Treechada “Nong Poy” Marnyaporn (น้องปอย Nong Poy)
also known as TREECHADA PETCHARAT
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'I knew I wanted to be a women ever since I was a child. But I had to fake being a man, for Mum and Dad. I felt uncomfortable, and disgusted with my own male sex organs. Back then I was 17, so I decided to have the operation to change my sex. Once I had it, I felt much better, like I had become a new person.
'At first I was scared of going under the knife, so I consulted the surgeon, and looked for information about it, until I was certain I was ready to be a woman. The operation hurt, but it was worth the happiness I felt later once I had become a woman.'
"Back when I was very young I stole a skirt that belonged to some other kindergarten kid. I felt so happy when I wore it. I also liked to play with a head towel and pretended that it was my real hair. I felt totally myself while spending time in the bathroom. It's a private world all of my own," ..
"As a kid, I was not that polite and tidy. I was naughty, too, but naughty like a girl, not a boy. When I was little, I was never introduced to the world of the transgender population, so naturally, I grew up like a girl. I thought it was in my blood."
"My father once said that 'It does not matter what you are. What is most important is to be a good decent person.' My mother said that if I wanted to become a woman, I must live like a woman and be like a woman, and not a katoey [a transgenderer]. She even taught me the art of cooking,"
"The [sex change] surgery was in fact something my parents' were quite against. They were worried about the operation because they said that I was still too young. But to me, it was something that I had been looking forward to for a long time. It was some sort of therapeutic surgery ... like an appendicitis surgery. And I was more than happy that I was going to have my body fixed,"
"Once I found an unpleasant comment on the Internet. It said that no matter how well I behave nobody was going to accept me because of my sexual orientation. I felt so upset. I just want people to understand that even though I could not choose what gender I was born with, I can only choose the way I behave and the way I live my life.
"I've never thought that what I've done [sex change surgery] goes against Mother Nature. But I do believe that Mother Nature created me this way."
"The image of katoeys in Thai society these days is very sex-oriented. Most people believe that we are aggressive, naughty, bad and promiscuous. To change such negative perceptions we must behave better. If we still act aggressively, people will think that we are different."
"We must bear in mind that if one of us turns bad, people will think that we are all bad,"
*"I will not become arrogant or forget where I came from, but it hurts when people call me a katoey even though I really am one. As I said earlier, I've lived all my life like a woman. My mother is a woman. My beloved sister is a woman. All my best friends are women. So I am not going to compete with them. I do not want anybody to compare me with somebody else because, after all, I just want to be one of those ordinary women."*
