{"id":43785,"date":"2020-06-24T07:38:17","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T05:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=43785"},"modified":"2021-06-17T09:14:09","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T07:14:09","slug":"pride-month-spotlight-how-it-feels-to-be-trans-activist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/43785\/pride-month-spotlight-how-it-feels-to-be-trans-activist\/","title":{"rendered":"Pride month spotlight: How it feels to be a trans activist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The transgender community often receives less spotlight than the rest of the colors in the rainbow.  This Pride Month, we\u2019d like our transgender people to take the center stage by sharing the internal and external pressures faced by transgender people – like Parit Chomchuen.  <\/p>\n\n

Parit is based in Greenpeace Southeast Asia\u2019s Bangkok office and is a transman who is a local activist for the queer community.  This year, Parit joined Greenpeace\u2019s Global Rainbow Network, which is a safe space for queer identifying staff, to continue his activism at Greenpeace and here is his story.<\/p>\n\n

\u00a9 Parit Chomchuen<\/div>. \u00a9 Parit Chomchuen” alt=”Parit at Pattaya International Pride
\u00a9 Parit Chomchuen<\/div>. \u00a9 Parit Chomchuen” class=”wp-image-48294″\/>
Parit at Pattaya International Pride
\u00a9 Parit Chomchuen<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Queer Activism and Green Campaigns<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

About ten years ago, I visited the Rainbow Warrior II when it parked at Khlong Toei Pier, Bangkok. As an activist in the queer movement, the innovative and proactive way Greenpeace did their campaigns left a strong mark in my mind and I was impressed by their history and work.<\/p>\n\n

Three years ago, I joined Greenpeace because I saw that the environment was facing a crisis and I needed to take action. I believe that my desire to be part of the green movement stemmed from my involvement in Tai Pride and other queer campaigns here in Thailand. In my mind, injustice towards our earth is the same with injustice towards the queer community.  Injustice is injustice.  <\/p>\n\n

Here at Greenpeace, not only have I become more in tune with global green campaigns, I\u2019ve also found a new platform to further my queer activism including being a core team member of the Global Rainbow Network where I can raise awareness and respect for the rights of queer people, in particular, for transgender people. There is a trans community here at Greenpeace but it\u2019s not a large one making us not as visible as gay or lesbian members here. And so I am glad to have space in this Network to talk a bit about how it is being a transman.<\/p>\n\n

Living in a Box<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Transphobia refers to the hate and fear of transgender people. When the hatred and fear are inflicted upon a trans person by the trans person themselves, we call it internalized transphobia. This comes in the form of guilt, negativity and even hate towards yourself.<\/p>\n\n

Most transgender people do not wish to live life according to the sex they were assigned at birth. But how do you learn to be a gender you were not brought up as? Many of us turn to mainstream values, norms and beliefs we find in the society we live in, using these social and cultural conditions as a framework for learning about sexuality.<\/p>\n\n

This framework, unfortunately, is like a box. Anyone outside the box will be judged as wrong.\u00a0 Many of us then fall into this trap. In the case of transgender men like myself, I used to question how I should act as a transman and what type of masculinity should I display? Do I want to be muscular? A mustache? What does it mean to be good looking? Should I use hormonal therapy or even undergo sex reassignment surgery? How can I become accepted, blend into mainstream values? This list of internal struggles and questions go on.<\/p>\n\n

\u00a9 Parit<\/div> \u00a9 Parit” alt=”Filing a complaint on the health education model against prejudice towards LGBTIQ+ people.
\u00a9 Parit<\/div>” class=”wp-image-48438″\/>
Filing a complaint on the health education model against prejudice towards LGBTIQ+ people.
\u00a9 Parit<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The social mechanism that builds this box is smart and sturdy, making it almost impossible for us to struggle free. But living inside this box comes at high costs not just in terms of financial costs but worst yet, the cost of our health. When we try to break free from this box, we are disliked, stigmatized and even discriminated against. This is the price we pay when we want to be free \u2013 homophobia. This phobia impacts our psychological well-being, leaving our community with a higher percentage of depression for example.  <\/p>\n\n

As a transman, I wish I could have been taught that gender shouldn\u2019t be found in a box.  I wish that the forces behind this box would loosen up, giving us more space to breathe and be ourselves. You can play a role in helping transgender people like myself break free, start by removing fixed beliefs in how gender representation should look and actively showing that you welcome fellow transgender people. And it\u2019s important to have an organizational culture that takes into account equality as well as the rights of the employees, including queer colleagues. With each additional voice, we will become stronger together.  <\/p>\n\n

Happy Pride Month!<\/p>\n\n

Parit Chomchuen is Data Entry Officer and activist at Greenpeace Thailand.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Pride Month, we\u2019d like our transgender people to take the center stage by sharing the internal and external pressures faced by transgender people \u2013 like Parit Chomchuen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":43790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"Pride month spotlight: How it feels to be a trans activist","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[90],"p4-page-type":[59],"class_list":["post-43785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-and-economic-systems","tag-peace","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43785"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48439,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43785\/revisions\/48439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43785"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=43785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}