Test 2

Please select your preferred language.

請選擇你慣用的語言。

请选择你惯用的语言。

English
中文简体
台灣繁體
香港繁體

登入

記住我

初到 Fridae?

Fridae Mobile

Advertisement
Highlights

More About Us

新聞&特寫

« 較新的 | 較舊的 »
28 Jan 2015

Mixed response over new Thai initiative to empower LGBT community

Some rights activists welcome the decision to include a clause in the new constitution to ensure fairer legal treatment while others remain skeptical.

 

Some LGBT rights activists remain skeptical even as Thailand’s new constitution that is being drafted will include a clause to protect the rights of transgender and gay communities and ensure that they receive fairer legal treatment.
"We are putting the words 'third gender' in the constitution because Thai society has advanced,” Kamnoon Sittisamarn, spokesman for the Constitution Drafting Committee told Reuters recently. 
“There are not only men and women, we need to protect all sexes. We consider all sexes to be equal," he told the news agency which also reported that “the new measure would ensure all sexual identities were protected under the constitution and treated equally by the law.”
The committee was put together by the military to prepare a new constitution after the previous one was scrapped following a coup that overthrew a civilian government past May. The “new measure” is to be submitted to the National Reform Council by April and will need to be formally approved by the ruling junta.
Some gay rights activists welcomed the decision to include the term "third gender" in the new constitution while others remain skeptical saying it does not necessarily translate into reality.
"It would treat all citizens equally and help to protect from discrimination," gay activist Natee Teerarojjanapongs told Reuters.
Bangkok-based “The Nation” newspaper even pointed out that Thailand’s new constitution is now set to legally recognizing trans* people by using the term "third gender" for the first time in its constitution.
However, the Associated Press reported that “formal and legal acceptance for gay and transgender people (in Thailand) is still limited.”
It quoted Chalidaporn Songsamphan, a political scientist and gender studies expert at Bangkok's Thammasat University as saying: "While the charter will become a tool people can use to fight for their rights, it doesn't mean that the problems of gender biases, discrimination or harassment will go away."
The United Nations Development Programme and the U.S. Agency for International Development in their ‘Being LGBT in Asia’ Thailand Country Report issued last September  highlighted “a contradiction between Thailand’s public face of tolerance toward LGBT communities and the reality of discrimination toward them.”
The acceptance by society at large of LGBT members is still perceived to be low even though the country officially and openly markets itself as a gay-friendly tourist destination, it said.
While the law prohibits discrimination against citizens but there are no specific laws to stop LGBT related discrimination and Thai law does not recognize same-sex unions.
Earlier moves to draft a same-sex marriage law received much bipartisan support in parliament before it was unfortunately sidelined with parliament’s dissolution, a general election that was nullified and a caretaker government that has removed by a military coup.

 

Some LGBT rights activists remain skeptical even as Thailand’s new constitution that is being drafted will include a clause to protect the rights of transgender and gay communities and ensure that they receive fairer legal treatment.

"We are putting the words 'third gender' in the constitution because Thai society has advanced,” Kamnoon Sittisamarn, spokesman for the Constitution Drafting Committee told Reuters recently.

“There are not only men and women, we need to protect all sexes. We consider all sexes to be equal," he told the news agency which also reported that “the new measure would ensure all sexual identities were protected under the constitution and treated equally by the law.”

The committee was put together by the military to prepare a new constitution after the previous one was scrapped following a coup that overthrew a civilian government past May. The “new measure” is to be submitted to the National Reform Council by April and will need to be formally approved by the ruling junta.

Some gay rights activists welcomed the decision to include the term "third gender" in the new constitution while others remain skeptical saying it does not necessarily translate into reality.

"It would treat all citizens equally and help to protect from discrimination," gay activist Natee Teerarojjanapongs told Reuters.

Bangkok-based “The Nation” newspaper even pointed out that Thailand’s new constitution is now set to legally recognizing trans* people by using the term "third gender" for the first time in its constitution.

However, the Associated Press reported that “formal and legal acceptance for gay and transgender people (in Thailand) is still limited.”

It quoted Chalidaporn Songsamphan, a political scientist and gender studies expert at Bangkok's Thammasat University as saying: "While the charter will become a tool people can use to fight for their rights, it doesn't mean that the problems of gender biases, discrimination or harassment will go away."

The United Nations Development Programme and the U.S. Agency for International Development in their ‘Being LGBT in Asia’ Thailand Country Report issued last September  highlighted “a contradiction between Thailand’s public face of tolerance toward LGBT communities and the reality of discrimination toward them.”

The acceptance by society at large of LGBT members is still perceived to be low even though the country officially and openly markets itself as a gay-friendly tourist destination, it said.

While the law prohibits discrimination against citizens but there are no specific laws to stop LGBT related discrimination and Thai law does not recognize same-sex unions.

Earlier moves to draft a same-sex marriage law received much bipartisan support in parliament before it was unfortunately sidelined with parliament’s dissolution, a general election that was nullified and a caretaker government that has removed by a military coup.

讀者回應

1. 2015-01-28 02:32  
Is trans* the new PC abbreviation for transvestite/transsexual/transgender?

Also, including "third gender" in a constitution is not equivalent to including clauses against LGBT discrimination. These are quite different issues. A case in point: in India, while a Supreme Court panel recognised third gender last year, another Supreme court panel previously re-established the infamous Section 377, so that homosexual relations are illegal again in that country.
2. 2015-04-29 19:52  


Hello my dear,
i am happy to contact you after
viewing your profile and it interest
me to contact you for a genuine relationship,
please contact me here(nicolemakuza1992@hotmail.com)
so that i will share my feelings with
you for further communication.
Thanks, your friend Nicole.
(nicolemakuza1992@hotmail.com)

請先登入再使用此功能。

請選擇新聞及專欄版本

精選個人檔案

Now ALL members can view unlimited profiles!

Languages

View this page in a different language:

讚好

合作夥伴

 ILGA Asia - Fridae partner for LGBT rights in Asia IGLHRC - Fridae Partner for LGBT rights in Asia

Advertisement