HOMOSEXUALITY AND GAY LIFE IN THAILAND | Facts and Details

Contents:

• 10 COUNTRI WH THE BIGGT GAY POPULATNS THE WORLD
• HOMOSEXUALITY AND GAY LIFE IN THAILAND
• GAYS THAILAND: IS A LGBT IENDLY UNTRY FOR TOURISM?
• TOP 13 COUNTRI WH BIGGT GAY POPULATNS
• BANGKOK GAY NIGHTLIFE

10 COUNTRI WH THE BIGGT GAY POPULATNS THE WORLD

Published on June 25, 2015 at 4:57 pm by Lists Our list of 10 untri wh the Biggt Gay Populatn the World is likely to tch you by surprise as you’re gog to fd some of the most nservative untri this list as well. For some this might e as a surprise as Cha is not known as a untry that supports or promot topics like gay, lbian or bisexual but sce is the biggt populatn on Earth also has the hight number of gay people. One of the worst sex sndals ever Thailand took place 1819, durg the reign of Kg Rama II, when a high-rankg monk, a Somt, was found guilty of enjoyg homosexual activi wh some of his good-lookg male discipl.

HOMOSEXUALITY AND GAY LIFE IN THAILAND

1992), extremely low rat of male homosexual behavr were reported; the thors utned that, due to societal attus, the timat were probably too low and reflected the rearch participants' unrreportg of homoerotic and homosexual experienc (the prevalence of same-genr sexual behavr will be further reviewed below). A public statement of homosexual inty would vlate two important valu of Thai culture: harmony - not to nont disagreements or nflicts - and the great value placed upon prervatn of fay uns and prervg leage through marriage and procreatn. Allyn (1991) also ntends that the anti-homosexual attus the Thai society are primarily the discrimatn agast the feme kathoey, who, acrdg to stereotype, display overt and loud genr-atypil social manners.

GAYS THAILAND: IS A LGBT IENDLY UNTRY FOR TOURISM?

“Overall, most ntemporary Thais view heterosexualy as the norm; homosexualy is seen as a viance or an unnatural act, often rultg om one's bad karma or the lack of mer past liv.

Many Thai physicians and psychologists still subscribe to the antiquated theori and rema imperv to new rearch fdgs or the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn's classifitn of homosexualy as a mental illns 1974. To reveal one's homosexual orientatn to one's parents would, a sense, vlate the Third Precept of Buddhism, and this has ed many Thai gays and lbians to hi their homosexualy om their parents for fear of g them sorrow (Allyn 1991). Th, a person's homosexual sex, per se, may be easier for his or her fay than other more visible featur, such as long-term same-genr relatnships (Jackson 1989) or g out as an openly gay or lbian person.

Dpe some ambivalence toward homosexualy many Buddhist cultur, Cabezón (1993) not Buddhism only nmns homosexualy more for beg an stance of sexualy rather than s same-genr sex. As for other sectns of the Buddhist non, John Garret Jon has nclud that there is an implic affirmatn om the silence regardg homosexualy, and the silence is certaly not due to the lack of material. “Whereas the non is silent about homosexualy, the Jataka lerature, which the prevly mentned tale of Prce Vsantara is embedd, is replete wh sentiments about same-genr affectn.

TOP 13 COUNTRI WH BIGGT GAY POPULATNS

For example, some Thai people have heard that a man who acknowledg his homosexualy will be nied Buddhist ordatn, although such stanc may have been very rare or never enforced. When news spread around the entire Buddhist muny that he was homosexual, the Buddha was alerted to the problem and he issued a le for the muny not to give any ordatn to a homosexual, and those ordaed gays are to be expelled. Acrdg to their explanatns, all homosexuals and sexual viants were once offenrs of the Third Precept (prohibg sexual misnduct) _ at least their past liv, and they mt pay off their past ss their prent life.

Assumg a gay or bisexual inty is also a new, if not foreign, ncept; for example, there is no translatn or the equivalent Thai word for “gay, ” and as of 1996, the nstct “sexual orientatn” had not been translated even for amic e. The now-rare term lakka-phayt, roughly translated to “sexual perversn” English, was sometim ed to scribe homosexualy wh the medil ntext, therefore illtratg the past fluence of Wtern psychiatry. Acrdg to “Encyclopedia of Sexualy: Thailand”: “In Thai society today, men who have sex wh men are eher gay kg or gay queen: A gay kg is a man who plays the sertive role sex, whereas a gay queen tak a passive and receptive role sex.

Gay kgs are also varly referred to as “one-hundred percent male” (phuu-chaai roi poe-sen) and “a plete man” (phuu-chaai tem tua) (Jackson 1989), which reflects the belief that the sertive homosexual sex act do not jeopardize one's masculy. The ia that gay kgs are nfed or adventuro heterosexuals n be seen many Thai movi and fictn about gay relatnships wh a tragic endg, when the gay kg hero leav a vastated gay queen to marry a woman. For many other upl, however, male romantic and sexual relatnships adhere closely to the heterosexual mol of sex rol: fact, a gay kg almost always pairs wh a gay queen, and Thais fd difficult to prehend if two gay kgs or two gay queens would settle down together.

BANGKOK GAY NIGHTLIFE

Followg the tradnal Thai heterosexual relatnship which prcrib monogamy the women and sexual eedom the men, gay kgs also have a tenncy to seek out sexual pleasur outsi their relatnship wh a gay queen.

The mood is a b like the Castro San Francis or Christopher Street New York Cy the 1970s, when gay men were havg too much fun liberatg themselv to be standoffish – before weightliftg and attu replaced motach and cisg. Until the late 1980s, the only regular media verage on homosexualy was an advice lumn the wily popular tabloid Plaek (“Strange”) tled Chiiw Sao Chao Gay (“The Sad Liv of Gays”) which Go Paaknaam, a straight-intified lumnist, published letters about sexual and relatnship problems om men who have sex wh men (Allyn 1991).

In the meantime, Thai mastream media, pecially newspaper and magaz, have creased accurate reprentatns of gay life, as well as progrsive treatis on homosexualy, although sensatnalistic verage is still mon. Allyn further not that, “Over the past two s, superficial aspects of Wtern, particularly Amerin gay culture, have been imported to a certa gree but, as the kgdom tradnally has done, by adaptatn, not adoptn”.