Gender Illumination: An LGBTQ Exhibition at Museum Siam Bangkok

[Jellybean]

I heard about this exhibition through an email I received from BBB Inn Guesthouse & Spa in Bangkok and thought members currently in Thailand, or intending visiting Thailand between now and 30th September 2018, might be interested in visiting the museum.

To get to the Museum Siam, BBB Inn recommends that you take the BTS [Sky train] to Sapan Thaksin and from there the ferry to the Yodpiman pier.

An extract from the Museum Siam website is below. The website can be found at:
https://undertheropes.com/2018/05/23...t-museum-siam/

Museum Siam is currently hosting a gender diversity exhibition named ‘Gender Illumination’. As well as celebrating diversity and inclusivity, the organisers also intend to educate people on the meaning of ‘non-binary’ and raise awareness of related issues.

Gender Illumination is running from May 17th until September 30th 2018. The museum is open 10am-6pm Tuesday - Sunday, and admission is free. All exhibits are accompanied by descriptions in English as well as Thai.

LGBTQ Rights in Thailand

Thailand is often considered to be a haven for the LGBTQ community, where gender diversity is openly displayed, accepted and even celebrated. In reality, it’s much more complicated than that.
Same-sex marriage is illegal, trans people are forbidden from legally changing their genders on ID cards and other documents, and contrary to popular belief, discrimination is still rife. Gender Illumination guides you through the nuances and contradictions of it all, and invites you to explore your own ideas about gender and sexuality.

What’s on Display

To enter Gender Illumination, you first have to walk through a ‘gender maze’, in which words are plastered on the walls in Thai and English. It includes words like ‘camp’, ‘spinster’, ‘cougar’, ‘Don Juan’, and many more, each of which carries a connotation of a specific gender.

When you enter the building, you’re immediately met with an explanation of terms relating to gender and sexuality. Gender identity, gender expression and assigned sex are broken down by a visual representation called ‘the gender doll’.

The next exhibit directs you to explore the topic of genderless bathrooms. Guests are invited to sit on a toilet, which is placed in front of a TV screen showing a speech by a monk Phra Shine Waradhammo. He’s a self-proclaimed neo-Buddhist who campaigns for awareness of gender diversity, writing about it in newspapers and in his own blog. In the video, he says that Buddhism in Thailand doesn’t provide recognition for those who aren’t straight and cis-gender. He also explains that there is a saying in Thai that if you were born gay, transgender or lesbian, that you must have broken one of the five precepts in a previous life. Despite this, his short video provides a hopeful message of inclusivity.

As you walk through, you’re then given a history of the representation of different genders and sexualities in Thailand. This starts with artifacts from the Ayutthaya period and moves onto modern day, giving examples of LGBTQ magazines and movies.

The Thai movies highlighted here include It Gets Better, a touching movie about how the stories of three members of the LGBTQ community intertwine; The Blue Hour, a ‘supernatural love story’ about two teenage boys; and Insects in the Backyard, a movie about a transvestite parent, which was previously banned in Thailand for being ‘immoral and pornographic’.

In a box on the wall, there’s a penis-shaped lipstick. It belongs to Kath Khangpiboon, a trans woman who was rejected for a position as a lecturer at Thammasat university despite passing all of the required examinations. The university argued that the rejection was not because she was trans, but because she had previously posted a photo of the lipstick on her Instagram.

One corner is dedicated to the history of gay pride parades and End Violence Against LGBT Day in Thailand. It describes how in 2009, a gay parade in Chiang Mai was shut down by a group of around 200 protesters. Participants were verbally and physically attacked, and protesters blocked the entrance to the premises for more than four hours. Despite this, police refused to intervene . . .

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[Josan]

Museum Siam is not to be missed. I saw the previous exhibit on the complex question of what is Thai! The meaning of Thai-ness. My two Thai friends had a great time and went back through parts of the museum twice. Much of the exhibit was interactive with the visitor.

From the Siam area of BKK you can get to Museum Siam easy by Tok Tok.

[werner]

Jellybean,
Thanks for posting this information. The museum sounds very interesting.....