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A transgender sits as she waits for her documents during an army draft held at a school in Klong Toey, the dockside slum area in Bangkok, Thailand, April 5, 2017. Thailand is widely seen as a paradise for gay and transgender people, but many complain of being treated as second-class citizens and the obligation to respond to the draft can be a nightmare when they turn 21. Every April, Thai men who turn 21 must either volunteer to serve for six months or take their chances in a lottery, where a choice of black ticket lets them go home but a red ticket means they must serve for two years. Exemptions are made for those who are physically or mentally incapable. They are also made for trangender women, but only if they can prove that they are not faking it. A doctor takes them to a private room, or behind a wall, to see whether they have breasts or have undergone a sex change. Those with physical alterations, who show “gender identity disorder”, are exempt from the draft and need never return, but those who have not undergone such changes must return for up to two more years, unless an army hospital certifies they have the “disorder”. Transgender women say the reference to a disorder stigmatizes them, although the army has softened its description from the previous “permanent mental disorder” and says it has improved the way they are treated. Transgender women figure on television, in beauty pageants and at hair salons and cosmetics counters in Thailand. But they cannot change the gender designation on their identity papers, despite a 2015 law against gender-based discrimination. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)
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