Gay no nonger deemed mentally ill by military

[Guest Snowkat]

Bangkok Post breaking news reports that gays, transsexuals and transvestites reporting for military service will no longer be deemed to be mentally ill. Instead they will be classified as 'suffering from sexual identity problems'

 

http://www.bangkokpost.net/breaking_news/b...s.php?id=114603

[TotallyOz]

Perhaps we should send this to the US Military? They are on a new learning curve now the old Rummie is out.

[Guest Snowkat]

Perhaps we should send this to the US Military? They are on a new learning curve now the old Rummie is out.

I thought that the US military under Clinton adopted a policy of "don't ask, don't tell" in regards to gays or was this done away with when Bush and Rumsfeld, backed by the "moral majority", came to power.

[Guest wowpow]

There seems to be some confusion about "breaking news" of the Army changing it's stance on Homosexuality being designated a mental disorder. I think they agreed to stop that about 18 months ago and it ceased about a year ago. The case in question refers to a certificate issued in 2004. None the less a welcome move.

 

Bangkok Post

Transsexual fights 'mental disorder' statement A transsexual student yesterday petitioned the Administrative Court to seek changes in the army's statement on his conscription certificate (sor dor 43) which exempted him from service for having a ''mental disorder''. Samart Meecharoen, a 22-year-old tourism business student of Ban Somdej Chao Phraya Rajabhat University, said the document, issued in 2004 when he reported for annual conscription in Lop Buri, had deprived him of job opportunities.

 

His application for a part-time job at a private company had been turned down, he said, with the company citing the document as the reason. It is the first such complaint to be filed against the army.

 

His petition to the court was supported by the National Human Rights Commission, the Lawyers Council of Thailand, the Rainbow Sky Association of Thailand and the Saphan Group representing same-sex lovers.

 

The army earlier this year recognised the problem and agreed to remove the term ''mental disorder'' from the document for new conscripts.

 

 

For me the link does not work. The trouble with links to newspapers is that they often move a news story and the link become invalid.

 

[Guest gonefishing]

[bNone the less a welcome move.

 

It may be a "welcome move" by those who imagine it to be about gay rights, etc, but the reality is that it was just closing a loophole in the conscription regulations which enabled those who visibly appeared to be gay by dressing as a katoey to avoid military conscription. As such it is anything but welcome either with katoeys or with those who prefer to be labelled "gay" to risking conscription.