Thai ladyboys hired as flight attendants

The U.S. military is phasing out their “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which prevented gays and lesbians from openly disclosing their sexual preferences. Now PC Air, a start up airline in Thailand planning to serve South Korea and Japan, beginning in April 2011, is extending the military’s policy of openness even further by hiring transsexual flight attendants, known as “ladyboys”, according to a USA Today report on Friday, January 28, 2011.

Ladyboys, also known as “kathoey”, are male-to-female transgender persons or effeminate gay males in Thailand. Some have not undergone sex reassignment surgery to fully assume female physical anatomy. In fact, they identify as being males, although in Thailand they are regarded as a “third sex”.

Some Western men who go to Thailand seeking encounters with female prostitutes, are often convinced that their sexual partner is a woman, and are surprised to discover that they’ve been intimate with a ladyboy. That’s not as surprising as it may sound, as these “women” are renowned to be very feminine, and easily pass as females, as shown by the images in the slide show and video accompanying this article..

According to the Daily Telegraph in Britain, PC Air has already hired 6 transgender flight attendants, in an effort to promote equal opportunities for what’s called the “third sex” in Southeast Asia.

More than 100 transsexuals applied for the much desired positions with PC Air, and more are expected to be hired, said the airline’s president, Peter Chan.

“I think these people can have many careers, not just in the entertainment business, and many of them have a dream to be an air hostess. I just made their dream come true,” said Mr. Chan. “It’s not mandatory that applicants go through surgery to be considered for a job with PC Air,” he added. “What’s important is they have the necessary language skills and can provide good service.” The airline is also hiring persons who are not transsexuals.

According to the Thai newspaper, The Nation, “The transsexual employees will wear a special gold ‘third sex’ name tag to help travelers and airline employees identify their gender.”

One of those hired was 23-year-old Thanyarat “Film” Jiraphatpakorn, the winner of the 2007 Miss Tiffany Universe beauty pageant, held annually in Pattaya, Thailand. She was delighted and surprised. “At first I thought they would just take applications but not actually recruit us, as happened before at other places,” the new air hostess said.

Thailand has one of the largest “kathoey” populations in the world. Surgeons there have come up with cheap and speedy sex change techniques for those wanting to go under the knife. Many prefer to retain their male anatomy, but take on outward female appearances.