The Bangkok Post features Dare to CARE, an alarming look into the treatment of queers while seeking health care.

Yutthachai Preeyamas feels comfortable with his sexual orientation, and is accepted by his family and friends as one of those Men Who Have Sex with Men, or MSM. But when the 27-year-old went to see a doctor with a rectal problem, he was surprised by the doctor’s reaction.

“Instead of treating me professionally, the physician told me to quit being homosexual. He asked me why I couldn’t love a woman. He also preached to me that anal sex was a channel for the HIV/Aids epidemic and recommended that I change my abnormal sexuality,” he recalls.

Another MSM, Pornsak (not his real name), said he was frustrated when he went to the Red Cross to donate blood. On the application form, he was requested to state his sexual activities for safety purposes. “I felt uneasy when the nurse asked me if I was an MSM. I understood that the question was meant to check whether I was engaging in risky behaviour or not, but after all, isn’t it mandatory to test all donated blood from everyone, whether straight or homosexual?”

A transgendered man, Nisarat (not her real name), also suffers from the same bias against homosexuality; she was not allowed to apply for private health insurance. “An insurance company rejected my application right away when they saw me. They said that, being a transgendered man, I have a high risk of HIV/Aids infection. But heterosexuals are as susceptible to HIV/Aids as homosexuals, aren’t they?”

It can be even more troublesome for women who love women.

read more