Sisters, Boyfriends, and the Big City: Trans Entertainers and Sex Workers in Globalized Thailand

As transgender issues penetrate mainstream human rights dialogue, most of the current understanding and research on this marginalized group revolve around the perspective of HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness. To add to the growing academic discourse on transgender women in the world of work, this research looks into the lives of transgender women sex workers and entertainers in the major cities of Bangkok and Pattaya in Thailand. The research uses a qualitative approach consisting of content analysis of relevant Thai policies and semi-structured interviews with 8 transgender women, a transgender-focused local NGO, and the management team of a prominent transgender cabaret theatre. Drawing its analysis from the concepts of homonormativity and homonationalism, the research explores the Thai state’s contradicting policies that affect transgender women. In particular, the study looks at the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s promotion and support of transgender cabaret performers, which is in contrast to the deep stigma and discrimination experienced by other transgender women, specifically transgender sex workers. In spite of what transgender cabaret performers may benefit from state support, this does not translate to equality for the broader transgender community in Thailand. Concluding this thesis, the study finds that some transgender women may be implicated in multiple political, economic, and socio-cultural structures and pushed to become commodified in order to gain rights. But despite the commodification of trans identity and culture, transgender women show their agency by resisting and challenging societal discrimination in their own ways.