Sexual Diversity and Gender Variance in Thailand and the Philippines: A Review Article

Abstract

The Philippines and Thailand have often been regarded, particularly in Western popular media, not only as havens for Anglo-European sex tourists, but also as being open and tolerant towards homosexuality and other forms of so-called deviant behaviour. This article is concerned with two recently published books which challenge and correct these ethnocentric and naive views of non-mainstream sexualities and gendered identifications: Peter Jackson's (1995) Dear Uncle Go, a revision of his previously released Male Homosexuality in Thailand: An Interpretation of Contemporary Thai Sources (Jackson 1989), and J. Neil Garcia's (1996) Gay Culture in the Philippines. Each is concerned with the different ways in which same-sex sexuality amongst men have been constructed and, more particularly, the way in which forms of sexuality intersect with forms and formulations of masculinity and femininity, providing an important contribution to understanding the particular cultures and histories of sexuality that characterize Thailand and the Philippines. As I suggest in detail below, the critical difference between the two books is that while Jackson's primary concern is with the development of masculine-identified homosexuals, that is to say, gay men, which he sees an important stage in effecting the mainstreaming of