Dameyo

Thailand’s Women of The Second Kind

// June 22nd, 2009 // General

Women are like flowers, but these are artificial flowers.

In Thailand transsexuals are considered a third gender given the Thai name ‘Katoey.’ The term katoey refers to a male-to-female transgender person or an effeminate gay male in Thailand.

Katoey are males who exhibit varying degrees of femininity — many kathoeys dress as women and undergo feminising medical procedures such as hormone replacement therapy, breast implants, genital reassignment surgery, or Adam’s apple reductions.

So what makes people gay? No one is sure. It might be genetics, it might be high testosterone levels (The higher the testosterone, the greater the chances of that man being a homosexual. Testosterone levels determine the length of your ring finger in contrast with your index finger. The greater the difference is between the fingers, the higher the testosterone levels. The index finger is the larger), or it could be related to the number of children a woman has (there’s some evidence to suggest second sons are far more likely to be gay than first sons).

But whatever the cause, being gay is not a choice and it can’t be altered by drugs or therapy.

[via mthai ]