So what is a kathoey?

A kathoey or katoey  is a male-to-female transgender person  in Thailand. More importantly a Kathoey is someone who has decided to make a very courageous and sometimes very dangerous life decision.Deciding to look and live like a woman can obviously bring many challenges,the most common being descrimination in the work place.Most kathoey struggle everyday to look for or maintain legimate jobs.Which is why most of them turn to prostitution, Prostitution in Thailand illegal although in practice it is tolerated and partly regulated. Prostitution is practiced openly throughout the country Local officials with commercial interests in prostitution often protect the practice.Although kathoeys do face some stigma and bureaucratic hurdles in Thailand — those who have undergone sex-change operations, for example, are still listed as men on their national I.D. cards — they are also a normal and visible part of society.Certainly, career prejudice is a lingering problem: one Thai teachers' college, for instance, refuses to enroll kathoeys. Nevertheless, Thailand is a far more open-minded place than even the United States. And the tolerance isn't just a liberal, urban phenomenon.