From a cafe near the go-go bars of a Bangkok red light district where she campaigns for safe sex, Gigi gives an unvarnished view of how she joined Thailand’s growing ranks of transgender people with HIV.
Sex work and injecting drugs left the 40-year-old vulnerable to the disease, which she was diagnosed with six years ago.
“Some men used condoms ... some didn’t. Sometimes the condom broke,” she says without rancor of her time turning tricks in Pattaya — one of the centers of Thailand’s flourishing sex industry and home to 3,000 transsexuals in tourist season.
Soft-spoken and slight with a dusting of make-up over her wan face, Gigi cuts an image far from the caricature of the bawdy katoey, as Thailand’s estimated 180,000 transsexuals — or “ladyboys” — are known.
Her recollection of life after her diagnosis is still shocking.
“I had sex with lots of partners,” she said. “I thought I was going to die soon ... so I wanted to be happy.”
Antiretroviral drugs have so far spared Gigi the worst of the sickness, allowing her to leave prostitution to work as an activist, dispensing condoms and safe sex advice to young transsexuals in the Thai capital.
It is, health campaigners say, an increasingly important job.
Gigi’s work often takes her to red light districts such as Patpong, an area notorious for its raunchy nightlife, where dozens of transgender prostitutes flit among the sprawl of sex shows, pick-up bars and massage parlors.
Infection rates among transsexuals are thought to be on the up, as high-risk lifestyles, including prostitution and drug use, and a lack of targeted healthcare take their toll on one of the kingdom’s most marginalized groups.
Truvada, a breakthrough HIV prevention pill approved by US regulators this month, is likely to prove too expensive for most Thais at risk of infection when it eventually hits the market. Around 530,000 Thais overall are estimated to be living with HIV, according to a UN AIDS study from 2010.
There are no nationwide HIV statistics specific to the “third sex,” reflecting what activists say is their position on the fringes of society, but local surveys indicate the illness is rife.
Eleven percent of transsexuals surveyed in Chonburi — the province containing Pattaya — had HIV, soaring to 20 percent among those aged 29 or over, local government figures released this year found.
It chimes with a stark regional view given by a UN Development Programme (UNDP) report published in May.
That study said HIV prevalence rates among transsexuals across the Asia-Pacific region could be as high as 49 percent — albeit from scattered and often small-scale research — a frequency that “far exceeds the general population.” Sex work, drugs and stigma collude with a lack of healthcare to push many of the region’s third-sex population to the “social, economic and legal” margins, the study added.
Thailand-based activists say things are getting worse as young transsexuals edge into sex work and fail to undergo regular testing — a quarter of 300 transsexuals questioned in Pattaya in 2009 had never taken an HIV test.
“It’s not a passing trend ... if things go on unaddressed the problem is going to become a lot more severe,” said Alex Duke of PSI, a global health organization which led that survey and also runs clinics tailored to transsexuals.
Chaotic lifestyles compound the challenges of HIV diagnosis and treatment, he explains, with many among the community focused on making money to support themselves or undergo expensive hormone treatment and sex-change surgery.
“HIV is also just one of a whole range of risks transgender people encounter every day,” he added, referring in particular to the threat of violence against sex workers.
Infection rates are intertwined with the wider issue of discrimination, according to transsexual researcher and activist Prempreeda Pramoj na Ayutthaya, who says health services, education and job opportunities routinely fail to reach the community.
While Thailand’s famously permissive attitude affords a cultural space to the third sex, the law still refuses to recognize their new sexual identity, rooting discrimination in the kingdom’s bureaucracy.
“Nobody will hit a transgender person in the street or abuse them, but it is still hard to get a decent job,” Prempreeda explains.
“Many transgender people find that sex work is the only way to make a small amount of money and maintain their identity,” she said.
Travails begin early, with transsexuals often rejected by their families and schools, decimating their employment prospects later on.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
RSS