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This news item on the main page of the big provider here in Switzerland.
An airline is opening up, and 4 of the latest recruits for cabin staff are TS!
The report is of course in German, and I don't have time right now to translate it all, but will do, probably tomorrow some time.
The airline chief is reported to be pleased and is wanting more TS employees.
http://www.bluewin.ch/de/index.php/208,16647/?asset_id=76326
Comments
It's a Thai airline, a new
It's a Thai airline, a new venture. Hiring 4 Katooey (TS, Post op, I think) was supposedly in response to the Thai government recognizing the Katooey as a "Third Sex", and passing laws to protect them from discrimination. I suspect it is more of a publicity move to kick off the new airline. They are to be on international flights if it all works out. The photos I have seen of the new stewardii show some nice looking young women. Unfortunately, the airline decided they had to have special id badges stating they were Katooey or third sex rather than accepting them as "real women".
Katooey activists are also trying to get special bathrooms for pre-op TS to keep them from being harrassed for using the ladies in Muslim areas and hotels where they have been treated badly.
Thailand - Thai "PC Air" airline recruits transsexuals as flight attendants... [2011-01-25 Sify (DPA)]
http://www.sify.com/news/thai-airline-recruits-transsexuals-...
IANS
Thai airline recruits transsexuals as flight attendants
2011-01-25 14:20:00
Bangkok, Jan 25 2011 (DPA) A newly launched Thai airline has adopted a policy of recruiting transsexuals as flight attendants in an effort to offer equal opportunities to the 'third sex,' company sources said Tuesday.
PC Air hired three transsexuals, 17 women, and 10 men in its initial recruitment drive Monday.
'Our initial quota was set at three transsexuals, but we will consider taking more in the future depending on their qualifications, ' a PC Air spokeswoman said.
The transgender attendants will wear a special gold-coloured 'third-sex' name tag to help passengers and immigration authorities know what gender they are dealing with, she said.
Thanyarat Jiraphatpakorn, winner of the 2007 Miss Tiffany transsexual beauty pageant, was among the successful candidates to land a job on the new airline, which plans to launch flights on March 1.
'At first I thought they would just take applications but not actually recruit us, as has happened at other places before,' Thanyarat told The Nation newspaper.
Thailand has an unusually large and vocal transsexual community, which often complains of discrimination at the workplace and has lobbied in the past for 'third sex' bathrooms at universities and exclusion from military service.
CaroL
CaroL
Thanks Carol
Carol has explained to a far deeper level than the Swisscom article goes. Basically the video just mentions that there are some TS and TV trainees learning to be 'Stewardesses' and one of them in interview explained that she has wanted to be one since her very early years, and she has been rejected by other airlines on quite a few occasions, so this has made her dream come true. The Swissom article makes no mention of the '3rd sex' business or any of that.
Carol does say that "Thailand has an unusually large and vocal transsexual community" which has always made me wonder a bit. Is it that Thailand have something 'in the water' that creates so many more TG/TV/TS people, or is it that their culture is so accepting (indeed encouraging) that the proportion is in fact 'normal' and the 'lower' figures from other countries are a result of fear and social conditioning?
Any way, I won't now translate the interviews and commentary word for word, as Carol has given you all a far wider picture than that to which the Swisscom article goes.
Keep well,
and may your day be 'merry and bright'
Julia