I was scanning the BBC's news website and saw the following story: "Thai school offers transsexual toilet ." The article was really interesting to me because I had no idea that Thailand was so tolerable (though as a person interviewed in the story said, not necessarily accepting) of transsexuals. At this particular school, 10 - 20% of the male students consider themselves to be transgender and didn't feel comfortable in the boys bathroom and the girls didn't feel comfortable having them in their bathroom, so a third option was created for them. From the story, it doesn't sound like there are openly transgender girls. Anyway, I just wanted to share this story to see if anyone knows more about transgender issues in Thailand and to hear people's thoughts on having a separate bathroom and if that would be useful here in the U.S.
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A while ago an article got me interested in third genders and I ended up researching different types from around the world:
"Transsexuals" in Thailand are called "Kathoey" and many Thai people don't consider them "transsexuals" in the same sense Westerners do. They're often considered a third gender, or another type of male or woman, similar to the hijra in India. Like the Hijra, they have a long history in the country but still face a lot of challenges; they aren't legally recognized as a third gender and have to identify as either male or female for legal purposes. They're also associated with prostitution in some people's minds, whether they are or not. There are popular singers, models and movie stars who are kathoey, including a famous retired boxer. This isn't the first school to create separate restrooms for them, another college has done it before.
From wiki:
Researcher Sam Winter writes:
"We asked our 190 [kathoeys] to say whether they thought of themselves as men, women, sao praphet song ["a second kind of woman"] or kathoey. None thought of themselves as male, and only 11 percent saw themselves as kathoey (i.e. ‘non-male’). By contrast 45 percent thought of themselves as women, with another 36 percent as sao praphet song... Unfortunately we did not include the category phet tee sam (third sex/gender); conceivably if we had done so there may have been many respondents who would have chosen that term... Around 50 percent [of non-transgender Thais] see them as males with the mistaken minds, but the other half see them as either women born into the wrong body (around 15 percent) or as a third sex/gender (35 percent)."
As for second bathrooms in the US, I don't see that happening any time in the near future, given the way even mild challenges to gender norms are seen in this country. I also don't see it as having much use in many areas. In city neighborhoods with larger trans populations it could make sense, but as a law for the entire country or entire states it would be a waste of money. I do like when areas offer "Family" restrooms, which are usually smaller and more private and allow family members of both gender to use the restroom. As of now that would probably be the most comfortable place for the typical trans person, but the option of non gender divided restrooms would be more economical than toilets exclusively for inter sex or trans people.
Thanks, Kat!