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Published on November 4, 2007

Proposed legislation that would grant transsexuals, or people who have undergone a sex change, full legal rights as men and women has generated a lively debate in the National Legislative Assembly and among members of the general public. Given that Thailand has traditionally been quite tolerant toward homosexuals and transvestites, who are widely regarded as a pretty harmless aberration to the norm, if not merely different in terms of sexual preference, no public backlash is expected.

Unlike in societies that belong to the Abrahamic traditions, which include Christianity, Islam and Judaism, public debate on such topics in Thailand, a predominantly Buddhist country, is relatively free from moral judgements.  People in this country are more concerned about practical issues such as how heterosexual men and women are going to be able to accurately determine the gender at birth of their potential partners, possible abuses of gender reassignment surgery by criminals and the possibility that a gender imbalance could develop if too many people rush out to change their sexes. Some of these are legitimate concerns that must be carefully weighed against the demand by advocates of homosexual and transvestite rights, while others are based on homophobia that have no basis in reality.

If the findings of a recent opinion poll conducted by Ramkhamhaeng University's Public Opinion Centre are any indication, although most people would not go out of their way to keep homosexuals and transsexuals down, they also are not very enthusiastic about the idea of granting them equality under the law either.

The poll revealed that almost 70 per cent of people surveyed disagreed with both the idea of allowing people who have undergone gender reassignment surgery to use the titles of Mister, Miss, and Mrs to reflect their new gender and allowing them to legally register their marriages the same way heterosexual couples do.

The new Constitution has gone as far as saying that no one should be discriminated against because of his or her sex, and, by extension, sexual orientation.

Thailand has made remarkable progress in guaranteeing equality among citizens in the eyes of the law regardless of their sex, but in reality discrimination persists. Thailand as a society still has some catching up to do before equality between the sexes - women and men and whatever sexual identities lay in between - is realised.

In the meantime, Thai society appears undecided on whether it is wise to recognise the so-called "third sex", which covers homosexuals of both sexes and transsexuals, or people who have undergone a sex change. Obviously a more thorough discussion is in order on how we are to go about solving the problems of discrimination, to which many homosexuals and transsexuals feel they are subjected.

The purpose of the institution of marriage in the modern world is no longer exclusively about procreation. Many heterosexuals tie the knot without even considering children, and many couples who are infertile can choose to adopt. There is no reason why homosexuals and transsexuals should be deprived of the rights to get legally married and thereby provided with the accompanying legal protections or to adopt children like heterosexual couples do.

Legal recognition of homosexuals, most of whom are content with the physical gender characteristics they were born with and have no intention of altering them, is a straightforward matter. Laws will eventually be changed in this country once enough people lose their prejudices. However, granting legal status to transsexuals will be more problematic because there is still a relatively small number of people who have undergone gender reassignment, and also because there is a question about privacy versus the need to be able to trace the original gender of these people.

Legal recognition of transsexuals must come with a system to balance the right to privacy of those who have undergone a sex change and a level of transparency that allows concerned parties, such as the potential partners of transsexuals, to find out their original gender. Again there are other practical reasons why transsexuals should not hide their original gender. For example, doctors should have the right to know about this because although the physical appearance of a transsexual is different, doctors still base their diagnostic and treatment options based on the person's gender at birth.