A secondary school in northeast Thailand recently built a toilet solely for its transsexual student population.
According to the Telegraph, the Kampang School built the toilet for the 200 self-declared transsexuals — students with male anatomy but decidedly feminine characteristics.
“These students want to be able to go in peace without fear of being watched, laughed at or groped,” school director Sitisak Sumontha told the newspaper.
Thailand is famously accepting of sexual minorities, including transvestites, cross-dressers and people born with both male and female characteristics.
Kampang School follows in the footsteps of a Chiang Mai technical college, who, in 2003, built a “Pink Lotus Bathroom” for its transgender students.
Transsexual students are so commonplace that Thailand’s Education Department plans to count them and, if necessary, build dormitories and toilets for them if universities have large enough populations.
–Julia Hengst/Newsdesk.org
Source:
“Thai school builds transgender toilet”
The Telegraph, June 19, 2008
So, why is Thailand so far ahead of the US in its treatment of sexual minorities? Ok, this is a retorical question. I don’t see this country as a world leader in really very much that is good and this is not entirely because of the current administration.
When will North America catch up?