Ziggy
January, 2007 

        “You will have to wear a man’s clothes”, said the registrar.
       I’d never seen a look of shock on someone before, but I saw it that day on May’s face, my Ladyboy girlfriend. She’d researched universities for months and had set her heart on Kasem Bundit’s Business Computers degree program. It would be her second degree, and she was motivated and excited to get started. We’d come to register and pay her first term’s fees.
       “Are you serious?” asked May.
       “Yes, those are the rules”, replied another person who’d walked over to re-confirm school policy.
       To ask a Ladyboy to wear a man’s clothes is akin to asking a man to wear a woman’s clothes – and in this case, for 4 years! It was an insulting and ridiculous request. Adding to the insanity was May’s appearance. With long hair, breasts, and every part of her persona as feminine as the registrar talking to her…dressing in pants and a tie would have made her the source of constant ridicule. In short, it was neither practical nor emotionally possible for her to do so.
       Once the senior registrar had left though, an assistant said meekly that while it was school policy, it wasn’t enforced. Not to worry, she said. Such is Thailand. Lots of rules, some followed, some not, some people kind, some not.
       This discriminatory behavior, unfortunately, is not an isolated case.
       The Q Bar in Bangkok, one of the more popular clubs, employs the discrimination card further by barring entry to all Ladyboys. It is a policy NOT based on dress, behavior, or any other reasonable rejection criteria. Rather, it is based solely on gender. The reason? Ladyboys have caused too much trouble in the past with other customers and with fights between each other, replied the manager on request.
       Well, it’s a little hard to imagine that I, in a three piece suit, and May, in a fancy dress, arriving together, were going to cause trouble with customers and fight with other Ladyboys. But we too were rejected entry. It is with great irony that I note the Q Bar in Bali is a gay bar, with nightly transgender performances, and transgenders abound outside.
       Not to be outdone, The Tiger Disco in Phuket, Lucifer’s Bar on Walking Street in Pattaya, and a host of other establishments follow similar policies. Even the White House Hotel in Pattaya has a policy of not allowing two men to sleep in the same room. It’s hard to imagine May being referred to as a man, but according to the White House Hotel policy, she is.
       The stereotyping argument is a tried and tested one used throughout history to subject blacks, Jews, women, or other minority groups to ill treatment by those in positions of power. It is only used, of course, when the immoral people employing it know they can get away with it. It would be hard to imagine the Q Bar rejecting all women or men due to a few incidents with them. But they can and do discriminate against transgenders precisely because they can get away with it.
       While some people use the argument that private institutions should be allowed to discriminate for any reason they choose, I note with raw irony that none of those people are transgenders. And while not being allowed entry to a bar is not life threatening, what happens when denied entry or other discriminatory actions are applied to things that actually do impact people’s lives?
       Kasem Bundit’s policy of requiring transgendered students to wear clothes of their biological sex is tantamount to barring entry. What kind of society is it that allows heterosexual students a wider choice of educational institutions than its transgendered population? Adding insult to injury, once May graduates, after paying four years of dues and studying endless hours, she will be required, without exception, to wear a man’s clothes and wig at her graduation ceremony if the prince presents the diploma, as per tradition.
       A man in Bangkok was recently rejected insurance coverage by AXA, a major firm in Thailand due to a policy to not cover gays. One can only assume such a policy extends to transgenders as well. So are gay men and the transgendered community to be denied the coverage and thus medical treatment available to heterosexuals?
       As for employment, Ladyboys know well that while they might be lucky in finding a company who will hire them for a job other than in a salon; those employers are few and far between. Employment choices are limited due to unwritten policies of many, if not most firms, to not hire transgenders. Having been employed by two large multi-nationals in Thailand, I can say this with some confidence. In some 1000 employees, none were transgendered, which defies basic statistical reality.
        This is exacerbated by a mandatory military service, where, until recently, all transgenders were relieved to serve but with a permanent record indicating mental illness - not a very good supporting document for employment or immigration abroad! Reduced employment options, of course, lead to abuse, such as the very wealthy Tiffany’s Cabaret in Pattaya that pays entry level performers a paltry 4,000 baht ($120 USD) per month, or Tootsie’s Massage in Phuket that has a policy of NO holidays, ever. Even in Thailand, these are considered somewhat harsh.
        Government organizations, most notably, the police, are also guilty. Ladyboys in Bangkok are regularly targeted for charges of prostitution when caught walking around bar areas like Nana Plaza in Bangkok. A donation of 1000 baht to the arresting officer avoids one night in jail, and is, of course, the primary reason for this sordid practice. Ladies of the night, however, are not picked up, even when adjacent to their Ladyboy counterparts.
       Even basic governmental functions like getting an ID card can be traumatic for a Ladyboy. May once came home in tears after having been ridiculed at the local police station when she’d applied for a replacement ID card. When I asked her why they’d done that, she said it was because she was a Ladyboy.
       The 2007 Constitution introduced by the ruling junta protects the rights of transgenders and gays. However, in what contexts those rights are protected remains unknown. And, as with most things in Thailand, whether those laws are enforced or not can be influenced by payments to the right authorities. So, should the Q Bar wish to continue its discriminatory policies, more than likely they can by making judicious payments to the local police patrols to ensure none get the crazy idea to actually enforce this constitutional amendment; as they do today.
       While discrimination against transgenders is common in Thailand, it should also be noted that their social acceptance in families and in daily life exceeds that of any country in the world. Of that there is little doubt. This situation confuses people into thinking happenings like those noted above are not so bad or perhaps don’t even exist. Even long time residents are sometimes unaware of what happens on a day-to-day basis. However, live with a Ladyboy, as I have for several years, and you will see it more often than you would like.
       So while Thailand is a haven for its openness and acceptance of the transgender community, it is a haven with prickly thorns.

Discrimination Against Ladyboys (Transgenders) in the Land of Smiles, Thailand
Ziggy
January, 2007

Ziggy
June 23^rd, 2007
 

            “Is it a boy or girl?”

            “We don’t know!”

            While not what a mother really wants to hear, it does happen.

            The majority of babies have a biological sex that is typically and obviously male or female. For most people that means they have either a penis or vagina. However, that is not always the case. In fact, about 1 in 2000 children are born with atypical sex characteristics, or about 150,000 people in the USA, and perhaps 2.5 million people world-wide.

            How can this happen? How can a baby not be obviously male or female?

            It all starts in the womb. The fetus is sex neutral until about the 7^th week. Until that time, the sex organs, or gonads, are identical in both future males and females. Starting about the 7^th week, sex determination starts. By the 9^th to 12^th weeks, the genitals start to differentiate. Sex determination is based on a lot of factors, with some understood by scientists and some not.

            Once the gonads start to differentiate, hormones produced by them impact the reproductive organs and genital development. Because of the complexity of the process, variations happen, resulting in people who may have an atypical phenotype (visual appearance of the genitals) or even atypical reproductive organs.

            For example, some males have a penis so small (micro-penis), it can look like a vagina. Likewise, the clitoris’ of some females are so large, they look like a penis. There are also males with testicles that haven’t descended (and are thus invisible), females with no ovaries, and even situations where both reproductive organs exist in one person (ovotestes).

            These variations continue at the chromosonal level. Some males have a female karotype of 46, XX and some females have a male karotype of 46, XY. Even at the genetic level there are differences. For example, some females have the ‘male’ SRY gene. In short, while we may have an image of a typical male or female, many of us are not the same, and perhaps don’t even know it.

            Olympic Committees became aware of genetic variations the hard way. In 1968, a sex determination test used was based on karotypes and then in 1992 based on detection of the SRY gene. Unfortunately, in both cases, women were falsely identified as men and vice versa, due to their sex reversal conditions. These tests were abolished in the 1998 Olympics.

            According to the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA), there are about 17 different intersex conditions. Except for one (Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia), all others are non life-threatening. From studies done, most if not all intersex people grow up having healthy physical and emotional lives, and are not ostracized by society. As such, it is highly recommended that no decisions be made regarding surgery or hormone therapy except by the individuals themselves, once they are capable of making such decisions.

            Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Many doctors still follow the Optimum Gender of Rearing system developed by John Money of John Hopkin’s University in the 1950s. That system assumes that gender can be nurtured. Practically, it encourages doctors to make a decision at birth to reverse the gender of children born with genitalia that do not represent their biological sex. This is done through surgery before 18 months.

            The most famous case of this is referred to as John/Joan. Because of a botched circumcision resulting in a very small penis, David Reimer’s doctor decided to reverse his sex through surgery, hormone therapy, psychological support, and encouragement of parental nurturing. Money used David’s case as an example of success and proof of his theories. When David found out about his past, he reverted back to a male, getting surgery to undo what had been done before. David committed suicide at 38 after significant pschological trauma throughout his life. Those against Money’s nurture theories use this an example of why they were wrong.

            So, if your doctor says “We don’t know if your child is a boy or girl”, don’t be distraught. Be happy. You have a healthy and very natural child, like many others with an intersex condition around the world and perhaps even in your own community. And remember, evidence shows your child will grow up and be a happy adult, just as others have done before.

Is it a boy or a girl? We don’t know!
Sex Determination and Intersex
 

Ziggy
June 23^rd, 2007

Ziggy and May
February 7^th, 2007
 

      “How about a photoshoot outside of Bangkok?”, I asked May one day.
      “Yes! Let’s go to Hawaii! I start packing now!”, she said as she jumped for joy.
      “Er, I was thinking more like a couple of hours drive away”, I countered.
      “Ok, have fun, and see you when you get back.”, she said, as she walked away dejected.
      That wasn’t the response I was hoping for, but eventually I did convince May, my Ladyboy girlfriend, to help me do a world’s first: a professional quality Ladyboy photoshoot in a public park.
      I’d picked three of my good friends and fantastic models, Aom, Ae, and Passy, for the shoot, as they were, well, georgeous frankly, but also fun to work with and would appreciate the adventure. We were going to shoot in Khao Yai, a national park about 2.5 hours drive outside of Bangkok, Thailand. The terrain was a little rough in some places and we’d be shooting from morning to evening, sometimes in the blistering sun.
      “Look at the monkeys!”, said Ae, as we drove up the steep, narrow road, filled with monkeys.
      “Looks like Ziggy”, said May. I could tell it would be a long day. Ah, but such is the life of a Ladyboy photographer.
      We finally got to our first location; a roped walking bridge across a somewhat dirty river. People came and went as we shot, typically with the male gawking and their partners elbowing them in the gut, saying something like, “Keep your eyes on me, honey!”. I could sympathize with the men. The girls looked fantastic.
      After our first shoot on the bridge, we moved on to a more private location in an open field. I called the shoot Field of Angels because of the wings used in one shoot. Everything was going ok until our friendly park warden walked up while the girls were still in their bikinis.
      “What’s going on here?”, he demanded.
      “Just taking some photos in your beautiful park”, I replied, meekly.
      “No sex pictures allowed here. I’ll have to escort you the whole day if you want to continue…to make sure you behave properly!”, he countered.
      Ah. I got the picture. Personal escort. Observe everything all the time. I caught a glimpse of him checking the battery level on his camera while he phoned his buddies in glee. Never mind, we thought! Come along!
      So, with another member in the crew, and after a few changes of clothes, with the warden’s personal supervision and observation of course, we moved on to our next shoot at the famous Heau Suwat waterfall. Unfortunately, the top was easily accessible by car. That meant lots of people.
      In this shoot, Passy was in a wedding dress at the base of the falls. It took some doing to get there, get the dress fitted, and get everyone on the right rock. As we did so, a throng of perhaps a hundred people gathered to look on. What could be stranger than a foreigner taking a wedding dress photo with three Ladyboys at the base of a waterfall in a public park? Only aliens from Saturn is what they likely thought. It was then I realized that we were being photographed more than the Mona Lisa! I mean how often do you get to take a picture of an alien?
      Our final shoot was at the top of the falls in Swamp Land. Actually it wasn’t a swamp, but it had that eery feel to it that could be either beautiful or creepy.
      I was a bit worred about all the people around. So I asked the warden if we could do bikini pictures as we’d done in the more private field setting before. He answered enthusiastically, “Yes, yes, of course! As long as I am here it is ok.” Okey, dokey. I looked on as he searched for somewhere to recharge his camera battery.
      The swamp, despite my name for it, was very picturesque, and made even more picturesque with three bikini clad, beautiful Ladyboy models in it. Cameras flashed everywhere! Foreigners were the leaders in the fray, taking hundreds of photos before I’d even clicked my first shot! We didn’t really mind, as fun was had by all, and the photos turned out great!
      All in all it was a unique and awesome photoshoot, and a fun place to go and do it. However, I can’t explain that in writing to you. Rather, look for yourself at the pics on http://www.silk-angels.com/ in the Khao Yai 3 gallery. You’ve never seen Ladyboys this way before, but you will again - I start my next shoot, to be called Beach Babes 3, in about a month!
 

Three Ladyboys, a Waterfall, and a Wedding Dress : A Photoshoot in Thailand’s Khao Yai National Park

Ziggy and May
February 7^th, 2007

Ziggy
November 21st, 2006

         ”How about really big ones, May! Like Raquel Welch or Pamela Anderson!”
         “I just want a natural looking breasts,” she replied.
         “But you could buy low cut tops and a skimpy bikini. It would be cool on the beach! I could take pics of you to look at when I travel and show my friends”, I tried.
         “Grrrrrrrr”.
         The growl was clear. Natural looking, natural sized breasts. I would not be dating Thailand’s Pamela Anderson after all. I sighed in disappointment. I was really hoping for the big ones. Don’t all men?
         And so we went on a quest for breasts, after my girlfriend, May, a Ladyboy in Bangkok, Thailand, made it clear that in no uncertain terms, she wanted implants. I loved her looks as they were, but conceded to her wishes…as all wise men should!
         It would be easy enough, I thought. This quest should last all of 20 minutes. They’re all the same. A sack of silicone. Stuff ‘em in. Instant breasts! Or so I thought. At our first stop, however, Doctor Arthi gave us a barrage of questions:
         “Do you want saline or silicone?”
         “Do you want textured or smooth implants?”
         “How big do you want your implants?”
         ”Do you want a teardrop or round shape?”
         “Do you want low, medium, or high profile?”
         “Yo, yo, Doc! Slow down buddy!”
         We’d never even seen an implant before let alone know what any of those options implied. I thought it was a simple matter of saying I want breast implants, fixing a price, and voila, Pamela! However, it seemed that wasn’t exactly the case.
         “Do you want insertion through the armpit, nipple, underside of the breast, or belly button?”
         “Do you want a sub-muscular or sub-glandular implant?”
         It never even occurred to use that there were different places to insert the implant, but there were. It was all a bit daunting at first, but with each doctor we visited and each web-site we looked at, we gradually understood what all those questions meant. Frankly, our original view, that it really wasn’t so complicated, was essentially true, however, we wanted to be 100% clear about what each decision meant and its associated implications.
         It was like buying a car. There were standard features and a few options, but you needed to understand both so that you could select the options that best suired your personal tastes. In fact, we found most decisions straight-forward except for one…
         “I recommend smooth implants”, Dr. Thep had said.
         “I recommend textured implants”, Dr. Kamol had said.
         “I recommend big ones, May!” [I had to try one last time.]
         Out of the five doctors we visited in Bangkok and endless hours on the internet, it turned out that the most difficult decision related to smooth versus textured implants. For all other options, the decisions were either personal or obvious for transgenders, and didn’t really require any technical knowledge.
         For example, all Bangkok doctors recommended silicone implants, meaning the contents inside the implant sack were made of silicone gel versus saline (salt water). The consensus seemed to be that silicone created a more natural feel than saline, and concerns of possible health risks caused by silicone leakage in the body were unfounded, or perhaps more accurately, not proven. Admittedly, this debate continues. But for us, silicone it was.
         Likewise, all doctors recommended a sub-muscular implant for transsexuals, meaning an implant below the pectoralis muscle. For women, it was also near universal that the implant should be above the muscle, and just below the breast glands, or sub-glandular. The reasons were cosmetic. The male body does not have much fatty tissue in the breast area and thus the outlines of an implant just below the skin’s surface would be visible. By putting the implant below the muscle, its outlines were hidden giving it a more natural look. The procedure required cutting of some muscle fibers at the bottom of the breast to create the implant pocket, however, this was considered normal and insignificant in its impact to muscular strength and movement.
         Sub-muscular it was.
         As a side note to sub-muscular implants, we found it important to find a doctor who had experience with transsexuals, because the operation was simply not the same for women. While it was similar, it wasn’t identical, and we wanted someone who had experience in making a beautiful transsexual implant, sub-muscular, versus a doctor who had experience making a woman’s breasts beautiful, sub-glandular. [Granted, some doctors do perform sub-muscular implants on women.]
         As for insertion point, all doctors we visited recommended inserting the implant through a cut at the bottom, front section of the armpit as it usually resulted in the least visible scar. However, we also had friends who had done insertions through the nipple and the underside of the breast. In all cases, we’d seen good and bad results, but more good results through the armpit, possibly because it was an area of skin folding already, and so, any imperfections were naturally hidden.
         Profile and shape were personal cosmetic decisions, but the majority of transgenders we knew had selectied medium profile, round shapes. High and ultra high profiles were for a more dramatic appearance, making the breast stick out more than usual (the Pamela look, sigh). We had one friend who had the ultra-high profile, and, it looked great, or at least I thought it did! But May wanted natural looking, so medium profile it was. For shape, teardrops were more costly and had some slight risk of looking odd if they rotated after the operation. While we liked the idea at first, we didn’t want any risk at all of a second operation in the future to correct an unwanted rotation, so we decided on a round shape.
         Size was perhaps the most important decision to make and was dependent on the patient’s body size and desired future look. Because the implant generally looked about 20% smaller after being implanted, it was difficult to pick a size by simply putting an implant in a bra and seeing how it looked in the mirror. In our case, the doctor recommended that we show him a picture of how we wanted May to look after the operation, and he would decide the implant size based on his experience. (I slipped him one of Pamela, but it didn’t work. Darn!)
         However, for texture, this is where doctors and literature on the internet seemed to disagree with vigor.
         Three doctors recommended textured implants. They were a relatively new technology, with small dimples on the surface of the implant that adhered to scar tissue in the body, theoretically reducing the likelihood of capsular contraction, or, hardening of the breasts over time, caused by hardening of that scar tissue. That was a good thing.
         However, two doctors recommended smooth implants, citing and printing off internet articles showing how textured implants increased the likelihood of skin rippling where the surface of the skin seemed to ripple like a wet piece of paper. Also, some doctors admitted that textured implants didn’t seem to fully live up to their objective of reducing capsular contraction. Ditto for internet literature.
         For us, the fact that textured implants formed a greater bond with scar tissue making them more difficult to extract in the future, or so we thought, swayed us to smooth implants. That decision, in turn, convinced us to not go with teardrop implants. The reason is that one method to prevent teardrop rotation was to use textured implants that would stick to the body better, thus reducing the likelihood of rotation. By deciding on smooth implants, we effectively had decided to not use teardrops. Well, that was my logic anyhow.
         On the positive side, we found most doctors willing to consult with us and give us their opinion, but also accepting that the final choice was ours. Ultimately we found that while doing research on the internet was valuable, it was essential to talk to the experts face-to-face, ask questions, but then make our own decisions.
         So what were our final selections for May’s perfect breasts? She decided on 320 cc, smooth silicon implants, with a medium profile and round shape, implanted sub-muscular through the armpit. For May, at 5’8” in height, with a small frame, the result was a very natural look and feel. Most importantly, it created that most sought after of all things for a young Ladyboy - cleavage!
         I didn’t get Pamela Anderson breasts to sleep with every night or watch on the beach, but frankly, that didn’t matter. Natural looking breasts on May were just dandy for me. I love them and her just as they are, and the same would have been true if she didn’t get any at all, really!The Quest for Beautiful Breasts : 7 Questions for Transgender Implants

Ziggy
November 21st, 2006

November 19th, 2006

Ziggy