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Kathoey thailand11/18/2023 Hiring managers have asked transgender applicants inappropriate questions and told them they would never hire them because of their gender identity, or only if they dressed according to the sex they were assigned at birth. Employers have posted advertisements explicitly discouraging transgender people from applying. The lack of legal gender recognition in Thailand has a negative impact on transgender individuals’ ability to secure employment and their right to be treated with dignity and respect. And while Thailand’s public health insurance covers a broad suite of care, including mental health services, the requirement to receive a referral for mental health services from a primary care provider poses a significant hindrance to transgender people seeking transition-related care, for which a psychiatric evaluation is often required, and more generally for those who face indignity and humiliation accessing care in general. But these programs do not cover transition-related care, and research has shown that private insurance companies sometimes deny transgender people coverage, or only cover them under plans according to the sex they were assigned at birth, making them ineligible for certain services. Thailand has a robust public health care system, and all citizens are eligible for public health insurance. Furthermore, an insufficient number of providers are adequately trained in transition-related care, such as the provision of hormone therapy, leading to the unsupervised consumption of hormones, compounding the accessibility gaps caused by stigma and discrimination. Even if they never face such incidents themselves, they often fear and avoid health care based on their peers’ experiences. They are subjected to privacy violations when their gender identity is exposed in public settings, invasive questioning and humiliation when providers query their gender markers, and discomfort when they are placed in hospital units that do not match their gender identity. Seeking health care is particularly fraught for transgender people in Thailand. ![]() From early years and even at most universities, the enforcement of school uniform regulations has acted as a barrier and a source of stress and humiliation for transgender students. Transgender students in Thai schools face harassment, bullying, and discrimination, all of which is undergirded by the enforcement of appearance standards that force students to dress according to their sex assigned at birth. “I felt like a caricature for these government officials,” he said.Įducational institutions in Thailand reinforce rigid social gender norms. “They opened up the picture of me from the past and compared different versions and asked other colleagues to come and look as well to discuss on this.” The officials invaded his privacy, asking questions about his body and his transition. “The first question that they asked me is how did I get my penis…whether it’s really possible to become a trans man,” he said. Transgender people in Thailand interviewed for this report described how the lack of legal gender recognition, combined with pervasive and harmful stereotypes, limited their ability to access services and forced them to face daily indignities.įor example, a transgender man in Bangkok told Human Rights Watch that in 2019 when he lost his identification (ID) card, which lists him as female, his birth sex, the visit to the government office to replace it was humiliating. The result, as documented in this report, is that transgender people in Thailand experience numerous barriers to their rights to health, education, work, freedom of movement, and non-discrimination. There is no route for transgender people to obtain legal documentation that reflects their gender identity, and the affirmative policies that exist (including the ability to change one’s first name) leave discretionary power in the hands of administrative officials. Transgender people in Thailand currently enjoy few legal protections against discrimination and those are not fully enforced. But social acceptance has its limitations and is no substitute for protections grounded in law. The country has for decades been a destination for transgender people seeking gender-affirming health care and has been recognized as a place where sexual and gender minorities can live safely and openly. ![]() Thailand has an important opportunity to match its positive global reputation on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights with its obligations under international law by developing a rights-based procedure for legally recognizing gender identity.
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