In an effort to combat the ignorance surrounding Thai culture as it pertains to its representation in Thai QL, The Thai-in will be a mini info series where host @hallowpen will talk about different topics relevant to the queer media currently representing Thailand to an international fanbase.
As a queer, black, Thai transperson... who has had to live in the reality of a very complex, nuanced, and sometimes biased culture... Hallow's point of view has been shaped by historical precedents and unique personal experiences. Join them as they take you on a mostly educational (often emotional) journey that dives deeper into Thailand and its social politics.
Auto-translate, grain of salt, etc. but I saw this tweet from a Thai fan yesterday when it had 3k retweets and it's, uh, gained some traction since then.
Now that I'm only using a burner account to collect videos and interviews, the Very Sensitive Algorithm shows me more Thai tweets than it ever did when I had an active account tweeting in English. And something I've noticed is that Thai fans tweeting in Thai are often discussing completely different things compared to interfans tweeting in English.
Like the whole Songkran thing.
I saw Thai fans criticizing BL actors for performative behavior in an ambiguous public role while not actually pushing for issues relevant to the queer community.
Pointing out that openly queer actors don't get the clout that closeted/straight actors do.
Asking when Songkran became a time for BL actors to farm for engagement—because this only started happening last year.
And obviously not all Thai people were upset. Some responded going, "Eh, who cares, let them do whatever."
But the general tone of what I saw were Thai users criticizing actors who were seemingly using public displays of affection during Songkran as guaranteed engagement bait since it was such a success for some imaginary couples last year. But if you've been in this fandom or lived in Thailand longer than that, you'll remember that they didn't do this in 2024. Or 2023. Or any year before that.
And as @hallowpen pointed out—
—to behave like that in 2026 is dangerous because since the recent election, Thailand is becoming increasingly conservative. And it's one thing if the actors themselves are part of the queer community and choosing to display public acts of affection as a form of rebellion. That's their choice, and it's up to the queer community in Thailand to judge whether that's helpful to their movement. It's quite another matter when the actors are straight or have a real-life partner at home (which Thai fans often know because they have a wealth of information we don't) and they're just using the social media engagement for personal gain.
Then, after all this, we had irresponsible accounts like this one on Instagram spreading this bait about Thai people:
And then interfans did zero research as usual and jumped to the conclusion that Thai people must be homophobic.
Like.
Asking, "Can someone explain what really happened?" and then taking the only commenter's explanation as reliable is par for the course on the internet these days, but that also explains why Thai fans ended up getting demonized for bigotry they weren't even practicing.
It was surreal to see tweets defending the queer community somehow twisted into, "JUST LET THEM KISS OMG!!"
I even saw interfans here on Tumblr accusing Thai fans of being homophobic for the Songkran criticism. Like, I'm sure there was some of that on Twitter because it's Twitter and Elon Musk owns it and he loves homophobia, but why weren't any of the viral tweets getting any attention at all?
The problem on Tumblr is that interfans outnumber Thai fans, and so there's a feedback loop. So don't take my word for any of this either, because I'm an interfan, which is why I led with the Thai tweet currently going viral at 12k retweets.
The issue we face as interfans is recognizing that Thailand—and Southeast Asia generally—is a very difficult place to speak freely in.
I was fortunate enough to get here right before the "youth-led protest movement" of 2020, so I watched as this movement gained traction, and I've watched what's happened in the years afterward.
Thailand has had twelve successful coups (and more attempted) since 1932:
Ever since transforming from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one in 1932, Thailand has been rocked by clashes between conservative monarchists and pro-democracy reformists. To some extent, these two groups (represented in the 2000s by the 'yellow shirts' and 'red shirts') reflect deep social divides between urban elites, and the impoverished, but increasingly politically aware rural population. Historians have described a 'vicious cycle of Thai politics', in which unstable democratically elected civilian governments alternate with military rule, installed on the pretext of restoring order. Since 1932, Thailand has been through 12 successful coups (as well as many more attempted ones) and multiple constitutions.
I've seen Thailand described as a "competitive autocracy," and a non-confrontational culture (เกรงใจ) combined with the controversial results of the most recent election make it extremely challenging for (especially marginalized) people living in Thailand to speak out, even on the internet.
Since the 2023 election, the royal, military and judicial elites have increasingly relied on political accommodation rather than direct domination to contain reformist challengers. This strategy has involved the pragmatic incorporation of actors long viewed as adversaries, including Pheu Thai. The current election represents a continuation of this accommodation — what binds these actors together is not a shared political vision, but a mutual interest in office holding, stability and access to state resources.
So it is difficult to find out what's actually going on in Thailand, but that's why interfans should be cautious before jumping to conclusions about their true motives or beliefs.
And, of course, while interfans should never speak over Thai people, we can and should uplift those who are kind enough to take the time and energy to offer us information.
Here on Tumblr, @hallowpen is making an informational series about queer media representing Thailand over at @thai-in that people can follow along with soon.
And also check out the work @recentadultburnout has done on AO3: 23 pages of information on Thailand for fic writers and people in general to learn about and get a more informed appreciation of the country and culture. They've also made posts about the meanings of character names in series under this hashtag with the full list here!
Ultimately, we are guests in their house, and it would be kindest for us to treat them with the respect that hosts deserve. <3
Not me crying on a Friday night, because this is so important to me.
I've been involved in various fan spaces on Tumblr that have resulted in me leaving because of deliberately malicious ignorance or just plain blatant racism.
I've met some of the most important people in my life during my time here, @thebroccolination amongst them. And when Key reached out to me, it was never just about using me as a resource for Thai QL... but an offer of genuine friendship that later allowed space for genuine communication about topics where they were willing to actually listen to and engage with my point of view.
My goal of participating in certain fandoms has always been to curate an atmosphere of open communication, but it's become so hard to do that lately with the amount of contrived ignorance and hurtful name-calling. My goal was and still is to use @thai-in as my last ditch effort to help interfans understand Thai fans before I graciously bow out from fandom interactions regarding Thai QL as a whole.
...and I hope that it will help create more opportunities for communication and more genuine friendships between Thai fans and interfans that can mirror the one I have shared with Key.
