How refreshing....

Cross Dressing Students In Thai High School Get Their Own Bathroom

Amy Beeman - AHN
Bangkok, Thailand (AHN) -- In Thailand, where males dressing and acting like females is relatively accepted by society, one high-school has given cross dressers their own bathroom.

The Associated Press reported that Kampang School in northeastern Thailand decided to create a transgender bathroom for the 200 students at the school who said they considered themselves to be transgender, or Kathoey, as it is called in Thailand. The 2,600 students at the school were surveyed last year in regards to what sex they viewed themselves as.

Traditionally, in Thai culture there has been the idea of a third sex, the male-female, which is seen in indigenous cultural tradition and has been accepted as the norm up until about a century ago. According to a University of Hong Kong report by faculty member Sam Winter, even Buddhist texts allude to the allowance of being something that isn't quite male and isn't quite female. Winter said that informal estimates point to there being around 300,000 Kathoey in Thailand, working in various fields and being accepted as a third gender.

With so many Kathoey students at the high school, The Associated Press reported that the school director said it would be better for all students if they had their own bathrooms to avoid being teased bullied, or laughed at. Students told the AP it is embarrassing to go into a boy's restroom dressed as a girl.

The bathroom is distinguished by a depiction of half man in blue and half woman in red. It is marked "Transvestite Toilet."

According to the AP, it is the first bathroom of its kind in a high school.

From here.