The Wisdom of Whores

Still on the subject of the multiple meanings of masculinity: whatever your identity, you’ve got to pee. But if you’re a person with a penis who dresses as a woman, where should that be? There’s a debate about this over at The Lost Boy, continued at by Roger Tatoud at Peripheries whom I thank for these photos, taken in Thailand a year ago.

Their discussion about the rights and wrongs of discrimination in toilets is interesting. But the “where to pee” debate masks something (to me) much more important: “where to go for health care”. When I was working with the fabulous Lenny Sugiharto and other waria in Indonesia, I learned that one of the reasons these “women with penises”/”other definition of your choice” had such phenomenally high rates of untreated STIs and other illness was that they HATED going to health services, and getting stuck in the men’s wards. Groups like Arus Pelangi are lobbying for less discriminatory attitudes among service providers, but there’s a hell of a long way to go.