Cross-dressing teens get own school bathroom

[Mr. Jon Donnis]

How long before we get this in UK schools?

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updated 5:35 a.m. ET June 18, 2008
BANGKOK, Thailand - A secondary school in rural Thailand has designed a new bathroom that it calls a "transvestite toilet" for its growing community of cross-dressers.

The Kampang School in northeastern Thailand conducted a survey last term that showed more than 200 of the school's 2,600 students considered themselves transvestites, said school director Sitisak Sumontha.

So, when classes resumed in May, the school unveiled a unisex restroom designated by a human figure split into two, half man in blue, and half female in red. Below the figure, it says, "Transvestite Toilet."

Three transgender students praised the new restroom as they plucked their eyebrows and applied face powder in front of the mirror outside the stalls.

Tolerant
"I'm so happy about this," Vichai Sangsakul, a teenager with a pixie hairdo pulled back with a pink barrette, told Thailand's PBS new channel on Tuesday. "It looks bad going to female restrooms. What would other people think?"

Most rural Thais are conservative in many ways, but the trailblazing toilet initiative at the school in northeastern Sisaket province reflects another aspect of Thai society: its tolerance of the country's very visible transsexual and transvestite community.

"These students want to be able to go to the restroom in peace without fear of being watched, laughed at or groped," said school director Sitisak Sumontha. Using female restrooms made some of the other students uncomfortable and using the men's room often resulted in harassment, he said.

'Uneasy'
"They don't have problems with transvestites but going to the same private area, like a toilet, makes them uneasy," he said. "The transvestite kids may behave even more effeminately than the girls, do but their anatomy is still like that of a boy."

He said the concept reflected a growing need at Thai schools and universities.

Kampang is not Thailand's first educational institution to set up transvestite washrooms, though Sitisak said he believed it was a first for a secondary school. A 1,500-student technical college in the northern province of Chiang Mai set up a "Pink Lotus Bathroom" for its 15 transvestite students in 2003.

Deputy Education Minister Boonlue Prasertsopar recently said the ministry plans to count the number of transvestite university students.

He said he was not promoting trans-gender interests, "but if there are a lot of them in a university and it's a problem, we may have to consider building toilets and dormitories for them."

Transsexuals and transvestites are regularly seen on TV soap operas and throughout Bangkok, working at department store cosmetics counters, popular restaurants, in office jobs and in the capital's red-light districts. Thailand also has a trans-gender beauty pageants.

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25234970/

[traceyg]

I suppose it will be introduced in this country very soon with these barmy 'human rights laws'
the same as any public place having to have a disabled toilet!!!

[conbott]

your right about the "human rights laws" i'm sick of them myself. i do disagree over the disabled toilets though. it's just my opinion but the way i see it is a disabled person cannot help their condition and an everyday public toilet is not suitable for them most of the time. but as for "cross dressing teens" i'm sorry it just astounds me. if there were changing rooms to suit all religions, gender and any other group wanting to separate themselves there'd only be the door to the outside left. where does it end?

[kensington]

My view has always been that in this day and age all changing rooms and toilets should be unisex anyway. Most of us have two hands and ten fingers etc. It's all so silly and old fashioned having seperate changing rooms and toilets. We are all human. Prudes should just get over it.

It all stems very much from religious attitudes towards the naked body and the opposite sex. So many of us are living under and being conditioned because of these beliefs sometimes without even knowing it. Frankly a changing room is a changing room and I do not care if I am sharing it with a man, a woman or tranvestite. Simple

[oh2bhappy]

Jun 18, 2008 17:51:03 GMT traceyg said:

I suppose it will be introduced in this country very soon with these barmy 'human rights laws'
the same as any public place having to have a disabled toilet!!!

I have bad knees, and need a disabled loo for all the handles. Either that or call the local fire brigade out to haul me off the loo. As much as I like a man in uniform, I couldn't face one - or more than likely more - hauling me off the loo

[conbott]

Jun 19, 2008 10:01:03 GMT oh2bhappy said:

Jun 18, 2008 17:51:03 GMT traceyg said:

I suppose it will be introduced in this country very soon with these barmy 'human rights laws'
the same as any public place having to have a disabled toilet!!!

I have bad knees, and need a disabled loo for all the handles. Either that or call the local fire brigade out to haul me off the loo. As much as I like a man in uniform, I couldn't face one - or more than likely more - hauling me off the loo

that's what i mean disabilities govern how physically capable someone is to help themselves without assistance. people don't want to be stared at or to be getting in the way of others, it's got to be embarassing. thankfully i'm able to dress or undress on my own and if you feel so bad change in the toilet itself where no one can see you.

[Deleted]

Over the last year I have had two colleagues who are undergoing gender realinment from male to female.
As part of the process they have to live for a certain amount of time as a woman, with womens clothing and using womens toilets etc. to see if the lifestyle is really for them.

At work they would use the womens toilets and nobody had any problems with it whatsoever, we just accepted that it was a stage they were going through in our lives.

In another store for the company we work for however, all of the female staff members complained and moaned and signed a petition and the man undergoing the process was forced to use the disabled toilets.

I think it all boils down to the reaction and behaviour of other people to the way people choose to dress or live their lives.
The article speaks of groping?! no wonder these people wanted their privacy!

[sallyanne rose]

sorry kensington but i am going to disagree on this one, i do not want to share toilets with men, the main reason being mens loo's are generally a disgusting state, but also because i dont want to see men peeing in the urinals and us ladies like to go in in pairs for a gossip away from prying male ears :-) although i kind of agree with you in principle, in practise i would not be happy about it at all.

[steje73]

Maybe we, as a whole, should look at first giving women more toilets in concert/sports venues and the like. Whenever I go somewhere with Jeanette she always mentions the queues and how she sometimes misses things due to the wait. I've been to so many festivals/gigs over the years where women have been forced to use the gents and although I don't mind, you can tell they'd rather have some more ladies ones.

[tomolac]

as it is already I see woman more often get preferred treatment, their loos' are better furnished and better maintained (chicken - egg argument here) than the blokes tend to be, and now you think they need bigger ones maybe its simply because they spend more time in them? but no wonder blokes want to use them too

[conbott]

the way i see it is if you give one group of people their own changing rooms, toilets, etc, where does it end? people learning acceptance is what we need. i know when i've used facilities like this i respect others and have no desire to stand and ogle at them or their differences to me. people who do that are the ones with the problem. respect my privacy and i'll respect yours.

[tomolac]

I generally avoid contact as much as possible in them, its not really a communal activity

[baronvon]

I feel uneasy having a piss in a public urinal next to someone who's taller than me. Therefore I demand that they introduce a special toilet for people just like me where the maximum height is 6'3" so I will always been at least the joint tallest patron.

The sad thing is the ludicrous demand I just made is only marginally more ridiculous than the one in the article.

[conbott]

Jun 19, 2008 18:05:47 GMT baronvon said:

I feel uneasy having a piss in a public urinal next to someone who's taller than me. Therefore I demand that they introduce a special toilet for people just like me where the maximum height is 6'3" so I will always been at least the joint tallest patron.

The sad thing is the ludicrous demand I just made is only marginally more ridiculous than the one in the article.

It's a man thing! Trust me! Mens bits are exposed to all and sundry where as we ladies have the advantage of camoflauge! (unless very drunk and coordination has gone bye bye) ;D

[den]

Why not just give the cross dressers rights to use disabled toilets instead of building new bathrooms? ( I'm not saying cross dressers have a disability because they cross dress btw ) All disabled toilets are uni sex so it doesn't matter what you're dressed like.

And let's face it, able bodied people use them anyway. The amount of times I've seen an able bodied person come out of one of them while I've been waiting to use it is beyond a joke. (I'm a wheelchair user)

[tomolac]

Jun 19, 2008 22:02:01 GMT den said:

And let's face it, able bodied people use them anyway. The amount of times I've seen an able bodied person come out of one of them while I've been waiting to use it is beyond a joke. (I'm a wheelchair user)

have a look at The IT Crowd episode 'The Work Outing' (Season 2, Episode 1)

[conbott]

Jun 19, 2008 22:02:01 GMT den said:

Why not just give the cross dressers rights to use disabled toilets instead of building new bathrooms? ( I'm not saying cross dressers have a disability because they cross dress btw ) All disabled toilets are uni sex so it doesn't matter what you're dressed like.

And let's face it, able bodied people use them anyway. The amount of times I've seen an able bodied person come out of one of them while I've been waiting to use it is beyond a joke. (I'm a wheelchair user)

Yes people taking advantage again. People who are different whether it be religion or gender, etc, sometimes make themselves stand out because they make such a fuss. I know if I demanded things that I wanted I'd become a pain in the butt. But now with way too much political correctness people are getting ridiculous rights. To me a lot of it is about respect. Why should someone like yourself have to wait to use a toilet because some impatient able bodied person can't wait. That's what I have a problem with. Again if you say anything though you end up in trouble. It's wrong.

[bujin]

Jun 19, 2008 16:35:40 GMT sallyanne rose said:

mens loo's are generally a disgusting state

A) Bit of a generalisation, innit?
B) Do you go into a lot of mens toilets?

I'm against the unisex idea anyway. Women always seem to have to queue up to use the toilets, presumably because they spend a lot of time chatting, putting on make-up, etc...

Whereas us blokes just walk in, do our thing, then walk out again. Occasionally, we wash our hands too... (j/k)

There's also the whole ettiquette thing too. Men have instinctive knowledge of what to do when using public lavatories. For example, if there are three urinals, and someone is standing at the first one, you automatically go to the third one. It's just one of those instincts that you're born with. If you introduce women into the mix (albeit they will be using the cubicals, I hope...) then it would throw the instinct out of whack, and could take many years to repair the damage.

[conbott]

I don't know about women using the cubicles. I've seen many a sink come in handy no matter how high up. (Of course purely from a bystanders point of view) ;D ;D

[sallyanne rose]

Jun 20, 2008 13:30:04 GMT bujin said:

Jun 19, 2008 16:35:40 GMT sallyanne rose said:

mens loo's are generally a disgusting state

A) Bit of a generalisation, innit?
B) Do you go into a lot of mens toilets?

.

(a) hence the word generally
(b) no, my parents used to run a pub though and i did the cleaning every morning - believe me the ladies was a case of a quick polish and emptying the bins - the gents were a veritable bog of eternal stench, i used to have to wear my nose plug that i bought for swimming to even go in there. :-)