Transgender Filipinos were confronted by a mob of members of the LGBTQIA community in Bangkok in Thailand, most of them also transgender people, in a fight that needed the involvement of the Royal Thai Police (RTP).
The fight – which broke out at a restaurant in Soi Sukhumvit 11, near Nana BTS station – was said to have started with a misunderstanding that led to an altercation between 20 Filipino transgender women and four of their Thai counterparts. The Thai transgender women called for back-up, with the situation therefore escalating, as the eventual mob gathered for just retribution on the transpinays who were alleged to have attacked their fellow Thais.
Various reasons have emerged from different versions of the cause of the fight, though the two factions were said to have quarreled in the past, touching on issues of sex work turf/territorial dispute, and displacement due to non-local usurpation of spaces/territories for sex work. Nonetheless, this was the first time that physical violence was reported to have happened.
What goes around comes around when you decided to hit the landlord while you living in his own house…You get what you deserve 😒 Thailand was never colonized for a reason sukhu#สุขุมวิท11 #Sukhumvit11 pic.twitter.com/rtm0EkUngO
— ♛ น้ำแข็งก้อน (@AiizYice) March 5, 2024
Members of the Lumphini police station – dispatched to the location to stop the fight, ensure public safety, and invite all parties involved to an interview – are now also checking the travel documents of non-Thais to ascertain if they have broken any of the country’s immigration laws.
None of the Filipinos involved, nor government officials have yet to release any statement as of press time.
