Frame Diffusion and Audience Framing in the Thai Kathoey Depathologization Movement

• In Event: 4141 - Cross-border Coalitions and Movements for Social Justice

Abstract

This paper explores a health social movement to depathologize kathoey identity in Thailand. Kathoey, or male-to-female transgender women, have historically been considered distinct from transgender women in the Global North because their identities are less pathologized. However, as the medical tourism industry for gender reassignment surgery (GRS) grew in Thailand, medical gate-keeping regulations implemented in 2009 require kathoey to be diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder before accessing GRS. Recently, a group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) serving kathoey in Bangkok has organized a movement to depathologize their identity. In this paper, I examine how the burgeoning kathoey depathologization movement borrows and adapts frames from the broader transnational transgender depathologization movement. Based on six weeks of participant observation and two interviews with employees and board members at the Kathoey Rights Organization (KRO), I find that the kathoey depathologization movement tailors its framing of the issue depending on the audience. While the global movement uses a human rights frame with all audiences, kathoey depathologization activists use this frame only to mobilize lay kathoey. KRO and affiliated NGOs avoid a human rights frame in attempting to mobilize the government and medical authorities because of the Thai political opportunity structure. Instead, the activists frame depathologization as a quality of life and economic productivity issue for the government, and are still struggling to mobilize medical authorities with an appropriate frame. These findings have important implications for future research on transnational social movements, as they suggest the need to study how certain frames disperse across nations while others may require tailoring based on the audience.

Author

• Alyssa A. Lynne, Northwestern University