It’s complicated. Thailand has a continuous culture of recognizing gender non conformance (in part due to having never been colonized).
It’s not amazing, and a lot of transfeminized people in Thailand are pushed into sex work, as well as facing some social stigmas. But from everything I’ve heard it’s a lot better than a lot of the world
I mean it’s a bit more complex obviously, e. g. it’s highly medicalized, you need a “gender identity disorder” diagnosis to legally transition and GAS in order to change your legal gender, but on the other hand HRT and GAS are state subsidized among other rights and protections specific to trans people.
In general, it’s not that Iran recognizes “trans people”. There is no (officially allowed) trans identity. Medical and surgical transition is allowed as a way to “smooth a flaw” and assimilate into cishet-normative society. It is often applied as a way of state-sponsored conversion therapy: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/world/middleeast/iran-transgender-surgery.html
I’m sorry what exactly has changed since then, on a systemic level?
Yeah the US trying to pinkwash their war efforts has certainly made the situation for LGBTQ people more difficult, but that’s not a phenomenon unique to Iran. It’s the same in Russia, large parts of Africa, West asia and I think latin america as well. If the nation hostile to you (like e.g. bombing schools while they’re in session) is also loudly proclaiming they want more gay rights, the knee-jerk reaction is that this must be a hostile act aimed at dismantling your society as well. That’s one of the ways how capitalists divide society into different identities and pit them against eachother.
… So Thailand actually has significantly better trans rights than the US does.
Because currently, in the US, trans people do not legally exist.
It’s complicated. Thailand has a continuous culture of recognizing gender non conformance (in part due to having never been colonized).
It’s not amazing, and a lot of transfeminized people in Thailand are pushed into sex work, as well as facing some social stigmas. But from everything I’ve heard it’s a lot better than a lot of the world
Iran has better trans rights than the US does…
You serious?
I mean it’s a bit more complex obviously, e. g. it’s highly medicalized, you need a “gender identity disorder” diagnosis to legally transition and GAS in order to change your legal gender, but on the other hand HRT and GAS are state subsidized among other rights and protections specific to trans people.
see here for more https://outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/2022-10/OutRightTransReport.pdf
Your source is a decade old. The situation has deteriorated in practice after the 2022 protests, with the regime seeing trans people as connecting with the broader Western lgbtq+ movement and so “importing harmful ideas”. Source from last year: https://uprdoc.ohchr.org/uprweb/downloadfile.aspx?filename=13540&file=EnglishTranslation
In general, it’s not that Iran recognizes “trans people”. There is no (officially allowed) trans identity. Medical and surgical transition is allowed as a way to “smooth a flaw” and assimilate into cishet-normative society. It is often applied as a way of state-sponsored conversion therapy: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/world/middleeast/iran-transgender-surgery.html
I’m sorry what exactly has changed since then, on a systemic level?
Yeah the US trying to pinkwash their war efforts has certainly made the situation for LGBTQ people more difficult, but that’s not a phenomenon unique to Iran. It’s the same in Russia, large parts of Africa, West asia and I think latin america as well. If the nation hostile to you (like e.g. bombing schools while they’re in session) is also loudly proclaiming they want more gay rights, the knee-jerk reaction is that this must be a hostile act aimed at dismantling your society as well. That’s one of the ways how capitalists divide society into different identities and pit them against eachother.
They’re recognized as men in Thailand.
They are recognized by DoD policy and can opt out, but they also cannot opt in.
They effectively cannot vote in half the the county.