Thailand’s first cohort of transgender parliamentarians has made parliamentary history

“I’m not here for adornment,” she said. “I want to write a new political history of Thailand.”

Lost in Transition: What It’s Really Like to Be Transgender in Thailand

Thailand’s transgender community is receiving a variety of attention, but still faces significant obstacles within the conservative Buddhist-majority kingdom.

Transgender people appear in advertisements, movies and on the front pages of fashion magazines in Thailand. They even have their very own Miss Tiffany beauty pageant, which is watched by over 10 million viewers yearly.

However, the media relies heavily on caricatures of the community as malicious and lewd characters, while transgender persons are often omitted for positions as teachers and government officials and reduced to entertainment and prostitution.

“Thai people accept this community, but they do not see it as equal or enjoying equal rights,” Tanwarin said.

Her political ambitions arose after a successful profession as a director. One of her movies titled Insects within the yard, was released in 2010 and was shown abroad. However, it was censored by Thai courts for “insulting decency”. Only after a five-year legal battle and the removal of a three-second nude scene was the feature film released in the dominion.

But Tanwarin – who’s currently directing a play titled Trans, I’m – stated that an inventive profession isn’t enough to push for changes within the legal framework regulating the lifetime of the LGBT community. “We had to get political,” she said.

Can transgender MPs ensure “equality” in a male-dominated parliament?

Thailand has already introduced a same-sex marriage bill, but it surely was rejected amid political turmoil and wouldn’t have given same-sex couples the rights to have children or adopt children.

Human rights groups say political motion is obligatory because Thailand’s laissez-faire approach to the LGBT community hides a more nuanced reality.

Transgender people “are recurrently discriminated against at work, forcing a lot of them to take low-wage jobs,” said Kyle Knight, an LGBT specialist at Human Rights Watch.

Many of them face rejection from their families and find yourself within the sex industry, where they’re exploited. And the term “katoey” (a word referring to transgender people) remains to be thrown around with contempt in Thai society.

The father of two, nicknamed Pinit and a household name within the soccer world, said there have been glimmers of progress lately.

“Transgender people now work as doctors, businesspeople or teachers, but there are still too few of them.”

Tanwarin’s mere public presence has already sparked necessary debate and sometimes “scathing” comments on social media. He likes challenges.

“I’m not afraid,” she said. “I’m here to boost awareness for many who don’t understand.”