BANGKOK: Thailand's transsexual population is angry at a recent advertisement published by Swedish home furniture store IKEA. The ad features a woman talking in a deep male tone and has led to many in the country believing it is a mockery of the transgender community as being “deceitful and deviant.” “If find the advertisement very anti-gay and shows that the company wants to hit on all aspects of Thai society in order to get people into the stores,” 34-year-old transgender “Mary” told Bikyanews.com. “They might have thought it would be funny, but it is anything but comedic.” The Thai Transgender Alliance is demanding in an open letter that IKEA officially apologizes for an ad they describe as “negative and stereotypical in nature." The ad, shown below was broadcast on the Bangkok sky train system from Dec. 28-Jan. 13. It shows a couple browsing an IKEA store. When the woman spots an item on sale, her voice drops into a dark male-like tone and the man next to jerks away. In the last scene, the man runs away as the woman carries off boxes of flat-packed furniture by herself. “We want everyone to feel welcome to our stores and we apologize if it [the ad] is seen as negative," IKEA Group spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson said. The continued anti-gay move in Thailand has led to many in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community call for the government to push for better equality and more rights for the minority groups. But it is a slow process and with most of Asian shunning changes to their colonial laws that forbid homosexuality, the ad continues to show the frustrations that the LGBT groups have been speaking of. BN
