It was midnight, deep in the fog-covered mountains close to the Thai-Myanmar border, when 26-year-old Somporn “Guy” Tumma was hit by an oncoming pickup-truck.
He came out of a coma almost a week later, disoriented, confused, with an open wound across his forehead and a chunk of his nose missing. Someone told him that some emergency service volunteers had chanced on him on a deserted road, and dropped him off at a nearby hospital. But once at the hospital, he says was treated not with compassion but with contempt.
“When the doctor found out I wasn’t Thai, it seemed like she didn’t even want to treat me,” says Guy. “While stitching up my nose, she refused to use anesthesia. She pushed hard on my wounds, as if she wanted to cause me pain.”
In the days that followed, he says hospital staff shouted at and insulted him.
Guy is a member of the Dara-Ang ethnic community. He was born in Thailand, living his whole life in a small village called Doi Ang Khang. He does not have Thai citizenship, so his identity and status mean he has been subject to discrimination all his life.
Ethnic people are frequently subjected to unjust stereotyping, often being perceived as perpetual outsiders. His community has been farming snow lotus in Chiang Mai province for generations using age-old rotational farming methods. Every year, as major cities like Bangkok and Chiang Mai are blanketed by toxic PM2.5 smog, ethnic communities are often blamed. While burning the land to clear it of vegetation is a part of rotational farming, the big polluters, namely industrial agriculture and fossil fuel giants, cause major environmental damage leading to a rising public discontent.
“We’re seen as dirty and uneducated,” says Guy. “Do we feel hurt to be seen as inferior, as a minority who destroy the forest? Of course, we’re hurt… If we destroyed the forest, we’d have no life. Why would we destroy our own lives?”
Thailand has a reputation as a largely tolerant society. But youth like Guy are still wrestling with pervasive prejudices. His is one of three stories from Thailand featured in ExtremeLives, a bold new video series by UNDP and the EU which hopes to spotlight young people trying to dismantle and redefine the labels society has ascribed to them.
Actions, the series emphasizes, speak louder than words. After his experience at the hospital, Guy became an emergency medical service volunteer.
“I help everyone, even those who once insulted me and said terrible things about me,” says Guy. “Others may look down on us. To them, we seem worthless. But we create our own worth.” Volunteering requires intense training and to be on-call at a moment’s notice without compensation.
Other stories similarly feature youth attempting to reshape their narratives. Against the backdrop of a decades-old conflict, there are some who believe Muslims in Thailand’s South are inherently violent. Members of the LGBTIQ+ community in this Muslim-majority area face a double stigma.
Dada identifies as a member of the trans community. While she has reconciled her Islamic faith with a deep conviction that she should be able to live as her authentic self, she says some people in her home city of Yala still believe she should be subject to conversion therapy. But food for the 21-year-old chef and activist with civil society organization Luk Riang is a way of bringing people with different viewpoints together.
“When food is cooked with love by LGBTQ+ people, our guests will get to savor what our community wishes to communicate. This is who we are. We’re no different from others,” says Dada.
Meanwhile, in Bangkok, public perception of the Klong Toey district has long been associated with crime, poverty, and drug abuse. The well-known slum began as a home for rural Thais who moved to the capital to look for work. Many have roots in the Isaan region, where the people are often typecast as docile, lazy, and ignorant.
19-year-old professional Muay Thai fighter Cha hopes to prove with every victory in the boxing ring that people in Khlong Toei can overcome their circumstances and succeed against the odds. Her boxing skills have earned her a university scholarship, making her the first in her family to pursue undergraduate education.
When it comes to addressing intolerance in this country, some important steps are being taken. In 2022, the Thai government approved National Guidelines on strengthening coexistence: a commitment to address the social conditions driving hate-based biases in the country.
In the past, women were banned from even touching Muay Thai boxing rings let alone fight in them, but last year Thailand’s top stadiums began allowing women Muay Thai fighters to compete in an attempt to modernize.
Lawmakers in Thailand are edging closer to possibility of legalizing same-sex marriage. After a series of public hearings, a draft gender recognition bill to allow transgender people to legally change their titles and gender in identification documents has also been gaining traction, though progress has been slow. Some norms and stereotypes are deeply entrenched, and won’t be resolved overnight.
Providing an advocacy platform for untold stories is only part of the task at hand. With youth like Guy, Dada and Cha showing what they’re capable of, it becomes imperative for the public not just to listen, but also to become agents of change and demanding action.
Cover image credit: ©UNDP / Mailee Osten-Tan
ExtremeLives, a video series by UNDP and the European Union, is now available to watch on https://www.youtube.com/@ExtremeLives