All we need is…?
With headlines like those below, do any of us in the T community need more bad news?
“Police summon nude lady boy dancers”
“Ladyboy funds surgery with stolen money”
“Foreigner drugged and robbed by Pattaya ladyboy”
“Chinese official suspended after being photographed with ladyboys in Thailand”
Sad to say, these are only a small selection of headlines which have appearing in both the Thai and English press in Thailand over the last 4-6 weeks; headlines concerning people who, fundamentally, are just like you and me; people who may now be committing crimes, but whose only real “crime” was being born with a mismatch of mind and body — a disturbing scenario for anyone, no matter what their origin, what their background.
After all, plenty of people who do not have gender problems also commit crimes: they cheat, they steal, lie and so on — as evidenced all too well by the high prison population of “normal” people in most countries!
In my view, in an ideal world, many of the problems regularly experienced by T people can be easily solved, in fact they could be solved fairly quickly but, unfortunately, as with many aspects of human life, none of us live in an ideal world — nor, I am sorry to say, will we ever do so!
Although the recipe for resolution is rather complicated, if we start with two of the key ingredients, namely large helpings of education and of universal tolerance, then we might just begin to make some progress.
Starting with education, I mean education for both for T people and non-T people.
Give T people better opportunities to learn, to study and be educated; bear with them during, typically, their adolescent years when T people are usually even more confused and worried than their ‘’normal’’ (that word again!) peers, as the strains of reaching puberty in the “wrong” body become almost unbearable. T people often can’t concentrate on learning for fears about their transgender situation, fears about being found out, fears about everything to do with their mixed-up life and so on. In fact, school drop-out rates by ladyboys in their early teens in Thailand are very high, and I understand this is consistent across the region.
Let T people see that there are careers for them after completing their studies; careers other than working in bars, night clubs, in prostitution; teach them that they can earn enough money legally by working hard in a career, more than enough to pay for the often necessary surgeries.
Then there’s the need to educate non-T people; let them know that being T is not a lifestyle choice, being T is not a perversion; being T is much the same as having black or red hair, being tall or small — it’s not as if people can be involved in the choice of being T or not! But, most of all, educate people that T’s are human too, with the same needs, wants and desires as the rest of the population.
It’s just that they don’t fall into the gender categories others love to define.
Education breeds tolerance and the sooner non-T people stop the discrimination, stop the prejudices and the transphobia, then we can all take a quantum leap forward and start effectively tackling the issues which cause headlines such as those I have outlined above.
Sadly, though, there are, and always will be (in my humble opinion no matter what we do), prejudices, discrimination, phobias and hate in the world; such vices are inbuilt into most people, even though the degrees may vary. My goodness, its commonplace for even members of the same families to fight ferociously, so what hope is there for strangers to get on and live harmoniously together?
The human race is such a tribal based race (and I use tribal in the loose sense) with divisions into gangs and cliques and private clubs and secret societies; the far right, the far left and so on and so on…, and tolerance suffers as a result.
But we have to start somewhere and winning small battles may well help us T people win the ongoing, perpetual war.
Still, I feel we have to be positive and so, next time you have the chance, do a bit of advocacy and put in a good word for T’s, promote the cause, let other people know we’re not all that bad… [well, generally we’re not… but just don’t let others read the headlines atop this piece!].
After all — maybe all we need is [some] love!
Available from Club Lighthouse Publishing
Category: Transgender Body & Soul, Transgender Opinion
About the Author (Author Profile)
Christine has written numerous (at least 150) articles, columns, op-eds, features & stories for well known T magazines, websites & e-zines; she also works as a part time fiction editor for Club Lighthouse Publishing, and is a co-editor of an award winning T-girl Magazine. In addition, she has written 8 adult books mainly in the T sub-genre which have been published by Club Lighthouse Publishing, for whom she has been the best selling author for the last 5 years.Subscribe
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