Is Thailand Really LGBTQ Friendly? It's Complicated [S5.E45]

Greg interviews Benjamin Lord, an American who moved to
Asia straight out of college at NYU. He is on the show to discuss
life as a gay man in Thailand. After spending several years in
Vietnam, where the pressure to hide his status was suffocating,
he eventually relocated to Bangkok. At first, the prevalence of
gay bars, trans people, and apparent acceptance of a gay
lifestyle led Benjamin to believe that Thailand was a kind of gay
paradise, a moniker often placed on the Land of Smiles.


However, over the years he has developed a much subtler
view of the acceptance of homosexuality in Thai society. Although
Benjamin doesn't fear for his physical safety in the same way he
did in his birthplace of Arkansas, he is now aware that many Thai
families stick to 'traditional values' and reject and may even
disown their own children who are gay or trans. 


Further, the lack of true legal equality for LGBTQ people
in Thailand has become more apparent in many ways, the most
obvious of which was the recent Constitutional Court decision
that stated that marriage is only between a man and a woman. Greg
and Benjamin discuss the reaction of the LGBTQ community to the
ruling and how a lack of 'positive rights' demonstrates that
Thailand really is a very conservative society in many ways,
regardless of the 'niceness' on the surface.


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