'I'm ready,' says first transgender candidate for Thai PM ThaiElection2019
BANGKOK - Pauline Ngarmpring thought she would take it slow as she began her new life as a transgender woman after transitioning at the age of 49.
"As a woman, I am comfortable and have nothing to hide. I am ready, but are people ready to accept a transgender candidate?"The contest looks set to be a showdown between the military-backed, royalist Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and supporters of exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra. "While we have had LGBT people in Thai politics before, no one has asserted their LGBT identity in such a public manner, and there has been no public discussion with such a positive approach," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"I was fortunate because I had already had a long and successful career as a man before I transitioned," she said. "Women are not taken seriously in Thailand; there have been some women politicians, but it's very difficult to enter politics without family connections," Ngarmpring said. "But from climate change to conflict, as we face the growing challenges of the 21st century, we cannot afford to exclude the perspectives and skills of women in political life."
"Because of my public profile, people who are in the closet look at me as an inspiration, and sometimes send me messages,"she said as she ate a dinner of rice and spicy pork in a restaurant before a campaign tour in Bangkok.
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