Worapoj Petchkhoom who appeared ligthly dressed in Stage modelling magazine.

Thailand has a serious problem of, and with, its image. The recent fighting ban imposed on Muai Thai boxer Worapoj Petchkhoom is the latest example of politics based on, and aiming at, keeping up appearances and reputation at the expense of addressing more fundamental issues. Worapoj was banned from competition for 3 months because he posed lightly dressed for a Thai modeling magazine, Stage, which appeals to many gay readers.  The images were not considered obscene but still “they have tarnished the reputation of the national athletes” said Amateur Boxing Association of Thailand (ABAT) president, Gen. Taweep Jantararoj.

In 2005, former Thai boxer Sirimongkol Singwancha was fined 4,000 Baht for posing nude in the Thai gay magazine “Heat”, a publication hard to find due to unofficial police-led censorship on all gay magazines. But the phenomenon is not limited to men, every year before the annual festivity of the Thai New Year (Songkhran), the Thai government issues ubuesque edicts such as a ban on wearing spaghetti-strap blouses for women.

In 2006 it was a brand of condoms promoted by singer Puntiwa Pumiprathet aka “Tom Dundee” that was banned because it also translated into “good penetration”.

Ironically enough, Worapoj claimed to have been duped to do the shooting and that he did not know about Stage’s readership. He denied the suggestion that he took the job because he was penniless after squandering the prize money he previously won.  Worapoj even had to deny being gay, saying he had a girlfriend (like most MSM in Asia). “He also apologised to fans, saying it was a “life lesson”” reported Pink News (emphasis mine). This is strangely happening at the same time as Sirimonghol was arrested for drug dealing.

Sirimongkol Singwancha posing naked in Heat magazine in 2005

The examples and anecdotes of such political and judicial decisions are countless. The point of all of this is to create “a good image of the country.” And indeed it is understandable when the image of Thailand, the “Land of Smile” pieces together temples, go-go-girls and boys, amazing food, breathtaking landscape, recurrent coup d’etat, a tradition of hospitality, and a very welcoming place for foreign gay men to relax (not that much for Thai gay men, though).

But what does this really achieve and what messages does it send to Thai MSM? The messages are clear: association with anything remotely Gay is not a good thing to do or to be seen doing. Gay or not, Worapoj’s self imposed abjuration clearly tells Thai MSM that it is bad to be gay and to others that it is bad to associate with anything gay. The ABAT tells sportmen that reputation matters more than your sporting abilities and the Thai authorities tell people that they should be mindful of the image they give of their country. There is a fine line between such messages and more fundamentalist messages that deny the existence of same-sex relationships. By and large, the message is that there is still something wrong with homosexuality and its related themes.

In a country where your face can decide of your job opportunities, where speaking against the monarch can send you to jail for 18 years, it is a serious obstacle to personal realisation with the consequences we can imagine: increased marginalisation and stigmatization of the most vulnerable that will make them even harder to reach.

Indeed, whilst it was recognised at the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific that “more than 90 per cent of the men having sex with men in Asia Pacific do not have access to HIV prevention and care services and if interventions are not urgently intensified, the spread of HIV among this marginalized population will be steep in a short period of time,” debating “image” and respectability feels rather outlandish and inappropriate.

Talking in a broader context, former Australian Supreme Court Justice Michael Kirby said, “by having their actions criminalized, these men grow up outside of society. Most will not admit to being MSM, and thus MSM conspire in the attitude of society against them.”

Fighting discrimination, stigmatisation and irrational laws is an essential part of the fight against HIV, but such important issues raise the question of how to deal with cultural values and in particular those that places appearances above reality. The overwhelming weight of social pressure is often overlooked and the example of Thailand is remarkable as a country where homosexuality has never been criminalised but where unwritten “laws of conduct” are deeply enshrined within society.

Thailand is not unique and the situation of MSM in other Asia Pacific countries is hardly better but it does raise some very serious questions on how best to approach cultural and social change, particularly for international NGOs and local activists who have an important role to play. But knowing the restriction, both social and political, imposed on them, what will and can they do?

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