Military Conscription in Thailand

Continuing somewhat in the vein of my last article about the vitriol and hostility shown towards ladyboys in Pattaya and elsewhere who had been accused of certain misdemeanours related to running a vice ring involving underage prostitutes, sadly there has been a continued spate of such negative news items over the last few weeks: ladyboys stealing from convenience stores; fighting each other in the street; and, tragically, two being involved in a major road accident where the other passengers on two separate motor cycles were killed.

The local press seemingly continues to want to report incidents where it gives them the opportunity to portray ladyboys in a bad light or overly sensationalise such stories — and the “guilty until proven innocent” sentiment seems to be prevalent in both the English and Thai press; giving more fuel to the general wave of adverse sentiment towards T people (which I highlighted last time) which, in turn, is characterised by comments in forums and chatrooms on various web sites.

In my opinion, even the usual articles (and accompanying photos) appearing on the annual, nationally designated day for (compulsory) conscription into the Thai Army seem to me to have more of a biased slant this year than normal—but first, let me explain further about the issue in question.

Thailand has a compulsory policy that all males, upon attaining the age of 21, must serve for a period of time in the Thai Army or Navy; whilst neither the Army nor the Navy has never really been involved in major conflicts in recent times, typically, for a family member to be in the military in Thailand is a source of prestige for families of those who do serve, and an opportunity for the personnel themselves to carve out a relatively comfortable lifestyle and career if they continue with being enlisted after the initial conscription period.

Ladyboys are generally not so keen on the idea of being in the military for any length of time, and are usually considered by the public at large to be exempt from such service — aa-haa, quite a progressive ruling you initially think. Yet, in fact, Thai law does not exempt Ladyboys from military service unless they have had the “complete” operation, and simply dressing as females or even having had breast augmentation does not provide automatic grounds for any exemption. This exemption is, in fact, is still at the discretion of the conscription board and is also dependent on the number of conscripts, volunteers, etc.

Hard to believe, I know but, until around two years ago, dressing in the clothes of the opposite gender was labelled a “permanent mental defect” as far as conscription was concerned in Thailand and transsexuals were exempt military service on those grounds, regardless of whether they had all or part of the necessary operations. Accordingly, their military documents, which are required to be shown to most future employers, reflect their lack of service; and opens up unwanted questions on gender and so on.

So, back to the annual conscription exercise: every year on the due date all potentially eligible recruits are required to report to a reporting station closest to their home and the following extract from a ‘’newspaper’’ (my inverted commas as I am reluctant to truly describe it as that!) briefly describes the scene at one such recruiting centre on a recent recruitment day—the article under a lead title which , to me at least, is aimed to shaping readers opinion before they get into the article:

PATTAYA:– “Draft-Dodging Thai Ladyboys Get Last Laugh” — many gleeful ladyboys showed up at Banglamung City Hall to be declared exempt from military conscription for the Army and Navy. Thai men over age 21 are required to register for at least one military draft before the age of 30. Draftees are picked by a lottery, but Thai law exempts ladyboys.

Take from this what you will, but the mere fact that this event continues to be reported year after year, (and the use of ‘’gleeful’’ to describe the ladyboys’ demeanour) does suggest to me that the media is not altogether enamoured with the ability of T people to escape doing military services; add in the fact that, as I briefly mention above, in every job application or at an interview, papers showing the status of an individual’s military record have to be presented then this will clearly taint a candidate immediately the reason for their avoidance of military service is apparent.

Hardly a level playing field if the rights of T people are to be protected and their career prospects advanced. Additionally, coupled with the eligibility for conscription issue is, perhaps, one of the biggest issues of all — the intransigence of the Thai government to allow even those who have completed GRS to change their birth name on their official ID cards; given the completely different appearance most of the T-girls have to their male birth name this borders on the completely absurd.

So (with apologies to GNR), when dealing with gender issues in a rational way: “welcome to the jungle (or should that be army or the navy, I’m not sure), we’ve got fun and games. . .” (and will continue to have them for some time to come, I fear!).

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Tags: featured, Ladyboy, opinion, Thailand, Transgender

Category: Transgender Body & Soul, Transgender Opinion