Thailand's lady-boys in a class of their own

Light, peach-skinned and demure, Arttasit is the kind of woman who would turn heads on any college campus, except that he is not a woman; not yet.

The 21-year-old catering student attends class in Thailand's Suan Dusit University wearing makeup and a body-hugging female uniform. After four years of hormone treatment, he is preparing for a full sex change. "My goal in life is to become accepted as a woman," he explains.

There are about 100 transgender undergraduates at this college in central Bangkok, which offers the so-called "lady-boys" a unique educational refuge from homophobia and discrimination. Students are allowed to flaunt the campus dress code, which demands men wear trousers. Every year, dozens of the students enter a university beauty contest that has become famous for supplying entrants to Thailand's Miss Tiffany Universe, an annual pageant for transsexuals broadcast live across the country. Lady-boys work as teachers in some university departments and are even sent out on school recruitment drives.

"I'm happy here," says Wittaya Jannoi, a 21-year-old marketing student who hopes to change his gender after he leaves. "We can be ourselves because we don't have to hide. My mother said, 'Graduate first, then you can do what you want'." Like many transgender students, he learnt about the university through the beauty pageant. "I couldn't wait to come here."

Bureaucrats in Thailand's Ministry of Culture say the Suan Dusit experiment encourages confused youngsters to recklessly experiment. But Pacharee Suankaew, vice-president for student affairs, says: "Our view is that everybody is equal: boy, girl or lady-boy. We try to accept them and not look down on them."

Also known as "the third sex", Thailand's lady-boys have campaigned for years for equal rights and seek, among other things, separate bathrooms and passports that record their unique gender. Despite the discrimination, the country is famed for its acceptance of transsexuals, with a booming sex-change industry that attracts people from across the world.

Transgender students started coming to Suan Dusit about a decade ago, attracted to courses in catering and marketing. The numbers climbed after the start of the beauty contest. Ms Suankaew says they can study everything on offer, except education. "We can't have them teaching kindergarten children and they accept that." In return, she says, the students must be ladylike. "We tell them, 'If you want to be a woman, act like one'." Some staff are resisting. "Some professors tell us we are not human beings and we should grow up," says Arttasit. "They're usually older women with thick glasses."