photo: courtesy, The Film Journal

THAILAND – Although many tourists go to Thailand to see the “Lady Boys,” a film about a transgender father has been rejected for public viewing by the country’s national film board.

The National Film Board said that the movie, “Insects in the Backyard,” cannot be shown because it contains scenes that are immoral and pornographic.

“Insects in the Backyard” is a drama about a transvestite and single father, played by Tanwarin, whose teenage son and daughter are torn by feelings of love and shame and eventually run away from home and turn to the sex trade.

One of the scenes that has come under scrutiny shows an explicit depiction of two men having sex. Director Tanwarin Sukkhapisit said the scenes were crucial to the story line and could not be cut. She plans to appeal the ban.

“The problem with my film wasn’t that it was a gay-themed movie, because there are many gay comedies allowed in Thailand,” Tanwarin said. “My movie was banned because it was a serious movie. It showed there can be real problems when society cannot accept sexual differences.”

While the government is very conservative in its Buddhist beliefs, transgendered individuals are allowed to live freer in the country than almost anywhere else in the world. They appear on TV soap operas and can be seen working at department store cosmetics counters, popular restaurants and walking the runways in numerous transgender beauty pageants.

“Our society tries to show it accepts differences, but actually it doesn’t,” Tanwarin said. “Thailand is still a conservative society. This is a case of the government using its power to suppress people with different opinions.”