Revisiting the ‘Thai gay paradise’: Negative attitudes toward same-sex relations despite sexuality education among Thai LGBT students

ABSTRACT

School settings are volatile and often violent for LGBT teens who are first coming to terms with their sexuality. We explored the attitudes of LGBT students in Thai secondary schools towards homosexuality. Students aged 12–19 years were surveyed in 393 public institutions providing secondary-school education in six regions of Thailand, selected by a multistage cluster sampling. Among 1088 LGBT-identified students, 378 (35%) reported negative attitudes toward homosexuality. Factors associated with homonegative attitudes in a multivariable logistic regression analysis were identifying as a transgender (Adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR] 2.5, 95% CI 1.5-4.1), having low academic performance (GPA scores of 2–3 [aOR 2.6, 95% CI 1.7-4.1] or less than 2 [aOR 2.1, 95% CI 1.5-2.]), and attending sexuality education classes covering topics such as bullying LGBT students (aOR 1.9, 95% CI 1.2-3.1) and safe homosexual practices (aOR 2.1, 95% CI 1.7-4.1). Sexuality education in its current form in Thai public schools may not be effective in reducing homonegative attitudes of LGBT-identified students. A more comprehensive sexuality education emphasising gender and rights along with strategies addressing social disparities due to sexual orientation is needed to enable Thai LGBT teens to accept their sexuality without shame and self-disrespect.

KEYWORDS:

• LGBT
• homonegativity
• teenagers
• sexuality education
• Thailand

Acknowledgements

This study received funding from UNICEF Thailand and M. Shrestha was supported by the South-east Asian Consortium on Gender, Sexuality and Health. The study was conducted in collaboration with the Thailand Ministry of Education and UNICEF Thailand.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Manash Shrestha http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5110-3742

Thomas E. Guadamuz http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6803-1127

Additional information

Funding

This study received funding from UNICEF Thailand and M. Shrestha was supported by the South-east Asian Consortium on Gender, Sexuality and Health. The study was conducted in collaboration with the Thailand Ministry of Education and UNICEF Thailand.