If you have been one of the millions of visitors to Thailand you will have noticed a prolific number of Ladyboys. Thailand has the highest numbers of Ladyboys, per head of population, in any country in the world.
On my arrival in the land of smiles, many years ago, I came across ladyboys everywhere, working in hotels, cafes, supermarkets, in all sorts of female type jobs and lifestyles. My thoughts were, wow what a tolerant society to accept such special individuals.
Sadly over the 10 yrs I lived in Thailand I was to find out about the dirty little secret that is really behind the high number of ladyboys and why they are accepted into all walks of life.
Before I reveal that Dirty Little Secret let me give you some background. Thailand is a Patriarchal Society, a male ruled and dominated country. This male domination may come from Thailand being a Kingdom that can only ever have a King in the top job. Now with the version of Buddhism that Thailand has created, there is an ideology that says if a daughter looks after her mother in this lifetime she will return as a man in her next.
Therefore a daughter will do anything and I mean anything that a mother asks or demands. The mothers can ask for a new phone, new motorbike even a new car and the daughter will move heaven and earth to fulfill that request.
It is the daughters that send money home to the family. The sons stay at home and let mum look after them until they marry and have a wife to take care of them.
This means if a family has no daughter they will be poor in the extreme. Their will be no money sent home to the parents and there will be no comforts for the parents in their later years.
This is where the Dirty Little Secret comes into play.
Should a family only have male children they will merely pick one child to be the girl of the family. Thus a ladyboy is made. This is a prolific situation with parents from the poorer areas, such as the north east region of Isan.
How can a parent do this to a child? How can a society in the 21st century be accepting of this crime against a young child? Why is no one raising this issue internationally?
A few years ago it came to light that many of these ladyboys around the time of puberty, were wanting to return to life as a male. Families were combating this problem by having the child castrated to ensure they remain living life as a ladyboy and therefore securing the financial future of the parents. Now instead of the government stepping in and saying enough, stop turning young boys into ladyboys, stop destroying the lives of thousands of our young men. No, the government says castration is now illegal on a child under 16. WTF. Recently the government has shown even more acceptance of this horrid activity by agreeing to study the option of bringing in legislation to allow Thailand to have a legal 3rd sex. WTF.
Many people refuse to travel to countries that have terrible human rights abuses. Maybe those same people should consider looking upon Thailand as perpetrators of human rights abuse or child abuse or abuse of humanity.
