ZTT

Thailand, like other developing countries, has (and/or had) a major advantage over the West: extreme ultra poverty. Lucky bastards.

People simply had more to worry about than what logo is on the door of the room they take a shit in.

So in the West, where gay sex was illegal until relatively recently, and there's a functioning rule of law, people and police had the luxury to moralize about and/or shun/persecute gay people, even within their own family - families that are also typically smaller and more nuclear/insular than in the developing world - and 'trans/gay/LGBT' ended up being political, about legal rights and protest.

Nothing wrong with that, but there's a lack of foundation in the community and no real visibility other than stories about 'demanding' this or that, or marches, or pronouns, or identifying as attack helicopters, or slapping customers at Starbucks. Of course if that's all you hear/know about a certain group, you're not going to think positive thoughts.

That's how the cunts in charge operate, of course, divide and rule. And we all fall for it.

In developing countries gay/lesbian/trans people are just your brother, sister, cousin, uncle, aunt, schoolmate, best friend, boyfriend or girlfriend. Fewer legal rights, still some bigotry and discrimination, but just part of society.

You love them, they're nothing special or worse than anyone else, they're funny, enliven any party, can (if you're a woman or trans) do your make up or lend you shoes or a dress, and they're dealing with the same world of utter complete shit as everyone else. They're just people.

So while we're patting ourselves on the back because we stopped chemically castrating WWII heroes, and carry on laughing at men in dresses or 'Hangover' type dogshit, in developing countries, over decades, support networks and communities grew.

Older 'gays'/trans who paved the way before, help and support and advise younger ones who continue the process of acceptance and tolerance. A gay community in almost every street or 'block' in every town, not 'underground' or in special capitalistic ghettos, 'gay villages', in major cities like the West.

It's a pity because the West dominates the internet and social media, influencing other parts of the world in a new/continuing cultural imperialism, when the West should be learning from developing countries with successful, established, accepted gay/trans communities how it's done.

The worst thing would be for developing countries to lose what they already have by copying the stupidest ideological shit from the West - aka the only stuff we seem to hear about - turning gay/trans life from something personal and accepted into something too politicized and divisive, with a loss of socialization and community and sense of all being in it together.

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