Ecstatic
07-31-2008, 02:06 PM
Reported by the BBC News:
Thai school offers transsexual toilet
With its spacious, tree-lined grounds and slightly threadbare classrooms, there is nothing obviously unusual about the Kampang Secondary School.
It is situated in Thailand's impoverished north-east, and most of the pupils are the children of farmers.
Every morning at 0800 they all gather outside to sing the national anthem and watch the flag being raised.
Then they have a chance to use the toilets, before heading off the first classes of the day.
Kampang is proud of its toilets. Spotless, and surrounded by flowering tropical plants, they have won national awards for cleanliness.
But there is something else about them too. Between the girls' toilet and the boys', there is one signposted with a half-man, half-woman figure in blue and red.
One 13-year-old said: "We're not boys," he told me, "so we don't want to use the boys' toilet - we want them to know we are transsexuals."
Suttirat Simsiriwong, a transgendered campaigner for transgender rights in Thailand, said: "At that age it's good for them to have a specific place. But when they graduate from school or university, they will know how to have medical treatment. They won't want to go into a transgender toilet because they will want to be accepted as a woman - so they will go to the women's toilet."
Full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7529227.stm
Thai school offers transsexual toilet
With its spacious, tree-lined grounds and slightly threadbare classrooms, there is nothing obviously unusual about the Kampang Secondary School.
It is situated in Thailand's impoverished north-east, and most of the pupils are the children of farmers.
Every morning at 0800 they all gather outside to sing the national anthem and watch the flag being raised.
Then they have a chance to use the toilets, before heading off the first classes of the day.
Kampang is proud of its toilets. Spotless, and surrounded by flowering tropical plants, they have won national awards for cleanliness.
But there is something else about them too. Between the girls' toilet and the boys', there is one signposted with a half-man, half-woman figure in blue and red.
One 13-year-old said: "We're not boys," he told me, "so we don't want to use the boys' toilet - we want them to know we are transsexuals."
Suttirat Simsiriwong, a transgendered campaigner for transgender rights in Thailand, said: "At that age it's good for them to have a specific place. But when they graduate from school or university, they will know how to have medical treatment. They won't want to go into a transgender toilet because they will want to be accepted as a woman - so they will go to the women's toilet."
Full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7529227.stm