ladyboy

A ladyboy (or a kathoey กะเทย) is a transgendered person who is born male, but lives as a female. Some ladyboys have had gender-reassignment surgery (hormone therapy, reconstructed female sex organs, breast implants, facial surgery). Other ladyboys have some cosmetic surgery to make themselves look female, but retain their male organs. And others simply dress as women with no medical enhancements.

Some ladyboys are sex workers, but others are in entertainment as cabaret singers and dancers. Some ladyboys simply live as ladyboys for nobody's amusement but their own. In Thai culture particularly, the society is relatively permissive enough to tolerate ladyboy behavior without fear of persecution. In many Thai cities, you can often find ladyboys hanging out in shopping malls wearing makeup and girlie clothes (I affectionately refer to them as "drag teens").