Kathoey grief

What to do with kathoey who just go too far? Two young men have left entertaining messages on Thai webboards. One is a teenager at an all-boys' school. In his class, 10 students are kathoey (ladyboys, or in the popular vernacular, just plain 'gay') - and they just won't leave him alone. They tease him, chase him, paw his bottom, kiss his cheek - and he's had enough.

In the other post, a man complains about a brazen kathoey who cut in front of him in a queue. He was waiting to buy a ticket for the boat to work when a 'king kong-size' kathoey jumped in ahead of him.

'I went to protest, but she put her hand through her hair and gave it an affected flick, as if I was flirting with her.'

Another one stole a seat he had been eyeing on the bus. He was standing in a packed aisle, and when the woman seated next to him stood up to leave, he went to take her seat - but a kathoey grabbed the seat instead.

'She gave me a look as if to say, ''Well, I am a woman, and gentleman let ladies go first'', ' he complained.

One reader said he an encounter with a kathoey on Khao San Rd over New Year. He was walking with friends in a large crowd when a kathoey popped up out of nowhere and kissed his cheek.

'My whole year was full of bad luck after that,' he joked.

The story of the fifth-form boy is more worrying. He says his teacher will not help him out of his distress - all he does is laugh.

One reader asked if the boy was not in fact asking for it, by flirting with the kathoey, showing off, or carrying on like he thought he was the most handsome thing on earth. She asked why he could not call on his male friends for help when the kathoey were teasing the boy.

Another suggested that if he wanted to get rid of them, he should try acting like them. 'Kathoey are not attracted to their own kind. If you act gay, they will leave you alone.'

The boy responded saying he had tried everything - pleading with them, even giving them a wai greeting. But the kathoey refused to listen.

In forms 4-6 of his school, which is otherwise an all-boys school, girls are allowed. Once he hit a kathoey in his class who went too far. She became angry, and the girls in his class took his side. They accused him of harassing the kathoey, and said he over-reacted.

A woman reader responded, urging him not to use force again. He said the kathoey in his class sounded boy-crazy, but she did not want him to end up hating kathoey, because they added colour to life.

She suspected the boy was so handsome that the kathoey students were unable to contain themselves - in which case, he should try becoming less handsome, so they would leave him alone.