds of years. It’s nothing new. Thailand never was colonized and consequently never learned any bad trans hating habits imported from colonial Europe. That’s not to say it’s a trans utopia. It is not, but neither Is it new nor condemned.
    2
  1425. Plenty of Thai trans women in Thailand see themselves as women. Thailand is simply a lot less far along on LGBT legal rights. Trans women can’t even legally marry their husbands.You’re making all kinds of generalizations about the intent of trans women as anti-woman but that’s hardly the case, in the US or anywhere. No trans woman with XY chromosomes doesn’t think she doesn’t have XY chromosomes, it’s simply that they want equal treatment under the law and to not face vast discrimination.
    2
  1426. There are trans women in every country in the world. How many you see in any given society is a function of how much discrimination and prejudice against trans people exists in that society.
    2
  1427. Nothing immoral about being a ladyboy. They’re just trying to live the life they want.
    2
  1428. How easy do you think it is to be a trans person in your country?
    2
  1429.  @vienchiez3954  You’ve got to travel more. The world is a diverse place.
    2
  1430.  @b.himanya  I married a Thai trans girl. Best decision I ever made.
    2
  1431. You’re in luck, that’s pretty cheap. From SF or LA you’re looking at $600 - $800 if you go during non peak times (not Summer or not Xmas). You should check it out.
    2
  1432.  @davidw.4524  Nope. Accountancy, like gender, is a sliding scale. It's performativity in both cases, not self hate.
    2
  1433.  @davidw.4524  That's in the eye of the beer holder, isn't it?
    2
  1434.  @davidw.4524  People change their legal gender everyday. It's the law in many countries.
    2
  1435.  @davidw.4524  As I see gender as a function of the mind and not the body, absolutely. Even if I saw gender as biologically based, which I absolutely do not, we're all just operating on casual visual inspection and taking people at their word when they say what gender they are. No one is taking any bio samples right there on the sidewalk to do karyotype tests, gene expression studies, endocrinology vitals, to know any biological facts. If someone says their name is Dave, I don't ask for three forms of government ID. I just take people at their word if I want to interact with them. I think they are the experts on themselves, not me.
    2
  1436. Nothing sad about trans girls putting in 1000% more effort into looking beautiful than average cis girls. Nothing really unexpected about that result.
    2
  1437. Only homophobes see such nonexistent connections. The AMA, APA and WHO say nothing about that, I don’t know about you but I trust doctors over random internet comments.
    2
  1438. Depends on the individual ladyboy you ask. Some do, some do not.
    2
  1439. I’m sure Thai farmers watching over their farms will be very surprised to learn this information.
    2
  1440. Nothing weird about marrying the love of your life.
    2
  1441. It’s not the USA blowing itself up that you need to worry about. The best thing about being an American is not being subject to it’s foreign policy.
    2
  1442. Didn’t say it was right. It surely isn’t.
    2
  1443. It is. I've been waiting many many years to be able to marry my Thai trans wife in Thailand. Not possible yet.
    2
  1444.  @liltree8382  Avoidance is also transphobia.
    2
  1445.  @imjust8644  There are trans men and trans women in every country in the world. If you’re that transphobic, put it in your dating profile that you’re not interested in trans people. Problem solved.
    2
  1446.  @imjust8644  My replies are not for irredeemable transphobes like yourself, it's for trans people reading these comments to know they aren't alone and that plenty of people do love and support them.
    2
  1447. I’m legally married to a Thai trans women (in the US, that’s not legally possible in Thailand). Best decision I ever made. I’m also bisexual. I’ve had plenty of long term serious relationships with cis women and gay men. I’m extremely qualified to tell the difference. It isn’t subtle. Honestly my wife is much more of a girly girl than any of my cis gender girlfriends. That’s not to say they were diesel Tom boys, as they were not. Trans girls really love feminine stuff. I think that’s pretty attractive. They really earned it, femininity wasn’t just given to them. All of my old girlfriends agree that my wife is more girly than they are and she puts a ton more money, time and pain into being womenly than they they ever would want to put in. A relationship is a relationship. My relationship feels pretty heterosexual to me. Others may think it’s not a heterosexual relationship without their girl being PMS irritated at them every month. That I can live without. Ha! More seriously, Trans girls have a key life differentiator, beyond the below the belt sexy time differences. They can’t have their own biological kids. For me and my wife that’s a benefit. We don’t want kids, nor is getting accidentally pregnant a problem so annoying birth control isn’t an necessary. Trans girls often love anal more than most cis girls as they have a prostate. If you’re into that, that’s a big plus. They know how to operate a man’a equipment quite well and for me culturally as a bisexual actually being knowledgeable about LGBT history and the struggle for legal equality is a big deal to me. Straight cis girl allies haven’t really had skin in the game like my wife and I have. Activism is a big part of my life. I can talk about this stuff endlessly. I can compare and contrast California to Thailand pretty well as that’s where we live now. What questions do you have?
    2
  1448. You’re not going to make that happen over the internet. Here’s how it’s done: go to Thailand and make friends with an older hardworking trans girl working a retail or salon job in some small town that isn’t Bangkok or Pattaya. Do not, I repeat, do not expect to find love in Nana plaza.
    2
  1449.  @yuripullman1452  By any means necessary works for me. LGBT deserve full equality under the law for their relationships and their gender identity. Anything less is 2nd class citizenship.
    2
  1450. Thailand has little need for your judgemental Abrahamic fairy tales demonizing LGBT people just trying to lead their best lives. There are almost no Christians in Thailand, don’t waste your time.
    2
  1451. Folklore logic based on no actual friendships with trans people who’s family life does not meet this criteria.
    2
  1452. And for the 95% of Thai people that do not believe in the God of Abraham?
    2
  1453. Who says romance is dead, eh?
    2
  1454.  @FraterOculus  Undermining language for the purpose of someone's fancy seems like a victimless crime to me. Languages also evolve. I don't see how that changes Sauce's life in any way. She's still going to be the way she is, regardless of how ruffled your feathers get about what English nouns and pronouns she isn't even using in her daily life using Thai in Thailand. If you looked like a 3 year old three-toed sloth, or were trying to look like one, I'd be happy to refer to you as that. It's not like I'm going to do a DNA test on you to make sure you're not a teenage Opossum in disguise. Do you do a karyotype test on everyone you meet and get the results back before you drop a pronoun, you know, to be perfectly accurate about things? If so, for your sake, I hope you get a bulk discount at the lab.
    2
  1455.  @manunuod_ako1766  My wife didn't transition until she was out of university. The locker room policy varies by school in Thailand. Not many trans women in Thailand are interested in playing sports.
    2
  1456. I forgot.
    2
  1457.  @jpmor7327  They're just less genetically less sexually dimorphic than other races. Endocrinology is basically the same. The Thais just have a more chill attitude because of Buddhism.
    2
  1458. How do you figure? Trans women have been a part of Thai culture for hundreds and hundreds of years.
    2
  1459. So you want us to believe they go through this expensive process of surgical and hormonal transition and medical recovery just to make some money from sex work in their 20's before that's no longer viable in their 30's to face a life of employment discrimination after that as a trans woman and a complete disruption of their family and dating life. Do I have that about right?
    2
  1460. You're not going to get that far into relationship without knowing that she's trans. You can always just bring this topic up. Easily solved.
    2
  1461. Is that a serious question? Only a few percent of Thai people are trans.
    2
  1462. Not so surprising, actually.
    2
  1463. Not to me and millions of other people that support LGBT people.
    2
  1464. How do you know what genetic sex someone is without doing a karyotype test to be sure you’re actually being biologically accurate?
    2
  1465.  @Marcusml333  She was working in a Thai restaurant that I frequented quite often. We got to talking and hit it off and started dating. We've been together for 19 years now. She has US citizenship and of course Thai citizenship now. We're looking forward to retiring together to Thailand in another 10 years. I'd recommend scouting around some Thai restaurants near you. That way you don't need to get involved in a long distance relatoinship right away. Plus the Thai folks that are abroad already tend to be better educated, have better finances and be reasonably well adjusted to life in the west with a better than average command of English. Good luck! If you have any other questions, just ask.
    2
  1466. Accident and emergency treatment? Why is that necessary? Paramedics do not dispense any medications by gender. It’s all by pediatric or adult and by weight. Dozens of countries in the world allow legal gender change and there is NOT a rash of trans deaths due to this. Look into it.
    2
  1467. Committing adultery with your eyes? Kill me now.
    2
  1468. True but Thailand is more accepting than the Philippines.
    2
  1469. Plenty of Americans like me are accepting either way. Trans woman are women to me.
    2
  1470.  @sloppygirlz  My wife is a Thai trans women. We’re legally married in California. She’s legally female on her Driver’s license and Passport. The country clerk said, “I now pronounce you man and wife.” She’s female to me and everyone we know.
    2
  1471.  @auroradzan4335  That’s very true. Thailand would be way better, that’s for sure. Are you going to stay in Russia or try to immigrate elsewhere?
    2
  1472.  @keysislandhopper4768  Until you try to change your legal gender or get legally married in the Philippines or Thailand.
    2
  1473. Given that my wife is a Thai trans woman she'd probably catch me. Ha!
    2
  1474. There is nothing confusing about a beautiful person. Just relax and have a good time, same as always.
    2
  1475. ​ @ganifraterdogan1062  It's tricky to answer because of language and cultural differences between Thailand and the west. Ultimately it's not apples to apples. I've never known any Thai ladyboys to not use the female article "ka" to refer to themselves, exactly the same way as Thai cisgender women do. In a way it's a self declaration of gender. But many of these same folks will call themselves ladyboys and not think of themselves as women yet behave womanly in every possible way. Sometimes it's respecting the process that they went through and honoring that history. There also isn't an equivalent word in Thai to cisgender, so saying "male" or "real woman" or something is really the only other option when doing gender comparisons, which is problematic and why cisgender was created to begin with. It surely doesn't help actualize your gender when you can't change your legal gender, when your ID card betrays you. The word ladyboy isn't even the same. Trans folks and their allies in the west almost universally hate it because many western trans folks rightly don't see themselves as a "boy" at all and worse yet the word is heavily used and associated with the porn industry. In Thailand the word Ladyboy is just used for the convenience of English speakers and it's a simple noun for non-native English speakers to remember and say with none of those negative connotations at all. You'll see that up and down this comment section. Simultaneously Thailand (and all over the region, actually) also has a cultural history of ladyboys existing as a special 3rd gender for hundreds and hundreds of years. So, the Thai gender space is less bi-nodal than it is in western culture, and more tri-nodal. That's not to say there aren't people in the west who think of their gender outside of the male and female paradigm, because there are. These folks are rare of course in the west but essentially non existent in Thailand. Trans people in the west are/were much more politically galvanized and motivated, because they've been treated horribly and had nothing left to lose. That's less the case in Thailand where discrimination is not overt and is subtle and non-confrontational and often involves the soft bigotry of low expectations. That also makes for a slippery political surface to gain traction, in the way that's very unknown in the west. The west is all together too happy to tee off on each other, create martys and then champion their names on remedial legislation. The LGBT west has been great at moving the ball and gaining LGBT legislation. Thailand has very little LGBT law, so far, but that's changing. Not only is there a diversity of opinion, the playing field isn't the same either. Nothing is apples to apples. My wife is a Thai trans woman. We live in California. She's legally female in California and we're legally married in California, both of which aren't legal in Thailand. If you have followup questions, just ask. I've spent a lot of time trying to sort this all out. Cheers.
    2
  1476. No need to be afraid, just ask. No one wants to waste their time after all.
    2
  1477. Doubtful. My wife’s mom has no problem with my wife being trans. She’s is certainly not alone in that.
    2
  1478. Thank you but hold the applause until we can legally marry in Thailand like we did in the US.
    2
  1479.  @KevinNg-bq7mf  Hopefully before I die of old age.
    2
  1480. Some people are thinking for themselves. Help those LGBT people and their allies whenever you can.
    2
  1481. Then how do you explain the vast majority of Thai trans women that have never been involved in sex work?
    2
  1482.  REAL DOGE  Plenty of Thai trans women in Thailand see themselves as women and want to be legally female and to legally marry their husbands. You do not speak for them. My wife is a Thai trans woman and she thinks of herself as female. I know plenty of other Thai trans women personally. Sure, some see themselves as a 3rd gender, kathoey, sao praphet song, or as trans. There is a lot of language semantics and things lost in translation here. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of trans women in Thailand alone, obviously there is a diversity of opinion and how they think of themselves is up to each of them personally not what Gretehen, you or I think.
    2
  1483. This is only Thailand. Asia is dozens of countries and literally most of the world’s entire population. Rest assured aside from some social acceptance (but no legal acceptance) in Thailand and the Philippines it is not very accepted, unfortunately. I’m not sure what this has to do with the treatment of black peoples though, whom obviously should be respected as well. At least as a black person in Thailand you can legally marry. Not so for trans women who can’t legally marry their husbands.
    2
  1484. Watch Thai people eat some time. They eat very little soy. Pork, chicken, seafood, rice and noodles. That’s most of it.
    2
  1485. Millions of females are regretting (sic) for their gender? What does that even mean?
    2
  1486. What about trans women that have had SRS?
    1
  1487. Trans women are women to me and many others that support trans people see it that was as well.
    1
  1488.  @HolgerDanske  Gender is in the mind, not the chromosomes. If I took your brain out of your body and transplanted it into a cis gender woman's body you're going to think you're a woman now and embrace that reality? Get real.
    1
  1489.  @HolgerDanske  Great. You realize that personhood and consciousness resides in the brain and not the body. If a mad scientist transplanted your brain (and there was no way back) what would you do? Embrace your new life and live like a woman in society in this new body or do everything in your power to change your new body to match how you see yourself and how others see you?
    1
  1490.  Mick Williams  Gender identity and consciousnesses is in the mind and not the body. If I put your brain into a cis gender woman’s body you’re going to accept and think of yourself as a woman now? Get real. Such is the trans experience in slow motion. To call their transition (which is supported by every professional medical organization from the APA, AMA to the WHO) mutilation speaks legions about your level of transphobia.
    1
  1491.  Mick Williams  We’re supposed to believe some random internet commentard over the guidance of the APA or the AMA? Please. Trans women are women. End of story. Take your transphobia elsewhere.
    1
  1492.  Mick Williams  The truth is that gender is in the mind and not the body. If you had any actual real life experience with trans people and their lives you would understand this basic fact. Go on believing that chromosome can explain your gender identity and that if I put your brain into cis gender woman’s body that you would accept and identity yourself as a woman.
    1
  1493.  @tazboy1934  I'll drink to that!
    1
  1494. There is a vast amount of prejudice in Thailand. It’s simply less frequently vocalized.
    1
  1495. You asked each and every trans person in Thailand and Korea why they transitioned and they told you this?
    1
  1496. What androgynous / transgender Gods and Goddesses in Thailand do you refer?
    1
  1497. Trans people are real to me and to millions of others that support LGBT people. I call people the gender they want to be called. It’s the only friendly thing to do.
    1
  1498. An urban legend doesn’t necessarily translate to actual history. Sure, I’m sure a few parents did such unscrupulous terrible things. I have a very difficult time believing this is true at scale. Ladyboys habe been a part of Thai history for hundreds of years, after all.
    1
  1499. There is a fair amount of publicity around ladyboy caberet shows and beauty contests. Thailand is a massive tourist destination and so a huge number of people go there, see one and tell all their friends about it in their home country. This reinforces the association. Thailand does as much trans surgery as the rest of the world combined. A lot do trans people go there for surgery. This is somewhat well known in every country from talk shows with trans people in them over the decades. There are trans people in all the counties in the South Asia region, with varying degrees of acceptance. In India when the Kama Sutra was written a couple thousand years ago 3rd gender ladyboys were mentioned. Thailand was never colonized by a foreign power and consequently the Abrahamic religions rather stern prohibitions against trans people never fully took hold. It’s mostly a combination of publicity and history. Sure, American Air Force bases and R&R bars in Thailand during the Vietnam war introduced a lot of Americans to the concept that ladyboys existed also. Americans took that knowledge home and the power of Hollywood projected it to the world too. There are trans people everywhere, but most of the world’s trans people are in the closet afraid to come out or even admit it to themselves due to social and employment discrimination if they did. It’s a sad state of affairs. In that way Thailand is way ahead of the curve. My wife is a Thai trans woman. We live in California now. Ask any questions that you have.
    1
  1500. Yes!
    1
  1501. The answer is that trans women are a small percentage of the population in any country. How many of that small percentage you will see living openly is a function of the discrimination trans people face in that country. The more discrimination they face, the fewer you will see. Thailand is a pretty good place to be trans and so see most of the people who are trans living their truth. Saudi Arabia or Uganda? Not so much. Other countries are in the middle.
    1
  1502. Sickeningly awesome, that is.
    1
  1503.  @ssorgpm  I couldn't imagine a life with a transphobic God.
    1
  1504. False dichotomy. One can both put pressure on China and other nations to prevent human rights abuses and put pressure on America reign in their imperialist ways.
    1
  1505. Jasmin Lee is the actresses name. She’s amazing.
    1
  1506. Is in the video.
    1
  1507. There are esarn restaurants all over the country. Nothing wrong with eating those things. They’re delicious. Plenty of odd things on the menu in 5 star restaurants in Paris too.
    1
  1508. Aisha, San Francisco was gay long before Silicon Valley’s dot com bubble made everything expensive. Keep in mind that SF and Bay Area counties also has among the highest incomes in the US. Gay men generally put their time and interest in their careers and so it’s no surprise that they move to up and coming places because they are more mobile. Plus these places are just more progressive in general so it’s simply easier to live without cold stares in the post office and grocery store. Clearly you know nothing about factors behind LGBT migration nor Bay Area economics. Further, there is no survey that shows that US millennials are less LGBT friendly now then in prior years. Gallup and Pew are the gold standards and they do not show this. Millennials have the highest rates of support for same sex marriage and rights of any generation. I have no interest in being viewed as normal by you. I simply want legal equality (including same sex marriage) which is now the law in dozens of countries despite the efforts of homophobes like you.
    1
  1509. Not true. As of 2007, among non-agricultural sector workers in Thailand, women received 92% of the average wage of men compared to 65.4% in 1990.Women's wages in the manufacturing sector as of 2008 were 80% of men's and were 72% in 2000.
    1
  1510.  @terryquarton2523  Couldn’t agree more, Terry and nice to virtually meet you. The general population just doesn’t think the bathroom thing through due to a lack of familiarity with trans people. Lesbian sex offenders with a criminal record as long as your arm are allowed to use any women’s restroom. Who is the bigger risk? That and trans men by their own rules would then also be forced into women’s restrooms. It’s just inexperience with the topic at best or it’s just an issue the transphobic can use to justify discrimination and hardship for trans people.
    1
  1511. Do you really want to get the cheapest SRS in town?
    1
  1512. What do you mean? Of course she has an immune system. Without one you’ll be dead in a month.
    1
  1513. Gays and lesbians want to be able to be legally married and not be fired from their job for being gay. These seem like basic rights to me.
    1
  1514. Yeah, so calm and rational that trans women can’t legally marry their husbands nor change their legal gender. Nor can gays or lesbians legally marry. There are nearly no LGBT laws in Thailand and it’s a legal black hole for LGBT relationships and not for noting do a ton of LGBT emigrate to the west. My wife is Trans and we’ve been waiting a decade to get married in Thailand.
    1
  1515. What's scary about the existence of trans women?
    1
  1516. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Plenty of counter examples.
    1
  1517. Trans women not being afraid to come out of the closet is a pretty mind blowing concept in most countries.
    1
  1518. Most Thai ladyboys have no interest in romantic relationships with women. There are exceptions, of course.
    1
  1519.  @1sigtor  There is nothing inherently sad about being transgender. It's the discrimination and oppression from others that makes life difficult for trans people during their transition and after. Sauce (our protagonist) went through quite a lot during her life, obviously. You can't expect someone to be overjoyed about retelling a difficult story that was primarily made difficult by other people. Instead of being sad why not be happy that she finally is a successful adult and has now overcome most of the difficulties in her youth and Thai society is even more accepting of trans people now than it was previously?
    1
  1520.  @1sigtor  What is it that you think is sad about transgender people? What else could she have done? Doing nothing and living a depressed life in the closet hiding from the masculine face she sees in the mirror or going out, taking steps to be the person she needs to be in this world? How many transgender people do you know personally?
    1
  1521.  @1sigtor  I am just asking you to explain why you are sad. Why can’t you do that?
    1
  1522.  @1sigtor  I'm not doubting your sadness, nor that humans feel emotions and express them. I'm just trying to understand what is sad about "what these choices have done for you". Can you elaborate beyond that?
    1
  1523.  @1sigtor  I'm just asking for you to elaborate on your view about why transitioning isn't good (or at least sadness inducing) and you seem quite reluctant for reasons unknown. I'm not turning anything around. I am merely asking for further elaboration. Is that difficult?
    1
  1524.  @1sigtor  So you’re sad about this for no reason?
    1
  1525.  @1sigtor  I'm not sad, I'm just curious how it can be that you're sad for reasons you can't articulate. What is it about this topic that makes you sad?
    1
  1526. Found the transphobe
    1
  1527. Let me guess. You know zero trans women personally.
    1
  1528. @Chaiwat exactly.
    1
  1529.  @NickyRikki  There are gays all over Thailand. How can you have missed them? Sure there is homophobia in every society but the existence of trans women doesn’t then conclude that that’s what happened to them. After all, there is transphobia in Thailand too.
    1
  1530.  @sunny_Lee1995  คุณพูดอย่างฉลาดมาก
    1
  1531.  @NickyRikki  Homophobia and transphobia both exist in Thailand. That perfect example of yours in Pattaya isn't at all broadly representative of trans women. A poor gay man with few opportunities for a good income does sex work in drag in Pattaya, because it pays better than gay sex work because he needs the money to help his family and make merit and you're extrapolating these Pattaya anecdotes to condemn the acceptance of gays and lesbians in broader Thai society. That and you are minimizing the very real discrimination that trans woman have in Thailand and broader Thai society. Pattaya isn't the real LGBT Thailand. It's a very complicated picture not well encapsulated by broad generalizations. Honestly, you just don't know LGBT Thailand all that well. If you think you do, have that conversation in Thai with Sunny_Alisa.
    1
  1532.  @NickyRikki  Thailand doesn't really have a functioning democracy at the moment so no doubt that it is difficult to get any laws, let alone LGBT laws passed. That said, either civil unions or full marriage equality legalization are right around the corner (lower house approved both bills ) and and the Move Forward Party has fully endorsed LGBT rights. To pretend that this isn't the political reality in Thailand right now is absurd. Your paltry 8 years of living in northern Thailand doesn't impress me compared to the dozens of Thai gays and lesbians and trans people with a 100 years of combined Thai LGBT experience that I know personally that have told me otherwise. Your use of the word 'epidemic' also speaks volumes. If you're such a Thai expert, argue with Sunny_Alisa about it, in Thai. I'll wait.
    1
  1533.  roadhosdagoat  Nope. My wife is legally female. Marriage is a legal license. The county clerk said, “I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
    1
  1534. Does Vladimir pay you in rubles or bitcoin?
    1
  1535. And what about trans men?
    1
  1536. Sadly, no. Ah well.
    1
  1537. LGBT people are not a problem. Homophobia is the problem and the real barrier to equality for LGBT people.
    1
  1538. I ended up marrying a Thai trans girl. Best decision I ever made.
    1
  1539. LGBT people want to be able to legally marry their spouses and not be fired for being gay.. Denying them these basic civil rights just leads to worse outcomes for this group which in turn is an opportunity cost for the Indonesian economy. It’s senseless. So many gays and lesbians are pressured to marry opposite sex spouses and the entire marriage falls apart when they can’t maintain the lies anymore. Let’s stop this madness and give them an equal place at the table.
    1
  1540. Make friends with them and then ask nicely. No one can differentiate cisgender people from transgender people just by looking 100% of the time. My wife is a Thai trans woman and there are some Thai trans friends she has that I certainly wouldn't have known until I was told. And that's totally ok. That is their truth to tell and no one is going to wear a sign around their neck.
    1
  1541. @Sír Knëukel They work just fine. Give one a try since you're so interested.
    1
  1542. During the Vietnam war. Until 1975. Doesn’t mean that story the women told in the video is representative.
    1
  1543. There are lots of different religions in Thailand and people not at all pushy about religion. Most people are Buddhists but they have a very live and let live attitude that is quite refreshing compared to Abrahamic religions.
    1
  1544.  @rosebud4387  The difference is that it needs to be made specifically legal for trans women to use women's bathroom or they can be subject to discrimination and/or harassment, just like the woman in the video. This is particularly true at the beginning of a trans woman's transition when she doesn't pass as male anymore to use the men's room. You are aware that it's legal in most of north america and Europe for trans women to legally use the women's restroom, yes? Millions of trans women use the women's restroom everyday in these places without incident. If someone (of any gender) is sexually harassing someone else in the restroom, there are already laws in place to take care of this. An epidemic of men pretending to be trans women to sexually harass women in women's bathrooms is not a statistical reality. Slipping and falling on wet tile in bathrooms is a vastly bigger danger. If you care about the bathroom safety of women your axe to grind should be against slippery tile and not trans women.
    1
  1545.  @rosebud4387  So much for caring much about the safety of women. Who cares if they break their neck slipping on floors, but if some horrible trans person could be indirectly blamed then it's obviously a moral outrage and worthy of a million column inches of frothy text and dozens of replies. Your transphobia is showing. If safety in bathrooms is paramount then have paid attendants in the bathrooms that can call security. Install panic buttons all over the place in the bathroom. Have cameras that record who goes in and out of the bathrooms and software to correlate them with the picture ID on file of people who enter the building. Have more security guards. This is security 101. Or you could just blame trans women for everything I guess. Yeah, that's probably a lot simpler than actual security solutions that would better protect women from assault. Let's think about this. People who are willing to commit felony sexual assault and do hard jail time are not going to care about what sign is on the outside of the door. Assault is already illegal. Again, trans women are legally allowed in women's restrooms in most of North America and Europe and there is no epidemic of men impersonating trans women to assault women in women's restrooms. This is the stuff of transphobic fantasy.
    1
  1546. Thai people actually eat very little soy. It’s nearly all meat, vegetables and herbs.
    1
  1547. You've gotta get out more. Plenty of trans people out there.
    1
  1548. Well there is phu ying praphet song, which can be translated as "second-type female“.
    1
  1549. If only! Sadly not.
    1
  1550. No.
    1
  1551. Ouch. That's going to leave a mark.
    1
  1552. Step one is talking to a therapist / counselor. My wife started transitioning in her late 20s. It’s never too late but the earlier you start the better so figuring out if that’s a path for you requires a lot of soul searching and talking with a therapist to sort out your feelings.
    1
  1553. How would that work?
    1
  1554. How about Thailand?
    1
  1555. How do you figure?
    1
  1556. He’s just being a colossal jackass. Thai is a lovely language.
    1
  1557. And Elon hired a private investigator to try to prove that was the case and could not. Read the transcript of the trial.
    1
  1558. No one is asking us to pity Thai sex workers. It’s a fairly lucrative gig. Sure there are risks but there are risks in many careers.
    1
  1559. Never is a long time. All empires turn to dust in the long arc of history.
    1
  1560.  @mela6046  If your aim is to impress me with the opinions of those who follow Bronze Age supernatural nonsense, then you are sadly mistaken. The growth rate of non religious people among university educated adults is also incredible. You also do not speak for all the practitioners of Christianity, many denominations actually do support their transgender brothers and sisters and see them as committing no sin and being trans is how God made them. You’re welcome to your Abrahamic belief system and I’m welcome to mine. The difference is, everything that I believe in is peer reviewed verifiable science.
    1
  1561.  @jasonbowen4923  Dream on, transphobe.
    1
  1562. What country is that?
    1
  1563. I've been waiting over a decade to marry my wife. She's a Thai trans woman. Hopefully soon civil unions will be legal.
    1
  1564. Have you visited Thailand?
    1
  1565. The origination story doesn’t matter. What matters is that LGBT people should be treated equally under the law with full marriage equality.
    1
  1566. Not when it comes to controlled substances it isn’t.
    1
  1567. Gender identity and chromosomes are not the same thing. This isn’t obvious to you? If you want to live your life as a woman, why not? Are you the gender police?
    1
  1568. Who are you to tell others how they should live their life? Do they get to do the same to you? If she wants to be a woman, and wants to be called a woman and wants to live like a woman who am I to tell her otherwise? That’s her life. Being trans is not a psychosis. The APA and the WHO simply call the condition gender dysphoria and standard treatment is medical steps to transition. According to all leading professional medical organizations it is not a psychosis. Go look up the position statements from the APA and WHO. Have you ever actually talked with a trans girl before?
    1
  1569. Because it takes a critical threshold of LGBT people coming out before heterosexuals gain enough comfort with LGBT people to not oppose legal rights key to happiness of LGBT like gay marriage. Every country that has LGBT marriage equality has done this and every country that does not have LGBT marriage equality has not done this. No one needs to do anything, obviously but either you’re part of the solution or you’re part of the problem. That problem is LGBT visibility.
    1
  1570. If you get to know some trans women you can see familiar features from experience. The important thing is that they’re treated fairly and humanely.
    1
  1571. Thai does have a number of words where the ending of the final sound is cut short. English doesn’t really do this. Played backwards it can sound like the beginning of an English word. That’s my best guess.
    1
  1572. Ladyboys go to the girls bathroom.
    1
  1573. And legally marry.
    1
  1574. More out trans women per capita than the Philippines? Thailand is about the only competition. In North America and Europe all trans women can change their legal gender and are legally allowed to use women's restrooms. That doesn't mean there are more out trans women per capita in NA and Europe, though. They just have much better LGBT laws.
    1
  1575.  @kalidou3219  Given that my wife is a Thai trans woman, I do know what I'm talking about. There are lot of trans celebrities in Thailand, of course. That said this doesn't help you at all when I want to legally marry my wife in Thailand or when she wants to change her legal gender in Thailand. I'm not sure Thailand 'gave them opportunities" when they just didn't brutally discriminate against them the way many countries do. Is not being oppressed a gift? I'm not exactly sure about that.
    1
  1576. Yes, they should be proud. People celebrate LGBT pride around the world.
    1
  1577.  @youtmeme  That is correct. Historical documents describe them. Look up the Hijra in India for an extremely well documented and ancient example. See also “Gender pluralism: Soitheast Asia since Early Modern Times” by Michael Peletz for an excellent compilation.
    1
  1578. Transgender people don't owe you any explanation and are not going to wear a sign around their neck for your benefit. Rest assured, should you be lucky enough to know a transgender person, long before it rises to the level of intimacy they'll let you know.
    1
  1579. The overwhelming majority of trans people are going to let you know, primarily out of self interest. Many trans girls have been murdered or assaulted in just such situations. There are much bigger injustices in the world to be overly concerned with this.
    1
  1580. Only if you ask nicely. Ha! Then they’ll steal your heart and you’ll live happily ever after.
    1
  1581. You get to know them and ask. Easy as that.
    1
  1582. You mean the balls she described having removed?
    1
  1583. Fish farms cause trans people? Surely you’re joking.
    1
  1584. I hope so too. It’s very sad.
    1
  1585. They're famous Thai trans girls, actually. No one can clock all trans people. That goes for me too and I'm married to Thai trans girl.
    1
  1586. It's as acceptable as being trans is. Lots of gays and lesbians in Thailand. You can see gays and lesbians everywhere. Just as in the west there are older Thais that don't understand LGBT people or issues but the younger the person is, the better the odds are they know and understand LGBT people. That said, Thailand is a LGBT black hole when it comes to legal rights. No same sex marriage. Trans women can't change their legal gender on ID. There are many issues with discrimination and weak enforcement. Thailand has vast number of democracy problems that are not helping our LGBT brothers and sisters in Thailand get the laws passed they need but many of us are working to make that happen.
    1
  1587. Ladyboys aren’t a problem, they’re just people.
    1
  1588. It’s the law in most of North America and Europe that trans women are legally allowed to use the women’s bathroom. Look up public accommodation law. Literally millions of trans women use the women’s restroom every day without issue. Where is the statistical evidence that women are being attacked in the restroom by men pretending to be trans women in greater numbers then they are attacked elsewhere by guys not posing as trans women?
    1
  1589. Haters are gonna hate, that's why.
    1
  1590. Should they be allowed to date me? Oh, alright. I guess I’ll allow it.
    1
  1591. Yes and No. My wife is a Thai trans woman and we're married here in the US. I can't legally marry my wife in Thailand. Nor can she change her legal gender in Thailand. Meanwhile her legal gender (on ID and passport) is Female in the US. That is a big deal. There also a whole host of disclination protections that the US has that Thailand does not. That said, the US is a very diverse place with respect to society respecting trans people. Some places are extremely hostile to trans people that aren't 100% passing. Other places are actually very accepting. There is a world of difference between rural Alabama and downtown San Francisco. No doubt that on average Thailand has much better tolerance socially, but it's a legal black hole. Some places in the US are more accepting socially. SF, NYC, West Hollywood, etc. If you have any questions, just ask. I have a lifetime of comparative experience.
    1
  1592. Feel free to think whatever you want about LGBT people. I have zero desire to be accepted. What I require is legal same sex marriage and employment discrimination protection. Religion should not dictate civil rights.
    1
  1593. Gorgeous ladyboy. It’s not theoretical for me, I married a gorgeous ladyboy 5 years ago and we’ve been together for 15 years. Best thing I ever did.
    1
  1594. There are pros and cons. Thailand has essentially no LGBT legal rights.
    1
  1595.  Ashley nomi  Time to move to a more progressive city in the US.
    1
  1596. Every major western medical association in the west supports gender transition. The reason is harm reduction. Talk therapy or doing nothing has been shown to not be effective in ameliorating these feelings and the resulting depression as a result. Trans people have better outcomes in life, bringing their body in congruence with their mind if they medically transition. Don’t take my word for it. Look up the “wpath standards of care” this is the standard that medical professionals use to help these folks. The trans woman in the video will have no impact on your life. Why do you think you have the right to tell her what she can do with her own life?
    1
  1597.  @nhmarzuki9571  My wife is a Thai trans woman. I'm her husband. Being trans does not make a person not able to have a husband or a happy life. We are a family together. My wife goes to her Buddhist temple regularly and is very spiritual. The monks at the temple see nothing wrong with her being trans. I'm sorry about your woman friend who fell in love with a gay guy. That happens. The gay guy just can't reciprocate the love that she has. It's not his fault. Real life includes straight people, gay people, lesbian people and trans people. That's just the way it is.
    1
  1598. You’re probably better off not knowing how badly some trans people are treated in other countries. That’s why some people are so curious.
    1
  1599. Very.
    1
  1600. Is there a reason to know? After you know someone for a while you can just ask them or wait for them to tell you. There are a vast number of things I don’t know about a person just by just an initial look.
    1
  1601. Plenty out of the closet too, Thailand just has a higher percent out of the closet.
    1
  1602.  @muayboran6111  Dozens of countries already do. My wife has dual Thai / US citizenship. Her California ID reads female and her US passport does as well. She can hand that ID to anyone at any time. Not so in Thailand but this will absolutely change as well, in time. Trans women can already get all kinds of sex, plenty of guys are interested and a fake ID that could fool a civilian is as easy to come by as a trip to Khaosan Road. Gender isn’t biology. India and Pakistan actually have 3rd gender legal designations and plenty of western countries have other gender indicators as well.
    1
  1603.  @rorydarlene2968  The legality is holding us. Plenty of other couples also just don’t want some ceremony that has no legal standing. We’re not going to get married in Thailand until it’s legal to do so. We’re already legally married in the US but we’re waiting until it’s legally permissible in Thailand to do so. There are all sorts of rights and privileges that only are accessible via legal marriage. A ceremony for the sake of a ceremony seems pretty hollow to me. Sure other people feel differently but we’re not those people.
    1
  1604.  @rorydarlene2968  The main obstacle is the democratic process itself, or the lack thereof. The military junta that controls the levers of power in Thailand isn’t truly democratic and the opposition party has been undermined at every turn. LGBT rights aren’t a priority for the junta and it will be some time until the major problems here are resolved and the will of the people can be realized through true representative government. That isn’t to say that there isn’t opposition to LGBT equality from a sizable segment of society, typically older Thais, there is. They are just very non confrontational about their views, but they show up in some surveys. It’s safe to say that Thailand has bigger problems, which is not great but understandable. Know hope!
    1
  1605. The video was about trans women, not trans men. It's just interviews with folks on the street who aren't exactly university sociologists.
    1
  1606. There surely are beautiful trans girls everywhere.
    1
  1607. All the Thai trans women I’ve ever known (including my wife) use Chan for Female and the polite article female article, Ka. That doesn’t mean they won’t refer to themselves as sao praphet song or “woman of the second kind” which is fairly analogous to trans woman.
    1
  1608. I’m certainly not an expert on the Thai language but I know a bit. I know a great deal about Thai trans women however. It’s a tricky language to remember all those tones and the writing is tough to decrypt . On the plus side the grammar is simple the written language is very exact for pronouncing words. Much easier than English on those two scores.
    1
  1609. Having someone to speak Thai with is pretty essential to get anywhere. Ideally someone Thai that wants to learn better English so it’s mutually beneficial. I’ve tried a lot of different Learn Thai books and products but I haven’t found anything I’ve really liked. Doesn’t help that I’m kinda lazy. Heh.
    1
  1610. Ladyboys are amazing, that’s why.
    1
  1611. She didn’t say. Are you looking for recommendations?
    1
  1612. 1. What if he didn’t know she was a ladyboy? 2. Bisexuals exist 3. What’s gay about being attracted to the feminine form?
    1
  1613.  @sacredserpent9667  Ok, murderer. Enjoy your life in prison.
    1
  1614.  @sacredserpent9667  Happy to displease you, transphobe.
    1
  1615.  @garyK.45ACP  The majority.
    1
  1616. Woman face. Heh. Check your transphobia.
    1
  1617. Gifts can be returned if you don’t want them.
    1
  1618. You are aware that effectively all trans women in a Thailand use the women’s restroom all the time without incident, yes?
    1
  1619. Why would a sign on the door stop someone whom is ready, willing and able to rape someone and have their life completely ruined with a rape conviction? Are plastic signs that powerful?
    1
  1620. Thailand's economy is the 25th largest in the world. Just below Belgium and above Austria. Thailand has had a cultural role for trans people for hundreds and hundreds of years like other countries in South Asia.
    1
  1621. It’s more complicated than this. There has been a distinct cultural role and labeling for trans people all over South Asia since antiquity. It doesn’t follow western conventions. India and Pakistan for example have 3rd gender options on their official ID.
    1
  1622. What entitlement?
    1
  1623. It doesn't have the subtext it does in the west. It's just an easy compound word that non native people can say and remember and know that English speakers will understand the general idea. That's it, really.
    1
  1624. Criminalizing or decriminalizing gay sex has no impact on HIV transmission rates, as any cursory read of LGBT history will inform you. If you want to prevent HIV apply funding to wide scale pre exposure prophylaxis deployment in your health care system. It's scientifically proven to work.
    1
  1625.  @starshine9836  Criminalizing gay sex is categorically unjust to LGBT citizens nor is it an effective health care policy measure, which is why it's been decriminalized in North America, South America, Europe, and most of Asia. Use all the personal anecdotes and empty aphorisms you wish to try to justify your second class treatment of LGBT citizens, but no one reading this is going to believe your intentions here. HIV prevention healthcare methodologies are very easy to look up. They've been studied for decades by health care organizations around the world. They all involve more testing, better ARV treatment and PreP for at risk communities not unenforceable bans on gay people having consensual sex they're going to have behind closed doors anyway.
    1
  1626. Some are and some aren’t. It’s a diverse country. Some places are very good for LGBT people, others not so much.
    1
  1627.  @alexanderpavlovichromanov9138  Ben Shapiro couldn't rule a Burger King even with the free paper crown. His orthodox Judaism has warped all of his faculties. Contrapoints cleaned his clock on this topic with the video "Pronouns | ContraPoints" watch?v=9bbINLWtMKI
    1
  1628.  @alexanderpavlovichromanov9138  I've watched all of Ben's nonsense regarding trans people and I don't find it compelling in the least, nor do I think many other people do as well. I think he just comes across as hostile and intolerant. Sure, hostile and intolerant people probably are into that sort of thing but I think that most reasonable people see through that pretty quickly.
    1
  1629. I’ve seen that Ben Shapiro segment. If you want a total break down of Ben’s argument, watch that Contrapoints segment I mentioned in an earlier comment. For me it’s aboit respect. If you want to talk to someone, call them what they want to be called. To do anything less is Hostile and some trans people are not going to stand for that type of hostility. No one is running DNA tests to do actual science. We’re all just guessing pronouns by visual inspection anyway. No one is paying me to adjudicate someone’s genetics. If someone says their name is John do I demand to see their birth certificate to prove that’s the case? Ultimately it doesn’t really matter. I’m well aware of LGBT discrimination from most Abrahamic religions. I’ve lived with that my entire life. I’m not a fan. There have been trans women in cultures around the world for thousands of years. It’s as natural as being left handed. Reproduction is not a requirement of womanhood.
    1
  1630. Being LGBT is as natural as left handedness. There is nothing shameful about it. It’s simply rare. Any society that would persecute such people is not a just society. Obviously I’m going to support them. It’s the only moral thing to do. How exactly does treating the small minority of your gay and lesbian and trans brothers and sisters equally lead to societal collapse?
    1
  1631. Government’s job is not to endorse a particular religious view. What various religions think of LGBT people isn’t important. LGBT people want to marry and legally protect their partners with all the rights and responsibilities of marriage. Millions of legally married LGBT people exist and are not causing the downfall of society. Have you actually talked with any married LGBT couples in real life? How many LGBT people do you know personally?
    1
  1632. Never? What country do you live in that trans women are that afraid to be seen?
    1
  1633. Even being a tourist in HCMC I saw a couple walking around. You’re out in the provinces?
    1
  1634. Gender dysphoria is not about genetics nor MRI scans. Every professional medical association on the planet follows the WPATH standard of care which includes social, hormonal and surgical gender transition to alleviate gender dysphoria. Everything else ever tried does not help and outcomes for those who go through transition are markedly improved. If you disagree take it up with the APA, AMA and the WHO. The reason other countries have fewer visible trans people than Thailand is that trans people face (or have faced) much more social and employment discrimination in those countries so people are or have been afraid to transition. The better the country (or even area of the country) treats trans people the more you will see in public.
    1
  1635.  @bernkbestgirl  Have all the questions you want. When someone has gender dysphoria they're going to see a licensed doctor or psychologist and that doctor is going to guide them along the well established standard of care which includes transition. Take your impotent questions up with the APA, AMA and WHO because you clearly know more about efficacy than the world's leading medical associations.
    1
  1636. All major medical organizations around the world endorse medical and surgical transition for the treatment of gender dysphoria. There is no waking up and accepting it. There is treatment or depression and suicide. Leave dispensing medical advice to medical professionals.
    1
  1637. For what?
    1
  1638. Are there other classes of people you are powerless to stop yourself from murdering or is that reserved exclusively for ladyboys?
    1
  1639. Plenty of trans people in the west also. The best thing about the west is that LGBT law is strong and trans women can change their legal gender and can legally marry the men they love.
    1
  1640. Time to travel more. There are trans women all over the world.
    1
  1641. Staying in Indonesia seems pretty problematic being trans. Thought of leaving? Thailand seems like an obvious choice, right?
    1
  1642. How about you nearly summarize it?
    1
  1643. I did. That said, this may not be the video for you if that's your primary interest! lol
    1
  1644. Thai people have their own Thai words for trans people, of course. Plenty of borrowed words from English or used for the benefit of English speakers don't have exactly the same meaning in Thailand as they do in English. The offensive subtext of the word ladyboy is not something Thai people are intending. A whale is not actually a fish but the idea of a fish to describe a whale is useful if you're trying to illustrate a basic idea with exceedingly few words. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions, just ask.
    1
  1645.  Jebus foxe  Especially in Thailand. You'll end up doing 30 years in Bang Kwang.
    1
  1646. What’s bizarre about a society treating trans people with dignity instead of hostile discrimination?
    1
  1647. There is nothing Pervy about trans women or trans women using a women’s public bathroom. Happens millions of times every day.
    1
  1648. What’s not normal about trans women? They’ve been a part of SE Asian history for thousands of years.
    1
  1649. What’s pervy about using the bathroom? That is the topic of the video.
    1
  1650.  @rosebud4387  That's a different thing than what this video is about, as you well realize.
    1
  1651. You mentioned pervy first. I was quoting you.
    1
  1652. Learning the Thai writing system will snap you out of that feeling real quick.
    1
  1653. And because of this timidity consequently Thai trans women can’t legally marry their husbands as is common in the west. I’m sure you’re happy about that too. Whatever keeps LGBT people downtrodden in the closet, right?
    1
  1654. Depends where in America you are talking about.
    1
  1655. Unfortunately that’s not true. If only.
    1
  1656. Thailand has a lot of positives for trans women but what it doesn’t have is legal protection which is very important. Trans women can’t legally Marry their husbands. Trans women can’t change their legal gender. Trans women are often barred from public places like hotels and nightclubs under the auspices of prostitution prevention. Discrimination law in Thailand is very weak. These are things the US does better across the board. My wife is a Thai trans woman but we live in the US now because of a number of these absent legal protections.
    1
  1657. Acceptance shouldn’t depend on how attractive someone is.
    1
  1658. Yes. I've known some FTM and MTF relationships. MTF to MTF is pretty rare though. I see fewer trans female lesbian couples in Thailand vs the west.
    1
  1659. A very long way.
    1
  1660. ...and we're not talking about her scooter.
    1
  1661. Getting to know her and then when the time is right, asking politely. There are some trans women that not distinguishable from cisgender women. As you know more trans women you’ll get better at it but Ultimately it’s not necessary to know. It’s not like you’re being intimate with every woman within visual range, right?
    1
  1662. What was done? The Vietnam war ended 45 years ago. There are young trans women working regular jobs all over Thailand.
    1
  1663.  @Foreignmonk34  Thai trans women have their own Thai words to refer to themselves. It doesn’t map neatly into the western model. 3rd gender people have been a feature of many places in South and SEAsia long before Columbus sailed the Atlantic.
    1
  1664. Can you explain how and why?
    1
  1665. A trans woman not being able to legally marry her husband sounds like discrimination to me.
    1
  1666.  @jeffreykam3748  So that wall of vomiting is you not having a problem with trans people. Got it.
    1
  1667. $500 and outpatient surgery and that’s taken care of. My wife is trans. Ask any other questions you can think of.
    1
  1668.  @imbored1227  Not free to legally change their gender or get legally married unfortunately. My wife is a Thai trans girl and we’ve been waiting for many years to do both in Thailand.
    1
  1669. Um, no. Look up Thailand's GDP breakdown.
    1
  1670. Says a lot about the sad state of transphobia in those countries doesn’t it? Thailand is certainly a pretty good place to be a trans person. At least until you want to get married which sadly isn’t legal. My wife and I have been waiting years for Thai law to change.
    1
  1671.  @charliepolitanont472  While marriage equality and trans women being able to change their legal gender is really important, Thailand has even bigger problems with it's democracy itself. There is no shortage of things to fix. While the wife and I would love to be legally married in Thailand, we're legally married in the US and live in California now. Here's to hoping things change by the time we're ready to retire. I'm sure it'll take a while. The wheels of justice turn slowly in Thailand. I know a lot of Thai LGBT protesters have been working hard to impact change. Here's to hoping some much needed reforms can come into being. Good luck! We're all counting on you! :)
    1
  1672. How are you qualified to talk about all trans women in Thailand? You’ve personally checked with each and every trans woman in Thailand and you’ve verified that they all are completely fine with talking about their genitals with random strangers they meet? I don’t doubt that what you’re saying is true in the AGGREGATE but each individual gets to determine this for themselves. There are Thai trans women that have spent plenty of time away from Thailand and in many western countries many trans women do see themselves as women. Who are you to tell them how to think about themselves?
    1
  1673. How many different trans women do you see every day where you are in California? How many people do you see a day?
    1
  1674. It is much easier in other countries. I’m sorry that Indonesia is treating you so badly. Have you thought about leaving Indonesia? Thailand is a vastly better place to be LGBT.
    1
  1675. It isn’t easy. I saved up for years and moved away from my friends and family. I just didn’t want to put my money and talent to work supporting a government that wasn’t working for me.
    1
  1676. “Hey you, don’t be trans.” Brilliant insight, this.
    1
  1677. They do. They’re using the English for your benefit and don’t realize the subtext the word has in the west.
    1
  1678. There have been trans women in the Philippines and SE Asia long before Columbus sailed out of port.
    1
  1679.  @Kruziik  Don't install anything. Just let trans women use the women's bathroom. It's the law in most of north american and europe that trans women can use the women's bathroom. Literally millions of trans women use the women's bathroom every single day without incident.
    1
  1680. Yes. Ask people nicely after you get to know them.
    1
  1681. All the Thai trans women I’ve ever talked to (and there have been many) have all told me that they knew inside that they wanted to be girls from an early age of their own volition.
    1
  1682. Many.
    1
  1683.  @pavlovssheep5548  There have been trans women in Thailand for hundreds and hundreds of years all across South Asia long before the US military had R&R in Pattaya.
    1
  1684. In Thailand the word ladyboy doesn't have the same subtext it does in the west. There are many english words Thai people have adapted that do not have the same meaning that they do in the west. It's simply a simple compound noun that Thai people can pronounce and easily say and remember. Thai people have their own Thai words to refer to trans people (some of which are also problematic).
    1
  1685. Step 1: Fly to Bangkok. Step 2: Enjoy. :)
    1
  1686. One word. Electrolysis.
    1
  1687. Thai people don’t actually eat much soy. Chicken and pork are mostly what Thai people eat.
    1
  1688. They get older, like everyone does. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions, just ask.
    1
  1689. It’s just lost in translation. Gender and biology aren’t the same thing.
    1
  1690. Maybe raised in Thailand but came to the US to study for a few years on a student Visa. Pretty common. My wife did that.
    1
  1691. It’s not an issue in Thailand. Thai people treat trans women as women.
    1
  1692. Why not let people do what they want with their own body if it doesn’t harm anyone else? I won’t stop you from chopping your arm off. Perfectly acceptable to me. Nothing hypocritical about loving freedom.
    1
  1693.  @freeyourmind7538  What if I'm an anarchist living on a boat in international waters under the jurisdiction of no one? What then?
    1
  1694.  @freeyourmind7538  I'm staying on this this boat forever eating seaweed and fish. Join me or be a slave to one hypocritical government or another.
    1
  1695.  @freeyourmind7538  That's even worse. Why be a slave to anything, let alone some supernatural entity you can't even see? All that time praying is time you could be fishing, drying seaweed and polishing your boat!
    1
  1696.  @freeyourmind7538  Woah, Woah, Woah, you're scaring the fish with that kind of talk! I don't know what kind of weed you're eating but that stuff is going straight to your head. Sometimes a cloud is just a cloud, not an Abrahamic God shaking his fist and telling me how to grill my fish. All that really matters from that cloud is that it rains and fills up my fresh water supply barrels.
    1
  1697.  @freeyourmind7538  Aside from all of creation, that is. The Chef Boyardee of quark–gluon plasma soup.
    1
  1698.  @freeyourmind7538  Same to you! Cheers!
    1
  1699. Because you’re afraid of trans people?
    1
  1700.  @somebodyontheinternet7743  I do, and millions of others do that care about our LGBT brothers and sisters. Your caring is not required.
    1
  1701. Praying away the gay. /facepalm
    1
  1702. Well, don’t go. Then again, don’t leave the house. There are trans people everywhere.
    1
  1703. And another one for black people, Jews. Muslims, etc. Perfect, right?
    1
  1704. Meanwhile in Thailand, LGBT problem can’t legally marry and trans people can’t change their legal gender. It’s for these reasons my wife (a Thai trans girl) and I live in California and not in Thailand.
    1
  1705.  @Joshua-dc4un  Nope. I’m a bi cis guy. There are a different set of pros and cons of being LGBT in the US vs Thailand. The US varies to a staggering degree by region and community in social LGBT acceptance that’s quite different from Thailand. The difference between rural Mississippi and San Francisco is like night and day. Sure there is a vast difference in Thailand between Muslim Yala province and Thong Lor in Bangkok but it’s still less of a dynamic range then the US overall.
    1
  1706. Strength is a function of testosterone. She doesn’t have male levels of testosterone after SRS.
    1
  1707. Thankfully, today there is Truvada.
    1
  1708. Have some empathy. It’s vastly more difficult for some people to transition compared to others. The prices for hormones and surgery are also very expensive in the US and before someone can begin this process in the US they actually must live as a woman full time for a couple years without hormones to qualify to be able to receive them, and even then it’s a difficult process with the average American body type. Instead of being embarrassed, why not just be nice to this person. Obviously they are going through a lot and giving up a lot to make this happen.
    1
  1709. That trans girl in the movie is named Yasmin Lee. Check her out.
    1
  1710. There is still a very long way to go for LGBT equality in Thailand.
    1
  1711. Sure but it's close enough since he wasn't providing anything other than a general estimate anyway.
    1
  1712. Trouble with that theory is that the only country that allows same sex marriage in all of Asia is Taiwan. That said, there is no doubt that colonization was a massive setback for LGBT rights and acceptance but the internalization and continuance of that colonization is just not a western problem.
    1
  1713.  @britainf0ckinreturnourmone344  No disagreement here. Colonization was terrible. That said, Asian countries need to step up and to right by their LGBT citizens. Justice delayed is justice denied. My wife is a trans woman. We've been waiting many many years to be able to legally marry in Thailand. Not possible yet. Know hope!
    1
  1714. Because trans women are amazing and their stories should be told and not hidden away like some dirty secret.
    1
  1715. Because they’re lesbians and not trans men. Gender is between your ears, not between your legs. Do you know any trans people personally?
    1
  1716. To be bamboozled by television personality doesn’t take a high degree of intelligence, tbh.
    1
  1717. He is a clown. Observe the grammatical errors and spelling in his twitter feed. He couldn’t get a decent score on the ACT or SAT to save his life. Steve Jobs was a genius. There is no comparison between the two. Trump’s approval rating is in the low 40s and the that’s only after those corporate tax giveaways pushed the US market to new highs. He’s a one term president.
    1
  1718. I’m more than happy to see a huge bulge in a woman’s bikini. Gotta live a little!
    1
  1719.  @christabelf.n1651  I can’t respect any organization that is making gay people second class citizens in their own country by not being able to legally marry. It’s a fundamental human right to protect your partner and relationship under the law.
    1
  1720. @°P•o•n•k•e•r I’m not interested in being nice. Disrespect me all you like. I love it. I’m only interested in equality under the law for LGBT people. I just see belief in the supernatural as childish, and always will. Think whatever you like and I’ll do the same.
    1
  1721. Some of this is lost in translation. The word doesn't have the negative subtext in Thailand that it does in the west.
    1
  1722. Korean LGBT people need to do both, to win hearts and minds and to speak out forcefully against injustice. As has been done in every country in the world that now has marriage equality.
    1
  1723. What part about “speak out forcefully” implies physical violence in any context? That said, look up the Stonewall riot. It was instrumental in moving the conversation about LGBT rights forward in NYC and is the reason we celebrate pride at the end of June in most places around the world.
    1
  1724. There are pros and cons to being trans in Thailand compared to the west. My wife is a Thai trans women. Trans women can’t legally change their gender or legally marry in Thailand. It’s for these reasons we live in California. At the same time Thailand is not even a democracy so they have a lot of other bigger issues to deal with at the moment. Things are gradually changing but it’s slow.
    1
  1725. She is. You can follow her on social media.
    1
  1726. Conversion is illegal in many countries and states for a good reason.
    1
  1727.  @1anfinity08  Not trying to change someone's sexual orientation to meet the demands of a homophobic society and religion, for starters.
    1
  1728.  @1anfinity08  I'm not going to litigate Teleological and Deontological ethics theory right here in the comments section, for you. Look in any Ethics 101 philosophy college textbook for all the details. As someone that's seen firsthand the damage that conversion therapy has done to LGBT youth I'm not going to stand for such homophobic horsesh1t. I don't care what moral judgement you assign to me: amoral, good, evil or otherwise. Makes no difference to me. That's between you and your moral consciousness. The "good" is my own special moral calculus and that's on the side of protecting LGBT people from self hating gay men running ex-gay organizations like Exodus International, Love Wins Out, Love In Action, etc which have all fallen apart spectacularly and the ex-gay leaders have gone ex-ex-gay. I have no desire to convince you of anything.
    1
  1729. There isn’t the space to litigate an entire semester of ethics theories to address your “what is good” questions. From Kant to Mill to Rawls, et al. The bottom line is that everyone is assessing the question differently. Go enroll at your local university for summer ethics classes today. I’m not having an argument here, you are. I’m not interested in addressing counter arguments to LGBT kids being willfully dragged into ex-gay therapy by homophobic parents or they’ll disown them. I know what that’s like first hand and if any cursory study of the ex gay ministries like Exodus International isn’t enough to make you realize the cruel folly of such endeavors than paragraphs of blather we could spew at each other certainly won’t.
    1
  1730. I question the degree of free will involved when parents are using emotional and financial blackmail to strong arm their homophobic beliefs onto their LGBT kids. Licensed therapists also have no place in attempting to change something that is not a problem in the DSM 5. If you’re gay you’re gay. You don’t need fixing. If legal adults of their own free will want to subject themselves to whatever torturous religious indoctrination they want to, then that’s fine. That isn’t what I’m concerned about here. Again, I’m not interested in a debate. Feel free to disagree and consult the internet for the volumes that have been written by actual experts in mental health.
    1
  1731. No doubt about that in anyone's opinion. It's a fact.
    1
  1732. For sure. I wouldn’t want to go on a date and discover that she was not trans. The horror!
    1
  1733. The majority of trans women in Thailand are attracted to men.
    1
  1734. Brazil? I’d love to visit but I admit that I’m fearful about crime.
    1
  1735. Do you really want the cheapest SRS in town?
    1
  1736.  @jimjimsandburg2754  Many trans girls, sure. Others not so much. You may have been visiting Thailand for 19 years but I'm married to a Thai trans girl. Quite a few unclockable trans girls out there. If you don't believe me look up Yoshi Thurapan.
    1
  1737. You just have to ask. It really is that easy.
    1
  1738. I expect that any woman I meet could be transgender. Nothing wrong with talking with a trans girl.
    1
  1739. Plenty of lesbians too. Or maybe being LGBT is just a natural if somewhat rare occurrence.
    1
  1740. Not just white bois. Go to a ladyboy bar in Thailand some time. Plenty of Japanese, Indian and middle eastern admirers as well.
    1
  1741. Nothing that special about those Indian guys, other than they’re probably on a shorter leash. Ladyboy bars are filled with folks from every race. As someone married to a Thai ladyboy I can tell you that there are a number of upsides.
    1
  1742. Which ones?
    1
  1743. I can’t guess. Give me the name.
    1
  1744. I went looking all over the internet for the names of gay Thai gods and came up with nothing. Do these gods have names?
    1
  1745. I prayed and came up with nothing. I searched the internet and came up with nothing. I’m beginning to think you just made that up and there are no gay Thai gods.
    1
  1746. Feel free to believe whatever you wish but I’m asking to what degree is that opinion informed by knowing a multitude of trans people and standard medical and psychological practice?
    1
  1747. Why should the government be endorsing one religion’s view of LGBT people? Gays just want to be able to marry the person they love and not be fired from their job for being gay. These seem like basic civil rights to me.
    1
  1748. Angeles City would like a word.
    1
  1749. Because trans women are amazing, that’s why.
    1
  1750. What if you’re not proud of the sex you are?
    1
  1751. Nope. If you think women and trans women are beautiful then you’re straight. Gay guys aren’t into trans women.
    1
  1752. There are trans women in every country in the world. The biggest factor determining how many you see is down to social acceptance of trans women.
    1
  1753. LGBT Leftists don't ask why you hate gay. Just another homophobic Abrahamic religion, obviously.
    1
  1754. How does this trans business plan work? Spend all kinds of money on surgery and hormones and in recovery and then what? Do sex work in your 20’s before that’s not viable and you need to find work as an unemployed ladyboy facing all kinds of employment discrimination? All the while you’re putting your body and romantic life into total upheaval? How about the radical presupposition that they want to transition rather than they are being economically forced into it? Too hard to imagine?
    1
  1755.  @Titan13335  Gender and biology aren't the same thing. Gender is a social construct with social performativity that varies by culture and it's also an identity. There are female mannequins and female voicemail systems with synthetic voices. There are more than two genders. In India and Pakistan trans woman are legally a 3rd gender. Again, it doesn't necessarily track biology but it's also complex in that trans people take hormone replacement therapy and endocrinology certainly is biology.
    1
  1756.  @thekittykatie  The video is about trans women, what do you expect it to be about? Trans men who take testosterone for any length of time are going to pass incredibly well and no one will know they are trans. Plenty of trans men exist in Thailand, too. How much time have you spent in Thailand?
    1
  1757.  @Titan13335  Depends on the gender and cultural context. Hijra / Kinnar in India. Kathoey in Thailand. Waria in Indonesia. Muxes in Mexico. Native American two spirit. Fafafine in Samoa. All are distinct culturally. India and Pakistan have 3rd gender Offical legal ID.
    1
  1758.  @Titan13335  Then you’re missing the point that gender isn’t biology.
    1
  1759.  @Titan13335  There are plenty of intersex conditions in which genitals and body morphology are ambiguous. Look into it. That said, again, you keep trying to make gender into biology but it, by definition, is not no matter how much you think that it is. Again, many people are legally not male or female a point and distinction which you keep ignoring.
    1
  1760. If people can’t realize it, it isn’t a problem.
    1
  1761. What if God doesn’t exist and religion was simply created to control people, make them somewhat kind and give them false hope and easy answers. Then you’re simply being cruel to a downtrodden minority for no reason. That’s the way I see it.
    1
  1762. Ultimately if you don’t find cosmology and evolutionary science compelling I’m not going to change your mind with my YouTube commenting. Belief in God is about faith, and I have none. You do. That’s great. My main concern here in this thread is that LGBT people are being denied equality under the law. Religion should not dictate government policy when it comes to civil rights to legally protect your job and your relationship. That’s what’s happening in Indonesia to LGBT people. They are being denied equality under the law.
    1
  1763. God and the government are different things. Why should a government that is in charge of people of many religions and people of no religion pick one religion’s rules to enforce upon all people? The government’s job is to guarantee equality under the law. Gay people are law abiding tax paying people. Why can’t they get married in a civil, non religious, legal ceremony? Why can’t there be laws in place to guarantee they can’t be fired from their jobs for being gay? I have no interest in any religion accepting me. I simply want to get married and not be fired, like any reasonable person. I have read the Bible and I have studied cosmology and evolutionary science. I’m choosing science. You’re welcome to choose God if you wish.
    1
  1764. Except that Thailand has no LGBT laws. Trans women can’t change their gender nor can they get married to their husbands. It takes standing up and not being quiet and building a public campaign to demand reform where it’s needed.
    1
  1765.  @dineshapunchihewa1228  Diplomatic but the reality is that trans women can’t legally marry their husbands and can’t legally change their gender, all commonplace rights in the west. Thailand has a long way to go for LGBT equality.
    1
  1766.  @ssorgpm  Prove God exists first and then have this God materialize and tell us first hand why we should discriminate against trans people.
    1
  1767. How do you figure?
    1
  1768. He, unfortunately. Unlike dozens of other countries Trans girls can not change their legal gender in Thailand. Many organizations are working to have this changed.
    1
  1769. Plenty of non bigots in the US, also. Additionally trans women in the US can change their legal gender and marry their husbands. Both things are not legally possible in Thailand.
    1
  1770. I’m glad you’re happy but so are the ladyboys in Thailand.
    1
  1771.  @fiermoncunningham5978  What are you thanking me for? Dispelling the notion that trans people are all sex workers?
    1
  1772.  @fiermoncunningham5978  First, they don’t see why they are doing as immoral in the least. Dressing and acting how you want is your right and your freedom. Second, looking like women isn’t a part time uniform they put on. They do it when no one is around. They do it for themselves because that’s how they want to look. Why is it inconceivable to you that others have different aesthetics? Clearly you have very little actual real life experience with trans people and Thai trans women in particular. There are hundreds of YouTube interviews with Thai trans women about their lives and history. The vast overwhelming common denominator is that they felt like they wanted to dress and act as girls since primary / elementary school. What is your actual personal experience with Thai trans women? Seems like you saw some trans sex workers in a red light area and made up an entire fantasy narrative around this observation.
    1
  1773.  My Multifandom Ass  Ok, Mom.
    1
  1774. That does help but keep in mind that insurance in the west often will cover transition related healthcare. The bigger issue is if you can actually live life as a trans woman without crushing ostracism from religion, family and friends, discrimination and can remain employed. The better any society is at tolerating trans people the more trans people you will see in that society up to the natural rate of a small percentage per capita.
    1
  1775.  @robertrobert7924  Keep in mind I mentioned the “west” not the US or US healthcare specifically. In all of UK/Western Europe and Canada transition related care is part of national health service at little to no out of pocket costs. In addition, per the CDC, in the US the 18-65 percent of uninsured people is under 15%. Not zero, but that’s 85% that are insured and are not facing the full costs of transition out of pocket as they are in Thailand.
    1
  1776.  @robertrobert7924  All Sports are just unfair to begin with so I have a hard time caring. Genetic clones the same age with identical training and nutrition might be close to fair, everything else isn’t in my book. Calling out trans women for what’s just unfair to begin with is just selective enforcement to me. Sports should be about fun cardio, strength, personal achievement and team building and instead it’s all seemingly about winning and scholarships and endorsements. Yuck. Just pay to podium or pay people to lose and save everyone the time and effort. The war against performance enhancing modifications is unwinnable anyway in the long term. We can literally change our DNA with gene therapy now. Good luck policing that.
    1
  1777.  @robertrobert7924  What trans exhibitionism do you find to be ineffective at promoting trans tolerance to a straight U.S. audience?
    1
  1778. You have nothing better to do than appealing to racism, homophobia and transphobia?
    1
  1779.  @wwlee5  Thanks for confirming that you're a tourist to LGBT issues. Let me assist you in your understanding from someone that has half a century of actual experience. Please do continue to call me a kid even though I remember the Reagan administration like it was yesterday. It makes me feel young again. A small percentage of people everywhere, in every culture around the world are LGBT. The percentage you see in any given society is a function of social and legal stigma against LGBT people. There more discrimination there is, the less you'll see for obvious reasons. Thailand and many other countries in south Asia have a long and proud vast history of trans women going back hundreds and hundreds of years and consequently there fewer barriers to entry to trans women transitioning in Thailand. What you fail to understand here is that actual gay guys have zero interest in trans women. Long hair and breasts? In a gay man's eyes that equates to no sexual interest. Go talk to some actual gay guys. No, not the ones that are discovering themselves for the first time in the arms of a trans women because they're too ashamed to man up and admit to themselves what they actually like. Straight guys and bisexual guys are interested in trans women, long term, because... shocker... they live as and present themselves as women. Go to any ladyboy bar and ask the clientele about their interests. I'll wait. Feel free not understand gender identity but it is no mystery to the APA, AMA and WHO. From where I'm sitting trans women are women. I've had long term loving relationships with trans women, gay men and heterosexual cisgender women. I know exactly how gay it isn't to be in a relationship with a trans women. Do you have the actual experience to say the same? Please give me some trite hetero-normative platitudes because, surely I haven't heard all those before.
    1
  1780. @upsidedown mensch I wasn't actually talking to you, here. I was talking to Walter.
    1
  1781.  @wwlee5  That's your rebuttal? An ad hominem? I guess that's to be expected when someone with no actual LGBT experience is commenting on LGBT issues.
    1
  1782. Walter, you should have taken your own priceless advice before you commented in the first place. If you defecate on the sidewalk you’re going to attract flies.
    1
  1783. Upside... My wife is legally female. The country clerk said, “I now pronounce you husband and wife”. Seems like your argument is with our county clerk. Thanks for your interest In my relationship though. We’ve been together for many years and we’re doing great, thanks!
    1
  1784. I did marry a ladyboy. Was the best decision I ever made.
    1
  1785. Trans women have been cultural part of Thailand and South Asia (Hijra in India, Waria in Indonesia, etc) for hundreds and hundreds of years. Nothing funny about it. It’s just a long standing cultural reality.
    1
  1786. That dude with the pink hair and the $4700 jeans. Whew lad.
    1
  1787. I think it’s the opposite. It’s a lovely language to listen to.
    1
  1788.  @yirk1  Pro tip: Don’t visit Thailand.
    1
  1789.  @DeadEnd-ct6dh  It's not common anywhere. We're talking about less than 1% of the population. There is a lot of LGBT migration to more progressive places in every country. I don't imagine you're in Rome or Milan?
    1
  1790.  @DeadEnd-ct6dh  Do you know many gays and lesbians? Often times when you do, you'll discover other friends of friends that are trans. It is a bit of an isolated community in many places.
    1
  1791.  @DeadEnd-ct6dh  That makes a bit more sense, then. My wife is a Thai trans woman. We've visited Rome. I guess you missed seeing us. Ha! :) Lots of Thai trans women pass really well. Even I can't spot them all with decades of "hands on" experience.
    1
  1792. Don’t confuse luck for skill. Vast amount of time went into that voice control.
    1
  1793. It would be an honor to plunge to my death by her hand.
    1
  1794. Well, you can find a prostitute in literally every country in the world.
    1
  1795. Thai trans women can’t legally marry their husbands in Thailand. Thai trans women can’t change their legal gender in Thailand. Thailand is an LGBT rights desert. My wife is a Thai trans woman and it’s for these reasons that we live in California and not in Thailand.
    1
  1796. No need to overthink it. If someone is pretty they are pretty. Simple as.
    1
  1797. You are the one bringing aggression to the table, not the trans woman. Women and trans women don’t owe you anything. Being attracted to trans women doesn’t make you gay BECAUSE gay men like males not trans women. You need to think through your aggressive tendencies.
    1
  1798. If you dated her you’d quickly realize that she’s nothing like dating a boy. I’ve had long term relationships with boys, girls and ladyboys. I know exactly how gay it isn’t dating a ladyboy because I’ve been in gay relationships before. I eventually ended up marrying a ladyboy. Best thing I ever did.
    1
  1799. Well, one lap around Nana Plaza and you’ll up that count by 25%. It is a lot compared to countries where trans women are terrified to be seen in public.
    1
  1800. And then what? There are existing laws that cover any crimes that happen in women’s restrooms. If someone wants to commit a crime, the sign on the outside of the door is not going to stop them.
    1
  1801. No one knows anything. No one will ever be subject to strip searches or karyotype tests to enter a restroom.
    1
  1802. Glad that you’re here commenting. Do you think of yourself as a woman or as a ladyboy?
    1
  1803. Thought about becoming a trans man? The point is to be comfortable in your gender.
    1
  1804. Your father’s sperm that inseminated your mother’s egg determined if you were born XX or XY. It’s a random process in that half of the millions of sperm produced are X and the other half are Y. It’s the equivalent of throwing thousands of pink or blue balls into a barrel simultaneously with a small hole in the bottom. The first one that comes out determines it. It’s random. God had nothing to do with this process.
    1
  1805. There have been trans women all over South Asia before Columbus sailed the Atlantic.
    1
  1806. It’s true. Look up the Hijra in India.
    1
  1807. The only way to know is to go. Fortunately air travel from the US to BKK is cheaper than ever. There is a very different LGBT dynamic there.
    1
  1808. Agreed.
    1
  1809. If only.
    1
  1810. Ooo. Shots fired!
    1
  1811. Good luck. Reading and writing is brutal.
    1
  1812. What's the plan? Leave Indonesia?
    1
  1813. What do you mean?
    1
  1814. It's nice to have a Thai person chime in here with your perspective. Thanks for that. My wife is a Thai trans woman. We hope to be able to get legally married in Thailand someday.
    1
  1815.  @anikathu  In California we're legally married. As you may know, we can't legally marry in Thailand yet. Hopefully before we retire to Thailand we'll be able to marry. She also can't update the gender on her Thai ID card and Thai passport. Thailand has a long way to go on LGBT equality. That said, I get it. Thailand all manner of political problems to solve first. Your English is perfect. Did you grow up in the west or go to an international school? I wish there were more Thai voices like yours in this comment thread to give international viewers a better local perspective.
    1
  1816.  @anikathu  Another 15 years or so we'll retire to Thailand. My wife has a house in Sai Mai which is even more convenient now that there is BTS service there. I'm brave but not brave enough to drive in Bangkok. 555. It really is great that Thailand does a pretty good job of socially integrating trans people into society. It's still not easy of course and there a ton of challenges to overcome but it's vastly ahead of much of the world. Did you grow up in the US? That must have been quite a change going back to Thailand. Or are you still in the west?
    1
  1817. For me, if she looks feminine she is feminine. You should try dating a trans girl. Mind opening experience, that.
    1
  1818. They should ask the same thing in Saudi Arabia and Iran. Just because it’s worse there doesn’t mean it’s good for LGBT people in Indonesia.
    1
  1819. Sexual reassignment surgery. It’s called the penile inversion technique.
    1
  1820. Trans folks face more discrimination than gays and lesbians and there are plenty of out and proud gays and lesbians in Thailand visible absolutely everywhere. Your opinions stand in stark contrast to standard psychological practice by all professional medical organizations across the world. To call trans people mutilated is to engage in rampant transphobia.
    1
  1821. Says every transphobe.
    1
  1822. Gladly.
    1
  1823. Watch the next video where they talk to a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions, I can try to answer them. My wife is a Thai trans woman.
    1
  1824. Trans women in Thailand can't legally marry their husbands, nor can they legally change their gender on their ID. Both of these things are standard and common in the west today.
    1
  1825.  @unordinarysonne  Not legally married you haven't. It's against the law. My wife is a Thai trans woman and we're legally married in California but we can't legally marry in Thailand. Consequently we don't live in Thailand. Thailand is an LGBT rights desert unfortunately.
    1
  1826. Its not quite that simple in Thailand.
    1
  1827. How do you mean?
    1
  1828. Rand Paul's anti-LGBT vision of society is rooted in his narrow minded interpretation of Christianity. Wouldn't make any difference and Thai trans people can certainly do without another transphobe landing on their shores telling them how to live their life.
    1
  1829. Some like it the hard way.
    1
  1830. Have you been to Thailand? It’s a great place to have transgender surgery. My wife is a Thai trans girl.
    1
  1831. They’re way too famous to appear in some random YouTube channel.
    1
  1832. If you're afraid of HIV, take Truvada and fear no more.
    1
  1833. Nope. Personal anecdotes aside, the efficacy has been clinically shown.
    1
  1834. Not just white dudes, and not just guys over 30. Thai trans women want love too, no?
    1
  1835. Every doctor outlines the procedure and the risks involved with SRS. No one goes into the operating room without a very clear understanding of what's going to happen.
    1
  1836. A percent or two so of the population will always be trans. That’s just the natural rate. How many of those trans people you see depends on how any given culture treats their trans citizens. If they are brutally suppressed like they are in many countries you will see almost none. If a culture supports them and doesn’t discriminate against them, you’ll see most of them transition and be out of the closet. Look at any country and how difficult it is to be trans there and it very strongly predicts how many trans people you will see.
    1
  1837. It is, yes. Sadly.
    1
  1838. Everyone looks at every country in the wrong place. It’s not unique to Thailand. It’s sadly human nature. Every gender should be accepted and Thailand stands out because it does a good job of accepting trans people which many transphobic people around the world can’t imagine.
    1
  1839.  @anonymous-cx7ng  No plastic has been harmed with any of my wife's surgeries. Her female ID card and Passport have a lot of plastic, that much is true.
    1
  1840.  @jesuspower2390  Gender is not biology.
    1
  1841. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions, just ask.
    1
  1842. Uh huh. Waria have been a part of Indonesia for hundreds and hundreds of years.
    1
  1843. There are trans women in every country.
    1
  1844. Unfortunately the government only legally recognizes male and female. Trans women can’t change their legal gender nor can they legally marry their husbands. My wife is a Trans woman so this is the story of our lives. While it is true there are all kinds of Thai slang names for different pairings these are just words. A few universities do allow choice of clothing for trans students but this is still the exception rather than the rule. If you have any questions, just ask.
    1
  1845. There have been some TV documentaries made on Thai trans women if you go looking. Quite a few YouTube channels dedicated to this too.
    1
  1846. It was pretty difficult watching my girl go through that. Fortunately the pain management meds are really good. She was back at work again in 5 weeks.
    1
  1847. Thai Buddhists whom are > 92% of the population: No thanks.
    1
  1848. You put eggs and sperm together with some shredded papaya, peppers, tomatoes and little crab arms. Throw in some fish sauce and msg and pok pok pok... 9 months later you have a baby. It’s as simple As that!
    1
  1849.  @xpandora-6697  No worries! 😀
    1
  1850. A transgender woman.
    1
  1851. Kitana wins! Expat-ality.
    1
  1852.  @midnitebottleable  My wife is a Thai trans woman and we spend a lot of time in the US and in Thailand. Quite different, for sure.
    1
  1853. Thailand invented one of the most brutal and effective hand to hand combat styles in the world, Muay Thai. Thailand is effectively a military dictatorship run mostly by men. This sure seems to me like cultural projection. Further, this misunderstands what the experience of trans women around the world is really about. Trans women successfully transition because they feel uncomfortable living as men and, crucially, they have the means to do so in society without experiencing too much discrimination. The population of trans women in Thailand is very small where as in the west it’s ultra small (but growing).
    1
  1854. There has been a cultural role for trans women in Thailand and many countries in South Asia long before Columbus sailed across the Atlantic.
    1
  1855. ​ @jo3546  I commend you as well for articulating your positions well, also. A few items: I'm neutral on sex work. Sex work is just work, it's a dangerous but decently paying job as many dangerous physical jobs are. I don't see sex workers as either heroes or victims. Consequently with a neutral position I don't assign negative value judgments like "Sadly" to it. You're welcome to do so but having listened to these debates for decades I'm not going to be convinced either way. Is it sad when poor Alaskans with a poor education and few socioeconomic options decide to become king crab fisherman because of the high pay and take on a very dangerous jobs? Maybe so if they die in the first month washed off the ship when a 10 meter wave washes over them in the Bearing sea. Maybe not if they survive and provide a much better life and education for their future children then they themselves received. Exploitation or opportunity? It can be in the eye of the beer holder. I'm very familiar with Thai surgeons and the value proposition of their work. My wife has had work done in the US and Thailand. Thailand does as much SRS as the rest of the world combined. I've also had the good fortune to know a great number of trans women (both Thai and western) and had many conversations with them about their health care experiences, lives, fears, hopes and dreams. Have you? Western society condones surgical and hormonal intervention for people with gender dysphoria as it's fully supported by the APA and the WHO and all leading professional medical associations. I do not feel (with what you have said so far) that you are targeting LGBT people and I am glad that you refer to my wife by the gender that she legally is. First, let me agree with you in the diminutive case. Is it the case that during the Vietnam war (and after) some gay guys decide/decided to get in the sex work bonanza gravy train and put on a dress and do some sex work instead of working in some other mind numbing low pay occupation? Yes. Case closed? No. This simply isn't demographically representative nor does it encapsulate the complex sociology of what was happening on the ground. In my view the problem here with your summary appears to be causality. In the same way that American women working outside the home enmasse during WWII changed the role of women in American society forever, so too did the libertine infusion of the war into conservative Thai society create the socioeconomic opportunity for Trans women to transition and a self sustaining sociocultural center for them to flourish. That flourishing has resulted in more cultural familiarity. Everyone in Thailand today has met dozens of trans people in real life saw them in Thai TV and magazines has had vastly more exposure to trans people than most other countries. That's helped trans people gain more legitimacy and move beyond the LGBT ghetto and it's attendant seedy employment opportunities. You can see trans people working in a vast array of blue collar and some white collar jobs all over Thailand, today. The same was true of gay ghettoization in the west as well. The seedy areas of cities (Tenderloin, The Village, SoHo, etc.) like Pattaya were all the burgeoning epicenters of socioeconomic and sociocultural LGBT importance until broader familiarity and acceptance took hold and shattered and increasing number of closet doors in a positive feedback loop. There is good documentary on the subject of trans history in San Francisco on YouTube called, "Screaming Queens | KQED Truly CA". I can't link here because if I do, the comment will be deleted. Particularly the very pithy narrative at 18:55 about legitimate work vs sex work and social acceptance. It's illustrative of the main point, although clearly culturally very distinct. There has been a significant social role for Kathoey in Thai society throughout time that isn't, of course, present in this context.
    1
  1856. Thailand has little use for Christianity at all.
    1
  1857. As she should have. She has every right to be in the women’s restroom and what happened to her was unjust.
    1
  1858. Highly recommended, particularly Thailand.
    1
  1859. There are a vast diversity of opinions by Thai people who are and aren’t kathoey on this topic. Summarizing the diverse views of 70 million people in a sentence is a perilous exercise.
    1
  1860. I agree that we need more trans men to even things out. 😀
    1
  1861. Can you move to Thailand? That’s a much better option.
    1
  1862. Eh, not really. My wife is a trans woman. We can’t legally marry in Thailand. She can’t change her legal gender in Thailand. Trans people face a lot of discrimination both in and out of Thailand. We live in California nowhere we can be legally married and she can be legally female. We spent a decade of our life together before it was legal afraid of visa renewals and being separated by work and governments to get married and so she could immigrate. No ‘best of both worlds’ about it at all.
    1
  1863. Not at all. Trans women are women to me.
    1
  1864. More than 2.8 million? The video is fine.
    1
  1865. Plenty of beautiful older Thai trans women out there too. My wife included.
    1
  1866. Or maybe transgender people just exist. Not everything in life is a monetization game.
    1
  1867. The vast majority of people dressed in women’s clothes and jewelry are going to self identify as female in Thailand. Sure it’s a guess but it’s a reasonably accurate one. My wife is a Thai trans woman. What questions do you have?
    1
  1868. Let's say I agree with you. I'm then supposed to run a karyotype test on everyone I meet before I use a prounoun to refer to them? Since that's $100+ or more per test, you're going to compensate me for doing that? Where should I send the invoices? No, then? So you admit you're just guessing without actual scientific facts? What then is the difference between just taking someone's word for it? She could be cisgender and just lying about being a ladyboy, right? The fact is we take gender at face value based on casual visual inspection. It's not much of an overreach to just refer to people by what they want to be called and not be a argumentative jackass. Unless you're her spouse or her doctor it's really none of your concern.
    1
  1869. Before the pandemic Thailand had 19 million tourists a year. People from every ethnicity and country go there for a tropical holiday. No doubt that a lot of Caucasians go there because they have the means to do so. Compared to freezing North America and Europe in the winter, Thailand is a great escape from that.
    1
  1870.  @danielnsikanjoshua306  I’m not sure what you’re implying. Every country has age appropriate activities does it not?
    1
  1871. It's a terrible cycle. Obviously as a gay kid the best thing to do is to avoid the world of misery by never telling your parents, until you can move out. Trouble is then, very few people are out and straight society never really interacts with gay people and their homophobia and all sorts of negative stereotypes become everyone's view of gay people. It takes so much time to crawl out of this what's good for the group is not good for the individual trap. So frustrating. Stay strong LGBT Indonesia.
    1
  1872. Mother of the year, right here.
    1
  1873.  @Jyustinyan  True. But sex is also quite fuzzy too in rare intersex cases. As long as trans people are not discriminated against, can be legally their gender, and can legally marry their spouse, get the healthcare they need and lead productive lives free from oppression then that society is not failing its trans citizens. Unfortunately that’s not the case anywhere in the world, including Thailand. Some places are certainly better than others though.
    1
  1874. Exactly this.
    1
  1875. If you shoot testosterone for any significant length of time you’re going to look like a man. The reason you don’t know that is that you can’t distinguish them from other men using the men’s restroom: Who determines who passes and who doesn’t? You? We should call you up day and night and send you photos to see if they pass your visual inspection so they can go in the restroom? Again. In dozens of countries it is the law that trans women are legally allowed to use the women’s restroom. There is not an epidemic of problems. Millions of trans women use public women’s restrooms everyday without issue. If you care about restroom security there are many things that can be done to improve physical safety that don’t involve persecuting and already persecuted minority when they just want to pee in peace.
    1
  1876. It’s absolutely legal and it’s STANDARD PRACTICE for a licensed medical professional advising a trans man with gender dysphoria on their path of medical transition to prescribe testosterone. Look up the WPATH standard of care. You don’t really know very much about trans people, do you? How many trans people do you know personally?
    1
  1877. If you start early enough with hormone blockers you won’t develop breasts. Again, standard treatment but it is True many don’t start early enough, particularly in the Philippines where affordability and access is difficult. As proper trans health care makes it to more corners of the Philippines it will be much more common as it is in the west.
    1
  1878. Millions of trans women do use the women’s restroom every day without incident. It’s legal in many countries. You transphobes are so paranoid. You should probably never leave the house. Something bad could possibly happen. You could be struck by a meteor. A sinkhole could open up under your feet. Those tiles in women’s restrooms are very slippery when wet. Let’s not even talk about car accidents.
    1
  1879.  @EnigmazGuide  Trans women are real women to me and millions of others that fully support LGBT people.
    1
  1880.  @EnigmazGuide  Feel free to believe whatever transphobic ideas you want. I'll be over here supporting LGBT people.
    1
  1881. So where is this beach, you know, so that I can can, uh, stay clear of it. Yeah, that’s right, so I can avoid it entirely. Safety first!
    1
  1882. There are a lot fewer per capita but sadly they get vastly less media coverage. That’s really unfortunate, the stories of trans men should be told too.
    1
  1883. Rarely.
    1
  1884. United in homophobia and transphobia, you mean?
    1
  1885. Because they feel like a girl.
    1
  1886. SRS in Thailand for free? How so?
    1
  1887. She's welcome not to tell me straight away. Whenever she's ready is fine by me. I'm not the gender police. If you want to be, that's your business.
    1
  1888. Melt the gun at 3000deg F. Form an ingot. Treat the steel. CNC the treated steel back into a gun. Democracies and legislators determine laws, not comments on the internet. Complain to your congressional representatives, that’s the power you have. You can legally change your gender in most western countries. I call people what they want to be called. No one is paying me to adjudicate anyone’s chromosomes. I’m supposed to haul a generator and half a million dollar karyotype analyzer with me wherever I go? No. If someone introduces themselves to me as Dave, I’m not going to ask for three forms of photo ID. I’m just going to call them Dave. You do you.
    1
  1889. never? What country is that?
    1
  1890.  @TrinhNguyen-sh4fj  Look up the "Same Sex Life Partnership Registration Bill" in Thailand. It's civil partnership bill is being discussed by the Thai Parliament, which, if passed, would grant same-sex couples several of the rights of marriage, notably property and inheritance rights, but not rights to public welfare, tax benefits or adoption.
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  1891. I know, homophobia is really a hard habit to break. Know hope.
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  1892. In my considerable experience, not many Thai ladyboys are interested in dating cisgender women.
    1
  1893. That tea is hot!
    1
  1894. Because you’re afraid of ladyboys? Really?
    1
  1895. How is your gender a business? The vast majority ladyboys are not sex workers.
    1
  1896. What questions would you like her to answer?
    1
  1897.  @semco72057  Have you been back to Thailand since?
    1
  1898. What questions do you have about Thai trans women?
    1
  1899. That is certainly the point of being a trans woman.
    1
  1900. Christian missionaries have been plying their trade in Thailand for hundreds of years and not even 2% of Thai people are Christian. Thai people just aren't interested. Thanks but no thanks.
    1
  1901. Getting and removing breast implants and taking hormones sounds like the opposite of quick and easy, as does living as a woman as a purely economic strategy for a few years. I don’t doubt that this happens but it’s hardly the common case. I see older ladyboys all the time.
    1
  1902. Lots of ladyboys take hormones. It’s incredibly common and inexpensive. There are enormous advantages to looking feminine to androgen blockers and estrogen, regardless of ethnicity. My wife is a Thai ladyboy. I know many many ladyboys in Thailand. Most ladyboys in Thailand are not even employed in the sex industry. You see them working retail and salon jobs all over the place. Many are employed in the sex industry but that’s also a function, as it is everywhere, that there is significant trans employment discrimination in many sectors of the economy that makes it difficult to be hired. There are a lot of factors at work here.
    1
  1903. You don’t know any trans women that haven’t been in the sex industry? Surely you’re joking. Walk around anywhere in Thailand and you’ll see trans women working all sorts of regular jobs. Vast percentages of ladyboys in Thailand take hormones. Watch any documentary about them or any of the dozens of the interviews with them on YouTube and they’ll talk about this. There is no ethnicity’s femininity that is not improved by suppressing androgens and taking estrogen. That’s how the body works.
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  1904. Thai people have adopted many english words without adopting their precise meaning. The word doesn't have the subtext it does in the west. It's just an easy compound word to remember and pronounce for Thai people who, on the whole, are not expert English speakers. That's really all it is.
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  1905. Not even. Talk to more locals than “a couple” for a better perspective.
    1
  1906. Sometimes you can, sometimes you can’t.
    1
  1907. Plot twist: They also ask their sex workers for medical care.
    1
  1908. Off topic AF
    1
  1909. That’s part of the reason I married a trans woman.
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  1910.  @Afternoonsun-c9y  It's that lack of relationship recognition that is the problem. LGBT Muslims need a way to integrate into society and live authentic lives. Singling them out for special punishment and denying legal equality for their relationships is not the way that comes into being.
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  1911. Are you not aware that dozens of countries allow trans women to change their legal gender? Do you not think that this is in the medical file along with every prescription and every medical procedure the person is taking and has had done? Millions of trans women do this literally every day in hospitals around the world.
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  1912. Exactly. I wouldn’t want to take someone home that wasn’t a ladyboy.
    1
  1913.  @OleLeik  There is some truth here, and I’m glad you’re calling it how you see it but there are some inaccuracies here. First, transgender is an umbrella term that includes transvestites (cross dressers) and transsexuals (those that have had some type of surgery) which are terms vanishingly few trans people have actually used themselves in the west for couple decades.
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  1914.  @OleLeik  Thailand, as a number of countries across South Asia also have also, had had a cultural role for gender divergent people going back to antiquity. There are Hijra in India, Waria in Indonesia, Bakla in the Philippines, Kathoey in Thailand, and many others. This didn’t just spring up in Pattaya in the 60’s, but it did certainly did become a cultural hub for Thai LGBT people and gave them a type of independence and socioeconomic power they didn’t have access to previously. In some ways it mirrors the way San Francisco or Berlin in other times became LGBT capitals of influence and acceptance. My wife is a Thai trans woman and I know the community and LGBT history reasonably well. If you have any questions, just ask.
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  1915.  @terryquarton2523  I agree. My wife and I have been together for 19 years. Very few realize she's trans unless we've let them know or they have vast amount of personal familiarity with trans people. Most people think they can clock all trans people but they're only counting those that they can detect, which is some serious observation bias, and sometimes you've just some some boyish cis women that are false positives. All part of the rich pageantry of life, though.
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  1916.  @OleLeik  With respect to, "When in a tourism hotspot they are almost theatrical in their attempts to pass as a female but may also well abandon their female clothes , makeup and mannerism when visiting their rural families. " A lot of this depends on the acceptance level of the family and community and WHY are they abandoning these things. If it's because of their own accord and crossdressing is their job, that's one thing. It's quite another thing if they would dearly want to remain in female form but can't/won't due to hostility and discrimination in their home village. I see a lot more of the latter than the former. The closet is an idea as old as time in the LGBT community. There is also the more rare middle path that they're rather gender fluid and don't mind all that much one way or another and that's a valid choice too. The rigidity of the word transvestitism was it's own downfall as gender is just more dynamic than the transvestite / transsexual dichotomy of earlier decades.
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  1917.  @theteehees9994  It's fun to call them out on such absurd claims.
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  1918. Wait, did no one unpack that this opinion is woefully unsatisfactory to understand the longstanding historical context of trans people in Thailand and their cultural roles for thousands of years?
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  1919.  @alexism-brewer7829  You didn’t do a casual web search for “transgender history South Asia” before commenting and just repeated this fantastical origin story from a random Thai interviewee in the video who likely never thought about this question before. It isn’t my responsibility to walk on eggshells to preserve the fragile egos of the intellectually lazy.
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  1920. Unknowable. Ladyboys have been observed and written about in south and Southeast Asia for hundreds of years and in the Kama Sutra going back thousands of years.
    1
  1921. Yet trans people can legally marry and change their legal gender in the US, both are illegal in Thailand. There are very progressive cities in the US wiyh better polling on LGBT rights than you’ll find in Thailand. It is the case, sure, that there are very transphobic and homophobic peope in the US. The US is a very diverse place compared to Thailand.
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  1922. Heteronormativity: Wasted!
    1
  1923. Do you understand that many transgenders are afraid to come out of the closet in other countries?
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  1924.  @marukomax8688  My wife is a Thai ladyboy. We've been together for a long time and I've been to Thailand many times. The real question is about the number of ladyboys per capita. Let's try to quantify that. Phrased another way, out of every 100 men you see, how many ladyboys do you see? Where would you put that figure? I'd put it around 2 for every 100 in Bangkok. 2%. Is that going to be vastly higher around Nana Plaza, Soi Cowboy or Patpong? Yes. Say 4, 5 or 6 out of 100. 4%, 5% or 6%. Hell, it's going to be 100% inside a ladyboy bar but that's not representative of all the sleepier parts of Bangkok that you've probably never visited like Min Buri or Bang Bon. Away from Bangkok (and Pattaya) it's going to be quite a bit lower as there is always a lot of LGBT rural to urban migration.
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  1925. 80% Transphobia. 15% upset that random interviews of people on the street is not a substitute for a sociological dissertation to answer the question directly. 5% Other
    1
  1926. Famous trans women, actually.
    1
  1927. By that logic no one should ever leave their basement.
    1
  1928.  @jon_s  All the tribes in the stone age and earlier down the evolutionary tree that thought this way were probably murdered by those with more coordination and emotional outrage capture and so it wasn't selected for. I think the ship sailed on this taciturn sociological application of the scientific method a long time ago. The cacophony of the marketplace of ideas and tribalism are the tools we have for better or worse.
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  1929. Not to me. Trans women are women to me and they can always count on my support.
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  1930. How about the non obvious ones you can’t tell my casual visual inspection?
    1
  1931. Bring trans would be a terrible business plan if you didn’t already want to be trans. The reality is that most Thai trans girls do sex work to afford surgery and hormones that most countries in the west would be covered by health insurance.
    1
  1932. AceGod7 is the Gender Cop. He’s got a shiny nickel badge and freshly starched shirt: A Jerry Bruckheimer film. In Theaters now.
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  1933. You need to check out some Miss Tiffany Universe and Miss International Queen contests on YouTube.
    1
  1934. Thank you for all you do. Stay strong.
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  1935. But at the same time trans girls can’t legally marry or change their legal gender. It’s good but they have a ways to go.
    1
  1936. Go to Thailand and get to know a number of trans women if you want to actually understand them. I have. My wife is a Thai trans women. Of course there are trans women all over the world. You don’t need to leave your own country. The reason there are fewer elsewhere is the systematic discrimination that trans people experience in those countries. Thailand has fewer social barriers to transitioning and has had fewer barriers for hundreds of years. Consequently you see more around in public instead of being miserable at home. First, they are not more likely to have been sexually abused than others. If you think about it for a minute, the vast majority of men that are abused do not become trans. The presence or absence of male role models makes no difference to one’s gender identity. The reasons underlying gender identity are complex but essentially early in brain development. Ask most trans people and they’ll tell you that they knew this from a very very early age. What other questions do you have?
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  1937. Ladyboys are shy and reserved?
    1
  1938. Her job is cleaning the bathroom, a job she abandoned to play security guard without knowing the security guard’s rules.
    1
  1939.  @Okayme8080  It's their right to be uncomfortable. It's Gretchen's right to use the women's bathroom. The janitor's job is to clean the bathroom not to police it. That is the story.
    1
  1940.  @Okayme8080  I perfectly understand the situation and from where I'm standing the janitor was in the wrong. Trans women are women to me and to millions of others that support LGBT people.
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  1941. There are no words you could form together that would make me see this situation from your perspective. How many times do you want to walk down the same road?
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  1942. Maybe you haven’t traveled extensively in places where trans women are treated legally as women and LGBT people have full legal equality up to and including same sex marriage: The resultant quality improvement in the lives of LGBT people is astonishing.
    1
  1943. @다이아나다이아나 There is no capital outlay on LGBT rights and so it doesn't' take money to do right by your LGBT citizens. Plenty of countries that have legal same sex marriage are not wealthy or western. South Africa has same sex marriage. Ecuador has same sex marriage. Costa Rica has same sex marriage. Uruguay has same sex marriage.
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  1944. @다이아나다이아나 Really? The processing speed of legal documents is why LGBT people need to be systematically be denied equal legal protection for their relationships? Like I said, there are no words you could form together that would make me see this situation from your perspective. What's the point of continuing to discuss this?
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  1945. @다이아나다이아나 LGBT people have existed thought time, do exist now and will exist in the future in the Philippines. Systematically denying them legal equality for their relationships is unjust. Like I said, there are no words you could form together that would make me see this situation from your perspective. What's the point of continuing to discuss this?
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  1946. Untrue. Third gender, or gender variant, spiritual intermediaries are found in many pacific island cultures, including the bajasa of the eastern Toradja people of Sulawesi, the bantut of the Tausūg people of the south Philippines, and many other shamans of the pre-Christian Philippines. The Babaylan and Katalonan (shamans in the Visayan and Tagalog regions) were female, but were often trans women (sometimes called Bayoguin or Asog) who were assigned male at birth, but identified – and were socially accepted – as female.
    1
  1947. We’ll send you the bill for all that unneeded bathroom construction. Millions of trans people use male and female public restrooms without issue everyday. There are more people slipping and falling on tile in restrooms than there are issues with trans people who just need to pee.
    1
  1948. Thai people answering questions in Thai isn’t accurate? Come on. People here want to hear Thai people talk about their opinions of the sex industry and sex tourists. If they didn’t address this and made you happy the comments would have be filled with people who would have said they were dodging the issue. You don’t think Asian Boss reads the comments and knows what the audience wants to know about?
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  1949. Nah. Plenty of guys are into trans girls.
    1
  1950. They are pretty interchangeable in Thailand. Those words are really for the benefit of English speakers. The word Ladyboy doesn’t have the subtext it does in the west.
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  1951. Can trans women whom legally change their gender marry their cisgender husbands in South Korea? I really do want to know I can’t seem to find the answer online in English. Thank you.
    1
  1952.  @Johndoe-cy6fh  Good to know. Thank you!
    1
  1953. Having kids is just not important to many people. Surrogacy exists for those that want to do that.
    1
  1954.  @blueraineee  Doesn't matter. I'm not interested in supporting countries with my tax dollars that relegate their LGBT citizens to second class citizenship.
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  1955. There are many trans women in every socioeconomic bracket in Thai society. There are also plenty of jobs in Thailand.
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  1956. How do you figure that? Sauce herself refers to other ladyboys in this very video. The word ladyboy in Thailand has none of the subtext it does in the west.
    1
  1957.  @kiboma4209  That’s true in every country. There are big tough guys and trans women in every country in the world. It’s just the human condition.
    1
  1958.  @BangtanQoo  I'm absolutely believing this annoying transgender. That janitress should have called to ask what she should do rather than pretending she's law enforcement and dragging her down to the security station. She had an axe to grind against trans people and she thought she could get away with it. She thought wrong and she deserves what's coming to her.
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  1959. Ok, comment cop. Shouldn’t you be off harassing trans women somewhere?
    1
  1960. Thai trans women can’t legally marry their husbands. My wife and I have been waiting many years. It’s not the trans nirvana that it seems.
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  1961. Some trans women can't develop more than an A cup naturally, particularly Thai trans women. Nothing wrong with implants.
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  1962. I hope you’re aware that no one uses the word transvesite anymore. It’s been completely outmoded. Crossdessing or drag is one thing and being trans is another.
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  1963. Sauce also isn’t trying to make a living from YouTube unlike Nikita D. It’s just marketing.
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  1964. Warmongers? The Vietnam war ended in 1975 and anyone under 50 years old wouldn't remember it. Thailand has been at peace ever since. How about the radical idea that trans women just want to look, dress and act like women because they want to? Impossible to imagine?
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  1965.  @nunewsmama3461  Having talked to a great many trans women myself both in the west and in Thailand, and watched a number of interviews with trans women it’s often said that they never felt associated with the gender they were assigned in the first place. As a bisexual I’ve had long term relationships with cis women, trans women and gay men. I know exactly how gay it isn’t being in a relationship with a trans woman because I’ve been in relationships with gay man and cis women. My wife is as much a woman to me as my own mother. There are a number of unique struggles, no doubt, but that’s also true of people in general. The only way to know is to go on some dates and find out. I will say that there are a lot fewer lesbian or bi Thai trans women in Thailand, compared to the west. That said, there are certainly more trans women per capita so at least you have numbers on your side for meeting someone. Have you visited Thailand before?
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  1966. Lower... Lower...
    1
  1967. There sure are a lot of Toms and Dees, no doubt about it.
    1
  1968. My wife is a Thai trans woman. How much more liberal do you want me to get?
    1
  1969. In Thailand where maybe Christians represent 1% of the country? Not so much, actually.
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  1970. How about the easier theory that trans women just want to live like women, look like women and do girly things because they like those things and they attracted to men. Of the great many trans women I’ve known (including my wife) they’ve liked girly things from a very young age. Plenty of interviews with Thai trans girls on YouTube narrating their life stories and experiences into the camera if you want to look for them.
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  1971. Can't trick the willing.
    1
  1972. ​ @imchasenbank5445  That's moving the goal posts. My point is that bisexual men like myself exist and that they are also men. I don't hate it. I love it. It's an asset, not a liability. Trick or treat!
    1
  1973.  @imchasenbank5445  How could I be tricked if I think that trans women are women?
    1
  1974.  @imchasenbank5445  I'm sure the world is confusing for folks that don't find males and females and everything in between attractive. Seems pretty limiting to me.
    1
  1975.  @imchasenbank5445  You have to realize that I think trans women are women and that there is no such thing as a real woman only different types of women. Some cars have some features. Others have different features. Still cars to me. You're free to feel otherwise. I like chaos. Surprise me, trans women of the world. Whatever you've got I'm 100% ready for any of it.
    1
  1976.  @imchasenbank5445  I don't see trans women as a knock off woman. Gender isn't biological for me in the least. For me, gender exists in the mind and not the body. A person identifying to me as a woman is 100% a woman to me. They are the label they provide me with. They are the authority on themselves, not me.
    1
  1977.  @imchasenbank5445  We all have free will to interact with others the way we see fit to do so and the way you see the world is not necessarily the way I see the world. Consequently, to come full circle, I wouldn't hate to be a man there as I wouldn't be tricked. The reality is of course that men only into cis women manage just fine in Thailand. You've been?
    1
  1978. Found the transphobe and Thailand hater.
    1
  1979. All famous Thai trans girls.
    1
  1980. I’m sorry to hear your situation is so bad there. I hope things can improve or you can leave. At the same time, complaining is the only way that things can improve. Injustices should never be tolerated, small injustices or big injustices.
    1
  1981. If you think Thailand is bad, try literally anywhere else in Asia.
    1
  1982. It’s also obvious that most ladyboys in the country are not sex workers. You see them working retail jobs and in salons all the time all over the place.
    1
  1983.  @bingbong5776  Trans women are women to me. Gender for me is in the mind, not the body. Feel free to disagree.
    1
  1984.  @bingbong5776  Biological and genetic sex are bi-nodal statistical distributions over many variables and trans folks on HRT and intersex people are on the long tails between them. The reality is people aren't doing karyotype tests on the sidewalk or strip searches or exploratory surgery. Gender in society is primarily a social role. If someone looks like and sounds like a woman to you and there is no pushback when you guess and drop a pronoun then the reality is that people assign gender by casual inspection. For me femininity is female. If that isn't for you, great. Hope you get bulk discounts on karyotype tests down at the lab before you dare to drop pronouns.
    1
  1985.  @genieleanthonyv.salazar3492  Caitlyn Jenner is over 70 and is doing fine as are other trans women. There are no high risk factors between being trans and elderly. You certainly are picking a side. It is their decision and all the internet comments in the world change nothing about that.
    1
  1986. I frankly don’t know what you mean. Trans women transition in the west all the time and are quite forthright and declarative about their transition.
    1
  1987. There are quite a few.
    1
  1988. Vastly less media coverage, for sure. There are entire industries built around ladyboys. Cabaret shows, beauty contests, sex work. Trans men have none of that PR machine, for better or worse.
    1
  1989. Trans people have been a cultural part of Thai culture for hundreds and hundreds of years. Not just Thailand but other countries in South and SE asia as well. They've just had a big head start. That said, there are no LGBT rights laws in Thailand. Thai women can't legally marry their husbands nor can they change their legal gender.
    1
  1990.  @anjaleeanee3878  Sure. My wife is a Thai trans woman. We’ve been together for 18 years. We’re legally married and live in California because we can’t legally marry in Thailand. What would you like to know?
    1
  1991.  @anjaleeanee3878  There are. Asia-Pacific Transgender Network comes to mind for pan Asia. Locally in Thailand there is the Sisters Foundation. Thai Transgender Alliance or Thai TGA. Transsexual association of Thailand. You're in India? I realize the sad state of affairs of Hijra / Kinnar folks in India needs a great deal of remediation socially as well as legally. Do you know any trans people where you are? What other questions do you have?
    1
  1992.  @anjaleeanee3878  I've watched a few documentaries but I've never been to India to see what life is like for Kinnars, first hand. I would like to some day. Here's to hoping that you make a ton of money and can help change laws and hearts and minds. Have you been to Thailand before? It's pretty eye opening to see trans people treated well by society. Have you been to Koovagam the transgender festival in Tamil Nadu? I'd like to see that for myself someday, too.
    1
  1993.  @anjaleeanee3878  Good luck to you in your career and for your thoughtfulness towards trans people.
    1
  1994. Look up the Miss Tiffany Universe and Miss International Queen contests.
    1
  1995. A beautiful heart is pretty difficult to tell from a beauty contest but I’m sure many do. At a minimum they sure are cute though.
    1
  1996.  @rihamashraf4493  Getting rid of your sexual orientation simply doesn’t work. I doubt very highly you could try and succeed to be gay. Sure, some bisexuals can focus on their heterosexual side of their desires or people can lead loveless lives but pretending that a “lot” of people can do this and lead a satisfying life is not borne out by the data from any of these ex gay ministries that have tried this at scale.
    1
  1997.  @rihamashraf4493  There is nothing wrong with being gay. I know that many of these ex-gay ministries failed spectacularly. Some people can certainly delude themselves and lie to others to seek the acceptance of the church or family at the expense of their honest feelings. If people want to torture themselves in this manner then they are welcome to do so.
    1
  1998. ​ @rihamashraf4493  Yawn. If you haven’t had an STI or two you haven’t really lived as a sexual being, either gay or straight. Stick to Sunday School, kiddo. Heart disease and cancer will kill almost all of us eventually. The point of life isn’t maximizing longevity, it’s living the life you want to live. Increase your odds eating your veggies, jogging around the block and marrying as a Virgin and maybe you’ll have a statistical edge at living longer. Quantity isn’t quality. I wouldn’t give up 1 year of my life for 10 lived as you and I’m sure the feeling is mutual. Looking down your nose at gay people is just conceited and self righteous. But go on believing that gay men can decide to not love men by force of will all you want if it helps you sleep at night knowing you ‘did all you could’ to ‘help’ someone that didn’t need help in the first place until social or family pressure made them play your religious charade despite their fundamental nature. Our hero, indeed.
    1
  1999.  @rihamashraf4493  You should see a therapist to talk through your difficulties around sexual attraction. We’re not going to convince each other of anything. I know your position and you know my position. I don’t have week to litigate these claims, all of which have been asked and answered and debated endlessly previously on the internet. You’ll find sources you like and I’ll find sources I like and we’ll just chew up a lot of time typing words and doing nothing.
    1
  2000. Well, it’s Buddhism and not Abrahamic religions thankfully except for the southernmost provinces.
    1
  2001. I am one such American, in fact. Best decision I ever made. We’ve been together for 19 years. She’s an American now too.
    1
  2002.  @maxidias6392  Ha! I ended up marrying a Thai trans girl, actually.
    1
  2003.  @maxidias6392  I knew her before and after SRS if that's what you're asking. I like all the chocolates in the box. :)
    1
  2004. Trans women are women and should have the same rights as women as they do across most of North America and Europe. The Legal right to use the women’s restroom. The right to update their legal ID with their correct gender. Marriage equality. Anything less is discrimination.
    1
  2005. Trans women are women to me. You don’t need to birth a child or have a bleeding uterus to be treated as woman in society. What more is there to say? I support trans women because I view them as women. Simple as that. Dozens of countries treat their LGBT citizens as equals and its high time for the Philippines to do the same.
    1
  2006. In my view, if you don’t have same sex marriage, you don’t have acceptance. Obviously, yes, there is a difference between the Philippines and America / Europe. America and Europe treat their LGBT citizens much better.
    1
  2007. Not at all. Thai society has just had ladyboys in it for hundreds and hundreds of years. A few percent of the population doesn’t seem like a lot, because it isn’t.
    1
  2008. My wife is trans. Thailand is a good option for trans people. Where are you from?
    1
  2009. Difficult to put real numbers on that unfortunately.
    1
  2010. What intersex condition specifically are you referring to?
    1
  2011. You are aware that every major medical and psychiatric association in the world disagrees with this assessment, right? The help they're going to receive from an licensed counselor or psychologist is going to be the "wpath standards of care" which involves changing the body to match the mind with medical intervention. In most western countries you can go down to the courthouse and change your gender. The paperwork differs, but many countries allow this. No, not Thailand yet, but that will very likely change in the next few years.
    1
  2012. You’re telling me your opinion and I’m telling you this isn’t standard psychiatric practice in most of the west. In fact, in 12 Us states and a few other countries make this type of counseling specifically illegal due to it being ineffective and dangerous to the mental well being of trans people. Are there a few rare people that experience regret. Absolutely. Is it typical? No. Most trans folks are exactly like Sauce in the video. Finally content with life after a multitude of changes to make her body to match her mind. Feel free to continue to think what you want.
    1
  2013. A trachea shave is routine surgery in Thailand and plenty of trans girls have narrow shoulders. You don’t need to guess. Just have a nice conversation and just ask. It’s really just that easy. Ultimately no one wants to waste their time.
    1
  2014. There are pros and cons of being trans in Thailand. My wife is a Thai trans woman. The pros are that there is broad social tolerance and little in the way of hostility. Trans related healthcare is world class and inexpensive. The cons are that there is no way for trans girls to marry their husbands, change your legal gender, and there is widespread employment discrimination with little recourse. If you have any questions about being trans in Thailand, just ask.
    1
  2015.  @واديالذئاب-غ7ز  My wife is a Thai woman and we’re legally married in California. We can’t legally marry in Thailand. It’s because of this we live in California and not in Thailand. It’s not a solution for Thai trans women to flee the country to get legally married. Thailand needs to do right by her trans citizens in the way that many other countries have.
    1
  2016.  @et8736  All the years
    1
  2017. Your transphobia certainty is. 🏳️‍⚧️
    1
  2018. Transition and find out.
    1
  2019. I don’t understand. What is there to be afraid of?
    1
  2020. It’s true, a lot of Asian countries have a long way to go toward LGBT equality. Taiwan hopefully kicks off a broader trend in marriage equality. Hopefully Thailand is next.
    1
  2021. That's true for sure. There is also quite a lot of structural discrimination against trans people in many sectors of employment in Thailand.
    1
  2022.  @georgetan5256  mulvad VPN is completely anonymous. You can pay in crypto. They don’t even know or care who you are.
    1
  2023. How do they sound to each and every of 330 million Americans, including me?
    1
  2024. Just Thai girls names.
    1
  2025. @raja klana I'll keep advocating for LGBT equality and nothing less, as I have my entire life. Thank you very much. You can do whatever you want in your mosque but legislating second class citizenship for LGBT people is not the job of government. Everyone deserves equality under the law, up to and including same sex marriage.
    1
  2026. No churches are forced to perform LGBT marriages. Check again. I am talking about civil legal marriage at the courthouse. Religion does not need to be involved at all. LGBT people are second class citizens in Indonesia because they can’t legally marry their spouses. Nor is there any discrimination protection for LGBT people. Indonesia has a long way to go to do right by its LGBT citizens. Thailand is a vastly better place to be LGBT and its hard to recommend to LGBT people that they should put their labor and capital to work in a place that clearly doesn’t respect them.
    1
  2027. No church in the US is required to officiate marriages they don’t want to officiate. The actual legal marriage comes when you sign the legal marriage license from the state. Everything else is just theatrics. Plenty of christian Churches do allow gay members and perform same sex marriages because they want to. You’ll need to talk with them individually to see their interpretation of scripture. Kim Davis was the clerk in question, she did some jail time for not following the law and eventually her office was forced to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. Masterpiece cake shop was the Supreme Court case and it didn’t actually issue a broad ruling about wether or not a public business can deny service to gay customers as a class. The point is that not being able to legally marry is a big deal for a huge number of legal and economic reasons, as is protecting gay people from being fired just for being gay. These are basic civic rights and Indonesia needs to do right by it’s tax paying LGBT citizens.
    1
  2028. Homophobia is annoying. LGBT people pay taxes and deserve to be able to marry their spouses and have discrimination protection so they can’t be fired for being gay. Denying people these basic civic legal protections is unjust.
    1
  2029. Government should never be intertwined with enforcing doctrine of a particular religion. Some LGBT people will leave but others will stay and as has happened in dozens of Christian countries already, friends and family that know LGBT people will eventually come to support their pursuit of civil equality under the law, including marriage equality. There is really nothing you can do so reverse these broad demographic trends.
    1
  2030. LGBT Tax payers deserve legal equality for their relationships under the law. No church needs to perform any marriages they do not wish to. This is about civil rights.
    1
  2031. You heard wrong. Churches in America can discriminate all they want inside their own doors. Many churches have decided to open their arms to the LGBT members of their congregations. Others like the Westboro Baptists hate gays with an intense passion. Personally I don’t care what type of fake supernatural nonsense goes on in inside churches so long as LGBT people can legally marry their spouses and not be fired from their jobs for being gay. Civic legal equality is the point so we can be successful tax paying citizens and not marginalized and persecuted malcontents surviving on the edges of society.
    1
  2032. Those churches that support LGBT people have decided to support their own members that are LGBT by changing their official attitudes toward LGBT people. Those churches have every right to do this and homophobes within any congregation are free to move to another more conservative church at anytime for any reason, same as always. Again, churches are free to discriminate in terms of gender, race, sexual orientation, national origin, etc. I do not care what churches do inside of their walls. Equality under civil law, not church law, including same sex marriage is the important point here that you keep dodging with your nonstop What About references to religious doctrine.
    1
  2033. Same way a woman does, sitting down.
    1
  2034. That’s the important aspect of the video to you?
    1
  2035. The plus represents other communities such as intersex people, LGBT allies, asexuals, gender non conforming people, young (or old) folks unsure and Questioning their sexuality, etc. that’s why the plus. It’s generally inclusively these other groups.
    1
  2036. My wife is a Thai trans woman, also living in the US now. Not so many Thai trans girls have the experience of living in other places to know how some things are better in Thailand for trans people and some things are worse. It’s a complicated world. Hopefully you’re liking the US. It’s a very different experience for LGBT people in different places in the US.
    1
  2037. And India and Indonesia and others. Thailand is the best country in the region to be trans though.
    1
  2038. Because it takes a critical threshold of LGBT people coming out before heterosexuals gain enough comfort with LGBT people to not oppose legal rights key to happiness of LGBT like gay marriage. Every country that has LGBT marriage equality has done this and every country that does not have LGBT marriage equality has not done this. No one needs to do anything, obviously but either you’re part of the solution or you’re part of the problem. That problem is LGBT visibility.
    1
  2039. Ok. Thanks.
    1
  2040. He’s a taxi driver downtown on a city of many millions. I’m sure he sees tens of thousands of people everyday. What country do you live in that you never see trans people?
    1
  2041. That’s part of why I ended up marrying a Thai trans girl.
    1
  2042. You should visit Thailand.
    1
  2043. The food really is amazing. My wife is a Thai trans woman. It’s a great place to get work done also. Results are great and the price is right. The islands in the south are lovely, so is the area around Phuket.
    1
  2044. Usually Abrahamic religions have something directly or indirectly to do with transphobia.
    1
  2045. Easy. Get to know them and ask them.
    1
  2046. Yes, Seriously. If you’re unsure, ask. It really is that easy.
    1
  2047. How much money would it take for you to have surgery and take hormones and present as the opposite sex?
    1
  2048. Trans girls need love too.
    1
  2049. This video is about trans women, not prostitution.
    1
  2050. Nope. My wife is trans and she’s not a sex worker nor are any of her trans friends. Time to update your trans employment statistics.
    1
  2051. Exactly!
    1
  2052. Just wait a decade.
    1
  2053. Life is about a lot more than economics.
    1
  2054. @agortha goth I’m bisexual. Literally doubles your relationship options.
    1
  2055. @agortha goth Happy to repulse you.
    1
  2056. You would be mistaken. The vast majority of Thai trans women are not sex workers.
    1
  2057. If only.
    1
  2058. Is that why I can’t marry my Thai trans wife in Thailand but I can in the US?
    1
  2059. The answer is always, “I felt like a woman since I was young”. The difference in how many trans people you see in a given society is the level of discrimination such people face in that society. The more discrimination trans people face, the fewer you’ll obviously see. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have questions, just ask.
    1
  2060. 1982 called and they want their heteronormative ignorance back.
    1
  2061. It is a great place but Thailand has no LGBT law. Trans women can’t legally marry their husbands or change their legal gender as is common in the west. My wife and I have been waiting for over a decade to be able to get married.
    1
  2062. If you could understand it it wouldn’t sound bad. Learn some words.
    1
  2063. Trans women are women to me.
    1
  2064. It is troublesome weeding out the 70%, I agree.
    1
  2065. You should travel more.
    1
  2066. No one knows their chromosomes with a karyotype analysis. Anyone can be infertile. Why is reproduction that important to you? Are there not babies waiting for adoption?
    1
  2067. There is also much less social discrimination so people aren’t afraid to do it:
    1
  2068. It’s true there is more trans violence in America. I think about that everyday when my wife walks out the door. That said, not all places in America are equally transphobic. Some places are vastly more trans friendly than others. Additionally and crucially trans women can legally change their gender in America and can also legally marry. Not so in Thailand.
    1
  2069. That sounds unlucky to me. Depends what you’re looking for.
    1
  2070. I fully understand your statement. For those trans people that see themselves as a bridge between men and women then I think it indeed has a lot of value for them and for the cis people whom they interact with. My concern is that for trans people whom do not see themselves as anything but men or women (not exclusively a western phenomenon) then it seems that you’re assigning them that particular duty without their consent. Gender dysphoria often carries with it a number of very uncomfortable feelings of othering and for a significant percentage of trans people that see themselves as just male or female having this expectation of them is not the way they experience life, nor a way in which they wish to be thought of.
    1
  2071. Visited Africa lately?
    1
  2072. Thailand is more tolerant for sure but trans women still can’t legally marry their husbands nor change their legal gender. My wife is a Thai trans woman and we’ve been waiting many years to be able to legally marry in Thailand. That’s partly why we live in California now where she is legally female and we’re legally married.
    1
  2073. There are and have been trans people in cultures around the world since recorded history. Hijra in India. Waria in Indonesia. Muxes in Mexico. Two spirit native Americans. Kathoey in Thailand.
    1
  2074. There are Thai trans Muay Thai fighters. Nong Rose and Nong Toom.
    1
  2075. If she looks beautiful she is beautiful, no need to over think it.
    1
  2076. That might be the most original comment here. Have a like.
    1
  2077. There are almost no Christians in Thailand.
    1
  2078. The English word ladyboy doesn't have the same subtext in Thailand that it does in the west. Plenty of English loan words in Thailand are like that. The compound noun ladyboy is both easier to say and remember for basic English speakers. You can't even end a word in Thai with the S sound so the word Trans is problematic to start with. Thai people have their own Thai words for trans people some of which are certainly problematic too.
    1
  2079. Famous ladyboys to be exact.
    1
  2080. The actress's name is Yasmin Lee. She's a legend. Do a NSFW web search today! :)
    1
  2081.  @kennethdzengedza8978  People aren’t going to be open if you’re going to be arrested or beat down regularly in the street. It’s sad to think about all the LGBT people living in the closet in those countries because society is so hostile and discriminatory. Know hope for a better future for LGBT people. I know a lot of people from the Middle East and Africa apply for asylum in more progressive countries.
    1
  2082. They’re in denial that 1% of the population is a lot? That those few trans women in other countries are afraid of coming out of the closet and living their truth?
    1
  2083.  @brunaotube  gender isn’t biology from my point of view so I certainly do deny that.
    1
  2084. And a “lot” is 1% or so of the population. It’s like you see a “lot” of Ferraris on a freeway. It’s honestly not many but when you see zero on other places because of transphobia or other factors it seems like a lot.
    1
  2085.  @ItsBrittanyLajoyce  11:50
    1
  2086. Ladyboys don’t owe you an explanation and they aren’t going to wear a sign around their neck for your benefit. If you get to know a ladyboy romantically she’s going to let you know before things get physical. No one wants surprises in the bedroom, not you and not her.
    1
  2087. Observation bias. There are vast numbers of ladyboys doing non-sex work jobs all over the country. There is actually vast employment discrimination in many non blue collar jobs that drive trans women to work. That’s not unique to Thailand. Dress in drag and go on some job interviews sometime if you want to prove that to yourself.
    1
  2088. On a per capita basis?
    1
  2089. The vast majority of ladyboys are not sex workers.
    1
  2090. That’s a whole bookshelf full of topics, not a single video.
    1
  2091. You can always ask.
    1
  2092. Keep in mind that aside from VPN, wireguard and TOR you can use Proxies to get around it.
    1
  2093. Even the girl with the face mask and red hoodie?
    1
  2094. Yeah and no hongkonger wants to disappear for 10 years or more into a Chinese jail for expressing political opinions. Seems like a powerful motivator to me. Any HKers want to chime in on their prime motivations?
    1
  2095. ผู้หญิงข้ามเพศกลัวในประเทศอื่น
    1
  2096. Her recovery was longer than usual. My wife was back up and working again after 6 weeks.
    1
  2097. They’re very famous trans women in Thailand.
    1
  2098. The majority of ladyboys are not involved in sex work. You’ll see them working regular jobs all over Thailand. There has been a cultural tradition of trans women in Thailand and other places in South Asia for hundreds and hundreds of years.
    1
  2099. There are plenty of trans women in the EU, also. At the same time, the EU (as a whole) is significantly less socially accepting of trans people than Thailand is and has been for many decades. Consequently there are just more trans women in Thailnd that have transitioned compare me to staying in the closet. Either way, we’re not talking about a lot of people. It’s just a very small sliver of the population.
    1
  2100. You mean the approach where trans women can’t legally marry their husbands and can’t legally change their gender as is commonplace in the west? These are two of the reasons my Thai trans wife and I live in the west instead of Thailand.
    1
  2101. Many places in the west also have public accommodation law for trans women so they have the legal right to use the women’s bathroom. That is also something Thailand doesn’t have. Some trans women in Thailand are excluded from particular hotels and nightclubs by class, which would also be illegal in many places in the west and it is not in Thailand. I agree with you that in the west Christianity is the main barrier to LGBT social harmony. It is the case that in Thailand that there is much social acceptance but the law is not on your side and when that social acceptance doesn’t pan out and you’re left without recourse. Rest assured, this I know. It has defined most of my struggles for my adult life. I’m acutely aware of the positives and negatives of being in a decades long relationship with a Thai trans woman that I cannot marry in Thailand.
    1
  2102. Trans people experience gender dysphoria and bring their bodies into alignment with their mind with medical intervention which is standard medical practice. There is plenty of research out there.
    1
  2103. Fortunately you were isolated from pervasive Christian culture in Thailand that only extremely recently here in America has become somewhat more accepting of LGBT people. It’s also worth pointing out that America is a diverse place and many of us don’t have such mindsets. I legally married a Thai trans woman, which is something that’s not legal in Thailand. Nor can she change her gender on her ID in Thailand and she has in America. LGBT law in America is vastly better than it is in Thailand.
    1
  2104. The implied meaning is why are there so many Thai national trans women. That’s the question.
    1
  2105.  @catalinarossi  Gender isn't biology. Trans women are women to me.
    1
  2106. Japan is quite conservative.
    1
  2107. She’ll be pretty after also. It’s up to her.
    1
  2108. The next video in sequence from Asian boss had a full interview from a Thai trans girl.
    1
  2109.  I want to be thug.  Haters gonna hate
    1
  2110. Thousands upon thousands of Thai trans women use the women’s restroom everyday in Thailand without issue.
    1
  2111. Not having a father around doesn’t make you want to become a girl. Let’s get real. How many non transgender people didn’t have a father growing up?
    1
  2112. Well, I mean, it is normal. There are trans people in every country in the world. The difference is that Thailand treats their trans citizens with more dignity and respect than most other countries.
    1
  2113.  @small_dropin_the_big_ocean995  What country are you from, the Philippines?
    1
  2114.  @small_dropin_the_big_ocean995  I know it's a difficult life for kinnar in India. I hope things are getting somewhat better for them in recent years?
    1
  2115. Not even close.
    1
  2116. Millions of trans women around the world use the women's restroom everyday. Thailand included.
    1
  2117. That’s fine too. Some people have a very strong sense of their own gender and others do not. Personally I couldn’t stand it, and would transition.
    1
  2118. Why do you hate gays? Less competition for the cute girls sound be a good thing, no?
    1
  2119. What are your reasons for hating gays?
    1
  2120. Disgust and annoyance are emotional reactions, not reasons. What’s your reason for those emotional reactions?
    1
  2121.  @albertcastro692  Again emotional reactions aren't reasons. What are your reasons?
    1
  2122.  @albertcastro692  Were you always this homophobic or did you have to work your way up to it?
    1
  2123. There are unclockable trans women. A bit rare but becoming less so now that puberty blockers like Lupron are becoming more common.
    1
  2124. What surgery?
    1
  2125. Go on.
    1
  2126. Not Particularly. The very same meds (Polyestradiol phosphate) given to men with prostate cancer are given routinely to trans women as part of transition. Trans women are at a very very low risk of prostate cancer. Women also have a prostate like analogous organ called the Skeene’s gland.
    1
  2127. That's partly why I ended up marrying a Thai trans woman, to be honest.
    1
  2128. Nah. Trans women are women to me and millions of other people who support their gender identity.
    1
  2129.  @riorio745  Surgery is not a requirement for being transgender. The word “transgender” is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity is different from the sex assigned to us at birth. That's it. There are pre-ops, post-ops and non-op transgender folks. Your gender identity is in your mind. An ostensibly straight kpop boy band member wearing makeup or a gay guy doing drag do not consider their gender identity to be female, even if their gender presentation is more feminine or androgynous. That's the difference.
    1
  2130. Only if they date women. Unusual but it happens.
    1
  2131. Most ladyboys in Thailand are straight. That is, they feel like women and are attracted to men. If you mean ladyboys that feel like women and also like other women, lesbian that is,, it happens but it’s not all that common. More common in the west when someone is already married and they decide to transition and the spouse stays with them. There are also plenty of bisexuals in the world.
    1
  2132. Possibly underwent surgery? Did you not watch the video? Gender for me is between the ears not between the legs. You do you.
    1
  2133. Gender dysphoria is a recognized by the APA in the DSM-V and the WHO in the ICD-11 as a condition which is treatable by gender transition. It has been shown empirically that transition improves life outcomes for those with gender dysphoria which is why it is standard treatment by every professional medical organization, worldwide. Consequently, I support trans people socially in the way that they view themselves. This is unequivocally medically different than someone with a psychosis wherein they view themselves as an animal or alien and consequently the treatment is also different based on known empirical outcomes for patient success. I’m trying to convince you of nothing. You asked. I answered. Please do as you please. Free will and all.
    1
  2134. You’re implying that Thai trans women are predatory?
    1
  2135.  @edanya  Nope. Just trying to understand your non sequitur. What makes you ask about predatory behavior on a video about Thai trans women?
    1
  2136. ​ @edanya  Three ad hominems in a row and I'm the obnoxious one for asking you to state your own position to understand the nature of the question? Why ask a question if you didn't want an answer?
    1
  2137.  @edanya  Then how is it that we're communicating such nuanced meta-discussion at such exasperating lengths if I'm incapable of reading? Seems impossible, no?
    1
  2138.  @edanya  And I wish you were capable of articulating your original position rather than evading.
    1
  2139.  @edanya  You can just not respond and I'll go away and your position on this topic will forever be unarticulated.
    1
  2140. Thai trans girls are out there in the countryside and smaller cities and towns too. There is lots of LGBT migration from rural to urban though. It's true everywhere in the world. Obviously the trans nightlife girls can't be missed. They're really trying to be seen.
    1
  2141.  @atari8603  Easy. Gender is in the eye of the beholder.
    1
  2142.  @atari8603  Reproduction and gender the same concepts.
    1
  2143.  @atari8603  That’s a feature since we don’t want kids. Why maintain an apparatus you’re never going to use?
    1
  2144.  @atari8603  Not at all. You never talked to someone that didn’t want kids? This is not particularly rare. There is more to life than baby making. The world has plenty of people in it as it is. We’re in no danger of going extinct. Quite the opposite in fact. Overpopulation and overconsumption of resources is a big problem.
    1
  2145.  @atari8603  How many trans people have you actually met and talked with in real life?
    1
  2146. I’m bisexual and have had long term relationships with feminine cisgender women and also masculine cisgender men. I’m married to a Thai trans woman today. I can tell you from direct comparisons that It’s like being in a relationship with a cis woman. My ex girlfriend even says that my wife is even girlier than she is.
    1
  2147.  @newyorkcat  Well, ok. You asked the question? Is it gay? Who would know this aside from someone who actually has dated men and women both to tell you the difference?
    1
  2148. They are just asking regular people on the street, not doing a complex sociological analysis about all the relevant comparative factors in that question. I’m happy to try to give you my opinion if you’re interested.
    1
  2149. Taiwan?
    1
  2150. You do realize that Taiwan is not Thailand, right? Sadly same sex marriage is still not legal in Thailand.
    1
  2151. It's straight people having less children as a country becomes more developed. What a few percent of the population do or don't do with respect to reproduction doesn't really move the needle on country scale fertility.
    1
  2152. How many trans women over the age of 50 have you personally talked with? Why don’t we let them be the authority on how accepting people were then vs now? SRS and plastic surgery have been performed in volume from the early 70’s onwards.
    1
  2153. It isn’t mutilation. The surgical results are very good. Many trans people have dysphoria about their own genitals that make them want to get SRS for themselves, not for others. Many ladyboys in Thailand have SRS but just as many do not and don’t want it. It really depends. They are accepted in Thai society either way. My wife of many years is a Thai ladyboy. If you have questions, just ask.
    1
  2154. Socially it’s refreshingly open. Legally it’s not. She can’t change her legal ID, nor can she legally marry a man. Lots of issues with trans women being barred fromHotels and nightclubs. Plenty of employment discrimination and weak anti discrimination law.
    1
  2155. That’s why LGBT people often leave Indonesia.
    1
  2156. A couple percent of the population will always be trans. The difference is, in Thailand, trans people face much less discrimination so many more of this couple percent will actually transition instead of living in the closet. Look at any country or area of the country and the less discriminatory it is, the more trans people you will see. Simple as that.
    1
  2157. Why would a Buddhist do that?
    1
  2158. Agreed but the next thing to work on is marriage equality and letting trans women change their gender in their ID and passport.
    1
  2159. As a bisexual guy married to a Thai trans woman I’m happy to answer all your questions. First, obviously everything is more difficult when you’re LGBT. That goes without saying. Family. Friends. Relationships. Religion. Laws. How much depends on your environment. There aren’t that many trans women per capita and the number of men (and some women) who are interested exceeds supply. That said, plenty of guys can’t deal with the social transphobia of dating a trans women and won’t admit to it. Such is the bane of trans women everywhere. I’ll tell you that no small number of trans attracted guys see their attraction to trans women as heterosexual because they are attracted to femininity and don’t care as much about hardware. I’ve talked with dozens of guys that would never date a masculine looking person but are fine with either cis or trans women. That said, these guys are the most likely to treat trans women as their dirty secret as was mentioned because they’re simply not used to the LGBT stigma socially. What other questions do you have?
    1
  2160.  @MrBalor89  You may think so, but the reality is for a small but sizable percentage of straight guys their sexual attraction is to femininity not necessarily the biology. For them, trans women are women as it’s about gender not sex. I can say that with complete clarity as I’ve known many such guys. In contrast, gay guys have no interest in trans girls. Ask some gay guys and they’ll be happy to tell you. That said, dating apps make dating pretty straightforward everyone can enter their preferences and put it in their bio. Believe me, having had long term relationships with gay cis guys, straight cis women and straight trans women, I know exactly how gay it isn’t being in a relationship with a trans women. If you really want to understand, go on some dates like that yourself.
    1
  2161. It’s time to learn about transgender people, then. Watch this interview one more time and then talk to some transgender people about their lives.
    1
  2162. Thank you. A question. On average, are Waria treated same, better or worse than gays in your estimation? Or does that vary regionally too much to answer easily?
    1
  2163. Why don’t we ask ourselves why there have been ladyboys in different societies all over the globe for hundreds and hundreds of years?
    1
  2164. Sadly you’re uninformed about the Hijra, Waria, Muxe, Fa'afafine, and Kathoey and many others whom have been documented for hundreds of years by historians and anthropologists.
    1
  2165. Read about the Hijra in India whom existed for thousands of years before the advent of plastic. Many other countries in the region have had a place for trans women / 3rd gender in their social structure.
    1
  2166. @Valentin Mata California’s existing LGBT law is very good and there is a great deal of political and popular support for LGBT issues. Socially it’s a huge diverse state, and the social acceptance you’ll find varies widely depending on your social circles and community. For my trans wife and I it’s been good. We both have had successful careers and we look forward to Thailand becoming more progressive in the coming decade and finally legalizing key LGBT legislation before we retire there. Do you have some specific questions?
    1
  2167.  @onetwocue  Good question! I’m the top and she’s the bottom. She’s had SRS now so topping would be extra challenging but she’s never had any interest in doing that anyway even before SRS. If you have any other questions, just ask.
    1
  2168.  @sergiodelrioreyes7655  I fundamentally disagree that gender performativity is inherently toxic. Toxicity is toxic but the simple cultural costumery of tribal alignment is just what it is. Nearly everyone does some form of it. It’s not inherently malignant. Legions of welcoming and compassionate trans people exist in high percentages that defy this narrative. You’re certainly welcome to think it’s cringe but from my vantage point as an old LGBT geezer that this is such a minor point of criticism compared to the bad old days of living in fear in the closet that it doesn’t even move my needle. I’m glad you pointed out that you also think it’s cringe when cis people do it. Perhaps you are the exception handing out tickets extremely judiciously to cis and trans alike in equal measure but what I often see is extremely selective enforcement against trans people. At the end of the day people are trying to live their best lives with the complex history they’ve been dealt. I have the freedom to see it as a romantic notion of fulfillment and you have the freedom to see it as toxic cringe to make an appeal for moderation. You do you.
    1
  2169.  @believerinhope_3832  They are to me. Gender isn’t biology.
    1
  2170. The earth and its people are all we have. Why not get along with others instead of calling for divine destruction?
    1
  2171. What that says to me is that you should beat the rush and date trans women now before all the most amazing girls are taken. Worked for me.
    1
  2172. There are a few different words. They are using them.
    1
  2173. Often you can but on occasion you can’t. Consider how you would find out if there was a trans person that you can’t detect. You would need to interact with them. They would need to be inclined to tell you. Then you would need to believe them. That’s a pretty high bar on a very small population. It goes without saying that all the trans people you can’t clock aren’t being counted in your accuracy estimations. I’ve known a lot of trans people because my wife is trans and I’ve definitely been surprised a few times.
    1
  2174.  @riorio745  It depends on where you are in the west. It varies a great deal. Mostly it is true what you're saying, that said in some very progressive western cities trans people are treated quite well socially by society at large and people's attitudes are accepting and accommodating.
    1
  2175. Hypergaamy is as old as time bit it’s not all economics. There are plenty of trans women who transition for themselves. You can see them working retail and salon jobs all over the untouristed parts of Thailand. Gender dysphoria is a real thing and there is a reason all professional medical and psychological organizations support social and medical transition. It leads to the best mental health outcomes for trans people. Heaven is a fairytale taught to children.
    1
  2176. Plenty in Europe and Brazil also. The more progressive the country with the least amount of hostility and discrimination the more LGBT people you will find. Simple as that.
    1
  2177.  @drinksomewaterfirst9704  China and the Middle East are socially progressive? Surely you’re joking.
    1
  2178. What about it?
    1
  2179. Time to travel more.
    1
  2180. Traveling is how you see new things.
    1
  2181. Women’s public toilet of course.
    1
  2182.  @StevanOutdoor  Apologies for not seeing this earlier. Didn’t get a notification about it. I imagine you’re in Thailand already but if not, I can try and answer. First the street food in Thailand is famous the world over. It’s excellent and very inexpensive. It’s worth flying to Thailand for the street food all on its own. Just stick to places that are busy and you’ll be fine (busy means fresh food). I can’t begin to summarize all the awesome things to eat. If it looks good and Thais are waiting for it, it’s going to be great. As far as dating apps go it’s hard to beat ThaiFriendly or Tinder but just be aware that working girls and scammers also abound. Keep your money and wits about you. There are a lot of tattoos in Thailand so that won’t be a problem. Just cover that up when you go to a temple, that’s about it. Some temples even have have pictures and statues with topless women so… not unprecedented. I can’t imagine carrying a knife is a problem in Thailand, especially in rural places. I can’t say I know the laws on knives. I’d imagine if you can take it in your checked luggage you’d be fine with it in Thailand. Lots of people smoke in Thailand all over the place, so that’s not a problem generally. I don’t smoke myself so I can’t say I know much about cigar availability, but I would guess like a lot of cultural imports they would be hard to find outside of specialty smoke shops. Let me know how you’re enjoying Thailand once you get there!
    1
  2183. How was your trip to Thailand?
    1
  2184. Famous Thai trans girls, yes. Rinrada 'Yoshi' Thurapan - left Chananchida 'Blossom' Rungpetcharat - center Treechada 'Poyd' Petcharat - right
    1
  2185.  @Rex-ue9tn  For what? There is nothing shameful about being trans or respecting trans people.
    1
  2186.  @mrs.rivers-z7z  I’ve asked many trans women myself if they would like to be able to have a child and many would like to be able to do so.
    1
  2187.  @mrs.rivers-z7z  I mean, I want a billion dollars and to live for 200 years even if I’ll never have either. Desire isn’t necessarily rooted in the achievable, right?
    1
  2188.  @mrs.rivers-z7z  I see it as the same. adoption is certainly possible in most western countries. Plenty of cisgrnder women don’t want kids either. Also, cisgender women have given birth with a transplanted uterus. Doctors have said that doing so wouldn’t be particularly different with a transplanted uterus and a trans woman. I’d put money on it being performed successfully within the next 20 years. Realistically within 200 years we’ll have figured out gestation completely and it will be possible to have a machine gestate a baby to term. Combine that with IVG where stem cells from anyone can create sperm or egg cells and that will allow infertile couples of all types to have their own biological children. It’s already workable in mice.
    1
  2189.  @mrs.rivers-z7z  My wife is trans and we have no desire to have kids. That said, I know trans women that do as much as any cis woman I’ve known. I’m just making sure their desires are articulated here and not dismissed. We can argue about the percentages but there are certainly is some percent of trans women that very much would want their own biological children.
    1
  2190. My wife is trans and she's as "real" as any other cis gender woman I've been in a relationship with. There is nothing superficial about her beauty.
    1
  2191. My wife and many of her trans friends have no regrets.
    1
  2192. Doesn’t help. The religious don’t care about science when it comes to concepts their religious leaders have opinions on.
    1
  2193.  @jtris01  My understanding is that there is not, outside of the English loan words that only people who really know LGBT stuff would know. There are a lot of complex words for sex and gender in Thai and the concept of the gender binary isn’t quite the same in Thailand. I’m not a Thai language expert though. Happy to have a native Thai speaker answer this in a better way. The interviewer in the following episode with a Thai trans girl did use some sketchy Thai language that did cross the line into pejorative territory, though but I doubt it was intentional.
    1
  2194.  @Octopussyist  Right but how does that Latin prefix English word trivia relate to the issue at hand? That Thai may or may not have a commonly understood Thai word for encapsulating not-transgender that could have been used in place of potentially pejorative set groupings like "real woman" and "not a woman". If you're saying that Thai should have such a term, and that they could or should borrow it from English the way English has borrowed such prefixes from Latin then I'd be in complete agreement. Or are you going somewhere else with this?
    1
  2195.  @Octopussyist  I already replied to Jack Nguyen that didn't think that there is but my Thai isn't that fluent to be authoritative. Quite a bit of nuance and tone and cultural context is already lost in translation. That's why I posited the request to have a native Thai speaker answer the question. I just didn't understand where you were going with your prefix etymology observation.
    1
  2196. Hundreds of thousands of Trans women in Thailand use the women’s restroom everyday without issue.
    1
  2197. It doesn’t have the same subtext it does in the west. It’s just easy to know and pronounce for people for whom English is a second language.
    1
  2198.  Kraze Reverb  Thank you!
    1
  2199. The perception of Filipinos is that Bitcoin is currently having a half off sale.
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  2200. You have nothing against LGBT people yet you think they are interrupting nature? Isn’t everything than mankind does interrupts nature? Buildings, antibiotics, cutting down forests for crop land? Why then the special callout for LGBT people?
    1
  2201. Note the use of the tilde to indicate an approximate figure. Feel free to substitute the number you find acceptable. No one is suggesting that Sauce isn’t extremely likely to have XY chromosomes. Sauce just wants to live as a woman. I don’t see that as interrupting nature.
    1
  2202. You didn’t know trans women existed or that Thailand had a lot of trans women?
    1
  2203.  @mogumogu2024  What makes a sound gay?
    1
  2204.  @mogumogu2024  What is unmanly about a Thai man speaking Thai? You make no sense.
    1
  2205. You view women as defeated and subservient?
    1
  2206. How do you figure? What are they defeated by and subservient to?
    1
  2207. Given that there have been ladyboys in Thailand long before Columbus sailed to the Caribbean, how do you figure?
    1
  2208. Knives and cauterization have existed since antiquity. The technology is not new and there have been ladyboys in Thailand for hundreds of years. Where does this reality leave your argument?
    1
  2209. Westerners were not involved in any of that in the distant past so they couldn’t have been defeated by nor subservient to westerners. Ladyboys have been a part of Thailand’s cultural landscape since antiquity. All women and ladyboys used the technologies that were available and socially appropriate at that time. Ladyboys are not dysfunctional in the least. There is simply a dysphoria between the body and the mind, and consequently every major medical association I’m the world uses the WPATH standard of care which includes social and medical transition. They are simply living the life that is right for them.
    1
  2210. The fact remains that the entire medical establishment is in full support of trans people transitioning. In dozens of countries trans women are able to legally change their gender and update all their ID. A large percentage of people, particularly in Thailand fully accept ladyboys as any other person just trying to live their best life . You’re welcome to wring your hands about this and ridicule them all you like but this is simply how it is. Go on, let’s hear some more impotent trans insults. Get it out of your system. Surely you’re more creative than “mentally ill wastes of space’ no?
    1
  2211. Not to me. I see trans women as women.
    1
  2212. @CHULALAKKUL
    1
  2213. Because it occurs in literally every country around the world. A few percent of the population will always be trans. That's just the natural state of things. Just as there are gay people there will also be trans people.
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  2214. Almost no one is going to go through all that surgery and hormones to become transgender just to make some money in your 20s being a sex worker.
    1
  2215. This!
    1
  2216.  Stanley Stove  Always a woman to me.
    1
  2217. @@frozenmonster7444 How many Thai Ladyboys and western trans women have you dated?
    1
  2218.  @1Nmymy  I indeed would like a Thai marriage visa after we get married in Thailand and we live Thailand after we retire. We're coming from California. What other questions do you have?
    1
  2219. Look harder. There are many older ladyboys in Thailand. Are they bouncing around the highly visible nightlife areas along with kids half their age? No. Do more ladyboys come out and live publicly compared to the past? Yes. Consequently you’re going to have quite a bit of simple demographic observation bias. Hormone blockers are well studied for cisgender people with precocious puberty. There are studies on bone density but not nothing to suggest that liver function is impaired. Aside from which, hormone blockers are actually quite new in practice and even more rare in Thailand. Don’t take my word for it. Ask the next bunch of ladyboys about Leuprorelin and behold The blank stares. That is, if you’re after actual facts rather than just wanting to justify your condemnation of ladyboys via exaggerated mortality risk. If it’s the latter I’m sure no one here can prove that Sauce didn’t just drop dead 30 seconds after the cameras stopped rolling if that makes you feel better about your opinions.
    1
  2220.  @espartacos1  Job done, then. You weren't asking so much as seeking validation for your negative appraisal of the longevity of trans women. You have the entire internet at your disposal. It's not difficult to find peer reviewed data on HRT health risks now is it?
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  2221. Thai trans girls still can't legally marry their husbands nor change their legal gender in Thailand. There is a still quite a way to go.
    1
  2222.  @shivamchandrol8641  My wife is a Thai trans woman and we’ve been waiting over a decade to get married in Thailand. It’s for these reasons we live in California now where she is legally female and we’re legally married. The only country in Asia that allows same sex marriage is Taiwan. Know hope, and I hope India continues to do better for her own LGBT community.
    1
  2223. It’s true. That’s part of the reason why I married a Thai trans girl.
    1
  2224. I’m bisexual. I’ve had long term relationships with men and women. Rest assured, I know what it’s like to be in a relationship with a gay man. Being in a relationship with a trans girl is nothing like that. Ask some gay men if they’re interested in trans girls.
    1
  2225. For sure. Unless you’re looking to have a baby dating a trans girl has a lot of advantages. Not the least of which is that plenty of guys won’t date them so if you’re willing to bring them home to mom you’ll be able to pull girls that are out of your league. In addition, trans girls have really given a ton of thought to sex and sexuality and what they want in their life and are very conscious of what it means to be treated badly. On the whole they’re actually very well reasoned and compassionate folks.
    1
  2226. Why not make their lives better by supporting them?
    1
  2227. Really? I know there is the Kottankulangara Festival there, right?
    1
  2228. I fail to see what’s unnatural about something that occurs in nature.
    1
  2229. It’s partly genetic and partly developmental. Two main studies are the frequency of being gay in identical twins if one twin is, is much higher than the general population. And the more sons a mom has, the increasing likelihood that later sons are gay.
    1
  2230. You’re incapable of using google? I’m not going to do an APA or MLA citation for you since I seriously doubt you’d read the study anyway. If you were actually the least bit curious you’d already have done some basic research.
    1
  2231. We’re all busy, love. Put in some effort.
    1
  2232. A couple percent of the population will always be trans. The difference is, in Thailand, trans people face little discrimination so many more of this couple percent will actually transition instead of living in the closet. Look at any country or area of the country and the less discriminatory it is, the more trans people you will see. Simple as that.
    1
  2233. That says more about your seeing that it does about the percentage of Thai women that have had plastic surgery on their face.
    1
  2234. Because they’re beautiful and amazing. That said demand doesn’t create supply. Vanishingly few start taking hormones and getting surgery and altering their entire life just to make some money in their early 20s. So many ladyboys exist because they want to be ladyboys and their is no great social prohibition against them as there is in most other places in the world. Consequently ladyboys do not hide in the closet as they do in most other places. As social discrimination becomes less severe over time you’ll see many more trans women elsewhere.
    1
  2235. Depends on where you are in the US. The difference between rural Mississippi and downtown San Francisco is night and day.
    1
  2236.  @agestatsega  You absolutely should compare countries to each other. The lives of LGBT people are VASTLY better in other countries. It is only by realizing this that reforms can be made to make the lives of LGBT people better in Indonesia.
    1
  2237. Transition is the cure. There will always be trans people. A better life for trans people fundamentally involves more non trans people being kind to trans people.
    1
  2238.  @amortalbeing  You are aware that every professional medical organization has studied the mental health outcomes and efficacy of transition vs desisting and determined that the best outcomes involve, transition, yes? AMA, APA, WHO, etc. You mean to tell us that your comment is more authoritative than the entire medical health establishment?
    1
  2239. Vocal chord surgery is tough stuff. Not many doctors will do it, very few trans women have had it and the recovery process is long.
    1
  2240.  @teamrage2020  Nah. Thailand is happily vastly majority Buddhist. Vanishingly few Christians there and they’re doing just fine.
    1
  2241. Its not out of proportion when you can’t use the restroom without being subject to discrimination and physical harassment. Trans women in the Philippines need to be legally allowed to use the women’s bathroom as is the law in most places in North America and Europe. .
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  2242. Unless you’re running karyotype tests on people you have no idea what someone’s chromosomes actually look like with certainty. People determine a person’s gender by a cursory visual and audio inspection, not by “actual science”. consequently what difference does it actually make? No actual science is harmed by using a pronoun or another. It’s just social convention.
    1
  2243.  Talûn-karkû The Warchief  Obviously so. That's exactly what I meant.
    1
  2244. I understand that things are pretty tough for the Kinnar in India. Hopefully it's getting somewhat better in recent years?
    1
  2245. Well, that explains a few things. Having gay sex in Kenya or Ethiopia is punishable by a dozen years in prison. Seems to me If someone was trans they would need to be almost suicidal there to attempt to transition with few very medical resources. This clearly is not the case in Thailand and many other countries in the world. Trans people (ladyboys) are very free to live their lives out in the open, so they do.
    1
  2246. Some you can easily identify, others you can’t.
    1
  2247. More urban folklore than anything. No doubt that there were a few isolated cases of scumbags doing scumbag things but the Vietnam war has been over for 45 years. Explains nothing about Thai trans woman that are younger than 45.
    1
  2248. Exactly this. That's the real question. "Why does your country treat trans people so badly?" The more accepting a society is the more trans people will actually transition, up to the natural rate of a couple percent.
    1
  2249. Watch the video and you'll find out.
    1
  2250. Caitlin Jenner is 71 years old. You’re expecting her to look like a supermodel? Compared to all the other 71 year old grandmothers and great grandmothers down at the old folks home she actually looks pretty good. We’ll all be lucky if we look as good as her at her age. That said, for more sexually dimorphic caucasians transitioning early is the answer so the permanent masculinization effects of Testosterone do not occur. Look at Caucasian girls that have gone on puberty blockers and started hormones early. Very little differentiation from cis Caucasian girls.
    1
  2251. To some degree, sure. Trans women can't change their legal gender nor can they legally marry their husbands in Thailand. There is quite a long way to go.
    1
  2252.  Wist Man  Why should I regret having sex with a man or a trans woman? I’ve had long term relationships with cis women, gay men and trans girls. Don’t regret any of that for a minute and I’m extremely glad I did. Ultimately I eventually married a Thai trans girl. We’ve been married for 8 years now. Best decision I ever made.
    1
  2253. Unfortunately not. Thai trans women can't change their legal gender. My wife and I have been waiting a long time for this to change.
    1
  2254. Unless you’re a monk, everyone is interested in making bank. Capitalism is hardly exclusive to tran women. That said, it’s not the reason the vast majority of trans women transition. They felt girly from a very early age.
    1
  2255.  @jn8559  Sure thing. It’s called a tracheal shave if you want to search for it and read up on it. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any other trans or surgery questions, just ask.
    1
  2256. No worries. More for the rest of us.
    1
  2257. It’s not too late. People transition at all stages in life when they have the means to do it. My wife started transition in her late 20s and it worked out just fine. Save up and make it happen, girl. Wishing you the best!
    1
  2258. The wisdom of nature? Come on. Nature doesn’t care if anyone or even any species lives or dies off completely. The fossil record is literally a species graveyard. The existence of God cannot be demonstrated. The body is a platform for living how you wish in the time that you have. Everyone dies. What matters is how you want to live with the time you have. If HIV transmission risk is what you’re concerned about, lesbians have the lowest HIV transmission risk aside from virgins. There is nary a documented case unlike the millions of heterosexuals that have contracted HIV through sex. The vast overwhelming number of people with HIV in the word are actually Heterosexual, after all. I’m not at all worried about HIV. ARV cocktails work perfectly well. Greg Louganis and Magic Johnson are doing just fine having had HIV for many decades.
    1
  2259. How do you figure? Being beautiful is about money and effort and trans women put in a ton of both. Just look at the Thai trans girls on the thumbnail for this video.
    1
  2260. Lots of ladyboys want to have kids, yes. Probably less per capita than cisgender women, but still quite a bit. To be pregnant with your own DNA as a woman you need eggs with your DNA and a uterus. Both are significant challenges, and it’s currently not possible. That said, it won’t be impossible forever. A developing technology known as IVG, short for in-vitro gametogenesis, could make it possible for same-sex couples to conceive a baby out of their own genetic material and no one else’s. They’d do this by having cells in their own bodies turned into sperm or egg cells. Cisgender women have had uterus transplants to conceive a child and there is no technical reason a trans woman on hormones couldn’t do the same. This sort of technology is probably 20 years away.
    1
  2261. She's a woman to me.
    1
  2262. Opinions are fine. Systematically oppressing LGBT people? Not fine.
    1
  2263.  @kiboma4209  Literally twice as good!
    1
  2264. Bisexual checking in. What do you want to know?
    1
  2265.  @winniethepooh8353  All the Christians I've ever known have treated being bi as the same as being gay. If you're not straight then you're a sinner. Of course bisexual men who are in relationships with women often don't arouse much attention in this regard. There is a phenomenon called "bi erasure"
    1
  2266. A small percentage of any population is trans. Some people are also left handed. That’s just the reality of the situation. The point is to treat trans people with respect with full equality under the law.
    1
  2267.  @minjiu__u  How can you vote for same sex marriage if you don’t support it?
    1
  2268.  @minjiu__u  Supporting second class citizenship for gay people and their relationships by inaction isn’t respect. Marriage is a legal and civic institution not exclusively a religious institution. If it were me I would rather leave a religion then perpetuate such injustices by my actions or inactions. There is nothing sinful about two lesbians who love each other and are committed to each other for decades wanting to legally protect themselves and their children with the legal rights and responsibilities that only marriage provides.
    1
  2269.  @minjiu__u  You can still believe in God and realize that ancient scriptures written by man thousands of years ago didn’t get everything right. The Quran didn’t abolish slavery, for example. Something seen as morally abhorrent today. There are LGBT friendly mosques in the world too. There are even a handful of gay imams in the world. It is possible to support LGBT people and be a Muslim at the same time.
    1
  2270.  @minjiu__u  The point of the slavery example was to demonstrate that an immoral act like allowing limited slavery can be justified within the structure of society for the greater good. So it could be too with Muslims allowing LGBT people having equal protection (ie marriage) under the law. Again, no religion needs to recognize these marriages. It is simply government licensing like a driver’s license. Clearly scriptures from thousands of years ago are not exact civics prescriptions in a pluralistic democracy in 2021. Conditions are different and it’s about the interpretation.
    1
  2271. @Mohammed Allali Don’t discriminate against LGBT people who deserve equality under the law for their relationships.
    1
  2272. Well, the hateful comments have been removed. That's not really an option in real life.
    1
  2273. Why would they feel bad?
    1
  2274. I've got to wonder how happy those people coming to him are going to be when they discover that it's neigh impossible to change your sexuality by force of will. Deeply unhappy if the experience of all the other ex-gay ministries that have come to pass is any indication.
    1
  2275. Not to me though.
    1
  2276. Mentally disabled? What disability does she have?
    1
  2277. Even if that were true how would that be a disability?
    1
  2278. Walk me through this business plan.
    1
  2279. The trans women’s real name from the movie is Yasmin Lee. She’s a famous trans porn star. Look her up. She’s great.
    1
  2280. No.
    1
  2281. CNN and MSNBC are businesses and they’re doing just fine, so is Fox News.
    1
  2282. Thousands and thousands of trans women use the woman’s restroom in Thailand every day without issue. Thai people decide Thai public policy, not you.
    1
  2283. Thailand has plenty of gays and lesbians and social tolerance is quite good for gays and lesbians. Let’s not pretend Thailand is in the same league with India or Iran when it comes to social acceptance of gays and lesbians. Anyone who has spent any time there would know otherwise.
    1
  2284. Monogamy is overrated but what does that have to do with trans women?
    1
  2285.  @CatsInTheFridge  You can trust that humans aren’t particularly monogamous.
    1
  2286.  @hewit_rv8697  LGBT people have been around for thousands of years into antiquity. The only difference is that even more societies now treat LGBT people with dignity and respect.
    1
  2287. No one said anything about God.
    1
  2288. It’s a complex answer, and part of the question is really a comparison to your country (or countries that you’re familiar with). What country do you live in?
    1
  2289. Asian Boss isn’t even suggesting you should go to Thailand. They’re simply asking a completely unrelated question.
    1
  2290.  @theguy7480  I don’t think so.
    1
  2291.  @Samperor  some people also lie about not being gay to fit in. Some people also win the lottery. What are the typical results? Intentionally trying to change your sexuality to appease homophobic parents or not be outcast by your social group or religion? Results are not great. Do a youtube search for Exodus International, at the time the largest ex-gay ministry in the world.
    1
  2292.  @diallo9668  Thanks!
    1
  2293. She’s a woman in this life to me.
    1
  2294. And that’s part of the reason I married a Thai trans girl.
    1
  2295. Media representation of trans women in Thailand is certainly problematic but it’s a step in the right direction. People are comfortable with trans people and that’s very much not the case in other countries. Media will get better as the amount of programming and channels diversify later on with lower prices.
    1
  2296. Up until they want to get married.
    1
  2297. Do some trans women engage in sex work? Clearly so. The same is true of women and even men. Do trans women become trans women so they can engage in sex work? No. That's an absurd business model going through irrecoverable changes with hormones and surgery to appear as someone that you're not so you can make some money for a few years in your 20s. Talk to some actual Thai trans sex workers. Plenty of jobs in Thailand exist and most Thai trans women have never and will never engage in sex work. You can see them all over the country working retail and salon jobs.
    1
  2298. There have been ladyboys all over South Asia for hundreds and hundreds of years before Columbus sailed across the Atlantic. Read any cultural history of the area. Most ladyboys in Thailand have no connection sex work. You’ll see them working retail and salon jobs all over Thailand and there ladyboys from all every socioeconomic backgrounds including the middle and upper class.
    1
  2299. Bisexual atheists married to trans women. Uh, inquiring for a friend.
    1
  2300. My wife is a Thai trans woman. We live in California. It really depends on where you are and who you associate with. Some Americans are very progressive and LGBT friendly. It's also easy to imagine that Thailand is more progressive than it actually is. I can't legally marry my wife in Thailand and she can't change her legal gender there. Tis complicated. If you have any questions, just ask.
    1
  2301. Abstinence is even cleaner but who actually cares about cleanliness?
    1
  2302. There are actually Thai ladyboy Muay Thai boxers. Look up Nong Rose and Nong Toom. The trouble with your theory is that mma fighters are only a small fraction of a percent of people in Thailand. That and losing at boxing isn’t going to make you want to turn into a woman.
    1
  2303. You thirsty!
    1
  2304. There are no good statistics available. Go visit and see for yourself.
    1
  2305. Let’s have karyotype chromosomal testing at the restroom door. If chromosomes are what you care about that’s the only way to do that analysis. Usually it’s about $11,000 and a few hours of analysis. I hope you don’t mind the wait and the cover charge. On the plus side the bathroom will probably be very clean from complete disuse.
    1
  2306. Pointing out the futility of chromosomal analysis at scale, since you brought it up.
    1
  2307. Unshocked LGBT leftist, checking in.
    1
  2308. What about it?
    1
  2309. Ok. I have this to say, “ “
    1
  2310. You need to travel more.
    1
  2311. So violence is the answer? What other classes of people do you inflict violence upon that disappoint you?
    1
  2312.  @khalidm.u-2064  Being transgender is not against the law in Thailand. You don't have a legal right to know if someone is trans or not. Why is this such a big deal for you? Who cares if someone is trans or not?
    1
  2313. Heh. Riiiight. Be careful, I’ll zap you with my all powerful mind control rays. You’ll be wearing a dress and high heels before sunset.
    1
  2314. To be fair, that guy is a Moto taxi driver covering a lot more miles a day in city 3.5 times larger where more people are walking around. But, sure. No question, there are many times more trans women per capita in Bangkok vs Houston. In San Francisco the difference isn’t so vast. I probably see a trans women, aside from my wife, about once every other day unless I’m at a LGBT event or bar. Being trans in America isn’t easy and the more years you go back in time the more difficult it was. Some of those people are older and didn’t want to give up everything in life they had so they didn’t transition and just lived the best they could with that inner turmoil. Others are no longer with us. Many more young people are transitioning now in America and it surely beats those other two options.
    1
  2315. There are Thai trans politicians and trans characters are common on Thai TV and movies. That said there is no marriage equality and trans women can’t change their legal gender. Thailand is in many ways progressive but in other ways not but I’d agree it’s the best Asian country to be trans.
    1
  2316. Treating trans people decently is dumb?
    1
  2317. It’s talked about plenty. No trans girl goes into the operating room without a very clear understanding of what’s going to happen, what the risks are and how long typical and atypical recovery takes. That’s standard operating procedure and informed consent. Surgery isn’t for everyone. Plenty of trans girls don’t want it and they’re not any less of a woman for not wanting it.
    1
  2318. If you were a trans woman and wanted to legally marry your husband I’m sure you’d feel differently about that.
    1
  2319. She seems perfectly happy to me in this video. You’d prefer she didn’t transition and just sat around hating life? I don’t see a better outcome than the path she’s chosen as is her right tomdonehatbshe wants with her own body.
    1
  2320. Until you want to get married.
    1
  2321. Thai people are just using the word ladyboy for the convenience of English speakers as it's easy for non native English speakers to say and remember. They have their own Thai words. Also, if someone is transgender that doesn't actually say anything about your surgical status.
    1
  2322. Thailand has no shortage of jobs. Being a ladyboy is not a job, it’s a way of life. Being a ladyboy makes you less employable in Thai society. Clearly you haven’t talked to many ladyboys about their lives.
    1
  2323. It's true, transmen never get the limelight sadly.
    1
  2324. You tell em, girl. This is why I ended up marrying a Thai trans woman. Best decision I ever made.
    1
  2325. SRS isn’t particularly dangerous as surgery goes. I was there with my wife for the whole thing.
    1
  2326. Initially there is a morphine drip which pretty much makes pain impossible. After that you are taken off that onto high strength opiate pain killers and slowly tapered off as the body heals. I’m not saying it’s pain-free only that doctors can manage it extremely well so you’re never grinding your teeth and white knuckling the chair in agony or anything.
    1
  2327. Any cursory look around Thailand will prove that there are trans women everywhere working regular, non sex work jobs all over the place. Just because you see some doing sex work in sex work areas doesn’t mean that most trans women are employed in sex work or that sex work causes people to transition. The desire to transition causes transition. This is not controversial. Talk to actual trans women. Starving in Thailand is absurdly uncommon, food costs are absurdly low and there are plenty of jobs that don’t involve sex work.
    1
  2328. If only.
    1
  2329. Speaking as a San Franciscan, we’d be happy to have more LGBT people. That said, US immigration is extremely expensive, time consuming and difficult. Thailand would be a much better option.
    1
  2330. Ladyboy isn't rigidly defined and the actual meaning isn't the same as it is in the west and gender doesn't have exactly the same cultural construction in Thailand. There is a lot lost in cultural translation here. There is and has been cultural role for trans women in Thailand (and all over South Asia) that has existed for hundreds and hundreds of years. Western LBGT sensibilities are very much an import but also one that are cross pollinating with local cultural traditions. Thai trans women can't marry their husbands in Thailand. My wife and I have been waiting a very long time for Thai laws to change so we can legally marry.
    1
  2331. Why is campaigning to be able to legally marry the person you love to legally protect your relationship a bad thing? Isn’t that what democracy looks like? The marketplace of ideas?
    1
  2332.  galuh ismi  Learn to love your LGBT brothers and sisters. It’s the only decent thing to do.
    1
  2333. There have been plenty of trans people in Thailand prior to Columbus sailing across the Atlantic. Not just Thailand but all over South Asia.
    1
  2334.  @kefflergaming6400  Then you don’t know much about the history of 3rd gender people in South Asia. They have formed distinct communities with histories and mythologies that go back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Age-old texts such as the "Mahabharata" and the "Kama Sutra" refer to them.
    1
  2335.  @kefflergaming6400  Certainly so, and they both included 3rd mentions of gender people on occasion. That being the point. If you want more from SE Asia specifically then you’ll need to read “Gender pluralism since early modern times” by Michael G. Peletz. It’s all there in the historical record. Aside from which there are gender diverse people all over the world. Muxes in Mexico, Fa’afafine in Samoa, Native American two spirit, Mapuche in Chile, the list goes on and on. In fact, numerous Indigenous communities around the world do not conflate gender and sex; rather, they recognize a third or more genders within their societies.
    1
  2336. Yes and no. It’s not so simple. Thai people have their own language and terms and cultural history, and a lot of the subtlety about gender here is being lost in translation.
    1
  2337. So, trans people are cowards and you hate the way they think. What should Sauce do with that information? Go back to living a life she doesn’t want as a man just to make you feel better?
    1
  2338.  @bellacortez  I, for one, can't wait for the zombie ladyboy Apocalypse.
    1
  2339. Exactly so. People wonder why there are so many trans people when in their own countries trans people face horrible discrimination. Gee, I wonder why I never see any? lol. I wonder why I never see any stray cats in my yard when I have a dozen Rottweilers patrolling it?
    1
  2340. There are plenty of Thai trans women working regular non sex work jobs all over Thailand. It’s to Thailand’s great credit that they have an accepting tolerance for trans people who are able to live their lives instead of cowering in the closet as they do in so many countries around the world. Many countries could learn a vast amount about LGBT acceptance from Thailand.
    1
  2341. Correct. Thailand does as much trans surgery as the rest of the world combined. Many extremely experienced doctors and low prices.
    1
  2342. Not even. Thailand has had ladyboys hundreds and hundreds of years.
    1
  2343. Some do and some don’t. What you do with your own junk is your business. Some ladyboys like their OEM components.
    1
  2344. The dingdong isn’t lost. The erectile tissue is removed and (sort of like a sock) it’s inverted inside the body. All the nerves are preserved. Like any surgery it hurts badly immediately after but eventually it heals. It’s not as robust as a cis vagina but it’s completely useable, pleasurable and generally speaking, orgasmic.
    1
  2345. Everyone wins when LGBT people lead better lives.
    1
  2346. Doesn't work that way. No testes means no testosterone production. Besides, estrogen is easy to come by and is even often covered by insurance. EZ.
    1
  2347. I’m in the bay area and I see trans people all the time.
    1
  2348.  @mariemunzar6474  Well my wife is a Thai trans woman so I’m probably better at noticing which isn’t to say I can clock everyone because I know I can’t. I’m also in SF proper. I’ve spent plenty of time in Thailand with my girl, too. If you have any questions about LGBT thailand, just ask.
    1
  2349. There are a vast number of differences between trans life in Thailand and the US. Thailand’s LGBT community has a lot of structural problems too. It’s true that the US has a lot of psych gatekeeping that is done poorly. At the same time Thailand has no LGBT law or insurance coverage for trans medical care and a lot of poverty. Thailand is often shown to be a trans utopia and, well, my wife is a Thai trans woman and I know there are major issues impacting Thai trans people too.
    1
  2350. Which one?
    1
  2351. thicc
    1
  2352. Exposed? I’m not sure I follow.
    1
  2353. If by full you mean a few percent of the population, then sure.
    1
  2354. Some do, some don’t. Depends on dad and the degree of androgen suppression during adolescence.
    1
  2355. You are aware that the vast majority Thai trans women are not sex workers, right? It would be a terrible business plan to go through all these surgical expenses and recovery times to become a trans sex worker when you can only really earn a marginal improvement over being a gay sex worker and the working life of a sex worker isn’t that long to begin with. Besides, the opportunity costs of disassembling your life in this fashion would be astronomical. Trans women just want to live life as women, it’s just that simple.
    1
  2356. Identification is overrated. Takes all the mystery and intrigue out of online dating.
    1
  2357. Nah. As you can see, the trans woman in the video is doing quite well for herself.
    1
  2358. Found the transphobe.
    1
  2359. There are plenty of areas of the US with a large and visible LGBT population. If you were a persecuted minority wouldn’t you want to live somewhere with more of a community of peers? No chance of their being more per capita than San Francisco.
    1
  2360. It’s at the intersection of a culture that has had a cultural role for trans people for hundreds of years, a tolerant society and a developing economy with a robust medical establishment that came to occupy an unfulfilled niche for much of the world. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any other questions, just ask.
    1
  2361.  @JJ-fb2lp  Yep. Performing SRS is a specialty surgery discipline. Not many doctors can do it. Thailand also has a lot of medical tourism in general. Good results, low prices. It became well known for SRS many decades ago and it's been popular for this ever since. That said a lot of western countries cover SRS under insurance or national healthcare now. My wife, for example, had SRS in the US since it was covered by my insurance. I don't want to give the impression that Thailand is perfect for trans people. Far from it. I can't legally marry my wife in Thailand and she can't change her legal gender there. In the US that's not a problem at all. Any other questions?
    1
  2362. How many Thai trans women have you talked to?
    1
  2363.  @m.o.s.h.1836  That much is true! ;) Good thing I'm not poor. Heh.
    1
  2364.  @suziepeaches321  I'm attracted to my wife as am I to any other woman. I fail to see the distinction, sooo .....
    1
  2365.  @suziepeaches321  My wife is legally female. We're legally married. I'm bisexual and always have been but that attraction I feel for her is the same as I feel for any other cis woman. Trans women are women to me. She's had SRS and has normal female hormone levels now due to HRT and has for over a decade. Soft skin, less body hair, female fat deposition patterns, natural breast growth, lack of upper body strength, female emotional profile, et al. I truly fail to see what the difference is between her and a cis woman that's had a hysterectomy. No one would even imagine that she is a trans woman, just like the women in the thumbnail. I'm not aroused by karyotype analysis reports. I'm aroused by femininity. If someone is a cis or trans woman it really makes zero difference for my desire for a beautiful female form. It's a completely different attraction that I feel to a cis man or a trans man. How many relationships with trans people have you actually been in yourself? This feels like you're doing a lot of armchair quarterbacking over there with very little first hand experience.
    1
  2366.  @suziepeaches321  In my eyes you are judging me because I'm telling you that the attraction I feel for her is straight and you refuse to believe me. Rest assured, I'd be happy to tell you how gay it is to be with my wife, if that actually was the case and believe me I know since unlike you I've actually had long term out and proud gay relationships (with actual gay men). It isn't the same. Go date some trans men and lipstick lesbians and tell me that moves you in the same way. A masculine bone structure is largely a function of testosterone exposure during adolescence. My wife didn't have that occur because she started hormones very early. My wife has no male anatomy that I can see with her clothes off. She looks just like a woman, thus the attraction is straight. SEAsian girls generally don't have very wide hips. I am not "subconsciously attracted to a biological male". I've had long term relationships with cis women, trans women and gay men. As a bi guy I'm attracted to all attractive humans and I very much know the difference between being with a man and being with a woman because I've lived in those relationships for years. If you're attracted to to a guy and then suddenly you're not because you find out they're a trans guy, from my point of view that's just a kind of subconscious transphobia. Which is fine, I'm not into all types of men or women either. No doubt I'm elderly-phobic and fat-phobic when it comes to my own relationships.
    1
  2367.  @suziepeaches321  Some straight men are just interested in femininity and could care less about chromosomes.
    1
  2368.  @suziepeaches321  You can say it an infinite number of of times and it'll have the same effect. People's own sense of their sexual orientation is internal. What others think of it is immaterial. Even if she was a feminine robot or a sexy cartoon the attraction would be from masculine to feminine and for many people that equals a straight attraction. Not to you, clearly, but then again someone's sense of their own sexual orientation is not a democracy. From my point of view any vag is just an inverted D.
    1
  2369.  @suziepeaches321  You may think so, but some guys don't care about any of that. Looks female, is female. Most guys spend more time watching porn on a computer monitor than having actual sex over the course of their lives. They're not then monitor-sexuals. They're interested in the image and action of femininity because it turns them on. It's really just that simple.
    1
  2370.  @hello-vy7tv  yah
    1
  2371. @imsoblu72 She to me.
    1
  2372.  @pop-coin4008  We’ll see. I’ve thought the same thing for 10 years in a row now.
    1
  2373.  @pop-coin4008  My Thai trans wife and I are legally married in California. She’s also legally female on her California driver’s license and passport. My insurance paid for her gender transition and surgery. We could adopt if we wanted and no business or employer is allowed to discriminate against her because she’s trans. In California there are no dress codes or uniforms of the wrong gender that trans people must be forced to wear because they are trans, even as kids. Honestly Thailand has a very long way to go to catch up to this standard socially as well as legally. There is a lot of tolerance in Thailand but I’m not going to go so far as to call it acceptance. It’s hard to get to acceptance for a society without the law on your side.
    1
  2374. There are plenty of ladyboys in the Philippines.
    1
  2375. Most trans women in Thailand are not sex workers.
    1
  2376. I know. You can see trans women working retail and salon jobs all over Thailand in high percentages. This is compelling evidence that trans women do not transition to make money via sex work. How many Thai trans women sex workers or otherwise have you personally talked to?
    1
  2377.  @thichnoithat1983  That's true. You can also see a lot of poor cisgender girls from the northeast of Thailand also.
    1
  2378. You look lovely, also.
    1
  2379. Shes’s using feminine Thai language, I don’t think she feels any less. Thailand and English don’t exactly have the same subtext so some of this is lost in translation.
    1
  2380.  @kushal4956  Trans women can’t legally marry their cis husbands and trans men can’t legally marry their cis wives. If a trans women loves a trans man then they can legally marry. If a trans woman loves a cis lesbian then they can legally marry. Not otherwise, sadly.
    1
  2381.  @kushal4956  If we’re just talking generally speaking about relationships I would say that as a percentage, a much higher percentage of Thai parents would be ok with their child being in a relationship with a trans person compared to the west. There are certainly plenty of Thai parents that wouldn’t be ok with that, however. Do you have any other questions? Happy to answer them.
    1
  2382.  @ariritonga5240  Obviously not. Consenting adults only.
    1
  2383.  @ariritonga5240  Nope. A couple dozen countries have legal same sex marriage and none have legalized incest. Not the same. No one is harmed by a same sex marriage.
    1
  2384. So you haven’t been to Thailand?
    1
  2385.  @No1important88  So you have essentially no experience with trans people, nor with Thailand. You seem to have some strong opinions for having no direct experience to back them up.
    1
  2386.  @No1important88  Clearly you don't know what you're saying.
    1
  2387. The thing is that the word ladyboy doesn't have the same negative subtext in Thailand it does in the west. It's just an easy word for Thai people as non native english speakers to know, remember and pronounce and know that it'll be generally understood by an English audience. Clearly they have their own Thai words. If they said "sao praphet song" instead that's probably not going to mean anything to you. My wife is a Thai trans woman.
    1
  2388. Yep. This is the way. Keep fighting these legal battles and make it as public as possible each time you lose. Eventually there will be a win and the future is forever changed.
    1
  2389.  @Davinblatan1956  Thanks for your comment. I knew ตุ้ด shouldn’t be used but I didn’t know the other.
    1
  2390. Oh, I know. I get REKT when I watch that Sunsilk Hair Talk commercial. EVERY TIME.
    1
  2391. If you're trans already sex work can be a lucrative gig but transitioning to become a sex worker is exceedingly uncommon. There are plenty of other jobs. Most trans folks in Thailand are not and have not been sex workers. The key difference is that Thai society is that is it very socially accepting/tolerant of trans people so people who are trans do tend to transition unlike many countries where they hide in the closet and do not.
    1
  2392. I don’t have to imagine. My wife is a Thai trans woman.
    1
  2393. Plenty of American soldiers in Thailand during the Vietnam war. Of course that doesn’t mean that story is true at all, or true at scale.
    1
  2394. In the US you can change your legal gender. That's not yet legal in Thailand. The US is way ahead of Thailand in terms of LGBT rights. Trans women also can't marry their husbands, either.
    1
  2395. It’s a lot easier to come out as transgender in Thailand in comparison to other countries, at least.
    1
  2396. You do realize that most trans sex workers in Thailand today and during the war are/were pre-op, right? That said, clearly a handful of scumbag desperate parents selling their children (of either gender) into prostitution during the war was not the history of trans women in Thailand which goes back into antiquity as it does in many cultures around the world. Hijra in India, Waria in Indonesia, Muxes in Mexico, etc.
    1
  2397. Nothing all that complicated about changing your gender, most countries in the world allow it. Some have requirements about specific medical steps, others don't. My wife changed her gender on her ID down at the courthouse. Took just a few minutes. Eventually Thailand will as well.
    1
  2398.  @GardeniaInc  In many countries one can change gender at a very young age if that child is in the process of gender transition. I don't know that there will ever be a genetic test that can be done. I think it's really all in the mind. I'm not even sure what the point of assigning gender at birth even really is. Why not wait leave it blank until the child wants to pick that gender for themselves?
    1
  2399. Agreed. That said, it’s quite an upgrade from the Middle East and Africa but yes, still far from true legal and social equality.
    1
  2400. Everyone is equal until you want to legally marry your trans girlfriend or she wants to legally change her gender. Then it’s sadly not equal. My wife is a Thai trans woman and we’ve been waiting years for Thai law to change.
    1
  2401. It’s normal to me and plenty of others. It really depends on where you live and who you know.
    1
  2402. You’ve already said that you think seeing two per day is a lot. That implies that you haven’t seen many (hundreds) of trans girls How can you possibly know? If they pass and you can’t tell, you obviously wouldn’t count them. Only if you talk with someone who is trans and you don’t know and then they tell you, would you ever be able to say you couldn’t tell. Given your limited interactions with trans people this seems very unlikely to occur. Sure, you can often tell but not always. This doesn’t even factor in intersex people. Again, rare but not zero. Adolescent hormone blockers are now a thing and with it trans girls are never exposed to testosterone that changes their body to the very characteristics you’re looking for.
    1
  2403. It’s a tough road. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions, just ask.
    1
  2404. It’s kinda lost in translation here, to be honest. She’s not denying she’s trans but she’s also not saying that she’s not a woman.
    1
  2405. They are rather famous Thai ladyboys, in fact. They are incredibly beautiful.
    1
  2406.  @harrisgila  Are you for real?
    1
  2407.  @harrisgila  A challenge from a non-existent imaginary being? Hard pass. Enjoy your desert fairy tales.
    1
  2408.  @harrisgila  Souls are stories told to children. You don’t really believe in that supernatural nonsense do you?
    1
  2409.  @harrisgila  This is supernatural fantastical thinking without scientific basis.
    1
  2410.  @harrisgila  No such thing as a soul. We’re just meat. This is magical thinking.
    1
  2411. I’d venture to guess that ladyboys are maybe 3% per capita in Thailand. The issue isn’t Thailand but other countries where there is vast discrimination at all levels against trans people that keep them from transitioning. Thailand is just ahead of the curve for a number of historical and cultural reasons.
    1
  2412. How do you mean? There are trans women in Thailand and in America.
    1
  2413. Thai trans women can't legally marry their husbands, nor can they legally change their gender. That's legal discrimination.
    1
  2414. Lots of Thai trans women in like to call themselves sao praphet song, or women of the second type these days. Plenty of Thai trans women on youtube doing interviews these days.
    1
  2415. Search for “miss Tiffany” or “miss international queen” if you want to see cute ladyboys.
    1
  2416. How do you figure?
    1
  2417. Glad you’re not interested. More for the rest of us.
    1
  2418. @Peach Peach Yep, I know all about her. Mo and Poyd from the thumbnail, too.
    1
  2419. True but there are also a lot of Thai national trans women out in public. That’s a good thing from where I’m standing.
    1
  2420. I wondered this myself.
    1
  2421. A huge part of how America changed was that criticism. Sure it takes time but homophobia should never get a free pass.
    1
  2422. It would be amazing if she was trans but she is not.
    1
  2423.  @kravenmoorehead7927  It would be great if she is trans, that would only make her even more awesome. Lots of black women have huge hands and feet and large heads, including Marian Shields Robinson. The entire family tree looks alike in tons of video and photos. I'm not saying it's not possible but to have transitioned essentially from birth in a middle class household in Chicago. Just exceedingly unlikely.
    1
  2424.  @kravenmoorehead7927  There are trans people in every country in the world, including America. Nothing anti-<insert country here> about being transgender. What Michelle Obama has to with with Thai trans women in Thailand (the topic of this video) I have no idea. She's only visited briefly for a couple times in her life.
    1
  2425. I see a lot more trans people in NYC than a couple per year. I see a handful per week, and I’m sure there there are more unclockable girls that slip by me. Guess it depends where in NYC you are. The Thai people on the street being interviewed, particularly a Moto taxi driver, haven’t likely haven’t been all over the world to make such comparisons. If you live in Beverly Hills it can seem like they’re aren’t many Ferrari’s on the road, because they’re aren’t in absolute terms but it sure seems like a lot if you live in Leeds. No question Thailand has at least triple the percentage of out and visible trans women living their lives. That is a good thing. There are plenty of out and visible gays and lesbians in Thailand along with transgenders. Thailand also has strong religious traditions. Same is true of the Philippines.
    1
  2426. Transgender people exist.
    1
  2427. Caitlyn is 69 years old and you’re comparing against a 25 year old on hormones since puberty?
    1
  2428. Women’s restrooms of course. While there is no legal “public accommodation” law the way there is in the west, it’s a non issue everywhere for trans women in Thailand to use the women’s restroom.
    1
  2429. You’re not alone as this same comment appears a few hundred times below.
    1
  2430. The vast majority of Thai ladyboys are not sex workers.
    1
  2431. The trans girls in the thumbnail are famous former trans beauty contest winners.
    1
  2432. Depends on the perspective of the Thai trans girl in question, really. Sure there has been a cultural role for trans women all across South Asia going back to antiquity and some places like India and Pakistan have legal 3rd gender options but at the same time a number of Thai trans women just like to think of themselves as women. My wife is a Thai trans woman and she sees herself as a woman like any other.
    1
  2433. Absolutely. Trans women exist everywhere, but are particularly evident in everyday life where these is less social prohibition in places like Thailand.
    1
  2434. The trouble with your theory is that ladyboys have been a cultural part of Thailand for hundreds and hundreds of years. Clearly before the development of pharmaceuticals. The entire South Asian region really. Ladyboys are even mentioned in the Kama Sutra.
    1
  2435. There are already laws that cover criminal actions in restrooms no matter who commits those crimes. Wait, you want gays and lesbians to have a different bathrooms also? Should we send you the bill for building, cleaning and maintaining all these extra bathrooms?
    1
  2436. Nope. Trans women are women so they should be in the women’s restroom. It’s safer for everyone this way. In most of North America and Europe trans women are legally allowed to use the women’s restroom. Public accommodation law. Consequently, millions of trans women use the women’s restroom every day without incident. There is not an epidemic of men pretending to be trans women harassing women in restrooms. If restroom security and abuse prevention is the issue, then there are plenty of ways to increase security in the building, having an attendant in the restroom that can radio security, installing panic buttons in the restroom, etc.
    1
  2437. Cisgender women in the US do not have the right to tell trans women they can’t use the women’s restroom. That’s public accommodation law. Every woman, cis or trans, has the right to pee in the women’s restroom. That’s respecting rights. Anything less is discrimination which has been outlawed. Millions of trans women use the women’s restroom everyday without incident. There is no epidemic of crime in women’s restrooms. If some organization wants to better protect the physical safety of women they increase security in the building and in restrooms. There are all sorts of ways to do that with standard security practices.
    1
  2438. Depends where you are. If you live in San Francisco or West Hollywood or Manhattan than there is vast support for the LGBT community. Elsewhere, one can expect less support. My wife is trans and we're doing just fine in the US. In fact, we're able to legally marry and she's able to change the gender on her ID which is legally impossible in Thailand.
    1
  2439.  @1fgchamp  A meeting? Sure thing. Contact his agent at the Kremlin to set up an appointment.
    1
  2440.  @thetiredworm2100  Biased? Absolutely. You can't read about all the indictments from Robert Mueller's Investigation and not be biased. 34 people and three companies have been criminally charged.
    1
  2441.  Indonesia Javanese  Why shouldn’t Ian be able to legally marry a man she falls in love with? She’s paying first class taxes and being treated like a second class citizen. Having all the legal rights and responsibilities of marriage to protect people who love each other and are committed to each other is in every society’s best interest.
    1
  2442. Because there is more to life than dying with the most money in the bank.
    1
  2443. Glad to hear you support legal same sex marriage then since you support heterosexual marriage. That’s what treating people the same way is like.
    1
  2444. You are aware there are vanishingly few Christians in Thailand, right?
    1
  2445. There are vanishingly few Christians in Thailand. They have their religious needs already covered and aren’t interested.
    1
  2446.  @jesusforgivesjesusforgave4052  The funny thing about Gods is that they all say they’re the one true God.
    1
  2447.  @jesusforgivesjesusforgave4052  Science.
    1
  2448.  @jesusforgivesjesusforgave4052  Organic life on earth started simply with self replicating organic chemistry and evolutionary processes took over from there with natural selection.
    1
  2449.  @jesusforgivesjesusforgave4052  Organic life on earth started simply with self replicating organic chemistry and evolutionary processes took over from there with natural selection.
    1
  2450.  @jesusforgivesjesusforgave4052  There is no order, only organic chemistry.That is where all things started from in a primitive form. This planet will go on with or without us until the Sun goes nova in a few billion years and the oceans are vaporized.
    1
  2451.  @jesusforgivesjesusforgave4052  No need, really. What I believe is printed in every science textbook on evolutionary biology and cosmology. What you believe is printed in the Bible. That’s pretty much it, isn’t it?
    1
  2452.  @jesusforgivesjesusforgave4052  Science makes independently verifiable discoveries every day about the big questions in life that don’t involve leaps of faith and supernatural beings. The earth has been around for 4.5 billion years and the earliest life is 3.5 billion years ago. You can read all about it in any science textbook.
    1
  2453. Depends on how you count it. Socially, yes. Legally, no.
    1
  2454.  @blitzycat  I have no interest in reproduction. I'd rather spend my time and talent helping people who are here than manufacturing new ones.
    1
  2455. Who writes anymore? Signing my name is the only thing I need to write and ubiquitous digital signatures are a step away. The point is it’s everyone’s world. Left handed and gay people alike. We’re all in society together and discrimination is counterproductive.
    1
  2456. What consequence?
    1
  2457. There are plenty of lovely Thai trans girls in Thailand. Just go there for a visit and talk with some. Easy as that. I married a Thai trans girl. If you have any questions, just ask.
    1
  2458.  @knockleball  Hang in there, girl. Know hope. Are you content in to stay in the Philippines or do you want to try to move somewhere less conservative?
    1
  2459.  @knockleball  I'd be a lot more choosy than that, my dear. Plenty of places in Europe are not that wonderful. Given the choice between Poland and the Philippines I'd choose the Philippines every time and Poland is hardly the worst place in the EU. What provinces in the Phillipines would you say are the best and the worst for trans people in your estimation?
    1
  2460. Those famous Thai trans women are not going to be in some random YouTube video.
    1
  2461. Are they not pretty?
    1
  2462. @upsidedown mensch They're hormonally female. Those three famous trans girls in the thumbnail are on androgen suppression and estrogen. Hormones are biology. Therefore they can be thought of as biologically female in that dimension. No one is suggesting that we're doing gene therapy on chromosomes, although that will one day be possible in the long arc of history. These trans women are women to me and millions of others that support trans people. I don't run karyotype tests on people before I use pronouns, if you do I hope you get bulk discounts down at the lab. I take a guess based on visual inspection and if someone tells me they want other pronouns, I use them. Anything else is just being a jerk.
    1
  2463. @upsidedown mensch Again, no one is denying that trans women (generally speaking) only have X chromosomes. Clearly you don't understand the difference between chromosomal sex and gender. To me, X chromosomes which are completely invisible to all 5 senses has no relationship to what pronoun someone wants to be called and my desire to respect their wishes about the gender that they want to be referred to as. Does that seem mysterious to you? DNA does not dictate pronouns, nor culture, it's just a set of protein assembly instructions. What on earth are you talking about Gynecomastia? You do realize that trans women intentionally intravenously inject female hormones and take oral androgen suppressors, right? Every professional medical association supports medical transition for those with gender dysphoria. The AMA, APA and WHO. Ask any licensed medical doctor. Look it up in the DSM V or the ICD. Do you actually know any trans people? This has nothing to do with Gynecomastia which is a naturally occurring unwanted abnormality in breast formation in cisgender males.
    1
  2464. You’ve spoken to a lot of SRS surgeons and endocrinologists, have you? Is someone contemplating hormones or surgery going to come here and read your comments to make their medical decisions or are they going to ask their licensed medical provider?
    1
  2465.  Diana Qura  Thailand has more HIV per capita than California itself. 1.1% in Thailand vs 0.3% in California. In places with a higher LGBT population you're going to have higher rates, San Francisco is 1.8%, for example. It's clearly preferable to have HIV in California. Not only are HIV meds available at no cost (ADAP) in the US the average medical infrastructure experience is far superior unless one is particularly wealthy in Bangkok. Thailand also has has terrible HIV discrimination in employment that would be ultra illegal in California. That all said, the vast vast majority of cases of HIV are treatable with standard ARV meds and people on the meds can expect a normal lifespan. Greg Louganis and Magic Johnson are doing just fine, after all. There is no reason to treat HIV like it was during the bad old days before the cocktail. For that harrowing tale, I highly recommend watching "'We Were Here", a Documentary About AIDS in San Francisco. It's on Amazon Video and the trailer is here on youtube. I'm married to a Thai trans woman in California. Do you have any questions?
    1
  2466. US population is 325 million. Thailand is 70 million. As much as California and Texas combined. It’s somewhat comparable.
    1
  2467. As if being denied legal equality is the virtue of not being self centered. Check your transphobia.
    1
  2468.  @rationalmanav3085  Ugly people shouldn't have their stories told? No one is asking you to listen.
    1
  2469. You're going to need to tell the guy at some point. Sure, it doesn't need to be on the first date but after a couple dates, it's time. I'm fine either way, as trans women are women to me.
    1
  2470. What’s it like in Bangladesh? It must be difficult for LGBT people, yes?
    1
  2471. I’m very sorry to hear that, Nabil. Are things any better in Dhaka? Usually the larger the city the larger the LGBT community and sometimes they can carve out some kind of neighborhood where LGBT people are not at threatened. I can only hope that attitudes change over time or that you can move to a place later with better prospects. Know hope.
    1
  2472. Social inclusion, yes. Legal inclusion, no. Lags behind the US and Europe considerably in legal rights. There is still work to be done.
    1
  2473. Seems so, but just like the Philippines they can’t legally marry their husbands nor change their legal gender. I’ve been waiting many years to legally marry my (trans) wife there.
    1
  2474. Watch the next Chronological video. The entire video is an interview with a ladyboy.
    1
  2475. Many trans women have good relationships with their fathers. Many boys that have bad relationships with their fathers grow up to be regular cisgender men. This assertion is just untrue.
    1
  2476. Thailand does a lot of SRS but when you have that kind of money you can just fly the doctor to you in your private jet.
    1
  2477. Depends on the ladyboy, what they’ve had done and what hormones they are taking.
    1
  2478. Trouble is, that non-confrontationalism has a political cost. Trans women can’t legally marry their husbands. They also cannot legally change their gender and update their ID. There is a fair amount of public accommodation difficulties and weak discrimination protection where trans women are forbidden from some hotels and nightclubs. HIV discrimination in employment is terrible and certain sectors of the economy would be neigh impossible to be employed in. The list goes on. It’s not the trans equality wonderland that it seems. My wife is a Thai trans woman and we live in the US now partly for these reasons.
    1
  2479. You certainly are the poet laureate of our generation.
    1
  2480.  @kaura678  Gender isn’t biology. It’s a social construct and an identity. No trans woman is under the illusion her chromosomes have changed. On the other hand trans women have female levels of hormones thanks to HRT and there are a number of feminizing characteristics that go along with that. As such trans women are women to me. If they aren’t for you, that’s great.
    1
  2481. To you, not to me.
    1
  2482. They are all famous Thai trans girls, actually.
    1
  2483. That would have been a much better interview!
    1
  2484. There are quite a few trans women on Thai and western TV too.
    1
  2485. Generally speaking that’s true. That said, plenty of cute Thai - American and trans girls exist. A few hearty souls, like myself, have married a Thai trans women and have taken her through the immigration process back to America.
    1
  2486. Thank you. Best decision I ever made. Difficult, expensive and took many years but eventually we made it though. Cheers.
    1
  2487. For the worse in general but Thailand is 90+ Buddhist so it’s not particularly relevant.
    1
  2488. How would that even work?
    1
  2489.  @w2385-i2s  Sure they do. Plenty of ladyboy bars exist all over Thailand and Thai dating apps are full of guys looking for trans girls.
    1
  2490.  @atari8603   is a collection of ideas and phenomena that encompass a range of negative attitudes, feelings or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence, anger, or discomfort felt or expressed towards people who do not conform to social gender expectations.
    1
  2491. Trans women are women to me. Just because you like women doesn’t mean that you like all types of women, right?
    1
  2492. We’re talking about gender, not biology. There are female mannequins… no biology at all.
    1
  2493.  @kianchampion9581  That’s because gender isn’t biology. Just because your chromosomes are XY doesn’t mean your gender identity is male. Look at intersex conditions like complete androgen insensitivity syndrome.
    1
  2494.  @kianchampion9581  It just means you have XY Chromosomes. Chromosomes are just blueprints, they’re not the actual house. Gene expression does the building. Trans women are hormonally female because of HRT and it’s the endocrine system that determines a lot of sex differentiation via gene expression. At the end of the day no one is doing karyotype tests on the sidewalk. People determine gender by casual visual inspection.
    1
  2495. This assumes a level of English proficiency and western LGBT understanding that most Thai trans people just don’t have. They have their own Thai words that describe themselves in cultural context.
    1
  2496. It’s not equal until trans women can legally marry their husbands in Thailand. There is still a long way to go for real equality.
    1
  2497.  @cool_cat007smoove  gender and biology are not the same thing.
    1
  2498. What city is this that people are free to express themselves where you don’t have trans people walking around?
    1
  2499. Employment discrimination is a big reason that many trans women don’t come out of the closet. It’s as sad as it is common.
    1
  2500. All your transgenders are hiding in the closet being depressed about their lives and future because your country is oppressing them. It’s impossibly sad. Make friends with some gay people and eventually you’ll find a few underground clubs where you’ll see plenty of trans people. I guarantee it.
    1
  2501. When interacting with people I call them what they want to be called. Doing anything else is just being a jackass. I have no way of verifying any FACTS. If a woman tells me she’s trans and she’s actually not trans and I call her a he, how is that factual? What am I supposed to do, karyotype everyone while they wait?
    1
  2502. Yes, gender non conformity is a thing. Transgender people are also a thing. I call people what they want to be called. Anything else is just being a jackass. It’s not my place to tell others how to to live.
    1
  2503. What is there learn? Some trans people want SRS and others do not. Plenty in the west don’t want it also. My wife had SRS. What do you want to know?
    1
  2504. I agree. There are plenty of impossibly sad transgender stories that should be told.
    1
  2505. Not all westerners. My wife is a Thai trans woman. Plenty of westerners treat trans people with dignity and respect. Know hope.
    1
  2506. Most surveys will put the number of trans people at 1% of the population. More in places like Thailand where there is considerably less social discrimination, as more trans people will actually transition and be visible. Your seeing 2 to 3 different trans people a day? I’d say that’s quite a bit above average for the southeast US. Clearly if you work somewhere where’s you see a vast number of people daily or in the nightlife industry your hit rate is going to be higher. I love in San Francisco, my wife is a Thai trans woman, and I don’t know that (not counting my wife) I see 3 different trans women every day walking through crowds downtown. Obviously my trans radar isn’t perfect but it’s definately above average. It’s very much worth realizing that a red US state is still a vastly better place to be LGBT than the vast majority of the world. Being gay still gets you a death sentence or a vast prison sentence in most of the Middle East or Africa. You can’t realistically expect trans women to walk around openly in such places for others to see them. Similarly other countries make life quite unbearable for trans women without this extreme level of state brutality that also raises the bar considerably on being out in public.
    1
  2507. There has been a cultural role for trans women in South Asia before Columbus sailed the Atlantic.
    1
  2508. How do you explain the existence of ladyboys in Thailand for hundreds and hundreds of years before the development of the birth control pill?
    1
  2509. What 1 thing is that?
    1
  2510. I definitely don’t doubt your story. Lots of trans girls over do it and hit the nightlife too hard. Glad you had an interesting time anyway.
    1
  2511.  @Stanbily  Look up Lawrence v. Texas. It's actually a very interesting case. Basically two gay guys were having sex and another gay guy who liked one of them was jealous so that other gay guy swatted them and called in a false police report of a crazy guy with a gun in that apartment. The cops broke in and then arrested the two for having sex (which was then a crime). Went all the way to the supreme court and this legalized gay sex nationwide in the US forevermore. Boom!
    1
  2512. None of the Thai trans woman I have known, including my wife, have ever mentioned being sold into sex slavery as children. Do you have a source for this bold claim?
    1
  2513. Correct. We’ve been together for 15 years and legally married for 5. In the US that is, that’s not possible in Thailand.
    1
  2514. I know. /*cringe*
    1
  2515. There are trans women in every country. Why shouldn’t a country be proud of treating their LGBT citizens with respect?
    1
  2516. I’m not completely sure about that myself.
    1
  2517. Not to me.
    1
  2518.  @therealb888  My wife is a Thai trans woman so this is a topic I know quite well. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, really. Lots of attractive Thai cis women too. Trans women are often very feminine. If you're going to go through all that money and effort, looking like a tomboy doesn't really make a lot of sense. There are more passing Thai trans woman today (and around the world) taking hormone blockers before puberty which is standard treatment so the very things you're looking for that develop with Testosterone exposure never actually happen in these Trans women. If you're not sure of someone is Trans and you want to know, you can always ask. No one wants to waste their time after all. Not you and Not her. If you have any questions, just ask.
    1
  2519. For a taxi driver that sees tens of thousands of people driving downtown everyday?
    1
  2520.  Indonesia Javanese  The government is accepting them how?
    1
  2521.  Indonesia Javanese  You call that acceptance? That's laughable. Indonesia has no domestic partnerships, no civil unions and no marriage quality. Trans women cannot change their legal gender on ID cards, passports or birth certificates. There are no anti-discrimination laws based on sexual orientation or gender identity. There is no joint adoption by same sex couples. LGBT people are not allowed to serve openly in the military. There is no access to IVF for lesbians. The list goes on and on. There is the "Family Resilience Bill" that was proposed (but not passed) that would force LGBT people into government-sanctioned rehab centers. Look up "LGBT_rights_in_Indonesia" on Wikipedia. To assert that the Indonesian government accepts LGBT people because they are not imprisoning them or hanging them like in the medieval Middle East is to fundamentally misunderstand what actual acceptance looks like.
    1
  2522. Both. All. Transgender is an umbrella term that denotes nothing in particular about surgical status. Transsexual generally does but it’s use is on the decline. Almost no one uses the word transvestite any more.
    1
  2523. Doesn’t have the negative connections in Thailand that it does in the west.
    1
  2524. “She” works just fine for me. She is also using female polite articles to refer to herself.
    1
  2525. How many trans people have you talked to? Don’t you think it’s a bit premature to make that kind of assessment? This trans woman seems to be doing just fine, yes?
    1
  2526. This is Thailand. There are vanishingly few Christians here and Thai people are doing just fine. Thai people are not in need of your intolerant views of LGBT people by a God they have no use for and don’t believe in.
    1
  2527. Truvada
    1
  2528. Offense to whom where and in what context? It's not so simple.
    1
  2529.  @pauljimenez4026  That’s the thing. Gender isn’t biology. Female mannequins exist, right?
    1
  2530.  @pauljimenez4026  Gender diverse people have lived all over South Asia since antiquity. India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines and many many others. It’s only the colonization by believers of the Abrahamic God that has tried to unsuccessfully suppress the natural reality that a small percentage of any given population have been and always will be LGBT. Have you ever actually talked to a trans person before?
    1
  2531. Pursuing equality under the law is not toxic. Sucking up needless hardships isn't bravery, it's stupidity.
    1
  2532.  @SinfullSquad  The only reason LGBT people have any rights anywhere today is because we banded together, won hearts and minds all over the world and applied political pressure to pass helpful legislation. That's the LGBT community.
    1
  2533.  @Cateye53HO  Don't be. Best decision I ever made. We've probably been together longer than you've been alive.
    1
  2534.  @Cateye53HO  Obviously both of us will die of old age eventually. We've been together for 19 years. What's your longest relationship?
    1
  2535.  @Rainbow-kl9hy  I’m going to continue to treat trans people as they gender they see themselves as and they’re going to continue to live as the gender they see themselves as. Gender is in the mind, not the body.
    1
  2536.  @DarkPa1adin  Gays get legally married every day in dozens of countries around the world.
    1
  2537. Until you want to get legally married, then not so much.
    1
  2538. How about this. Instead of being happy and successful in life, my trans wife and I will quit our jobs. abandon our friends and family, become intentionally homeless and start a heroin habit and lay around on sidewalks for the rest of our lives just so you can maintain that point of view. Is it really that difficult for you to imagine that someone can love Sauce and make a good life and a home together with her?
    1
  2539. they are famous former trans beauty contest winners.
    1
  2540. And yet hundreds of thousands of trans women use the women’s restroom in Thailand everyday without any issues or discussion. Their insidious plan is to pee and touch up their makeup. Horrifying, indeed.
    1
  2541. They’re using that term for the benefit of English speakers for our convenience. It doesn’t really have any of the subtext it does here. Clearly they have their own words and subtext in Thai.
    1
  2542. If you visit Thailand it’ll all make sense. Book your trip today!
    1
  2543. Honestly it’s cheaper than you’d think.
    1
  2544. Zero? What country is that?
    1
  2545. They are all pretty famous Thai trans women. Nong Poy in particular.
    1
  2546. Fair enough. The reason there are so many trans women in Thailand is that the social prohibition against trans women is greatly reduced compared to many places in the west where trans women face all manner of discrimination. Consequently many trans women actually publicly transition in Thailand instead of living their lives in the closet. That is why it seems like there are so many trans women in Thailand. The real question is why are there so few trans women elsewhere and the appalling reason for that is that they simply don't feel like the risk to their lives is worth the doing so they say nothing just bury their suffering in substance abuse, depression and suicide.
    1
  2547. Sexy... Go on...
    1
  2548. This is why all census questions should have LGBT questions on them.
    1
  2549. No need to wonder. Plenty of trans women have had SRS many decades ago. Old trans women exist. The hormones are essentially the same as cis women would produce naturally.
    1
  2550. Interesting theory. How exactly do these corrupt leaders manage to get boys to transform into ladyboys? That sounds like quite a magic trick. What percentage of the population of Thailand do you think are ladyboys? It would seem to need to be upwards of 20% to have any kind of significant impact on on insurrection potential. If that’s the case, where are they hiding all these ladyboys? There just aren’t that many around.
    1
  2551. The US produces a ton of LGBT tv and movies.
    1
  2552. Ok Steven Tyler.
    1
  2553. Are you undergoing medical treatment for gender dysphoria?
    1
  2554. Sure. If you want to know anything else just let me know. My wife is a Thai trans woman so I know quite a few things. There are many places online too. Reddit in the “asktransgender” subreddit is a great place to ask questions too. Good luck on your journey.
    1
  2555.  @kiramn5892  SRS and breasts, including hotel is going to be somewhere around $25,000 from Suporn. From Thep SRS and breasts and hotel is going to be somewhere around $12,000. FFS varies quite a bit, depending on what you're having done. Some faces need a lot, others a little. It's not advisable to have SRS and FFS at the same time. It's too much for your body to handle and also pretty impossible to dilate without moving your face down to look at your crotch. Voice therapy should really be done in your home country with a voice therapist since that's going to be language specific. There is voice surgery (vocal cord tightening), South Korea is the best for that, but I don't know anything about it, other than it's risky and you can't talk at all for a very long time. FFS is more painful than SRS. There are just more nerves on your face. That said, pain management is good no matter where you go. Opioid painkillers work wonders during the recovery period. During the surgery you'll be on general aesthetic so you won't feel a thing and in immediate recovery you'll be on morphine which pretty much makes pain impossible. I wouldn't worry about the pain aspect. That's just pharmaceuticals. Any other questions?
    1
  2556. Desperate people do desperate things but what a few desperate people have done in the past, selling their daughters or sons, is not representative of why there are many trans women in Thailand. Trans people are a part of Thai culture that goes back hundreds of years and it's also the case in other countries in south Asia.
    1
  2557. Where “are” was during the Vietnam war over 47 years ago.
    1
  2558. Thai society has a long way to go, but so does western society. They’re evolving independently of each other with vastly different starting places. Some things the west is better at and some things Thailand is better at. Have you been to Thailand to see LGBT life there for yourself?
    1
  2559. No way. Any publicity is good publicity. See the entire history of LGBT rights acquisition in the west. Whatever breaks down the closet door is progress.
    1
  2560. It really is not materially different. Anything that drives conversation and blowback ultimately creates martyrs which are championed by LGBT people and (importantly) their allies. That’s just how this works, slowly over generational change. More people come out and the more people that know them and gain personal experience which is the key predictor or favorable impressions of LGBT people. This is LGBT 101.
    1
  2561. That was true in the west in the 1960s as well when the movement started but had very little popular support and tremendous opposition from religious conservatives. It’s a slow process but you need to break eggs to make omelettes. I expect it to take another 40 years in Indonesia.
    1
  2562. I married a Thai trans girl. Best decision I ever made.
    1
  2563.  @vnx870  Thank you. Don't knock it until you try it.
    1
  2564. Time and money. They spend a lot of both. Doesn’t happen by accident.
    1
  2565. Thailand has almost no Christians. Take your hateful fairy tales elsewhere. Thai peope have no use for them nor for the hatred you’re propagating against trans people.
    1
  2566. Trans women are just people trying to live their best most authentic lives. They’re not demon possessed monsters. That’s just a convenient way to hate them indirectly without needing to face up to the fact that you’re actively persecuting a downtrodden minority. It’s absurd and frankly quite sickening.
    1
  2567. In conservative places where trans women are treated badly and discriminated against, very few of them per capita will decide to transition. By comparison it can seem like a lot when, say, 1% of the Thai population is trans and open about it. It’s like seeing almost zero Ferraris compared to 1 in 100 cars. Seems like a lot even though it isn’t very many at all. Of course the publicity around ladyboy cabaret shows in Thailand which is a major tourist destination, also leaves an impression.
    1
  2568. There are vanishingly few Christians in Thailand.
    1
  2569. Is 2 or 4 a lot?
    1
  2570. Only way to know is to ask nicely. There are plenty that are undetectable.
    1
  2571. Nope. The American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association have suggested for many years now that there is significant empirical evidence supporting the claim that homosexuality is a normal variant of human sexual orientation. Hating the “sin” but not the “sinner” is just a clever way to hate gay people while simultaneously trying to minimize blowback for being a hater.
    1
  2572. No need to stress. If it feels good, it is good. Don’t overthink it.
    1
  2573. Unfortunately not legally accepted. Thai trans women can't legally marry their husbands or change their legal gender on their ID. Both of these are common practice in the west. Thailand has a very long way to go for LGBT legal equality.
    1
  2574. When it happens to me, I don’t run away, I run closer. Trans people need love too.
    1
  2575. No one's talking about the cultural history of trans people in many countries in south Asia that goes back before the age of sail?
    1
  2576.  @gf4913  I am saying that orchiectomies and/or penectomies have been practiced by trans people in their own communities across south Asia for hundreds of years. Some Kinnar in India/Pakistan still do it themselves in their own communities today but mostly it's done in a clinical setting today. That is hormone therapy as after an orchiectomy testosterone/androgren levels are forever changed. Obviously breast implants only came about in recent decades.
    1
  2577.  @gf4913  One person's mutilation is another person's treatment for their gender dysphoria. My wife is a Thai trans women. If you have any questions, just ask.
    1
  2578.  @megumi.2825  My wife is a Thai trans woman. What do you want to know?
    1
  2579.  @megumi.2825  Pattaya Beach in Thailand was a fishing village until the 1960s when thousands of U.S. troops from Vietnam showed up for R&R. Plenty of nightlife and sex work started happening there with cis girls and trans girls both, but Thailand had plenty of domestic sex work prior to the arrival and departure of the Americans military from Thailand from the 60's to '75. Thailand (and a number of other countries in South Asia) has had a cultural role for trans women going back hundreds of years into antiquity.
    1
  2580. Amazing Thailand. Lots of beautiful trans girls.
    1
  2581. Maybe but maybe not. Correlation does not imply causation
    1
  2582. Generally true but at least in Korea and Japan trans women can legally change their gender which is not possible in Thailand.
    1
  2583. Transphobia is scary. I agree.
    1
  2584. She's a girl to me.
    1
  2585. Music genre popularity is not a comparable analogy to civil rights. Show me the polls of LGBT acceptance becoming less prevalent. It isn’t happening. I’m not stepping on the slippery slope with you on robot cyborg beast marriages. Let those people make their case in the court of public opinion and the court of law as LGBT people have done. I’m talking about my own legal marriage between two consenting human adults. We’re doing great. Thanks for asking. We are dedicated to each other and our community in the same way that other heterosexuals in the neighborhood are.
    1
  2586. It just isn’t a problem. In most of North America and Europe its the law that trans women can use the women’s restroom legally.
    1
  2587. What's sick about dressing the way you want to? What good is freedom if you can't use it?
    1
  2588.  @abelincoln7346  We can be as specific as you want. Do you know what identity politics is? It’s politics in which groups of people having a particular racial, religious, ethnic, social, or cultural identity tend to promote their own specific interests or concerns without regard to the interests or concerns of any larger political group. It applies to every aspect of Thai society up to and including the LGBT community.
    1
  2589.  @abelincoln7346  She's well aware that I don't stand idly by when people say things that are demonstrably untrue in sweeping generalizations, particularly when they call me out by name to discuss it. I'm not being mean, I'm just being declarative. Let's talk about what is and what isn't identity politics with respect to LGBT Thailand. The Future Forward Party (now Move Forward Party) is a major political party and a founding member (Kathawut Khangpiboon) is LGBT rights activist and co-founder of the Thai Transgender Alliance. Thanwarin Sukkhaphisit is a Thai trans women and is member of this party and was elected to parliament. The policy positions and those who support them mirror other LGBT rights movements across the world and were instrumental in bringing the stalled Civil Partnership Bill legislation forward. I literally have no idea what you mean but I'm happy to discuss it if you are. On the other hand if you just want to cut and run by calling me "mean" and "arrogant" when I've said no such things to you, then that's fine too.
    1
  2590.  @ix64006  A parliamentary committee has approved civil partnerships. That still needs to be voted on in parliament and that isn’t marriage equality. Look again.
    1
  2591. Not just Thailand... stay curious.
    1
  2592. Certainly so. Just part of the rich diversity of humanity.
    1
  2593. Trans women are women.
    1
  2594. You do realize that all professional medical and psychiatric organizations recommend gender transition as standard practice, yes? Meaning, if you go to a licensed doctor or psychiatrist and talk with them about your gender dysphoria, they will follow the current “wpath standard of care” which recommends gender transition to ameliorate the gender dysphoria.
    1
  2595. @UCvIPk0Tf-D-2p6LNeuX4LNA These people need help transitioning because, as standard practice, it is what any licensed doctor and psychologist will do for them. So, yes, what county couldn't use more mental health workers to help ladyboys actualize their gender identity? You do realize that transgender people have been a part a Thai cultural history (and south Asia in general) for hundreds of years, right? If it's a trend, it's been a trend since the Kama Sutra as it mentions ladyboys (tritiya prakriti) and was written in 400 BC.
    1
  2596.  @CSFlock  It's treated as a mental disorder by the medical establishment around the world, wherein people with gender dysphoria get the medical help they need to transition. That said this video is about Thailand where ladyboys have been around as long as rice.
    1
  2597. It helps but there is much more than that. Bhutan is primarily Buddhist but it’s not a great place for trans people.
    1
  2598. Ha. Parental discretion is advised!
    1
  2599. My wife is a Thai trans woman. Many of her friends are Thai trans women and other LGBT folks. We live in California now as we can be legally married here and she can be legally female here but neither are possible in Thailand. Hopefully before we both retire Thailand will get it’s act together. If you have any questions, just ask. Have you visited Thailand before?
    1
  2600. Chettawut and Suporn are known to be very good. My wife had it done here in the states. Meltzer. Good luck to you on your journey. Wishing you all the best, too.
    1
  2601. Talk to some trans women yourself and find out.
    1
  2602. Have you heard of hormone blockers? They control testosterone during puberty so a ladyboy’s voice never lowers. Uncommon in the past but standard practice now. Some girls also have excellent falsetto control that it’s impossible to tell. Sure, you can identify many ladyboys by voice but definitely not all.
    1
  2603. It’s not bad after you’ve recovered. Normal sex takes care of the dilation.
    1
  2604. Trans women are women and legally deserve to be in the women’s bathroom. This is the law in most of North America and Europe. Millions of trans women use the women’s restroom everyday without incident.
    1
  2605. Ok, I will. “Complain all you want but trans women deserve full female equality under the law.”
    1
  2606. Only if they’re pre-op. Depends on what you’re into.
    1
  2607. Either you like trans girls or you don’t. I definitely do.
    1
  2608. The chill doesn’t extend to any legal rights. Trans women can’t legally marry their husbands nor legally change their gender. Such important laws are common in the west. My wife and I have been waiting many years to get married.
    1
  2609. Christians doesn’t have a monopoly on being the most judgmental on LGBT rights. Talk to some Muslims sometime.
    1
  2610. They tell you. What does that have to do with trans women?
    1
  2611. Many ancient integrated transgender transitions in many cultures (Waria, Muxe, et al) were streamrolled by Christianity or Islam and their native place in society upended. Fortunately Thailand never had this experience and the religious traditions of south Asia and south east Asia were far less adversarial to social gender diversity.
    1
  2612. Sometimes it’s not possible to tell but often it is. Transitioning M2F isn’t easy, particularly if one didn’t have hormone blockers as a kid.
    1
  2613. The less discrimination any given society has against trans women, the more you will see up to the natural inclination of it’s population (a couple percent or so). Consequently, As Thailand is quite socially accepting you’ll see trans women Here or there out living their lives and working all sorts of jobs all across Thailand. In other societies where these is severe discrimination against trans women you can go a very long time before you’ll even see one.
    1
  2614. No one is suggesting ladyboys are changing their chromosomes.
    1
  2615. Famous trans girls, in fact.
    1
  2616. Sounds great until you realize that trans women can’t legally marry their husbands nor can they change their legal gender. My wife and I have been waiting many years to be able to marry. It’s for these reasons and others that we live in California and not in Thailand.
    1
  2617. That's up to interpretation. She's just saying that she doesn't deny her trans history but she's using female Thai articles to refer to herself all the time. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions, just ask. Some of these things are cultural differences that do not directly translate. Thai woman also cannot change their legal gender as is routine in the west, so it can be a matter of perspective about what exactly one is referring to.
    1
  2618. It is a normal term there, that’s the thing. It’s easy for non native English speakers to remember and say. It doesn’t have the subtext it does in the west.
    1
  2619. Hormone injections are safe and actually quite inexpensive in Thailand.
    1
  2620. grown men aren't trans women.
    1
  2621.  @trewilliams8789  Trans women are women to me and to millions of others that support trans people. Simple as that.
    1
  2622. There have been trans women competing in international beauty competitions for quite some time. Ángela Ponce was Miss World Cadiz 2015 and Miss Universe Spain 2018. Feminine beauty is feminine beauty.
    1
  2623. "Because a lot of people give birth" ! /rimshot
    1
  2624. Shots fired!
    1
  2625. You’re welcome to do as you like but trans women are no more likely than women to cause an issue in a women’s restroom. Millions of trans women around the world use the women’s restroom everyday without issue. It’s the law in most of North America and Europe.
    1
  2626. Guys of all ethnicities really. Thai trans women are amazing.
    1
  2627.  @KyudoKun  I mean, I'm a white guy and I married a Thai trans woman and we've been together for 18 years so I'm guilty as charged. I don't doubt that the majority of foreign guys that are interested in Thai trans women are white guys. It's also a two way street. A lot of Thai trans woman are interested in us, also. That said plenty of Indian guys, middle eastern guys and Japanese guys are interested in Thai trans girls too. If you talk with some Thai trans women they'll be happy to tell you all about the ethnicities that are most interested in them. That said an overwhelming number of Chinese people both male and female alike are hugely interested in seeing Ladyboy cabaret shows. Those videos are also on YouTube. I'm not exactly sure what you're counting as interest and what you're not.
    1
  2628. I married a Thai trans woman and it was the best decision I ever made. Go ahead, try and convince me that Thai trans women aren’t beautiful, strong and amazing people.
    1
  2629. If you see something wrong with them you’re definitionally transphobic.
    1
  2630.  @bobolee1338  That's not what her US passport and driver's license says. That's not what anyone that she knows actually knows her, calls her. She's legally and socially female. There are thousands of unclockable trans women in the world and many cis women that are androgynous or have a trans look about them. Since you're not going to have a chance to run a karyotype test on everyone in the world, why not just take their word for it since all you have visual inspection as your guide.
    1
  2631. Less discrimination against trans people for many decades and more trans people decide to come out of the closet and live their truth.
    1
  2632.  @jackl2257  I have no doubt that there is some degree of natural variation but that natural variation is completely buried by the overwhelming preponderance of evidence that the less discrimination that exists the more transgender people you see. Thailand certainly isn’t discrimination free for trans folks, by any means. It’s few percent of the population so it’s not a lot. It can seem like it though when you are somewhere where trans people face (and have faced in the past) a lot of discrimination. Discrimination and economic disadvantage will always exist to a degree, and both put limits on trans people transitioning. My wife is a Thai trans woman so this is a topic I’m quite familiar with.
    1
  2633.  @jackl2257  Sure. If you have any other questions about Thai trans women, just ask.
    1
  2634.  @jackl2257  Primary reasons are: 1. Thailand was never colonized by a European power. There were many native 3rd gender traditions and cultural roles for these folks all over South Asia, back to antiquity. Conservative social European conventions heavily suppressed this expression over time in other countries. 2. The particular blend of Buddhism and Animistic traditions in Thailand is very tolerant and non confrontational.
    1
  2635.  @jackl2257  Keep in mind that Thailand has a long way to go in terms of legal equality for trans people. I can’t legally marry my wife in Thailand. She can’t change her legal gender. Bars and restaurants can legally ban all trans women by class. All these things are non issues where we live in California. We’re legally married here. She’s legally female. Discrimination on the basis of gender identity is illegal here. It’s for these reasons we don’t live in Thailand.
    1
  2636.  @jackl2257  Do you see many trans women where you’re from? Where is that?
    1
  2637. Verbal isn’t bad but reading and writing is tough.
    1
  2638. If 1 in 3 women are harassed, what's it like for lesbians?
    1
  2639. The video was about trans women not sex work.
    1
  2640.  @Музейка  There is sex work in every country but that isn’t why there are a number of visible trans women in Thailand. The vast majority of trans women in Thailand are working non sex work related jobs all over Thailand. Retail, salons, restaurants, etc. You can see them everywhere.
    1
  2641.  @Музейка  Just because you see a few thousand trans sex workers concentrated in the red light areas of Thailand that doesn’t mean you’ve seen the vast majority of trans women who lead inconspicuous lives working regular jobs all over Thailand. Trans women transition to be trans not as some kind of sex work business plan. How many Thai trans women do you know personally?
    1
  2642.  @Музейка  So you came for a vacation a few times and watched a few salacious documentaries on Thai sex work and now the vast majority of Thai transgender people are sex workers. Nice. At the same time you’re seeking to deny Thai trans sex workers their own agency to make their own decisions to engage in sex work. The primary motivation for which is to afford the costs of transition related trans health care Europeans have as a part of their national Heath care systems. Talk about smug western imperialism.
    1
  2643.  @Музейка  Talk to a number of actual Thai trans women yourself before you purport to understand Thai trans women and their lives and motivations. Visiting Pattaya and watching a documentary and the uninformed opinion of a random cis Thai woman interviewed on the street is not a substitute for direct experience and LGBT sociology research from leading Thai universities about the lives of Thai trans people in Thailand.
    1
  2644. Canada is very progressive in this regard. Trudeau is an amazing man. It's also the case in the US that gender transition related care if taking care of by insurance. That's also something Thailand could improve upon, even if it is much more affordable in Thailand without it.
    1
  2645. “By mistake” yeah, that’s right. Just like the way I tripped and fell into a bed with a trans girl. Accidents happen, you know.
    1
  2646. How many students total in your grade?
    1
  2647. That’s 4-6%. Quite a few! That includes gays and lesbians and ladyboys and toms?
    1
  2648. If you included all LGBT people in your grade how many would you say there are?
    1
  2649. The actresses' name is Yasmin Lee. Look her up.
    1
  2650. Quite a lot of this is lost in cultural and language translation, to be honest.
    1
  2651.  @marcbietch2743  How much time have you spent in Thailand talking with Thai trans women?
    1
  2652.  @marcbietch2743  There are many English loan words used in Thailand by Thai people regularly where the definition there is only tangentially related to the definition you'd find in Merriam Webster. Fan, Inbox, you name it. I've talked with many Thai trans women that call themselves ladyboys. It's just an easy compound noun for non native speakers to remember and pronounce combining two words they already know. Lady + boy. It also doesn't help adoption that you can't end words in Thai with the R or S sound. It's essentially functionally equivalent to transgender in Thailand. My wife is a Thai trans woman. She didn't understand the negative subtext of the English version of the word until her English fluency grew by being in the west. Kind of hard to appreciate if you haven't been there, to be honest.
    1
  2653.  @marcbietch2743  I agree that Thailand in general has a long way to go when it comes to cis to trans parity in the understanding of gender. You may not know that transwomen in Thailand can’t legally change their gender. Trans women also can’t legally marry their spouses. I’ve been waiting over a decade to marry my wife in Thailand. My wife and I are legally married and she is legally female in California. Simultaneously social acceptance is quite good and hostility quite rare, across Thailand. The differences are multidimensional and there has been a cultural role for trans women in Thailand and all across South Asia for hundreds and hundreds of years that doesn’t nearly fit into the gender binary of the west. If you have any questions, just ask.
    1
  2654.  @kai-jm7bb  Gender isn’t biology. Trans women are women to me.
    1
  2655.  @kai-jm7bb  In other words, you’ve reduced women to biological parts.
    1
  2656.  @kai-jm7bb  Enjoy reducing women to biological parts, then. I certainly won’t. Trans women are women to me.
    1
  2657. Why are their so many gays in Thailand?
    1
  2658.  @soyislaw  How does explaining trans women as gay explain why their are so many to begin with?
    1
  2659.  @soyislaw  Have you been to Thailand?
    1
  2660. Nice. My wife is a Thai trans women. We’ve been married for many years now. Where are you getting married?
    1
  2661.  @urge2792  Thank you and thanks again for your support. Here’s to hoping we all get Covid under control and it’s easy to go to Thailand again.
    1
  2662. So It’s like being secretary or a dental hygienist? I know you know the answer is a lot more complex than a fist full of baht.
    1
  2663. Most ladyboys in Thailand are not sex workers.
    1
  2664. A dying breed of 7.7 billion? Come on.
    1
  2665. Demographically Gays Lesbians and Transgenders are about 3 or 4 percent of the population on most surveys. So how do how we go from 7.7 billion people to zero, based on what 3 or 4 percent of people do or don’t do? That’s what I can’t understand. I’m in favor of treating LGBT people with dignity and respect, yes.
    1
  2666. Go ask a few hundred random people yourself and collect your own statistics. Fewer than one in 20 people you’re going to meet are LGBT unless you’re in a LGBT neighborhood or at an LGBT event. That’s going to be around 5%. Chances are you’ll probably need to run into 40 people before you find an LGBT person. That’s half the rate at about 2.5% How do we go from 7.7 billion people, with 83 million more people every year to zero people on the earth with just a few percentage of LGBT people? Let’s put aside for a minute that Lesbians have kids via sperm donors and IVF and gays have surrogate children everyday. Let’s not even count that. Explain why and how the existence of a few Percent of LGBT people causes vast multitudes of heterosexuals not having children and why the LGBT population then would be at fault for that.
    1
  2667.  @astrayagrarian  Trans people exist and they want to use the bathroom safely. There is nothing to buy into.
    1
  2668. ​ @astrayagrarian  Trans women are women to me and to millions of others that support trans people. You can't force us to not support transgender women. Millions of years of evolution and biology have nothing to do with me treating someone as a woman that wants to be treated as a woman.
    1
  2669. @x x Bottom line is that trans women are women to me and to millions of others that support trans women. Disagree all you like. No words you could put together could possibly change my mind.
    1
  2670. Banning trans women from women’s restrooms is discrimination and is simply transphobia to me. Trans women are women. The risks are practically nonexistent and the anecdotal evidence of a few news articles of nutcases doing illegal things in restrooms means nothing in the face of hundreds of millions of people living in places where trans people legally use the women’s restroom everyday. Anyone can barge into a women’s restroom and be a crazy person, after all. If you’re willing to commit a crime the sign on the door won’t stop you. Again. You can type as many words as you like. I do not recognize a social difference between cis women and trans women. It’s pointless to waste your time. You might as well try to convince me that some ethnicity of women shouldn’t be allowed in restrooms because that demographic commits more crime. I’m Not entertaining that argument either. We’re on opposite sides of this political conflict and will not change. Why bother wasting each other’s time?
    1
  2671. Safety is always an issue in everything but we also disagree on how much of a problem this actually represents. Air travel isn’t perfectly safe, yet we fly. Roads aren’t safe yet we drive. Allowing trans women in restrooms is far far safer than either of these, as borne out by countries that have legalized the practice. For me the discriminatory harm done to trans women by banning them from women’s restrooms exceeds the additional risk to women’s restroom security. For me it’s just like having separate bathrooms for Black people in many countries many decades ago. Feel free to not agree. Again, hundreds of millions of people live in countries where this is the law and is standard practice. I’m not trying to convince you of anything. What do you think the point of continuing this is, since you’re so keen on doing so? What is it that you think you’re accomplishing here?
    1
  2672.  @blinkinyourarea3897  You don't want to acknowledge or recognize that millions of trans women legally use the women's restroom everyday and the number of incidents you can point to of any issues in millions of trips to the restroom is absolutely minuscule. You also don't want to acknowledge or recognize that even the Olympics lets trans women participate in women's sports if those trans women are on testosterone suppression which is standard regimen for trans women. The strength differential is surely close enough for bathroom usage if its close enough for the Olympic games. Again, Caucasian women and African women have higher average strength compared to Asian women. According to your logic that should lead to safety issues for Asian women in bathrooms since, as you've said, anyone can commit a crime. Clearly it's not just about safety for you. It's about being inclusive of all women. I just include trans women in that category and you do not. Yes, for me, any sort of social discrimination or discomfort around to trans women is transphobia. Here is the merriam-webster's dictionary definition of transphobia: Definition of transphobia : irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against transgender people I have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to pre-op trans women having difficulty using toilets. You do realize that plenty of cis men in the men's room actually use toilets and not the urinals even though they just have to pee, right?
    1
  2673.  @blinkinyourarea3897  How many different ways do you want me to declare that allowing trans women in to women's restroom is an acceptable risk from my moral point of view? A view that clearly you do not share?
    1
  2674.  @blinkinyourarea3897  If you want to think my shamelessness is a talent, that's great. You're welcome to do so.
    1
  2675. Running out of good content and replacing it with great content. Keep up the amazing work, Asian Boss!
    1
  2676. They are quite famous ladyboys actually.
    1
  2677. Any religion that thinks LGBT people are sinful isn’t a religion worth following.
    1
  2678. Most ladyboys in Thailand are not sex workers. You’ll see vastly more working salon, cosmetics and retail jobs. Additionally, Going through that entire surgical and hormonal transformation to only earn extra money vs gay prostitution in your 20s would be a net negative investment strategy when externalities are factored in.
    1
  2679. tldr; Buck Angel
    1
  2680. You'll see them all over the country, really.
    1
  2681.  @anag4863  And those three trans women in the thumbnail? Easily spotted too? Nah. You're only seeing the trans people you see and think that's 100%., classic Observer Bias. The complex reality is that some trans women never go through male puberty because of hormone blockers. The things you're looking for do not occur. There are also a dozen intersex conditions to add even more complexity to the mix.
    1
  2682. Ladies bathroom
    1
  2683. Spoken like someone that’s never known someone with gender dysphoria personally. You do realize that all professional medical organizations follow a standard of care (WPATH) that supports medical transition, right? People change their legal gender everyday. You’re not doing karyotype tests and a chromosomal analysis on people before you use a pronoun, it’s just visual inspection. If you want to have a friendly conversation with someone, call someone want they want to be called or have a unfriendly conversation and then it’s all 4 letter words from there on out anyway.
    1
  2684. Sounds like progress to me. Much better than hiding in the closet, self medicating with controlled substances and suicide. That was the bad old way of coping with an intolerant world when you were trans.
    1
  2685. I care about harm reduction for adults as well as children. Regret rates for SRS are below those for other major surgeries at around 2%. Citation available. All professional medical organizations AMA, APA, etc support hormone blockers for those with gender dysphoria. It’s already well tested for those with precocious puberty.
    1
  2686. There are also plenty of ladyboys that don’t work in red light areas. Obviously they are not trying to score customers so they’re a lot less conspicuous. If 3% of Thai men transitioned to be ladyboys I would be surprised. People coming to Thailand from areas where life is completely oppressive for trans women it does seem like a lot.
    1
  2687. I’ve been to Thailand many times and my wife is a Thai ladyboy. I’m not in disagreement with what you’re saying, I’m just adding more context. In many countries in the world being an out trans woman has a vastly higher barrier to entry than in Thailand. Consequently fewer will be seen in those countries. The more repressive the fewer you’ll see.
    1
  2688.  @izzacizzy  That's a noble goal. My wife is a Thai trans woman. Thailand is pretty good for social acceptance but there are certainly problems in Thai society accepting LGBT people too. There are also no LGBT legal rights in Thailand so trans people can't change their legal gender and simultaneously LGBT couples can't legally marry. I hope that your advocacy changes some hearts and minds. Wishing you the best.
    1
  2689. “I would have a good attitude towards you but you represent a $.001 increase in my taxes” Said no one ever.
    1
  2690. I see Ladyboy as amazing.
    1
  2691.  @mandemangmang9979  What is?
    1
  2692.  @octavianjoseph8633  It can be as mundane as being left handed in progressive places with marriage equality and high familiarity with gay people. Or it can be a life threatening where you can be murdered and jailed for simply being gay in the Middle East or Africa. Many countries are in the middle where there is some tolerance but not actual acceptance or legally parity for LGBT relationships. The only way to build hearts and minds that being gay isn’t a problem is when straight people actually know gay people as friends, family and coworkers. That doesn’t happen when gay people are in the closet.
    1
  2693. Too busy being stars to do random interviews with random YouTube channels:
    1
  2694. Millions of people fully support LGBT people, in Thailand and all around the world. Why is that so hard for you to realize? There is nothing to correct.
    1
  2695.  @aboura9618  All it takes to become pregnant is a uterus and fertilized eggs. If you have that naturally or the uterus is transplanted, same thing. Pregnancy. God doesn't exist. Science does. Again, millions of people fully support LGBT people and LGBT people are as normal as being left handed. The WHO, APA and AMA are professional health organizations not political organizations and they all fully support trans women transitioning. Feel free to deny that reality in your homophobic and transphobic echo chamber of your own mind.
    1
  2696. Glad you support legal gay and lesbian marriage.
    1
  2697. I’d you think American TV has a lot of LGBT characters you haven’t watched a lot of Thai TV. This video is about Thailand not America. Thailand doesn’t have any LGBT civil rights laws that or America or Canada has.
    1
  2698.  @HikariMiwa  I haven't been to Bali, yet. Is is the best place to be LGBT in Indonesia or is it Jakarta?
    1
  2699. I get it. I’m not surprised in the least. Such injustices exist all over the world. Treating LGBT citizens as second class is fundamentally unjust. LGBT people deserve full equality under the law.
    1
  2700.  @michelea1937  That is what many people thought in every country in the world until enough LGBT people and their allies changed enough hearts and minds to pass meaningful life improving legal reforms like marriage equality and discrimination protection. It can take generations to make it happen but the struggle is worth it to make the lives of our LGBT brothers and sisters better. Until then LGBT people will hit the exists or underperform in their life and Indonesia will be squandering the true talents of her native born LGBT sons and daughters.
    1
  2701.  @michelea1937  Like I said it will take generations. When you're 90 years old and all the generations older than you are gone and the 3 generations ahead of you are much more progressive on LGBT rights then things will change.
    1
  2702.  @nostalgichunter337  LGBT people are citizens too. Exiling them for "safety" just proves your homophobia and acceptance of violence.
    1
  2703. That’s certainly part of the reason I married one.
    1
  2704. Preferably.
    1
  2705. Ladyboys obviously want to be effeminate. What’s wrong with that?
    1
  2706. Some are. Some are not.
    1
  2707. There is a vast amount of trans prostitution both in the west and in Asia. It is what it is and the reasons behind this are an essay length discussion. My wife is a Thai trans woman. I know some trans women who are sex workers and some who are not.
    1
  2708. They seem real to me.
    1
  2709. In Thailand (unlike the west) there is no legal requirement exists for employers to collect, record, analyse or publish gender pay gap data and make it available to the public. That’s how we know exactly that there is a pay gap and what it looks like. Obviously Thailand has bigger political issues to deal with right now instead of taking this up. It’s not so much that Thailand has more transgenders but that socially being trans has been much more acceptable in Thailand for a much longer period of time. Plenty of people in the west are trans but never transitioned and life just past them by. There are a great many young people beginning transition in the west now that being trans is more acceptable. Gender clinics are seeing record numbers of year over year increases. Thailand has a long way to go on the LGBT rights front. Again, there are clearly more important things to work on first. My wife is a Thai trans women. We live in California now.
    1
  2710. No law is being broken therefore no crime is being committed.
    1
  2711. No such statute exists nor is it likely to ever exist. More people than ever socially support trans people transitioning and that’s standard medical treatment for people with gender dysphoria supported by every major medical association. Criminalizing transition is a legal nonstarter. Don’t take my word for it. Pick up the phone and talk to some civil rights attorneys.
    1
  2712. Why would I want that?
    1
  2713. Sure she'll accept you. Obviously you want to date someone in your own league but yeah. Just be nice, chat up some trans girls and eventually something will develop. Easy enough. My wife is a Thai trans women. What questions do you have?
    1
  2714. How do you figure?
    1
  2715.  @lupus5338  Indeed. It’s a topic I know about and care about.
    1
  2716. White trans women often don’t pass as easily as Thai trans women. I think there are more trans men per capita in SF but there are definitely more trans women per capita in Bangkok. Quantifying this is pretty difficult though.
    1
  2717. There are plenty of trans women in the west who pass. Particularly those that have had hormone blockers like Lupron since the onset of puberty.There are also plenty of SE Asian trans women in the west. They suddenly go from art to slob if they get on a plane? Passing or not is no reason to disrespect trans women anywhere for doing what they can to live their best life.
    1
  2718. There are number of trans women that are indistinguishable from cis women and there are a number of cis women that seem like trans women. There are also intersex people. If you think about it for a minute you’ll realize that all the trans women you’re not identifying aren’t being counted in your set and so you just think you’re 100% accurate when you’re really not. It’s a cognitive bias.
    1
  2719.  @Opal5674  I know many trans people and they were not SA’d and nor do they have any desire to transition back. The rate of statistical detransition is very low. Rest assured I’m well aware of the permanent impacts of transition and also of informed consent. The AMA, APA and WHO all support transition related healthcare for those with gender dysphoria. You are welcome to think you know more about improved aggregate outcomes for trans people than specialist doctors and leading medical and psychological associations but I don’t have that level of hubris.
    1
  2720.  @NattapolPhorueng  Dozens of countries allow trans women to be legally female and to legally marry their husbands. My wife is Thai trans woman and has dual US and Thai citizenship. We are legally married in California. We can't get legally married in Thailand. My wife is also legally female in California. She is not legally female in Thailand. Our own community treats my wife as female. No problem there. Thailand needs to do right by it's LGBT citizens, legally. Justice delayed is justice denied.
    1
  2721. What about the idea that trans people in Thailand want to transition and life isn’t unbearable for them if they do (like in other countries) so they go ahead and do it?
    1
  2722. That isn’t why. Thailand’s largest age group is 40-60. Vastly more boomers vs millennials than the US. It is because trans people have been a cultural part of Thailand for hundreds and hundreds of years.
    1
  2723. No one has to do anything. Free will is a thing. I wouldn’t have it any other way. That said, conformity of opinion is not a requirement for my comment to be true is it?
    1
  2724. What’s complicated about the fact that the gender you feel you are and want to be referred to and your chromosomal sex aren’t the same thing? If you meet someone and they wanted to be called she, why would you call them he to their face? Does that not seem rude to you? After all, you haven’t done any chromosomal testing to know any chromosomal facts about the person at all. You’re just making assessments by visual inspection to socially associate a gender which is what pronouns is really all about not some sort of chromosomal analysis. Intersex people also exist that are neither biologically male nor female. How many trans people have you talked with? If you meet someone and they say their name is Mary, do you demand to see a birth certificate?
    1
  2725. She always felt like a woman. That's good enough for me.
    1
  2726. Thankfully that's more rare. Usually the ex-gay ministry leaders eventually come to realize that praying away the gay doesn't work and they shut down the ministry and become gay men. Look up Exodus International on youtube.
    1
  2727.  @mateomorales1653  There are pros and cons to being LGBT in different places. People just make the assumption that Thailand is a LGBT nirvana when in reality there are a vast number of legal problems that are simply unsolvable. Ask any LGBT activist in Thailand and they'll be happy to tell you a litany of issues. Myself, I've been waiting over a decade to marry my Thai trans wife in Thailand. Justice delayed is justice denied.
    1
  2728. There is a cultural history of trans people being a 3rd gender all across south Asia. In India and Pakistan trans women are a 3rd gender that's legally recognized. There is a a fair amount lost in cultural translation here, to be honest.
    1
  2729.  @debs138  The interviewer didn't fully respect the femininity of trans women, I agree. At the same time, some of this is just lost in translation from Thai to English. My wife is a Thai trans women so this is a topic I'm very familiar with.
    1
  2730.  @debs138  Thailand has a lot of problems with it's own democracy, it's a military dictatorship at this point, so it's rather hard to fault it for being behind on LGBT rights. They have bigger problems right now. I'm from the USA, which varies a great deal in it's acceptance of LGBT people by region but thankfully LGBT legal rights are rather uniform. My wife is a Thai trans woman and we're living in California now which is one of the best places to be LGBT in the US. I've never been to Brazil. I hear quite a few contrasting good and bad things about being LGBT in Brazil. What's it really like there for LGBT people?
    1
  2731.  DONT WRITE Comments please  Trans women are women to me. Gender isn’t biology.
    1
  2732. Back of the line, buddy.
    1
  2733.  @gf4913  There are a million reasons to go to Thailand, Vegas or Amsterdam that don't involve sex work. Are there trans girls who do sex work? Obviously, yes. Plenty of cis girls doing sex work also. The question is why those trans girls are doing sex work. The reasons are as varied as the girls doing it. That said, are there trans girls working regular retail, office and salon jobs jobs clearly visible all over Thailand? Obviously, yes. There are many more trans girls in Thailand doing regular jobs than doing sex work. They're just not all packed into the tourist areas of Pattaya and Sukhumvit soliciting tourists making a spectacle of themselves for tourists to notice.
    1
  2734.  @gf4913  Sex tourism is hardly the main reason. 40 million tourists visited Thailand in 2019. If a simple majority of those arrivals were with sex workers you'd need vastly more sex workers than exist in Thailand. All of Pattaya, Patpong, Cowboy and Nana and Sukhumvit combined just isn't that large by an order of magnitude. It's also trivial to get weed just about anywhere, legal or not, you don't need to go to Amsterdam to get it. Same story with Vegas. Sex work is not the main draw for most people.
    1
  2735. And China and Vietnam don’t with vastly less trans people per capita?
    1
  2736. The video is about ladyboys not prostitution.
    1
  2737. Many ladies are prostitutes too. The vast majority are not. The vast majority of Thai ladyboys are also not prostitutes. You’ll see them working retail and salon jobs all over the country.
    1
  2738. There is no need for such subterfuge. Just ask.
    1
  2739. It's good but not great. Unfortunately there are zero LGBT rights laws that are crucial to protecting LGBT people's lives.
    1
  2740.  @abelincoln7346  11 to 14 % of Thailand’s population are ethnically Chinese. About 40% of the Thai population have partial Chinese ancestry. Yes, clearly Theravada Buddhism and the Sanskrit and Pali descended languages that became the Thai language are a cultural export from India but simultaneously a couple dozen prime ministers of Thailand in the last 200 years have been of Chinese descent. King Taksin was the son of a Chinese immigrant. The cross cultural history between Thailand and China from the 13th century onward has been extremely profound.
    1
  2741.  @abelincoln7346  Are you a robot? That makes zero sense.
    1
  2742.  @StreetDrilla  Thai food, Kickboxing, and Buddhist temples are less well known than Thai trans women? I mean, I married a Thai trans girl and transgender Thailand is nowhere near the top of things to know about Thailand.
    1
  2743. All of the countries with the highest GDP per capita treat their LGBT citizens with more dignity and legal equality than Indonesia does. Look it up.
    1
  2744. Treating LGBT people and their relationships equally under the law is always the moral choice. Anything less is discrimination and second class citizenship. What a few percent of the population does or doesn’t do with respect to reproduction has no tangible effect on the fertility rate. There are no valid excuses for not treating our LGBT brothers and sisters with dignity and respect and full marriage equality under the law.
    1
  2745. Your reasons for systematically discriminating against LGBT people are not worth consideration. LGBT people deserve full equality under the law.
    1
  2746. Indonesia is not an Islamic theocracy. Many LGBT people do leave and Indonesia is much worse off for it. They are some of the most talented and dedicated workers not usually encumbered with traditional family life. You are hemorrhaging all manner of human resource talent And giving it to the west and more progressive Asian nations in pursuit of ideological purity which is simply not possible. It’s always going to be underground no matter what you do. Legalizing it and giving LGBT people an equal place at the table is the only rational choice. This is what dozens of countries have already done and what Indonesia must do. A pluralistic democracy is the recipe for socioeconomic success.
    1
  2747. Theocracies are destined for the ash heap of history as science replaces desert Abrahamic folk tales. Sort all the countries in the world by GDP per capita and observe the growing irreligious percentages of their populations.
    1
  2748. Science justifies nothing about creationism, as you well know. LGBT people deserve full equality under the law in every country. This is why the most advanced countries in world support LGBT equality. Even Google the owners of YouTube, the very platform you are now using fully supports their LGBT employees just as they do their heterosexual employees, as does the state of California. Hundreds of LGBT engineers at Google are responsible for this entire conversation you’re having yet you call them animals. Your policy positions are absurd, sir.
    1
  2749. @Mohammed Allali That would be a lot more convincing if “misleaded” was actually a word.
    1
  2750. Rest assured, plenty of western white guys like me are well aware of Thai trans women. I ended up marrying a Thai trans woman. Best decision I ever made.
    1
  2751. @Joki Timba If you like something, why not buy it?
    1
  2752. Sounds like the problem is with your parents and not her. It was difficult for my parents to accept my trans wife, but eventually my mom came around. It took a few years.
    1
  2753. Trans girls are usually very lovely people. Take a few to dinner, but be careful. You just might fall in love like I did! Ha!
    1
  2754. If you compare the LGBT legal rights in Thailand to the west, Thailand has a long way to go in this regard. I’m not Thai but my Thai trans wife is and the stark legal differences between Thailand and the west are quite clear, unfortunately. From what I’ve seen there is little movement in addressing these inequities any time soon and the political reality of making that happen seems quite difficult given the political situation right now.
    1
  2755.  @ikkue  There has been pending Thai legislation on civil partnerships and/or marriage equality for decades now. We’ll see what or if it actually gets passed but the old civil partnerships legislation was not the same as actual true parity marriage equality. Meanwhile the Netherlands has had marriage equality for over 20 years.
    1
  2756.  @ikkue  This also does nothing to assess the egregious situation for trans people in Thailand who cannot change their legal name, title and gender on their legal ID and passport, as is commonplace in the west. This doesn’t even begin to address the healthcare and needs of Trans people in Thailand. Insurance in the west is legally required to cover transition related medications and surgery. Not so in Thailand.
    1
  2757.  @ikkue  That’s not all. Strong Employment discrimination protection, public accommodation law, second parent adoption, military service, HIV non-discrimination law and ARV meds… If you take the time to assess the massive inventory of LGBT laws the west has in addition to full marriage equality you’ll see how far Thailand actually has to go to do right by LGBT people.
    1
  2758.  @ikkue  My Thai trans wife and I have been waiting for over a decade to get married, to change her legal gender in Thailand, etc. I’m not holding my breath. We’ve been disappointed too many times before. I’m sure you understand the feeling. Know hope.
    1
  2759. Millions of women in the US use a restroom wth trans women everyday. It’s the law in essentially every state. Thai men may be the size of middle school kids but Thai women are still smaller yet so your logic doesn’t hold. Anyone planning to commit such a Violent felony in a restroom (which must be the worst place imaginable to do such a thing because of the risk of being walked in on) is also going to have a weapon so the size of the assailant isn’t particularly material. Thai women do generally see ladyboys as the same as them. You do understand that cultures around the world are allowed to have conceptually different understandings of things compared to the US, yes?
    1
  2760. A bleeding vagina is what makes a real woman? Yikes.
    1
  2761. That trans people exist?
    1
  2762. You're not gay for loving the female form. Exactly the opposite. I married a Thai trans woman. Best decision I ever made.
    1
  2763.  @jangusroundstone5781  Honestly the best way. She was on a student visa and working at a Thai restaurant here in California. I hung out there a lot because she was working and our relationship took off from there. If you want to stay in your own country this is a much better method than finding a Thai girl that's going to be happy upending her life in Thailand. Have you dated a trans girl before?
    1
  2764.  @jangusroundstone5781  I think you'll find trans girls do a lot of soul searching and self discovery about sexuality and gender and have endured a lot hardships to get where they are. They know what it's like to be treated badly. They realize that it's not easy for guys to wade into the transphobia that exists in our world when you're in a relationship with them. I find that it makes trans girls particularity insightful, compassionate and appreciative. All great qualities in a relationship partner. Careful, you might get hooked like I did! :)
    1
  2765. You should date a ladyboy. I highly recommend it.
    1
  2766.  @rexroyal1499  Yes. My wife is a Thai trans woman. We've been together 15 years and we've been legally married (in the US, can't in Thailand) for 6 years now. Best thing I ever did. You never try, you never know! Give it a shot.
    1
  2767. It’s just some street interviews with non-experts. What do you want to know?
    1
  2768. Sex workers work at night. There are hundreds of thousands of trans women working non sex work jobs in Thailand during daylight hours. You can see them all across the country from Chiang Rai to Ubon to Phuket.
    1
  2769. Where have you traveled?
    1
  2770. Never try, never know.
    1
  2771. 1. Transphobia 2. That the video didn't directly address the question because it's just a bunch of random street interviews with non expert locals.
    1
  2772. We all should be sensitive to injustice. How many trans women do you know personally?
    1
  2773. You do realize that whining about rights is how every country in the west obtained same sex marriage which has improved the lives of millions of gays and lesbians, right?
    1
  2774. Rights are not a zero sum game. The only way to obtain rights is to build a political apparatus and win hearts and minds to make it happen. Do you deny that? Hiding in the closet gets you nowhere politically.
    1
  2775. It’s worked in 28 different countries around the world where same sex marriage is now legal. Do you deny that?
    1
  2776. It’s worked for a number of LGBT rights already in the Philippines and demographic trends predict more. It’s not looking good for you.
    1
  2777. No country in the world has solved all its problems before they could work on improving the lives of their LGBT citizens. Compared to poverty, LGBT rights is trivially easy. Same sex marriage requires no economic outlay and is cash positive. All those weddings actually stimulates the economy.
    1
  2778. How a parent raises their child has nothing to do with the child’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The question is, when those LGBT children grow up are they and their partner left twisting in the wind without the same legal rights and responsibilities that marriage exclusively provides. Are they going to be protected from being fired from their job because their employer discovers they’re LGBT? Can they update their passport gender ID so that when they travel to places where being LGBT is illegal (for work let’s say) or even domestically in the hands of a transphobic figure of authority will they not suffer injustice? These are human rights and LGBT people in the Philippines do not have them. Obviously human rights abuses are not the exclusive domain of LGBT people. No one is claiming that.
    1
  2779. That would make a fun comedy sketch. Aliens land and are about to say something and then the press corps pushes them aside and goes over to interview a ladyboy in the crowd. Ha!
    1
  2780. ​ @hotchicsf  Nope. Like I said, there are actually slightly more Thai women currently in Thailand then Thai men. Thai trans women can’t change their legal gender so Thai trans women are recorded as male in Thailand. Also consider that China which does have the very real problem of selective gender abortions does not have nearly the number of trans women per capita that Thailand has. Why might that be?
    1
  2781. Until they want to get legally married or legally change their gender, that is.
    1
  2782. LGBT legal rights is an important topic it needs discussion.
    1
  2783.  @reylagrosa1718  Not at all. There are LGBT farmers, too.Helping farmers is difficult and expensive. Passing SOGIE Equality Bill is not. Congress can do multiple things at the same time. It's not mutually exclusive.
    1
  2784.  @reylagrosa1718  We will never be satisfied with second class citizenship. Nothing less than full social and legal equality up to and including marriage equality.
    1
  2785. Thai trans women can’t legally marry their husbands nor can they change their legal gender. Thailand still has a long way to go on trans equality. My wife and I have been waiting years to be able to legally marry.
    1
  2786. Until you want to get legally married, that is.
    1
  2787. Once can hope.
    1
  2788.  Kirk Wolfe  Freedom means the freedom to cancel others. That's what democracy looks like. As a private company you have no obligation to platform Nazis, racists, hate speech, etc.
    1
  2789.  @malakatan3235  America is far too supportive of Israel and it's abuses of power against Palestinians. No doubt that nearly all petrostates have deplorable human rights records.
    1
  2790.  @malakatan3235  There is no doubt that racism has played a big part in previous US and European Imperialism. All the same the US is going to defend it's NATO neighbors.
    1
  2791. Depends on dad’s genetics if the trans women in question used hormone blockers like Lupron during adolescence.
    1
  2792. Can you translate that?
    1
  2793. Yikes. I see what you mean. That’s the opposite of neutral.
    1
  2794. You mean the god of Abraham, which less than 3% of Thai people care about and then only Muslims in the south?
    1
  2795. No question there are big challenges overcoming dysphoria, Transitioning, transphobia, finding love. Alll the same, women like Sauce exist that are able to live good lives and overcome adversity and thrive.
    1
  2796. What are you talking about? What are you afraid of?
    1
  2797.  @cvklve5686  That is a great argument for the legalization of same sex marriage and the reduction of the stigma around being gay so gay people do come and don't feel pressured by family to get into a heterosexual relationship. That said, this fear should be pretty far down the list. If you date someone for a few years before getting married it shouldn't be that difficult to figure this out. The amount of divorce risk this case represents is also pretty low. It's much much much more likely that heterosexual people just grow apart and divorce than one person in the relationship is secretly gay or bi. If you want less chance of divorce, get married much later in life. Statistically this holds true.
    1
  2798. Is Portugal a lot different than Spain when it comes to LGBT people?
    1
  2799. Fair enough. Thought you may know. Cheers.
    1
  2800. Came out 29 years ago. Thankfully trans people are treated with much more dignity and respect today.
    1
  2801.  @jelexzuan5438  What does Taiwan have to do with Thai trans girls?
    1
  2802.  @cloudyheart5148  Biology and gender aren't the same thing, but please do continue on believing that they are.
    1
  2803.  @cloudyheart5148  If a mad scientist took your brain out of your head and put it into a cis man's body I'm pretty sure you're not all of a sudden going to think of yourself as a man.
    1
  2804.  @cloudyheart5148  I’m trying to convince you of nothing. Gender for me is in the mind, not the body. Trans women are women to me. What they are to you is up to you.
    1
  2805.  @DA-dz8uc  Gender identity is in the mind not the body. Those are the facts as I see them. Feel to free to continue to conflate biology and gender all you wish, though.
    1
  2806.  @DA-dz8uc  You can’t imagine that there is a gender fluid mind? You clearly interpreted my example incorrectly and didn’t even ask for clarification before jumping to the least charitable interpretation.
    1
  2807.  Ke Ka  I’ve had a number of long term romantic relationships with different genders over the decades. Nothing wrong with that.
    1
  2808.  @shiranui7694  As if billions of cis women don’t actually enjoy those ‘misogynist stereotypes’ you impugn with your selective enforcement against trans women.
    1
  2809. What country can’t you even find one ladyboy in it if you searched?
    1
  2810. America, USA even, is a big place. I see them all the time in San Francisco, LA and NYC. Time to do some traveling.
    1
  2811.  @kinndah2519  Not to me. Trans woman are as womanly as my own mother.
    1
  2812. That’s not how gender dysphoria works.
    1
  2813. You can also just ask. No one wants to waste their time.
    1
  2814. That is how surgery works.
    1
  2815. As a Moto taxi driver downtown in a city of tens of millions seeing tens of thousands of people a day?
    1
  2816.  Comrade Pepe  Ok, then. Name a country that doesn't have a trans person in it.
    1
  2817.  @Iflie  If by way more if you mean 2% of the population vs 0.5% of the population then ok sure. There aren’t THAT many trans people in Thailand.
    1
  2818. Lots of people had that perception because there are many trans women in Thailand that live openly in instead of hiding in the closet due to unjust discrimination which is common in many other countries in the world. Many people aren't used to a society that can treat people with dignity.
    1
  2819. It’s like valley girl speak, only in Thai.
    1
  2820. I fail to see how finding trans people disgusting improves anything in any dimension. Please Elaborate.
    1
  2821. There is tolerance in Thailand but I'm not sure I'd call it support. Thai trans girls can't marry their husbands. My wife and I have been waiting many years to marry.
    1
  2822. There is a documented history of trans people integrated in society all over South Asia for hundreds and hundreds of years. Waria in Indonesia. Hijra in India. Etc.
    1
  2823.  @samuelprince7895  I married a Thai trans girl. I fell in love with her. Ask me anything.
    1
  2824. The only sin is believing sins are real.
    1
  2825.  @jamisedenari2449  The problem with your folksy theory is that it doesn't match the actual lived experience of trans people and their parents, as any licensed psychiatrist will tell you and as you can discover to talking to a large number of trans people. How much experience with transgender people and their family lives do you have?
    1
  2826.  @jamisedenari2449  If you are not more qualified than why should anyone trust you over the DSM when it comes to mental health? Control of the masses? Please. To what end? I have done plenty of my own research. Kathoey in Thailand, Waria in Indonesia, Khawaja Sira in Pakistan, Hijra in India, Muxe in Mexico all these isolated cultures all around the world is proof positive that trans people have existed and have had a social role in various societies throughout time. There is nothing new here other than using modern pharmacology and surgery to allow trans people to live better lives with less dysphoria and continuously improving legal system around the world to be sure that LGBT people have equality under the law. Seems good from where I'm standing.
    1
  2827.  @jamisedenari2449  Dismissing the gender pluralism in these cultures that exist to this day and in the historical record as a misinterpretation of ceremony or art is the height of cultural imperialism.
    1
  2828.  @jamisedenari2449  That's a misattribution and not a position I hold. I am talking about many trans people, with their own words and histories in their own language in their own country explaining to myself and scholars the gender pluralism that exists within their own cultures and has for generations. Your zeal to conflate this with something else (mere misinterpretation of art and ceremony) to obfuscate the reality of trans people's lives is the exact opposite of looking deeper. Take your own advice.
    1
  2829.  @jamisedenari2449  I don't want you to believe anything. Believe the earth is flat, if you like. You are the one making assumptions about my understanding of intersex conditions (hermaphroditism) and trans people in a global context. That isn't what I'm referring to and If that's what you think I mean then clearly you haven't been looking particularly deeply at any of the cultures I mentioned. Take your own advice rather than dispensing primary school explanatory platitudes about "Ya daddy wasn't around..." about cultures around the world you clearly know little about.
    1
  2830.  @jamisedenari2449  There are a multitude of biological and environmental factors involved in gender identity. No serious scientist disputes this. Again, we're now a long way from "Ya daddy wasn't around..." aren't we? Further, complete cultural isolation isn't a prerequisite for the continuance of cultural traditions of gender pluralism that have exited and were documented prior to, during, and after contact with European colonial powers. The difference here is that I'm not the one downplaying the significance of these trans voices and attempting to rewrite their history to match your own preconceived notions of gender in multicultural pluralistic world.
    1
  2831. No LGBT civil rights laws in Thailand unfortunately. My wife is a Thai trans woman and it’s because of this we live in California where she can be legally female and we can be legally married. Neither are possible in Thailand.
    1
  2832. How do you explain all the Tom lesbians then?
    1
  2833. You do realize that being gay in the Middle East and Africa is punishable by death or decades in prison, right? Don’t you think that would keep people from coming out of the closet? You know, to not be killed or inprisoned. So it is in other places where there is less authoritarian but still vast employment and social and religious discrimination against LGBT people. It’s not just a question of acceptance, it’s a question of hostility. In plenty of families around the world, including my own, coming out to them means being disowned permanently by your family.
    1
  2834. Thailand has a vast cultural history of 3rd gender social roles for people for hundreds of years. As does India and other countries around the region. The USA and Europe do not. There is vast discrimination and violence against LGBT people in the US, particularly trans people. Look up the transgender day of rememberence. TDOR. I’m from the US, my family that disowned me are Americans. The acceptance that LGBT people Have in the US varies widely by region and is very recent. Gay sex was illegal in parts of the US 15 years ago, overturned by Lawrence v Texas. If you do any reading about the overwhelming year over year percentage new patient increases at gender clinics and for SRS in the USA and Europe you’ll see that acceptance / hostility can just about explain everything. It’s not as if 1 out of 3 people in Thailand are trans or something. If you go to San Francisco you will see as many trans people per capita as you will see in Bangkok.
    1
  2835. Gallup is the gold standard for polling in the US. If you search for “frank newport gallup lgbt” the report from 2018 will show the growth curve for LGBT millennials, for whom came to age with much less repression. is going upwards at quite an arc. I’m the UK there is such demand at NHS gender clinics there is a 1 to 2 year wait. Search for “transgender people face two-year wait for NHS appointment.”
    1
  2836. Being trans would be a terrible business plan. There are jobs in Thailand.
    1
  2837. The entire Middle East (also in Asia) would like a word. In addition, only Taiwan allows Gays, lesbians and trans people to legally marry. Every other Asian country does not. Not terribly accepting, this.
    1
  2838. If you want to see ladyboys, go to some ladyboy bars. 100% ladyboys.
    1
  2839. Media representation in Thai TV and movies is getting better but a lot of it is still problematic in that trans folks are viewed as the comic relief and it's not clear many times if we're laughing with them or supposed to be laughing at them. LGBT law in Thailand has a long way to go. Then again without a real functioning democracy you've got to keep your expectations low.
    1
  2840.  @astray032  That's nice of you to say but my Thai trans wife and I have been waiting 20 years for this to happen. We're legally married in California but obviously can't in Thailand. I hear "I don't think it will take too long" every year. I'm not holding my breath. The current bill, "Same Sex Life Partnership Registration Bill" is actually not marriage equality. Many fundamental rights and benefits of being married, such as the right to have their own child by surrogacy or adoption, right to get social welfare and benefits from the marriage, or even the right to make medical decisions for the spouse and manage the deceased partner’s body are not given to same-sex couples in this law.
    1
  2841. Exactly. So few people think this through when they’re raging against LGBT people. Why wouldn’t you want less competition?
    1
  2842. ...and gay guys. Korean or otherwise.
    1
  2843.  @perfectingodzeyes9903  Save up and go to Thailand and have the surgery. There is plenty of aftercare nursing available at fairly low prices. My wife is a Thai trans woman. Happy to answer any questions you have.
    1
  2844. The meanings of English words in Thailand are not exactly the same as elsewhere. Plenty of Thai trans girls after SRS still call themselves ladyboys.
    1
  2845. Plenty of ladyboys in Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia (waria), and India (Hijra) and the Philippines. Ladyboys are ladyboys first and then some certainly not most, go into the entertainment industry. Retail and salons are probably the industries that have the most ladyboys in Thailand.
    1
  2846. Jeffrey is likely talking about the Pesantren Waria Al-Fatah school in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta which is/was a safe space for waria although I’m not sure it still exists.
    1
  2847. Mostly in cities or in the countryside too?
    1
  2848.  @riorio745  I'm glad to hear that Tik Tok is at least raising awareness. I'm sad to hear that such harsh treatment is so widespread.
    1
  2849. As if anyone has gender actually figured out.
    1
  2850. Unfortunately it does dictate if you can legally marry your same sex spouse.
    1
  2851. Then let gays and lesbians peacefully and legally marry their same sex partners.
    1
  2852. @Mohammed Allali Why wouldn’t you want gays and lesbians fully integrated in society and contributing fully to the prosperity of Indonesia instead of marginalized and scuttling around on the margins? Makes no socioeconomic sense which is why same sex marriage is legal and commonplace in the west and the lives of LGBT people are vastly improved.
    1
  2853. If you’re unsure, just ask. It isn’t really a problem.
    1
  2854. That’s why those guys should have married a ladyboy instead. Worked for me.
    1
  2855. An std from the restroom? Walk us through how that works, doctor.
    1
  2856. Interest, personal drive, lack of dependent children crushing your career dreams. Lots of reasons. Same applies to Thailand.
    1
  2857. Trans women are great people and are deserving of love and respect. It’s not a competition, there is something for everyone.
    1
  2858.  @kenrurounishin6039  Sports are dumb. Who cares how fast someone can run, how much they can lift or accurately you can throw a ball. It’s an circus for anti-intellectuals. People should dismantle the entire sports enterprise and do something that actually helps others with all that time and energy.
    1
  2859. Such a thing rarely happens. No one wants to waste their time, after all.
    1
  2860. Disagree. She’s doing a great job.
    1
  2861.  @lafemmedevastation  Literacy about being trans isn't that high in regular Thai society. I would say it's more ignorance then nefarious and the English translation doesn't read all that well. Have you spent much time in Thailand?
    1
  2862. I agree. The reporter was quite insensitive with her language.
    1
  2863. If a trans woman takes hormone blockers during the onset of puberty and then estrogen after (standard treatment) then her feet are going to be in the normal shoe range size for a woman. That’s just how it is.
    1
  2864. There is nothing negative about the existence of trans people in Thailand. There are trans people in every country in the world. That they are socially accepted in Thailand is a good thing.
    1
  2865. Some words are very similar. Rice, squid, noodle, chicken are very similar.
    1
  2866.  @quizzlybear  If you have any other questions about trans women in Thailand, just ask.
    1
  2867. Kind of equivalent to the word “like” in valley girl English, is my understanding.
    1
  2868. No one who respects the LGBT community would think that ladyboys are scary in the least. The T is there for a reason. There is a VAST diversity of opinion of trans people not just in the west but around the world. Simultaneously in the west trans women can legally marry their husbands. Trans women can legally change their gender. Neither of these are possible in Thailand. Trans women in Thailand do not have the same legal rights they do in the west. Yes, there is broad tolerance for trans people in Thailand and trans people have been an accepted cultural part of Thai culture since antiquity but all countries around the world, including Thailand, need to do better to treat their LGBT citizens with the social and legal dignity they deserve.
    1
  2869.  @onigiriisann  I'm trying to understand what you're saying. You're saying that westerners that accept trans women in their own western country are making a special exception and not accepting Thai trans women? Is that right?
    1
  2870. True from an western perspective in English but this is Thailand. These subtitles are an approximation of linguistic meaning, not actual meaning which requires cultural context. There have been trans people in Thailand and all across South Asia for hundreds and hundreds of years referred to with their own words, ideas and concepts long before Magnus Hirschfeld in Germany even started with any of these English terms 90 years ago. LGBT people in Thailand have their own agency to define themselves as they wish and even borrow English words and assign their own local meanings to them, as is very much common practice.
    1
  2871. These are just street interviews not interviews with sociologists and historians.
    1
  2872. Nope. I’m bisexual. My wife is a Thai trans woman and we’ve been together for 18 years. Plenty of YouTube channels exist that show regular domestic life with trans women and their spouses. Nothing all that unusual about it. You love who you love. Why does this seem so incredulous to you?
    1
  2873.  @eugeniasyro7315  There are LGBT people in every country in the world. That is normal. Being repelled is homophobia or transphobia. Where are you from that you don’t know any LGBT people?
    1
  2874.  @eugeniasyro7315  Unlikely. Why would know so many people you are repulsed by? How could you be so naive to imagine that bisexuals don’t exist? How can you openly conjure that trans people can’t have lasting relationships? Nothing about your story adds up.
    1
  2875. Did a very small percentage of the population sell sons and daughters? Sure. In desperate times anything is possible. Is this at all typical, nor does it explain all the Thai trans women born longer after 1975 when the war ended? No. Does it explain that all of south Asia has had a cultural role and history of 3rd gender / trans people for hundreds and hundreds of years? No. As explanatory theory goes, it's incredibly poor.
    1
  2876.  @theopinionisthighqualityopinio  As if, with 8 billion people on the planet, the human race is in danger of extinction. I’m extremely cool with having a population this planet can support as compared to the alternative. Put me down for the globalist depopulation agenda. Make it a double.
    1
  2877. Dilation and cleaning aren't the same thing, of course.
    1
  2878. Birth control pills work in cis females by tricking the body into thinking it’s already pregnant with added estrogen and progestin in the pill. The sexual differentiation of males and females is because of estrogen exposure and testosterone suppression. Cos women already have regular estrogen and develop breasts naturally. Trans women getting that estrogen from the pill will then grow breast as if their body was naturally producing it. It’s not perfect because the dosage is not ideal and there is no corresponding suppression of T but the price is right and it’s widely available. My wife is a trans woman and she took this as a kid in Thailand. If you have an my more questions just ask.
    1
  2879. Not so much, takes a lot of practice and voice training for your gender presentation to be feminine.
    1
  2880. I’ve never known a Thai trans woman or Thai cis woman to to be offended by asking. Thai trans women are known to be extremely beautiful after all.
    1
  2881. You’re the only one that didn’t look, Yes.
    1
  2882. Why would meth make you want to change your gender? Meth just makes you want meth. Addiction 101.
    1
  2883. Why shouldn’t Thai people be allowed to call themselves ladyboys?
    1
  2884. Transphobia. How many Thai trans women do you actually know personally?
    1
  2885.  @Jazzmaster71  Let me guess, all 15 are in perfect agreement with the transphobic views you promulgate here.
    1
  2886. Can’t disagree with that. That said, Thailand still has a long way to go. My wife is a Thai trans woman. We can’t legally marry in Thailand and she can’t legally change her gender in Thailand. We’ve already done both of those things in America. I do understand Thailand has bigger problems, like needing a functional democracy, but the point still stands.
    1
  2887. Do you mean the interview in the next video?
    1
  2888. It's just an easy word for non native English speakers to say and pronounce. No need to read into any subtext.
    1
  2889. The three women in the video thumbnail are.
    1
  2890. @Sír Knëukel Only children believe in the supernatural.
    1
  2891. No dilemma. They're beautiful. No need to overthink it.
    1
  2892. Get your act together and then make some friends with trans girls.
    1
  2893. Glad to hear it. I married a Thai trans woman. What questions do you have? I probably have the answers.
    1
  2894. Step one. Move to Thailand. Step two. Stay away from Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket. In some smaller town make fiends with some trans women working retail or salon jobs. They may be interested and they’re much more likely to not have had their hearts broken by a number of foreigners before you. Learning English is a good pretext to get together. That’s the line my wife used on me! Heh. Good luck!
    1
  2895. Less discrimination over many decades and barriers to transition means more trans people who want to transition do transition rather than living in the closet.
    1
  2896. Noting unusual about it. There have been gender pluralistic trans people all over South Asia since antiquity. Go look up the Hijra in India and Waria in Indonesia.
    1
  2897. Thai people adapt all sorts of English words and change what they mean. The word doesn't have the same negative subtext in Thailand it does in the west. You can find plenty of videos of Thai trans girls calling themselves ladyboys all over youtube.
    1
  2898.  @mrs.rivers-z7z  Do you prefer 'A woman of trans experience' or how would you prefer to linguistically delineate this in a context where the specificity was relevant?
    1
  2899.  @mrs.rivers-z7z  Understood. I know this perspective was and still is a common one in the west decades ago as that was the standard terminology at that time. Everyone is certainly entitled to call things how they see it, of course. Many countries today have no surgical requirements to change one's legal gender. That was the case when my wife legally transitioned in the US. In Thailand today no one can change their legal gender no matter what you do or don't do but many of us are working to change that unfortunate reality. You and your husband have different backgrounds from my wife and I. I'm bisexual myself and certainly do consider myself a member of the LGBT community and have my entire life. My wife and I were a couple before her transition and I saw her all the way through it. My wife thinks of herself as a woman yes but is perfectly fine with denoting the specificity of being a trans woman just as she's fine with being an Asian woman in many contexts. She and I don't have any interest in flying under the radar. Everyone we know from acquaintances to coworkers to family know I'm bisexual and she's a trans woman. We're not interested in stealth in the least. If someone doesn't like it, the door is right there. Trans people across South Asia have significantly different cultural contexts than trans people in the west, and even the meaning of adopted English words there is not exactly the same as the west. Thai people of course also have their own Thai words to describe all this. There is a significant amount lost in translation and one really needs to be there for a significant amount of time to understand all the dimensions of that.
    1
  2900.  @mrs.rivers-z7z  My wife and I do live in San Francisco, California and it's one of the best places to be LGBT. It's been on the vanguard for many things Trans for over 80 years from endocrinology treatment with Harry Benjamin, surgery at Stanford, the Compton's Cafeteria Riot and the ascension of trans legal rights, healthcare and public understanding. I did not know my wife would transition when I met her. She presented as a very effeminate boy band looking gay guy at the time. A few years into our relationship she decided she wanted to transition after dressing up a few times and something really clicked with her, which I thought was great. It made her happy and as a bisexual (pansexual as the kids say) no matter what she looked like or felt like, I'd be attracted to her and love her as long as she was happy. I'm all for seeing more representation of my life in film, that's for sure. Being in the closet to others about my sexuality or the gender identity of my partner is not something I could or would do. It's no accident that I live where I do now. Obviously I want to make being public as frictionless as possible and when you meet new people here it's nice to know that they're generally going to have no expectation of your sexual orientation or gender identity. I very much realize that is not the case in much of the world. I do understand your perspective and timeline and I also do see the conflict you're going to have with younger western trans people. No doubt that they're going to call you a transmedicalist. You don't see the world from their perspective and they don't see it from yours. That's ok. The kids will figure it out for themselves. I'd be somewhat careful about imagining that you can relate more to Thai ladyboys. Have you spent a lot of time in Thailand with a lot of ladyboys? I sure have. The primary concerns are poverty, the medical expenses related to transition and very often that means sexwork to pay for them all while supporting your family (as is expected) with giant percentages of the meager money you're bringing in all throughout adulthood if you want to maintain family/social respectability. That's a common scenario. Maybe that it your experience but if you grew up in the UK on the NHS not doing sex work not sending 40% of your check back to your family, that's probably a different story entirely no? I certainly don't relate to Caitlyn Jenner, either. It's unfortunate someone so atypical is the public face of trans people but such is the nature of celebrity. I think it's clear to many that she's representative of very few people (trans or otherwise) and no matter her faults, she at least moved the conversation forward. At least the I Am Cait show provided the public something of a counterpoint to Caitlyn with Jennifer Finney Boylan and others for those that tuned into it.
    1
  2901.  @firstofawll  There is no such thing as safety anywhere for anyone.
    1
  2902. What about it?
    1
  2903. “A vast majority of the Thai population are ladyboys” Clearly you’ve never been to Thailand. What percent of the population do you think are ladyboys? How easy do you think life would be as a ladyboy in your country?
    1
  2904. You can be decent to trans people and still be conservative. Thailand isn’t the only country with a sizable trans minority in Asia.
    1
  2905. Allow to be smashed when sober.
    1
  2906. In LGBT equality and better lives for LGBT people? Seems to be the case in dozens of other countries.
    1
  2907. False. There have been trans woman all over South Asia since antiquity. Do the smallest bit of research on the web and you'll see this clearly. Hijra / Kinnar in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Waria in Indonesia and Kathoey in Thailand. Certainly other parts of the world as well. Muxes in Mexico, Fa'afafine in Samoa and Mahu in Hawaii. The list goes on and on. A small percentage of the population will always be trans. The difference in how many of this small percent you will see is always depends on the tolerance for trans people in that society. The less tolerant it is the less of this small percentage you will see. It's the same all over the globe. The villagers in Issan are not exactly cultural anthropologists. That a couple of white guys fell in love with a couple trans woman in the village in their lifetime, simply means exactly that.
    1
  2908. Air travel to Thailand is quite cheap this time of year.
    1
  2909. Sounds good to me. Where do I sign?
    1
  2910. How come it isn’t a thing in your country? That’s the better question to ask.
    1
  2911.  @Maniacsurvivor  There are trans people in every country. In those locations where it's more acceptable to be trans, more transgender people will come out of the closet and transition. The more difficult life would be for transgender people the fewer you're going to have living openly. In the case of south Asia and SE Asia they've had quite a head start in that a trans womanly 3rd gender has been a thing for centuries in a way that Europe and it's colonies just wasn't a cultural thing. There are plenty of urban places in the west with many transgender people living openly. Brazil also has a great number of trans people living openly. Thailand has gone out of their way to promote ladyboy cabaret shows and the publicity has obviously worked in that you have this association.
    1
  2912. Bisexual man married to a Thai trans woman now living in the US. Ask me anything!
    1
  2913. Nope. Most Thai trans women have no connection to Chinese people at all.
    1
  2914. The situation of LGBT people in the Philippines is not great. Eventually their lives will get better once their voices are heard and friends and family have their back. No one ever got anything done politically by remaining silent.
    1
  2915. Unacceptable to you. I find it perfectly acceptable.
    1
  2916. Let us worry about our own community. We’re doing just fine.
    1
  2917. Classic song. All the youngins reading this should check it out. “One Night in Bangkok” Went to billboard #3 in 1985.
    1
  2918.  Nimfa McDonald  Don’t know what you’re missing.
    1
  2919.  Nimfa McDonald  Glad to hear it. More for me.
    1
  2920. Depends on how excited she is. /rimshot
    1
  2921. Yes. Want their names?
    1
  2922. What’s funny about trans women?
    1
  2923. Yet here you are contributing to the trans circus by commenting. If some people want to watch a trans circus is it not their right to do so? Who are you to determine what other people want to do with their time and what they want to make a big deal of?
    1
  2924.  @souldesire5932  The varying amount of discrimination in other places suppresses the natural occurrence rate of trans people, making them hide in the closet for fear of persecution or ostracization. Thailand has less of this issue so more people actually do transition.
    1
  2925. Born that way.
    1
  2926. Trans people exist in every country. There have been trans people in Thailand for hundreds of years. It’s not some kind of dark reality. It’s just reality. Let me guess, you’ve never talked to a trans woman before?
    1
  2927. Thanks for writing that up. A lot of people just won’t understand until they’ve been in Thailand and see it for themselves. My wife is a Thai trans woman. We’re legally married in the US now and have ben together for many years. The only thing I’d add to your narrative is that society as a whole isn’t really there yet. I can’t legally marry my wife in Thailand and in Thailand no trans woman can change her legal gender on her ID. Thailand has a long way to go on LGBT legal rights compared to the west but there certainly is a vast degree of tolerance and acceptance.
    1
  2928.  @calimike70  Marriage is the biggest thing. It's helpful for immigration and to have those rights and protections for your relationship. There is some civil partnership legislation but like everything with the junta, it's going to be a while before real progress is made. Only Taiwan has same sex marriage in all of Asia, unfortunately. Here's to hoping that changes by the time the wife and I retire. In the meantime we'll keep living in California. Glad you had a good experience with a Cambodian trans woman and were friends with her. In my experience, trans girls are a lot of fun and really great to be around and hang out with.
    1
  2929.  @calimike70  We're legally married in California and she has her US citizenship (and dual citizenship now). That was quite the expensive and exhaustive process, especially dealing with USCIS while trans early on. The Thai retirement visa is fine but it also has a much higher security deposit lockup compared to a marriage Visa. I do want to get legally married in Thailand, just as we are in the US. That's the point. With the military in charge in Thailand, the wheels of justice turn pretty slowly. Of course, Thailand has no shortage of important problems to solve. It's hardly even a democracy at this point. I'm glad to hear that you found happiness with a Thai girl. Instead of the ill-fated Phuket Sandbox the wife and I just did a tour of the Pacific NW. Quite nice as well. I too can't wait for easy travel to Thailand to resume so we both can enjoy Thailand again. It's been too long already.
    1
  2930. The way I see it, you’re extrapolating your personal tastes and applying it to the wide spectrums of sexual orientation and gender identity for millions upon millions of people. For every way of being there is someone who is attracted to it, and that’s a good thing for more closely matching up supply with demand. Myself, I’m attracted to trans women with or without SRS. I certainly prefer fake breasts over a flat chest, though. Different strokes for different folks, right?
    1
  2931.  @zzyzx686  I haven’t seen 20 centimeters (I’ll look for it) but in the American TV show Pose, that’s also a plot line in the story as well. I’ve seen this go either way and I’ve seen guys who weren’t thrilled with it, just get used to it or grow to like it. Love is powerful stuff.
    1
  2932.  @mrs.rivers-z7z  What health issues of long term non-op trans women are you referring to?
    1
  2933.  @mrs.rivers-z7z  I certainly agree that the decision for SRS or not should be the trans women's decision and not the partner's decision and those partners that do put pressure on trans women here are clearly in the wrong. At the same time, I don't know enough longitudinal study data is there to make very strong claims one way or the other about longevity and quality of life outcomes of estrogen + anti-androgens vs estrogen and SRS. There are a lot of compounding factors and co-morbidities in the trans community to take into account and those that do vs don't have SRS are certainly not on an evenly socioeconomic distribution. What you're saying seems intuitively correct given Cyproterone and Spiro but I don't know how much peer reviewed data there is on the subject to be so definitive and results can certainly be counter-intuitive. If you have titles of some peer reviewed papers on exactly this, I'd be happy to read them over.
    1
  2934. All of these minor issues can be handled easily as they have been in dozens of other countries that have full legal equality for LGBT people.
    1
  2935. If you read about the violence committed against LGBT people In other parts of the world, the answer can only be Yes.
    1
  2936. Jungian proscriptive nonsense. Ladyboys have free will and individually choose the level of medical intervention that’s personally right for them. Anything else is willful conjecture.
    1
  2937. Read more carefully yourself. I’m fully aware of ladyboys in all states of medical intervention living their best lives. Championing those that have not had SRS as being the “best of both worlds” and using desist / resist terminology to malign those that have had SRS does particularly call into question your objectivity. Why not simply say that ladyboys are free to choose whatever level of intervention is appropriate for themselves individually without obtuse references to metaphysical essentialism?
    1
  2938. I have. Not a fan of Rod’s cheerleading for Ray Blanchard‘s nonsense. I’m squarely on the Julia Serrano divide and that’s not changing. I know the whole debate front and back.
    1
  2939. Gender dysphoria is a mental condition in the DSM-V not a disorder. The treatment is transition. All professional medical organizations support the WPATH standard of care, which includes medical transition and surgery.
    1
  2940.  TUCO ALTIERRI  Anything for you, sweetheart. Give me some sugar, baby.
    1
  2941. The transphobic comments have been removed. Paying for expensive sex reassignment surgery to pay the money back via prostitution is honestly a terrible business plan. There are plenty of regular jobs in Thailand. Your concerns here are fundamentally unfounded.
    1
  2942. Have you moved to Thailand yet?
    1
  2943. No trans anything is covered by public healthcare in Thailand. There are some NGOs that help, though. There are a lot of trans women in non-tourist areas too. You can see them working salon and retail jobs all over Thailand. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions, just ask.
    1
  2944.  @johnwang9914  Read more carefully, "No trans anything is covered by public healthcare in Thailand." What am I biased against? My wife is a Thai trans women. Good lord. Not enough street cred for you?
    1
  2945.  @johnwang9914  Yes, there is a lot of availability in Thailand. Thailand does as much trans related surgery and healthcare as the rest of the world combined, and is a worldwide medical destination for trans woman (and trans men). The prices are affordable by western standards but it's quite a bit when you're making Thai wages. Not surprisingly a number of Thai girls turn to sex work to pay for them, thus the reason why a lot of tourists see them in particular famous red light areas. A vast number of trans foreigners also come to Thailand to have FFS, GCS, tracheal shave, implants, etc. and many Thai surgeons are extremely famous and regarded very well internationally. Suporn, Chettawut, Kamol, Rodchareon, etc. India on the other hand also has a highly visible contingent of trans woman but availability and quality of trans health care there is unfortunately quite poor. There is a great deal of social tolerance of trans people in Thailand but unfortunately nearly no laws. Trans women can't legally marry their husbands nor can they change their legal gender. Access to estradiol and anti-androgens is easy in Thailand and fairly inexpensive. Hormone blockers like Lupron, less so.
    1
  2946. No one is exactly the same. Every woman has a different history and culture surrounding her, including trans women. In the US trans women are legally women. This is not the case in Thailand, not can trans women legally marry their husbands in Thailand. There is a lot in here in this interview lost in language and cultural translation. My wife is a Thai trans woman and it’s because of the complete lack of LGBT rights in Thailand that we live in California and not in Thailand. If you have any questions, just ask.
    1
  2947. Or made of matter or energy.
    1
  2948. Self identifying as a Ladyboy doesn’t necessarily imply anything about someone’s surgical status. Trans and ladyboy are used interchangeably in Thailand and of course Thai people have their own Thai words they identify with.
    1
  2949. If someone is ready willing and able to commit sexual assault and destroy their entire life as a convicted sex offender, the sign on the door isn’t not going to stop them from doing so. It is the law in most of North America and Europe than trans women are legally allowed to use the women’s restroom. Millions of trans women use the women’s restroom every day without issue.
    1
  2950.  @SexyBeautifulBabe  Trans people are being intentionally maligned and misrepresented in the west by conservatives to anger other conservative voters and get them to the polls. Same Old strategy as the early 2000’s in new form. There are vastly more non-LGBT people acting like creeps. The actual numbers of LGBT people harassing women is vanishingly small, but rest assured every instance is going to make headlines. Literally millions upon millions of trans women use the restroom without incident everyday.
    1
  2951.  @auliarahmas.d.2610  I hope that you can visit soon. Flights look very cheap from Jakarta to Bangkok. I'd like to visit Indonesia someday. My wife is a Thai trans woman and we live in the US together. I imagine life is pretty difficult for the waria there, right? All I know is that I've seen a few waria documentaries but It's always hard to tell if that's really how it is or not unless you've been there. I'm imagining that a lot of waria move out more conservative places like Aceh and to Jakarta or Bali? Is that right? I wish I knew more about the place.
    1
  2952. Social and legal discrimination is way more important than the price of surgery in determining how many trans people come out of the closet.
    1
  2953. Every professional medical organization in the world supports transition as standard treatment for gender dysphoria. Look it up.
    1
  2954. What country is that?
    1
  2955.  @lottalove2449  That seems like a difficult place to be transgender, yes? If you dressed as the other gender and went on a dozen job interviews, how successful do you think you would be? That's the kind of calculated decision trans people need to make. If you came out to your parents, religion, colleagues and friends as transgender how accepting would they be of your transition? All of that is in the mind of a trans person when they are weighing the cost to benefit ratio of coming out or just giving up and living a miserable life in the closet.
    1
  2956.  @MissNandiLaSophia  You better get on a plane to Thailand start policing the Thai use of english words, then. It's just an easy compound noun for Thai people to say in English, that they know English speakers are going to understand. That's the entire agenda and it carries none of the negative subtext that it does in the west. You've spent how much time in Thailand?
    1
  2957. Allow what? LGBT people to live?
    1
  2958. A habit? Your sexual orientation is a habit? No psychiatrist or medical professional believes that.
    1
  2959. Sadly, your opinion makes LGBT people’s lives more difficult in every interaction with them.
    1
  2960.  @destyafitri9440  Drawing a red line between people and their loving relationships and not accepting one but not the other is engaging in the impossible.
    1
  2961. You think it’s possible to love the sinner but hate the sin, right?
    1
  2962. I’m sure some isolated examples of anything are possible. Undoubtedly a few daughters suffered the same fate. Doesn’t make it representative at all and that doesn’t explain why there are so many open and proud trans women in Thailand today. The American war in Vietnam ended 45 years ago.
    1
  2963. That’s definitely part of the reason I married a Thai trans girl.
    1
  2964.  @scottbishop2532  It's worth realizing that trans women generally view themselves as women and from their point of view, not a deception at all. They feel like a woman and are simply being themselves. Clearly men whom regard trans women as men and whom themselves area particularly homophobic and easily shamed by others can feel quite enraged and driven to violence. The term for this is "trans panic", is specifically illegal as a courtroom defense in many states and as you stated previously there are many examples of this in America. Gwen Araujo, Angie Zapata, etc. No trans woman is unaware of these facts. The Transgender Day of Remembrance in November exists for a reason. Simultaneously however, trans woman are not going to wear a sign around their neck for the benefit of men. Sexual encounters where both the man doesn't know and the trans woman doesn't tell are actually rare in practice.
    1
  2965. As a taxi driver working downtown in a city of 10million seeing tens of thousands of people every day?
    1
  2966. There is a diversity of opinion among trans women in Thailand. It’s not as if all trans people think alike. Ladyboy is mostly an easy compound noun made from lady and boy and that’s easy for non native English speakers to say and it doesn’t carry the same subtext or weight as it does In the west as Thai people have their own Thai words and subtext that they care about. There isn’t a cisgender equivalent word exactly that turns out to be very consersationally useful. Thai trans women also don’t have any legal female gender recognition, unlike dozens of other countries so it’s collectively difficult even for the set who would prefer to think of themselves as female to do so when their own ID betrays their own self concept. One really needs to spend a fair amount of time with Thai trans women to understand that things are very much conceptually different than in the west.
    1
  2967. It’s not the trans paradise it seems in this video. Trans women can’t legally marry their husbands nor can they change their legal gender. My wife is a Thai trans woman and it’s for these reasons we live in California and not in Thailand.
    1
  2968. You saw a trans person once and you’re an expert on Thai trans women? The vast majority of Thai trans women are not sex workers. You can see them working regular jobs all over Thailand. The reason Thailand has so many out and proind trans people is that Thai people treat trans people with dignity and respect unlike Eastern Europe where most trans people are far too fearful and oppressed to even think about transition.
    1
  2969. Plenty around, just not in this video and much less fanfare around them.
    1
  2970. Thailand has few barriers to transitioning and a vast medical infrastructure with little gatekeeping. That’a a very different experience elsewhere. Talk to some trans girls in the west and they’ll tell you. If you read some articles you’ll see that year over year new patient rates at gender clinics are up by vast percentages. I see about as many trans girls in San Francisco as I do in the non tourist areas of Bangkok.
    1
  2971. Not crazy at all. There are many beautiful trans women in this world. Part of the reason I ended up marrying a trans woman. Have you been to Thailand?
    1
  2972. Sure you can. A couple dozen countries legally allow this including most western countries. Eventually the Philippines will get there.
    1
  2973. Rest assured, I’m well educated on trans issues. My wife is trans and legally female.
    1
  2974. The only sad aspect here is your transphobia.
    1
  2975. Justice delayed is justice denied. This I understand all too clearly.
    1
  2976. Depends where home is.
    1
  2977. Thai people aren’t interested in American politics. The average Thai person would have no chance of picking Hillary in a police lineup.
    1
  2978.  @stuartlee6622  I'll take that bet.
    1
  2979. One person’s many is another person’s few. There aren’t actually many Ferrari’s in Beverly Hills but it can seem like it if you’re from Cleveland.
    1
  2980. The ladyboys in the thumbnail are famous ladyboys in Thailand and are not going to waste their time with low rent YouTube channels.
    1
  2981. In a few red light areas this happens. Sex workers both trans and cisgender do this there. In 99.9% of the country it doesn’t happen.
    1
  2982. Until you want to change your legal gender or get legally married, that is. Sadly neither are possible yet in Thailand.
    1
  2983. Talk to some trans women and you’ll discover that this isn’t the case. Gay guys have no desire to make their body appear female. Sexual orientation is not the same thing as gender identity.
    1
  2984. You’re welcome to believe that. I’ve talked to many trans women personally that have told me they never felt like a man at all from a very early age. They always felt like they were in the wrong body and always wanted to do girly things and be seen as women. As soon as they had agency to transition they did, under medical guidance from their doctor. They live as women today and are legally female. Talk all you like, they still have agency over their own body and I’m going to view them simply as women as do many others that respect LGBT people. Feel free to hurl insults at people just trying to live their best life. I’m sure that’s a very good look for you.
    1
  2985. The girly things are things that these trans women observed other girls doing and wanted to be included as girls in these things. Estrogen and testosterone suppression (injection or oral) don’t validate anything. They simply change one’s endocrinology to be within the normal range for a cisgender female. Again, hormones are part of standard medical treatment in consultation from any licensed physician for someone with gender dysphoria. The reasons for suicide vary. The two main groupings among trans people are: 1. Dysmorphia and dissatisfaction between mind and body resulting in depression. Fortunately it has been clinically shown that transition reduces suicidal ideation and improves mental health outcomes. 2. Transphobia, rejection, discrimination and osterization from family, friends, career and/or religion in society. Fortunately as well, more and more people are understanding of the struggles trans people have these is less structural hostility, and living as trans person is now becoming better and easier. Consequently the more supportive environment the trans person is in, the more suicide rates decline.
    1
  2986. You can be lucky, either way. Depends on what you like, right?
    1
  2987.  @nikehusk3849  Works for me!
    1
  2988. Being trans is easy?
    1
  2989. I would if you would explain how it’s easy.
    1
  2990. There are very few Christians in Thailand.
    1
  2991. Seems great until you look at Thai LGBT law and you discover that there is none.
    1
  2992. There is some hope that the civil partnership bill will eventually be passed. It’s not quite marriage equality but it is a step to ge there. It surely does not help that Thailand doesn’t have a true democracy at the moment.
    1
  2993. I’ll make you a deal. Pass marriage equality for same Sex couples and the differences will fade away.
    1
  2994. Because if you’re gay and discriminated against continuously it’s a terrible life. Hence the bitterness. Hard to recommend staying. Those with the most talent and resources often don’t stay. That’s a big negative for Indonesia, taking that talent and capital and putting it to work elsewhere.
    1
  2995. Pick one: SangSom or Sato
    1
  2996.  @bjornblackman2337  That’s what all the transphobes say.
    1
  2997.  @brutaljk5997  Nevah. Trans people are worth defending.
    1
  2998. I prefer plastic Thai women over steel Thai women or wood Thai women. Much easier to carry around and cheaper to ship.
    1
  2999. I want to legally marry my wife who is a Thai trans woman. Sadly in Thailand we can’t legally marry. Having ID that doesn’t match your gender identity and gender presentation opens you up to all sorts of discrimination by bigoted people in authority and issues with your passport when traveling. These are needless difficulties and need to change and many countries around the world have changed their policies in this regard.
    1
  3000. Do you consider heterosexuality shoved in your face to be rude as well?
    1
  3001. What actions would you consider trans people shoving something in your face?
    1
  3002. I don't know how we got to the crime of sexual harassment, all of a sudden. I also don't understand how "being gay or transgender is like smoking". Care to elaborate?
    1
  3003. Honestly I just had no idea what your simile was meant to convey which is why I asked follow up questions. Thanks.
    1
  3004. Unless you’re doing karyotype tests on everyone you’re just guessing by visual inspection rather than biological facts.
    1
  3005. Sauce is the sauciest.
    1
  3006. It’s not as if Thai people need to use the word unless needing too communicate with a foreigner. It’s just easy to say for non English speakers and it doesn’t carry the subtext it does elsewhere.
    1
  3007. That is a sad report about Malaysia’s trans girls. I hope things get better soon for them.
    1
  3008. Such as?
    1
  3009.  @riorio745  Yes and no. Yes, in Thailand there is a greater live and let live attitude, up to a point. Thailand has also been home to more military coup d'états in modern history than any other country and as I write this active protests for democracy and monarchy reform are looking like another 2014 all over again. From where I'm standing that's a good thing. Thailand has no same sex marriage. Trans women in Thailand can't legally marry their husbands. Trans women in Thailand can't change their legal gender. Trans women in Thailand can be denied public accommodation as a class. All of these are common legal rights now in the west denied to LGBT people in Thailand. These are key civil rights for LGBT people and are not a BS conflict. It is through a national conversation that injustices are noted, coalitions are built, politicians respond to constituencies and problems ameliorated. A number of LGBT politicians and organizations in Thailand are lobbying hard for reform on these key civil rights laws for LGBT people.
    1
  3010.  @30803080308030803081  She's a woman to me.
    1
  3011.  @InNozArD  Coming soon! Know hope!
    1
  3012.  @InNozArD  Approved in the cabinet but it still needs to go to the house for a vote. Still, it's progress. Nice to see some movement on this. Know hope. I'm still hoping Move Forward with their other bill can do true marriage equality instead. Still, I'll take what I can get. Cheers.
    1
  3013. How difficult is it for the waria where you live in Indonesia?
    1
  3014.  @indrajuanno  I'm sorry to hear that. Where do the waria go to escape this? Jakarta? Bali?
    1
  3015. You'll cry when you try to decrypt that writing system, though. Yikes.
    1
  3016.  @soufiane5369  The Thai alphabet has 44 consonants and 21 sounds, and 32 vowels. and NO SPACE character so you have no idea where a word starts and stops. And it gets worse from there!
    1
  3017. That's not a God I have any respect for if that God couldn't see how much effort Sauce put into being a woman.
    1
  3018. Until you want to want to get legally married.
    1
  3019. It is. Check out Pratunam Polyclinic.
    1
  3020. How easy is it to be trans in your country? That’s the other side of the equation. The more challenging it is, the fewer will try and live authentic lives out of the closet:
    1
  3021. There are trans women all around the world. The number you see in public is directly proportional to the hostility and discrimination trans women face in public life in that country or location.
    1
  3022. The vast majority of trans women in Thailand do not interact with tourists. You can see them working salon and retail jobs all over untouristed Thailand.
    1
  3023.  @keyboarddancers7751  Well, it’s not so much of a joke. Hundreds of comments in this thread are asserting that it’s sex work that is literally creating Thai trans women.
    1
  3024. Question is, how would you know about the quantity of trans women that you can’t notice to know if it’s few or many? I’m married to a trans woman and I’ve met trans women that are unclockable. As trans girls are now taking hormone blockers in their standard treatment the very masculine things you’re looking for will never materialize.
    1
  3025.  @VariantAEC  Fair enough. Like I said, results are only going to get better in the future as trans women transition earlier with a higher standard of medical care and take androgen blocking hormones at the onset of puberty so that their bodies and voices are less masculinized. Just as a matter of math, unless one can accurately determine the entire set of trans people, only then would someone know the percentage of people that are passing vs not passing from one's own point of view. Clearly some people see some trans women as passing and others see those same people as not passing. Ultimately, one can't count what one can't detect and there are absolutely unclockable trans women out there even before one considers intersexed conditions. My only other comment is that the APA says this about Gender Dyshporia, "It is important to note that gender nonconformity is not in itself a mental disorder. The critical element of gender dysphoria is the presence of clinically significant distress associated with the condition. [...] Replacing “disorder” with “dysphoria” in the diagnostic label is not only more appropriate and consistent with familiar clinical sexology terminology, it also removes the connotation that the patient is “disordered.” "
    1
  3026.  @annedin896  You are correct. No interest in raising children, biological or otherwise. From that point of view, infertility is a feature. No pregnancy risk.
    1
  3027.  @syaisa698  Certainly it is up to the individual but I certainly see average trans women putting in more money and effort than average cis women. Sure, some trans girls have won the genetic lotto and are naturally very femme but such results are not typical.
    1
  3028.  @renaissancewoman100  Trans women are generally given the meds by prescription, so it would be against the doctor's advice to stop taking them. Endocrinological changes with hormones is a slow process. It also depends on weather or not the trans women has had an orchiectomy or not. Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) process does two things. 1. Suppress androgens like testosterone and for that you have meds like spironolactone but these are only needed before an orchiectomy. 2. Replace estrogens and bring the body to a cis female's estrogen range. It takes a long time to grow breasts, distribute fat in a female way to the hips and have with smoother skin and, suppress hair growth, female emotional states, etc. It takes time to undo these changes as well. It's a complex calculus involving the age of the person, genetics and duration and exact HRT meds but it takes many months to impact or revert these changes.
    1
  3029.  @mavvynne444  Care to elaborate on what you mean?
    1
  3030.  @escanor3699  If loving trans women is wrong, I don’t want to be right!
    1
  3031.  @Zejakov  To be specific, I’m actually pansexual. That said, just insult me and go on with your day. Get it out of your system. I know you can’t help yourself.
    1
  3032.  @Zejakov  Happy to disappoint you. Have a good day.
    1
  3033.  @Zejakov  My wife is legally female. The county clerk said, “I now pronounce you husband and wife.” Thanks for all your interest.
    1
  3034.  @StuartFuckingLittle  That beauty is about money and effort? Oh, please.
    1
  3035.  @ladyunicorn6310  Given that my wife is a Thai ladyboy that didn’t have face surgery, rest assured I know all about that. Most Thai ladyboys do get breast implants, however.
    1
  3036.  @hirenahir76200  Trans women are beautiful.
    1
  3037.  @doriangray7723  Cosmetic procedures can change quite a lot though. I find a lot of human beings physically appealing but beauty is ultimately in the eye of the beer holder.
    1
  3038.  @quicksilver3593  First, there aren’t that many actual Ladyboys per capita in Thailand. 1% or so although no official statistics exist. That’s not so different from somewhere like California where the rate is about 0.6% (Williams Institute study). Next you need to apply some common sense as to factors related to seeing open trans people in society. The reality is thad the more hostility and discrimination against trans people that exists in a given society, the fewer you will see. This is true across the world in a broad spectrum from Thailand and progressive countries at the top and the Middle East and some African countries in the bottom. In Thailand and the Philippines and India trans people have been a part of their culture for centuries and so it is nothing new and there is more social tolerance if someone is transgender so they can transition and not live in the closet. Happy to answer any other questions you have.
    1
  3039.  @feliciah7092  My wife is legally female. Marriage is a legal license. The county clerk said, "I now pronounce you husband and wife."
    1
  3040.  @niverahamed8920  My father disowned me over having a trans girlfriend and never spoke to me again (he died of cancer 10 years after that;still and forever unresolved). That was difficult but ultimately worthwhile. Living your life for the expectations of other people is the road to closeted depression, in my experience. Life is for living. There are more people than ever in the world (compared to decades past) who will accept you and love you for who you are. I was with my girl before, during and after HRT and SRS. I would recommend moving to a more progressive area as soon as you’re able and meeting more like minded people for friendship, community and ultimately love. That worked for me but I also started that after I graduated from the university and got a job and had financial independence. Wishing you the best on your journey, girl. Know hope!
    1
  3041.  @niverahamed8920  I had some pretty rough depression when I was your age, also. I spent a lot of time just sleeping to I didn't need to be awake. Eventually having my own agency in my life was really helpful. It gave me things focus on and accomplish and slowly over time my mental health improved. It was really helpful for me to have a plan (moving to California) and know where I was going and when and how much money I needed to make that happen. I hope you can get your IELTS certification and go somewhere more progressive. Wishing you the best.
    1
  3042.  @tula1433  Well said! Are you a fan of Caroline Cossey?
    1
  3043.  @cupidok2768  Those are famous Thai trans girls that aren't going to bother with an Asian Boss video.
    1
  3044.  @pret--sky  No, I don't feel empty if someone else does or doesn't have plastic surgery. I lost my face long ago. I'm old. Heh.
    1
  3045. The stereotype of trans sex workers exists for a reason.
    1
  3046. It's sadly true that LGBT people can't legally marry in Thailand. I've been waiting years to legally marry my wife (She's a trans girl). We're legally married in California but can't in Thailand.
    1
  3047.  @jamesbond7034  How much does a non-ts person earn? Depends on the person, doesn't it? Family, job, etc.
    1
  3048. In red light areas you’re going to be approached by everyone selling something. That’s the point of going to those areas. If you’re not interested in that, don’t go to those areas. Simple as that.
    1
  3049. There have been trans women in various cultures all around the world since antiquity.
    1
  3050. @agortha goth Hijra / Kinnar in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Waria in Indonesia. Kathoey in Thailand. Bakla in the Philippines, Muxe In Mexico, Native American Two Spirit, Fafafina in Samoa, Mahu in Hawaii… the list goes on and on. Do the most basic research and you’ll see this clearly.
    1
  3051. I’ll be sure to tell that to all my lesbian Thai friends who will laugh like crazy.
    1
  3052. Same. My wife is a a Thai trans woman. A big part of why we live in California instead of Thailand is because of the weakness of LGBT law in Thailand.
    1
  3053. Depends where you are in the US. It’s a big place and not at all homogeneous. In San Francisco or West Hollywood you’re going to have more LGBT social acceptance than anywhere in Thailand. That’s absolutely not the case in rural Mississippi.
    1
  3054. Those big laws are very useful when you want to get legally married, change your legal gender, adopt children, own joint property, not be forced to testify against your spouse, social security, pensions, power of attorney, Immigration, etc. It’s because of the lack of “big laws” In Thailand that we don’t live there. What someone thinks about my trans wife and I, I don’t really care. We both have jobs and stable employment. I can only hope that Thailand starts taking its LGBT citizens seriously and offering full equality under the law before my wife and I retire. Given the unsteady democracy in Thailand as it is, it could be a while.
    1
  3055. It's surprising how few commenters realize these basic facts.
    1
  3056. How Is loving another mutually consenting adult “horrendous” ? I want equal rights under the law, including same sex marriage. You can dislike us all you want, we just want to be able to legally protect our spouses and not be fired for being gay.
    1
  3057.  @riky2293  It takes time to quietly support any unpopular movement but it all starts somewhere. It may take 50 more years to get to same sex marriage but it all depends on seeing the humanity of LGBT people and that they should have equality under the law for their relationships.
    1
  3058. Plenty of existing kids need adoption.
    1
  3059. How many Thai trans women have you talked to? Walk me through transitioning as a business plan.
    1
  3060.  @sorryIdontGetIt  Sure, most things in Thailand are considerably cheaper but the difference in average annual household income in Thailand vs the US is 5x. The cheapness doesn’t cover that gap. Macro econ aside, your point is a good one. Most Thai people do live a good life, paying out less and earning less, and in many ways are happier and healthier than most Americans. This automatic assumption that so many Thai people are that desperate that they would change their gender for money en masse is absurd. The absurd part is how badly trans people are treated socially in the west so they are afraid to transition. Then western people make up wild stories about why that must be so without looking in the mirror.
    1
  3061. Then why is the trans woman in the next video happy?
    1
  3062. Unfortunately it's true that the only way to get your message out there is to make waves and change hearts and minds. Gays and lesbians tried doing nothing for hundreds of years and had nothing to show for it. Japan needs to move the message that Japan is better place when all it's gay and lesbian brothers and sisters have a place at the table and equal rights under the law.
    1
  3063. How so? Tell us more about how this works.
    1
  3064.  @mr.b7004  So that's a no on giving me something to search for exactly that neatly summaries your understanding of how this works in practice? A title of an article perhaps? Seems like I could spend the rest of my days on The Google attempting to deconstruct exactly what you mean based on this lone cryptic proclamation. I actually want to know.
    1
  3065. There are actually famous trans muay Thai fighters in Thailand.
    1
  3066. The first step is going where the trans girls are. Can you move to a bigger city in your area where your chances are better?
    1
  3067.  @arunaabraham6445  Trans women generally do have a feminine personality and are effeminate but given enough social hostility against something you better believe it can be hidden. It’s just a survival instinct. Happy to answer any other trans questions you have.
    1
  3068.    Colonialism certainly didn’t have a monopoly on homophobia. It certainly was homophobic but there always has been plenty of home grown homophobia as well, to a greater or lesser degree in various cultures. It is a lot easier to blame the west then look in the mirror, however. LGBT Asians deserve full equality under the law for their relationships.
    1
  3069.    Illegality and frequency isn’t the bar for homophobia, of course. No human society has ever been completely free of homophobia even among those where acceptance is high.
    1
  3070. Plenty of Asian trans girls here in the states.
    1
  3071. Reality is overrated.
    1
  3072. Things are slowly getting better for trans people in Thailand. Unfortunately Thai trans women can’t legally marry their husbands nor change their legal gender. My wife is a Thai trans woman and it’s for these reasons we live in California and not in Thailand. If you have any questions, just ask.
    1
  3073.  @speedomars  Certainly it has been much more challenging than what most couples face, that said we’ve been together for 19 years now. US immigration was pretty challenging and expensive. That said, the obstacles only cemented our resolve and in many ways brought us closer together. There is no same sex marriage anywhere in Asia except Taiwan. A few Asian countries allow gender to be changed (not Thailand) but not many and it’s not easy to do that or get legally married. Have you been to Thailand or know any trans people?
    1
  3074. If your religion tells you to hate a class of people then it’s time to reassess your religion.
    1
  3075. Hate is never ok. Crimes should be punished, obviously. Pedophilia is a crime. Crimes have victims. Children cannot give consent to sexual intercourse, this the crime is rape. Punishing gay consenting adults whom love each other is absurd. Being gay is not a crime. If you cannot see this distinction then homophobia has made you blind and I feel sorry for you and for the gay people you come into contact with.
    1
  3076. Oxford English Dictionary: Transphobia: “Dislike of or prejudice against transsexual or transgender people.” Seems like this applies to you. Either that or please give us all a full defense of your like of trans people.
    1
  3077. How about the radical idea that they just like looking and acting female? Too impossible to imagine?
    1
  3078.  @gkprivate433  I’m missing nothing. I’ve spent lots of time in Thailand and talked with plenty of Thai trans girls. My wife is a Thai trans women. I’m very familiar with the subject. I’m also very familiar with how badly trans people are treated in many other countries and all the barriers in the way of transition that are not present in Thailand. Still, we’re not talking about very big percentages here.
    1
  3079. There is a fair amount lost in translation here but there also just cultural differences between Thailand and the west and your question presupposes a gender binary that doesn't exactly match up against Thai cultural traditions going back hundreds of years. Thai trans women, unlike the west, also can't change their legal gender in Thailand so the answer depends on what context you mean. My wife is a Thai trans woman. If you have any questions, just ask.
    1
  3080. Are there that many? How many is many? Why are there so few in other countries? Do you think it’s easy to be a ladyboy in many other countries?
    1
  3081.  @mr.gunzaku437  You should do both in one trip. Fly into SFO, stay for a week and see the city and the ocean and wine country and then fly to BKK and see the jungles in the north and the beach islands in the south and the sizzling metropolis that is Bangkok. Flights to BKK from SFO are inexpensive. Highly recommended. Thailand doesn't really have a functioning democracy so it's a bit hard, even for me, to criticize it's laggardly approach to LGBT rights when there are so many structural political problems. Thai society does a much better job of leaving others alone and non confrontation in the west. On the other hand that non confrontation principal doesn't generate a lot of media and heat for causes, including those that need it, to gain traction. Also sometimes that silence can seem like support when sometimes it is cold misinformed ambivalence. It's a rather complex multivariate emotional landscape in the way Thai society interacts with it's LGBT citizens understood as it's own thing rather than compared with how things are in the west which is itself a product of it's own unique cultural history. If you have any specific questions about the intersection of Thai LGBT life and California LGBT life, ask away. Cheers.
    1
  3082. @VainHarmony Why thank you. Cheers!
    1
  3083.  @voxxandy6136  Many thanks, taegukcci. I think it'll be a while before Thailand does right by it's LGBT citizens but we can hope. Justice delayed is justice denied.
    1
  3084.  @reoij  I don't mind commenting. It's something I know a lot about given my experience being with a Thai trans woman for 18 years, both in Thailand and the US and how the law and society treats us differently. Happy to share that so others without experience and new to the topic can think about it. My mental health is good. Thanks for your comment, though.
    1
  3085.  @takumifujiwara2951  I’m bisexual. I’ve had long term relationships with gay men and cis women and trans women. I like all the chocolates in the box, sweetheart. That sounds like a wealth of experience you’ve never had if you think people are just straight or gay.
    1
  3086. There are a lot of cultural differences and language differences between Thailand and the west when it comes to trans folks.
    1
  3087. So true. My wife is a Thai trans women. We’re legally married in California but have been waiting over a decade now to legally marry in Thailand. At the same time, that’s hardly the only political problem Thailand has. It’s hardly even a democracy at this point.
    1
  3088. There are as many folk explanations as there are people in Thailand. Some small percentage of the population is trans, everywhere. Thailand is different because they treat trans people with more dignity and respect than the vast majority of countries. That's why more trans people come out of the closet there.
    1
  3089. Talk to a few dozen ladyboys and you’ll discover this is untrue. Almost without exception they’ll say that they felt like a girl since they were extremely young, without sexual abuse.
    1
  3090. How does having sex at a young age make you want to take hormones, have surgery and become a girl? Plenty of minors have sex elsewhere in the world and this doesn’t occur.
    1
  3091. How does gay sex make you want to want to take hormones, have surgery and become a girl? Have you talked to many gay people?
    1
  3092. Soldier’s girl is a true story.
    1
  3093. Hilux and Hong Thong, living that Thai life!
    1
  3094. Wow, really? Do you live in a city?
    1
  3095. There is little hostility and much social acceptance in Thailand, yes. That said you can’t get legally married to your husband while trans, nor can you legally change your gender. Thailand’s LGBT legal protections are essentially nonexistent.
    1
  3096. It's not just the price. It's the quality of the work and experience of the surgeons. Thailand does as much SRS as the rest of the world combined.
    1
  3097. Yes. Say it louder for the people in the back!
    1
  3098. Glad you realize that sex and gender are different, Chipotle burrito.
    1
  3099.  @Dawid-kn6mv  Trans women are women. If you want to increase safety in the building or the restroom there are plenty of ways to do that.
    1
  3100. In most of North America and Europe trans women are legally permitted to use the women’s restroom. Literally millions of trans women use the women’s restroom everyday without issue.
    1
  3101. You are aware that gender identity and chromosomes are different things, right? No one is asserting that one’s chromosomes are changing here. Hormones actually have a much larger impact on sex characteristics and trans women are essentially hormonally female. The Y chromosome does very little except spinning up the endocrine system but the actual gene expression is triggered by hormones. Every professional medical organization from the APA to the AMA to the WHO supports transition for transgender women and their use of women’s restrooms. We are to believe you over the entire medical establishment?
    1
  3102. It’s not funny to the entire medical establishment whom have helped trans women transition for decades under their care. They clearly understand what gender dysphoria is in ways that you never will. Is that difficult for you to understand?
    1
  3103. The high suicide rate of trans people is primarily due to two factors. First, the degree to which they’re rejected, the hostility they face and discrimination by family, friends, society, employers and religion. This is true for anyone, it’s simply that trans people experience it far more frequently in many cultures. In societies where trans people are better socially integrated this factor is very low. Take Thailand for example. There are few trans girls that kill themselves there. The second factor is body dysphoria. Here is where medical transition can better change the body to match the mind. It has been shown empirically in studies that the mental health outcomes of trans women who transition is vastly improved. The entire medical establishment knows this and that no other course of action has better mental health outcomes, which is why transition is standard practice. Why should a trans reader agree with you over standard medical practice and the advice of their doctor? Should they come to you for pancreatic cancer treatment, also?
    1
  3104. No lies here. Use lexico to look up the word gender: Either of the two sexes (male and female), especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. The term is also used more broadly to denote a range of identities that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female. How long do you want to keep talking at each other about something upon which we will never agree? You see trans women as men. I see trans women as women. What more is there to say? All the words in the world typed at each other will not change that.
    1
  3105. I did show it. The lexico definition of gender. Second paragraph. Check your reading comprehension. Also again, How long do you want to keep talking at each other about something upon which we will never agree? You see trans women as men. I see trans women as women. What more is there to say? All the words in the world typed at each other will not change that. You won’t believe my references, I won’t believe yours. Neither of us can paste any links in comments anyway.
    1
  3106. Woah, you must be in a really conservative area. Join us here in California. That kind of thing very rarely happens here.
    1
  3107. And the ladyboys that have been a cultural part of Thailand and many places in South Asia hundreds and hundreds of years before the development of BPA? They’re time travelers here from the future?
    1
  3108. Sounds good to me. Far too many people on this planet already. Reproduction is highly overrated.
    1
  3109. Yep. If you'll excuse me I need to run right over to that pack of gay guys so I can blame them for my sexuality. It's totally all their fault. It's not me I swear. byeeee.
    1
  3110. Why is she disgraceful?
    1
  3111. Some of this is lost in cultural translation. She’s just not denying that she’s a trans woman.
    1
  3112. You gotta get out more.
    1
  3113.  @stephenrochester6309  and what nightlife you're into and where you travel. Keep in mind that there are plenty of trans girls that are unclockable of course that you're not factoring into your calculations.
    1
  3114. This is true of the majority of Thai trans women. If you’re going through all that effort you probably really want to be a girly girl.
    1
  3115. CHemon, Exactly this.
    1
  3116. Why is that? You realize you can just ask if someone is trans, right? They are all trans girls in the thumbnail, particularly famous trans girls to be exact.
    1
  3117. Not to me and plenty of other people. To me, if you look female you are female. I’m not running around doing karyotype tests, are you? We’re all just guessing by visual inspection anyway so what does it really matter? Call people what they want to be called. It’s just the decent thing to do.
    1
  3118. What are you talking about? No laws against same-sex sexual activity has ever existed in the Philippines.
    1
  3119. Yes. My wife is a Thai trans woman. Best decision I ever made.
    1
  3120. It isn’t. It’s just translated words. Do some reading about the penile inversion surgical technique. Preserving depth with dialation is just keeping the pelvic floor muscle open.
    1
  3121. How about dating and marrying?
    1
  3122. Agreed. Why do other nations treat their trans citizens so badly that they are afraid to come out of the closet and transition. That's the real question.
    1
  3123. Plenty of non trans girls on drugs looking terrible too. Drugs are the common factor here, not trans women. You can see Thai trans women working regular jobs all over Thailand. Jus my like the trans woman in this video.
    1
  3124. If you like longboard dancing, check out Lotfi Lamaali
    1
  3125. I’ll take that bet.
    1
  3126.  @namibir1215  What is sorry about loving a trans girl? Don’t trans girls need love too?
    1
  3127. My wife is a Thai trans woman. Have you visited Thailand? That’s step number 1. Step 2 is to chat up some trans girls there and see if they want to go out for coffee. That’s literally all it takes aside from some patience to find the right trans girl for you. Any other questions? Just ask.
    1
  3128. What does this anecdotal abusive Korean mother have to do with the cultural history of trans women in South Asia for hundreds and hundreds of years? I’ve got plenty of anecdotes too of trans people living vastly better lives after transition. Anecdotes aren’t data. What is significant is that every major medical and psychiatric organization supports trans people socially, legally and medically transitioning. It doesn’t matter what you or I think. This is between trans people and their doctors not random internet commentators.
    1
  3129. ​ @jmsomps  Estradiol is $30 per month, retail. For a hospital wholesale it's about as expensive as Advil. Trans people are 0.x percent of the population. The cost to benefit ratio of trans folks living better lives with less gender dysphoria leads them to have better jobs and higher AGI. It literally pays for itself. More trans people, per capita, are homeless than cis people. Many places are focusing a ton of effort on the homeless. California spends billions of dollars and the governor is seeking an additional 1.4 billion to help homeless people literally exported from other states where being homeless in the winter is impossible. You really don't get a say so in the health care of others. The APA and the AMA have determined that treatment for gender dysphoria is medically necessary and fully support trans people socially, legally and medically transitioning. See the WPATH standard of care. What you or I think makes no difference. This is between patients and their doctors and their insurance not internet commentators.
    1
  3130. Don’t forget the Philippines, but Thailand still has a long sway to go for trans equality. Trans women can’t change their legal gender or legally their husbands. It’s far far far from a trans utopia.
    1
  3131. My trans wife and I have never been anything but welcomed at Thai Buddhist temples and talking with monks.
    1
  3132. Surgery is much more affordable and there is less gatekeeping in Thailand compared to just about anywhere else. On the other hand in many places in the west transition related care is covered by insurance. I certainly agree that passing privilege is surely a thing and life can be very very difficult for trans women in poverty.
    1
  3133. You do realize that all professional medical and psychiatric organizations recommend gender transition as standard practice, yes? Meaning, if you go to a licensed doctor or psychiatrist and talk with them about your gender dysphoria, they will follow the current “wpath standard of care” which recommends gender transition to ameliorate the gender dysphoria.
    1
  3134. It’s a norm as old as time.
    1
  3135. The existence of Trans men disprove this assertion everyday. Trans people have a cultural legacy in religious and sacred spaces in various cultures across South Asia for hundreds and hundreds of years.
    1
  3136. For liking a beautiful trans woman? No way. Gays like masculine males and have no interest in her.
    1
  3137. The vast majority of trans women in Thailand are not sex workers. You’ll see them working salon and retail jobs all over the country.
    1
  3138.  @aboutmyfathersbusiness8324  Crimes need victims and being a ladyboy is harming no one else. Why are you against freedom over your own body?
    1
  3139. non-sequitur.
    1
  3140. Suicide, eating meat, playground fencing, how many other unrelated topics can you mention? Let me get in on the fun. Aircraft maintenance, glucose, the Mekong river. See? QED.
    1
  3141.  @aboutmyfathersbusiness8324  Sounds good. You should really be getting back to breathlessly edging and edgelording to the most tedious deontological figures in the 20th century anyway.
    1
  3142.  @aboutmyfathersbusiness8324  Not even. This is all 101 level and besides the joke is on you. Mom taught me that you're as girly as you feel and just because you have balls that definitely doesn't make you a man. Join us on the consequentialist dark side.
    1
  3143. Being LGBT is not a sex disorder. No professional medical association thinks that. Plenty of Buddhists are fine with LGBT people, also. Look at Thailand.
    1
  3144. LGBT people want what everyone wants. To be able to legally marry and protect their relationship and to not be fired for being gay. Otherwise you’re creating a discriminatory underclass of people. Economically you’re also structurally disadvantaging them in employment and a number of rights and responsibilities are locked behind the marriage license that they can’t obtain. You don’t need to support or like them but giving everyone an equal social and economic playing field in a pluralistic democracy is really in everyone’s best interest.
    1
  3145. Natural is overrated. I love me some air travel, indoor plumbing, cookie dough ice cream and antibiotics. Nothing natural about them.
    1
  3146. Some you can, others you can’t. There are also plenty of intersex conditions where it’s blurry at the biological level by visual inspection also.
    1
  3147. Thailand eats very little tofu per capita. Have you been to Thailand? Chicken, pork and seafood are what you see everyone eating all the time.
    1
  3148. Where do you live that you’ve never seen a trans woman? If you see a couple Ferraris a day does that mean there are a lot of Ferraris? It’s still less than a couple percent of total cars. Is that a lot?
    1
  3149.  @brunoesteves6711  You’ve got to travel more. Plenty of trans women all around the world.
    1
  3150.  @b.himanya  For the same reason you told us about visiting a Thai transgender show. :)
    1
  3151. Trans women can't marry their husbands and they can't legally change their gender. Thailand still has a long way to go. My wife is a Thai trans woman and we've been waiting many years to be able to marry. It's less ideal then you'd think. It's for these reasons we live in California and not in Thailand.
    1
  3152. Free will exists.
    1
  3153. No trans women is under the impression that their chromosomes change when they transition. You're clearly missing the point of what gender identity actually is.
    1
  3154.  @ifigetbannedagainyoutubeis2018  Become a trans woman to whom? To you? Only you can answer that question. To the trans woman? Whenever she feels that she's a woman. Legally? Depends on the legal jurisdiction. Hormonally? Whenever she starts hormone treatments.
    1
  3155. If you grow to love someone and find them beautiful why does it matter?
    1
  3156. From where?
    1
  3157. There are good things and bad things about California. Same goes for Thailand. Good luck. 🍀
    1
  3158. No argument here. That's partly why I married a Thai trans girl.
    1
  3159.  @bingbong5776  The point of any plastic surgery is to make you more beautiful, not less. lol.
    1
  3160.  @bingbong5776  Gender for me is in the mind, not the body. There are even female voiced voicemail systems and video game characters. Femininity is female to me.
    1
  3161.  @atari8603  Every professional medical organization supports gender transition. AMA, APA and WHO. The licensed healthcare workers you ask me to get help from recognize that transition leads to the best life outcomes which is why it’s the standard of care. Look it up.
    1
  3162. That’s why I married a Thai trans woman instead of an American woman.
    1
  3163. Life is about pretending we are things we say we are.
    1
  3164. If I say I’m an accountant because I can do some accounting, I hate myself? We’re all just filling a role and pretending to be that thing.
    1
  3165. I'm not sure what it means. It's pretty uncommon. I've never heard it before. Happy to have a Thai native speaker chime in, and let us know.
    1
  3166. There have been trans women all across South Asia for hundreds and hundreds of years. It has to do with identity not sexual work. Most Thai trans women are not employed in sex work. You can see them working retail and salon jobs all across Thailand.
    1
  3167. You need a uterus and fertilized eggs to be pregnant.
    1
  3168. So how does this vast food chain implantation scheme work? Walk us through it.
    1
  3169.  @AGSA5  That doesn't explain how Americans covertly disrupt the Thai food supply. Food is growing on a farm in Thailand and before it hits the wok before Thai people it eat it, how do these implanted drugs get in there? Walk us through it.
    1
  3170.  @AGSA5  This is done at scale in a country of 70 million where much food is local and farm to table is very few steps. If it's that easy, surely you can let us know how it works, right?
    1
  3171. They are Moto taxi drivers in one of the largest metro areas in the world, seeing tens of thousands of people every single day. Not the same comparison.
    1
  3172. Until they want to get legally married or change their legal gender.
    1
  3173. A show that’s about to be cancelled due to poor ratings.
    1
  3174. False. Approval is in the low 40s on dozens of polls.
    1
  3175. Looking to the entertainment that people consume to determine crime rates is ridiculous. Why don’t you look at crime rate statistics directly and compare it to your own location?
    1
  3176.  @Nocturaine  Bell lives in Los Angeles now.
    1
  3177. Be careful. You might marry one and live happily ever after like I did. YOLO!
    1
  3178. What percent of the population is many to you?
    1
  3179. When was the last time American GIs were stationed in Thailand? How many trans women have you actually talked to? Watch the adjacent Asian Boss video for an interview with a ladyboy for a very typical experience.
    1
  3180. So that’s a no on having spoken to many trans women yourself to confirm this theory? Americans GIs haven’t been in Thailand since 1974 so we’re only talking about ladyboys older than 45 with this set of criteria.
    1
  3181. There have been transgender women in South Asia since the time of the Kama Sutra 2000 years ago. I’ve just been to Thailand many times and spoke to many Thai ladyboys. None of them have been sexually victimized by GIs or otherwise. You should do the same if you care about the factuality of your assertions.
    1
  3182.  @imjust8644  You're completely welcome to be as transphobic as you like. I'm simply pointing it out. Transphobia certainly is harmful to trans people as it's a stepping stone to discrimination and hostility. It's also harmful to you already, limiting your travel options by your own admission.
    1
  3183.  @imjust8644  I am not at all surprised you're not a fan of traveling. People with such strong aversions rarely are. Feel free to stay in your basement.
    1
  3184.  @imjust8644  Nah. I stan for my LGBT peeps.
    1
  3185.  @imjust8644  So you just provide cover and narratives for those that do. Got it.
    1
  3186.  @imjust8644  ad hominem. Trans people are people and worth defending.
    1
  3187. Per capita, that’s pretty much impossible. Plenty of acceptance there and with it a low barrier to coming out as trans. Other countries are starting to catch up though as they become more accepting. If only all Thai women on Tinder were trans. I wish.
    1
  3188. The only place in all of Asia where gays can marry is Taiwan and that’s only a month ago. In Japan, South Korea I think trans people can marry their spouses as they can change their legal gender but that’s about it. Thailand doesn’t have a functioning democracy at the moment so they’ve got bigger democratic priorities. My girl is post op so there is no schlong. Honestly by casual visual inspection you can’t differentiate her from regular cisgender girls. Plenty of trans girls don’t have schlongs. I consider myself bisexual but I think of myself as in a heterosexual relationship. I’ve been in plenty of heterosexual relationships and this is honestly just like that, minus the pregnancy worries. It really depends on your perspective. Any other questions?
    1
  3189. Let’s let the view count do the talking on actual Interest.
    1
  3190. Lots of LGBT people move away to more progressive cities. I did. My trans wife did. All of my gay friends did. I’d think about it when you’re in a decent place financially to do so.
    1
  3191. Thai soap operas are not really how life is in Thailand. That said, there is plenty of LGBT discrimination and sexism in Thailand.
    1
  3192.  @monte2402  No argument here. My wife is a Thai trans women. We’ve been waiting over a decade to be able to legally marry in Thailand.
    1
  3193. I know that 1% of the population can’t substantially change the average length of public bathroom lines. That’s just math. Are you seriously making this argument? Walk us through the math.
    1
  3194. The janitor didn’t have to do any of that. She could have told those women to just relax and wait. One person ahead of you in line means nothing in the grand scheme of life.
    1
  3195.  @krishyyfan5153  Glad she's getting attention. More attention on this issue is needed so trans women can simply go to the women's bathroom in peace.
    1
  3196. The demographic trends don’t lie. More people every year are supportive of LGBT people and legal equality. It’s only a matter of time until they are fully supported under the law, just has happened already in a dozen other countries.
    1
  3197. You clearly know very little about LGBT history in other countries. They all said that and lost in the long arc of history. Also, You bring up Nazis and you lose. You don’t know Godwin’s Law? Are you new to the internet? That janitor destroyed her own reputation when she of her own transphobic free will frog matched Gretchen down to the security office.
    1
  3198. We’ll see how this turns out in the court of public opinion. The demographic trends are not on your side as the Philippines modernizes and becomes less religious over time. As more LGBT people come out and are accepted by friends and family the harder it is to stand by and watch them twist in the wind due to discrimination, and so the tide will turn. If not this time, next time. Look up LGBT history. It’s clearly something you know little about.
    1
  3199. That’s what religious leaders have said in 28 different countries before public opinion shifted and same sex marriage became legal through political pressure. Philippines is no different it’s just a couple decades away as the old die off and the young embrace their LGBT peers.
    1
  3200. When trans women can legally use the Women’s restroom there will be peace, but not before. This is the law in a dozen countries around world.
    1
  3201. Why would that suck?
    1
  3202.  @andrewearl8926  I don't doubt that this is true but that doesn't mean that the existence of trans women sucks. That's only true if one views the other gender selfishly as objects of pleasure rather than individuals just doing all they can to live their best life. We all have value and contribute to the world, no? There are also a minority of men who are interested in trans women.
    1
  3203.  @andrewearl8926  Aren't the "functional lady parts" biological objects that you are requiring?
    1
  3204.  @andrewearl8926  Fair enough but importantly that's a much more nuanced view than where we started and it's much more equitable to trans people themselves and those that love them then, "It sucks when men act and look better as women then women."
    1
  3205.  @Likorys888  Some will see it that way, some won’t. Depends on the individual in question. My wife is a Thai trans woman and very much sees herself as trans. There is, as always in any large population, a spectrum of perspectives.
    1
  3206. Awesome. What class are you teaching?
    1
  3207. It isn’t easy. My wife transitioned a few years ago. Recovery takes a while after SRS and the earlier process of coming out can alienate friends and family that that are not LGBT friendly. It can be tough but living your truth is ultimately worth it.
    1
  3208. So if I take your brain out of your body and transplant it into a woman’s body, you’ll become a woman and be attracted to men? Really?
    1
  3209. Not convoluted at all. Gender, your tastes in music, your personality, your math skill, your memories, fears, hopes and dreams are all in your mind. Plenty of brain scans and research reveal that the brains of trans women are much like those of cisgender women and not like those of cisgender men.
    1
  3210. The basis of gender dysphoria is that sexual differentiation of the genitals occurs separately from sexual differentiation of the brain in the womb, making it possible that the body can go in one direction and the mind in another. The heart of this is that gender itself, the sense of which category one belongs in (not biological sex) is determined in the womb for humans. This draws support from two sets of findings. 1. Animal studies demonstrated that the genitals and the brain acquire male or female features at different stages of development in the womb, setting up the potential for hormone levels or other factors to put those parts on different tracks. 2. Human studies have found that, in several areas, the brains of trans people bear a greater resemblance to those of cisgender people of the gender those trans people identity, Talk to a large number of ladyboys in Thailand if you want to truly understand this condition from their point of view.
    1
  3211. Don’t be fooled. There is trans discrimination in Thailand.
    1
  3212. Everyone has a Dad. Let’s blame all the world’s problems at the feet of fathers. After all if they didn’t make any new life, life’s problems couldn’t exist. Men can avoid this problem by never having kids and then the world human population can go to zero. Volia, no more human problems ever again! Perfect, right? Give the planet back to the animals.
    1
  3213. Really? The fundamental pitch and resonance of male vs female speakers in this video is pretty different. The trans girl at 1:46 still as a masculine resonance which isn't always the case.
    1
  3214. Wouldn’t ladyboys be harder to handle? If so, why then beta?
    1
  3215. Sadly this freedom doesn’t extend into Thai legal equality. My wife is a Thai trans women. We can’t legally marry in Thailand. She also can’t change her legal gender in Thailand either. In California we are legally married and she is legally female. Thailand still has a long way to go for LGBT respect and equality.
    1
  3216. This is lost in translation. She’s just not denying that she’s transgender.
    1
  3217. Beauty is about money and effort, ladyboys put in a ton of both.
    1
  3218. Highly recommended. I married a Thai trans woman. Best decision I ever made.
    1
  3219. Being gay is not harmful. Gay people don’t need fixing. The homophobic society that emotionally blackmails gay men into this pray away the gay self hating nonsense is to blame
    1
  3220. That’s part of the reason I married a Thai trans woman.
    1
  3221. Nope, literally hundreds of other thirsty folks in the comments too.
    1
  3222. The trans community is murdered all the time. The point is to slowly change the minds of people like your Dad. There is nothing wrong with being trans.
    1
  3223. I and many others whom support LGBT people agree with her. Your restatement of her positions is false and misleading.
    1
  3224. Where / when did she say LGBT rights are better than straight rights?
    1
  3225. Full same sex marriage equality is the law in 26 countries. Over a billion people live somewhere where this is the law of the land. Heterosexuals and the religious do not have a monopoly on the word marriage. Atheist heterosexuals are married everyday. Literally millions of same sex couples are married around the world at this point. Previously, in earlier decades, same sex couples would love each other but would have no way to publicly celebrate this love and dedication to each other in addition to being legal strangers to each other in the eyes of the law. Songs are not written about civil unions and the love gay couples feel for each other is the same love that straight couples feel for each other. Marriage is the language use we use to signify a couple committing to each other, in good times and in bad and in sickness and in health.
    1
  3226. Anywhere else in Asia would be even more depressing, on that basis.
    1
  3227. No doubt about it. Thai ladyboys are amazing.
    1
  3228. There is nothing unproductive about them. Everyone is not going to be gay. It’s just a few percent of population, even less common than being left handed. Plenty of heterosexual people choose not to have children and plenty of gay people adopt children. The difficulty in life stems from people that view them negatively and discriminate against them. This varies widely between a death sentence in the middle east and large of Africa to full marriage equality Iand vast social acceptance in many progressive areas in the west.
    1
  3229. A homophobic society’s point of view isn’t worth seeing.
    1
  3230. So do you also make such equitable concessions for racists? Should people that are racists have their views taken into serious consideration because it’s just who they are? Let’s then find a compromise between the racist and the non racist? Blacks can ride in the back of the bus, all is well with the world! It’s the same thing with homophobia. The only thing to understand is that it is to be eliminated by giving those views no quarter or credence. There is nothing unproductive at all about gay people. They are hard working, tax paying members of society and deserve equal treatment under the law and no less respect than anyone else.
    1
  3231. Treating trans people as human beings is mind boggling?
    1
  3232. All the annual Tiffany pageants are on YouTube. Also Miss International Queen.
    1
  3233. Until they want to get legally married or change their legal gender.
    1
  3234. In Thailand no less where there isn’t even 2% Christians per capita.
    1
  3235. If you have had surgery, that is.
    1
  3236. You are the gender you feel. Gender is between the ears not between the legs.
    1
  3237. The Oxford English Dictionary is the gold standard in dictionaries. Gender, definition 1: “Either of the two sexes (male and female), especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. The term is also used more broadly to denote a range of identities that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female.” You’re telling me you’re a better source for English words than the OED? Fascinating.
    1
  3238. Make it happen. Canada is a much better place to be LGBT. Put your talents to use in a country that supports you.
    1
  3239. You don’t actually know any LGBT people personally, do you?
    1
  3240.  @ricosuabeh  So, zero then. Makes sense given the level of questions that you're asking. Make some LGBT friends and the answers you seek will be delivered to you by life experience.
    1
  3241. This discussion involves trans women. You don’t know any trans women. You don’t see how that inexperience can contribute to a lack of understanding of the topic?
    1
  3242. Sounds great but that’s not always an option. Obviously every trans woman should be in regular contact with a endocrinologist but that’s not the world we live in.
    1
  3243. Did a few desperate people sell their sons and daughters into sex slavery. Sure. Thailand is hardly unique in this regard. Is that representative or explanatory about this topic? No.
    1
  3244. Against what? Thai trans women? There have been trans women in Thailand long before Columbus sailed across the Atlantic.
    1
  3245. What video are you commenting on? There is nothing about the Chinese nor any military action in this entire video. It’s about Thai trans people, hence my question.
    1
  3246. He’s also a taxi driver downtown in one of the largest and busiest cities in the world. He sees tens of thousands of people a day.
    1
  3247. .3%? There are a lot more trans people on Thailand than that. That’s 3 out of every 1000. Anywhere you go in Thailand where you see 1000 men you’re going to see more than 3 ladyboys. The figure for the whole US from the William’s Institute is already double that percentage and one absolutely sees more trans women in Thailand than in the US.
    1
  3248. A few families sold their daughters off into prostitution as well. While tragic, it’s not the explanation for why there are so many trans women in Thailand.
    1
  3249. Doctors perform SRS everyday. It looks good and feels good too. What more do you want from a vagina?
    1
  3250. bisexuals also find transsexual women attractive. Done.
    1
  3251. How do you know any biological facts without doing any biological testing?
    1
  3252. Sure, while you’re at it, I’m sure if trans people washed your car and mowed your lawn you’d then be even more open to them. Trans people aren’t going to identify as something they’re not just to make you feel more socially generous. Are you going to identify as something you’re not just to appease trans people? No, people aren’t slaves and they get to define their own existence for themselves.
    1
  3253. Let’s try this thought experiment. Later today a mad scientist drugs you in your sleep and puts your brain into the head of a woman, and then throws your old male body (and the poor woman’s brain) into a shredder and then that mad scientist commits suicide. What do you do going forward? Do you call yourself a woman now? Your body is biologically female. In that situation I’d absolutely still see myself a man. My brain calls the shots. You better believe i’d talk to my doctor immediately and get on testosterone immediately, hit the gym with some anabolics and get these absurd breasts sawed off. Any jackass that called me woman would get a blast of profanity like the world has never known. Maybe you’d be fine calling yourself a trans man, but I sure as hell wouldn’t be and I wouldn’t take kindly to the suggestion that I should do so for your benefit so you can feel more comfortable and open to people in this same sort of f’d up situation.
    1
  3254. You haven’t even mastered the use of the CAPS LOCK key and we’re supposed to take your assertions about the use of public bathrooms seriously?
    1
  3255. Denying the humanity of others. With that mentality you’re in good company with the most egregious despots the world has ever known.
    1
  3256. Sadly not.
    1
  3257. Yeah? Explain the full business plan to me.
    1
  3258.  @Marcusml333  All Thai people in any area all seem to know all about each other, as well. If you get to know any Thai people, especially any LGBT people, they tend to know absolutely everyone in the area who would be trans and they'd be only too happy to help play matchmaker. Getting an introduction is always way better than dating apps. You're lucky that you're doing this now and not the bad old days before marriage equality. It was an incredible struggle to keep my wife in good immigration status since we couldn't get legally married.
    1
  3259. I get it. No way could I stay there.
    1
  3260.  @FadazMada  Being able to love your spouse and live your life without people firing you and hating you everywhere you go is a pretty big deal. Why put up with all that homophobic abuse if you don't have to?
    1
  3261. When you stop yelling about injustice you see is when you die inside. Never going to happen. LGBT rights are human rights. The only reason LGBT people have a number of important rights today, including marriage equality, is because we organized, won hearts and minds and made political change happen with straight allies.
    1
  3262. Those are injustices and should be and are yelled about. They are just not the topic of this video.
    1
  3263. I’m going to keep right on doing what I’m doing and you do the same. Thanks.
    1
  3264. and that’s why I married a Thai trans girl.
    1
  3265. It really doesn't. The vast majority of trans women in Thailand are not sex workers. Of those that are, nearly universally, they were trans first and sex worker second. Talk to a bunch of Thai trans women and ask them. Simple as that.
    1
  3266. No. Same three famous trans girls as before.
    1
  3267.  @Likorys888  Mongolia is not a place you want to be LGBT.
    1
  3268. A lot of people don’t realize that there are a great number of trans people all over South Asia. Here’s to hoping things get better in Tamil Nadu. Have you been to the Koovagam festival?
    1
  3269. Those three women in the thumbnail are “obvious” to you?
    1
  3270. You're not going to get that from asking a bunch of random people on the street. They're not university sociology professors.
    1
  3271.  @sloppygirlz  If you can’t tell someone is trans then how would you know? What is a male or a female to you? Gender isn’t biology.
    1
  3272.  @sloppygirlz  It just isn't. It's personal identity and social convention. No one does any genetic testing before you meet someone and guess their gender by casual visual inspection and start using she and her pronouns and absent any pushback to the contrary that person is now female to you.
    1
  3273.  @sloppygirlz  That’s why gender isn’t biology. That said, trans women are hormonally female. People just go by what they see and then follow social conventions.
    1
  3274. Wow, are things that bad for Trans people there? Do you mean India?
    1
  3275. It’s a decent option although you can’t change your legal gender and legally marry. In those dimensions the west is better social tolerance is often not. What country are you from?
    1
  3276. In Thailand it doesn’t have the subtext it does in the west.
    1
  3277. Exactly this. Christianity or Islam.
    1
  3278. @agortha goth There are vanishingly few Christians in Thailand and it’s plenty civilized. I reject the assertion. That said there are indeed a number of problems with the treatment of trans people in many societies with large Christian or Muslim populations.
    1
  3279. @agortha goth Japan's Christian population is about 1% of the population. China's Christians population is about 5% of the population. If GDP is your yardstick of civilization then China and Japan are #2 and #3 in the world and they're doing just fine economically. Go look up the numbers yourself.
    1
  3280. Agreed. There are a vast number of Toms and trans males in Thailand and very few media sources shine any light on their communities so their stories can be told. It’s deeply unfortunate.
    1
  3281. That would be amazing to have a country where trans people were treated with that much dignity and respect. I would be honored.
    1
  3282. A lot less discrimination anyway. The number of trans people you see is a function of how oppressive it is for trans people to live openly. Once all societies are as open as Thailand we’ll be able to figure out actual differences by region. That glorious day is many many generations away, sadly.
    1
  3283. You can also just ask nicely as well. You have your own agency in the relationship. At the end of the day no one (not you, not the trans girl) wants to waste their time. If you really want to know, check their ID card. Thai trans women can't change their legal gender.
    1
  3284. How many trans women per capita do you think there are? We’re not talking about much more than 1% of the population.
    1
  3285. Not at all. Their definition of many is just not the same as your definition of many, since it’s relative. I don’t see many Ferrari’s in Beverly Hills but if you’re from Omaha it can seem like a lot when you go to Beverly Hills and you see 20 Ferrari’s among thousands of Toyota’s.
    1
  3286. No academic seriously disputes that being LGBT is anything but a combination of nature and nurture. The important thing is that they’re treated fairly in society, have discrimination protection, can change their legal gender and legally marry who they want.
    1
  3287. Thai trans women can't change their legal gender, can't get legally married, can't legally adopt children, there is vast white collar job discrimination, and they can be barred from certain hotels and bars by class. My wife is a Thai trans woman and it is for these reasons and more that we live in California and not Thailand.
    1
  3288. It’s less impressive when you learn that they can’t legally marry their husbands nor change their legal gender.
    1
  3289. There is no law that trans women need to wear a sign around their neck for your benefit. You’re not cheated out of anything. They’re just living their lives, the same as you. If you’re that afraid of communicating with a trans person, the obligation is on you to ask.
    1
  3290. There have been trans women in Thailand for hundreds and hundreds of years. When you say media do you mean the written word?
    1
  3291. Really? That Mexican girl and those white girls are really sexpats?
    1
  3292. When did you choose to be straight? Do you think you could choose to be gay?
    1
  3293. Thai people are very religious. There are temples everywhere. Also trans women aren’t gay (unless they like women).
    1
  3294.  @TheVampirate99  The tolerance of Thailand is more than just Buddhism. Bhutan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka are very Buddhist too and trans people there are not nearly so accepted socially there. It’s also worth pointing out that there is discrimination against trans people in Thailand. Trans women cannot change their legal gender or legally marry a man. My wife is a Thai trans woman and we can’t legally marry in Thailand but we are legally married in California. If you have any questions, just ask.
    1
  3295.  @itgw4658  Untrue on all accounts. My wife and I get to determine the purpose of life for ourselves, not you. We've been together for 19 years and have never wanted kids and certainly don't now. My wife and I are both orgasmic, thank you for asking. If you're curious you can look into how SRS works but the short answer is that all necessary nerve endings needed for orgasm are left intact in the nicely created vulva. Plenty of actual medical resources online to help you understand that instead of believing in internet folklore.
    1
  3296. Plenty of them but this video is about trans women.
    1
  3297. It’s not fine until gays and lesbians can legally marry their same sex spouses.
    1
  3298. I’m never going to respect any government that doesn’t treat their LGBT citizens equally, up to and including marriage equality. The only way to change laws it to agitate for change and build the social and political will to make it happen. This is what was done in every country that has marriage equality today.
    1
  3299. Trans men who shoot testosterone are going to present as male. They’re going to be be indistinguishable from the cis male sexual predators you’re afraid of. You haven’t thought this through. Do a web search for Buck Angel.
    1
  3300.  @HisWord_Joshua1_9  My wife is a trans women. She's literally used women's public restrooms thousands of times in her life without a single problem. Why should she be punished for what some rapist does?
    1
  3301. Going to the bathroom is selfish? I guess it is. Everyone has to pee. Women, lesbians even, who have been previously convicted of sexual assault are undeniably a higher risk for assaulting women in restrooms, yet they are allowed in. Where is the outrage over this? It is the law in most of North America and Europe that trans women are legally permitted to use the women’s restroom. Go look up Public Accommodation law. Guess what. Millions of trans people use the restroom without incident every day. More women slip and fall on slippery tiles in public restrooms than there are issues with men dressing up as trans women to harass women in restrooms. Where is the outrage over dangerous slippery tiles? There are already laws to deal with any gender commuting any crimes in restrooms. There is no reason to persecute people like my wife for needing to use the women’s restroom. She’s legally female.
    1
  3302. I know all about Jessica Yaniv. She should be jailed. Do I get to pick criminals that represent you, now? You haven’t done a lot of explaining here. If children’s safety is the issue why not have child only restrooms? Why not have mandatory restroom attendants in public bathrooms that can radio security in the building? Why not have panic buttons in restrooms? Why does my wife need to be the embodiment of all the possible safety issues of women in restrooms? Where is the statistical evidence that women are being assaulted by men posing as trans women in restrooms at vastly higher rates then they’re being assaulted otherwise? There are many countries worth of data on this topic, because again in most of North America and Europe it’s completely legal for trans women to use female restrooms.
    1
  3303.  @HisWord_Joshua1_9  I'm confronting you with these questions because it seems like you're a reasonable person, and I want to be sure you've thought this all through. I've had decades of time to know many other trans people that have been personally impacted by this. Some trans people develop bladder problems from being afraid to go to any bathroom and holding it. I know statistically, because I've followed this topic for decades, that an epidemic of men posing as trans women to harass women in restrooms is not a thing that exists. Sure you can find a few instances of nutjobs doing this but that's about it. It's incredibly rare. Slipping and falling on slippery tile in the restroom is a much bigger danger. How many trans women do you know personally?
    1
  3304. Safe, sure. Just don't try to get legally married.
    1
  3305. It doesn’t the same subtext there. It’s just an easy word for non native English speakers to understand and say. They have Thai words with their own subtext.
    1
  3306. Congress can do both. Helping farmers is expensive. Letting trans girls pee in peace in the women’s restroom is easy and costs nothing.
    1
  3307. There are certainly plenty of trans people in Ireland too.
    1
  3308. Lydia Foy comes to mind.
    1
  3309. My wife is a Thai trans woman and she didn’t end up alone.
    1
  3310. You don’t think there are plenty of guys that are into trans women? Plenty of cis women also age and end up alone, particularly at the end of life since they live longer than their cis male spouses. Plenty of older people also just prefer to live alone. Are you afraid to be alone?
    1
  3311. Abstinence isn't hereditary.
    1
  3312. Transgender women are not nasty. Transphobia is nasty.
    1
  3313. It’s been around the corner for years and years. I’m not getting my hopes up, I’ve had them crushed too many times.
    1
  3314. What do you want to know? My wife is a Thai trans woman.
    1
  3315.  @d.k.1394  You watched the video for a reason. I figured you had questions, since you asked.
    1
  3316. Well the video doesn’t actually really explain the real reasons, it’s just a bunch of interviews with random people in the street that have never thought deeply about the question and haven’t researched anything about trans people in historical and cultural context.
    1
  3317. In what profession?
    1
  3318.  @skyliner32gtr65  Men, in the aggregate, make more money in jobs in Thailand. Somewhere around 30% more. On the United Nations Gender Equality Index, Thailand is 83rd in the list of countries for male to female equality. In Thailand it would seem to be completely counterproductive to change into being a woman to take a woman's job if making money was the motivating factor. The vast majority of ladyboys in Thailand are not involved in prostitution.
    1
  3319. I married a Thai trans woman. Ask me anything.
    1
  3320. Why aren’t you gay? :D I’m bisexual. I’ve had long term relationships with men and women and, like everyone, I fell in love with someone and then we got married. I met her before she transitioned and supported her throughout. Sexual orientation is what gender you want to go to bed with. Gender identity is who you want to go to bed as. Simple as that. Any other questions?
    1
  3321. It is getting a lot better with the younger generation though, right?
    1
  3322.  @O2life  Sure thing. If you have any other questions just ask.
    1
  3323. Most ladyboys in Thailand are not employed in the sex industry. You’ll see them working retail and salon jobs all around Thailand. The difference between Thailand and most other places is that Thailand treats it’s trans women much better than other countries do socially. Consequently most trans women decide to transition instead of hiding in the closet. South Asia has had a cultural history of trans women integrated into society for hundreds and hundreds of years.
    1
  3324. Just ask. Easy as that. No one wants to waste their time, after all.
    1
  3325. only fools assume everyone is telling the truth. Do some reading about ex-gay ministries and groups and see what their track record is like. Here is a taste: “David Matheson from Journey into Manhood joins a growing list of prominent people who have left the ex-gay movement. Those include Michael Bussee, one of the original founders of the well-known ex-gay group Exodus (the U.S. branch shut down in 2013); John Paulk, the poster-child for ex-gay group Love Won Out; John Smid, former director of ex-gay group Love In Action and Tim Rymel, former outreach director at Love In Action. Alan Chambers, former head of Exodus US. “ Do a YouTube search for Exodus International and watch the interviews of people who had been through the program when they were younger confront the leader, Alan Chambers.
    1
  3326. I’m not sure how much choice he really had. His own mother killing herself because he was gay and destroying his entire family life Impacted him to the degree that he said he couldn’t sleep and was having panic attacks over being gay. That isn’t an equal choice and that trauma is real. His mother and society clearly reduced his functional choices.
    1
  3327. Middle aged LGBT happily married couple here. No thanks! We're doing just fine.
    1
  3328.  @jimjimsandburg2754  I’m supposed to not love someone because they have a chin implant? Lol.
    1
  3329. Speak from vast personal experience the number of trans girls who are tops is vanishingly small.
    1
  3330. You can see 2 a day if you live in certain places in the US.
    1
  3331. I did marry one. Best decision I ever made.
    1
  3332. Rinrada 'Yoshi' Thurapan - left Chananchida 'Blossom' Rungpetcharat - center Treechada 'Poyd' Petcharat - right
    1
  3333. There are plenty of people on this planet already. I’d rather help take care of the people who are here already than manufacturing new life. The earth has 7.53 billion people and is in no danger of underpopulation, exactly the opposite. Fewer people being born is a good thing. What a few percent of the LGBT population does or doesn’t do with respect to reproduction doesn’t even move the needle on country wide fertility rates. Government has no place endorsing a particular religion or religious doctrine. All counties are a mix of many religions and treating all citizens equally, including gay citizens, under the law requires government not endorse any particular religion.
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