The Persistence of Gender From Ancient Indian Pandakasto Modern Tliai Gay-Quings Peter A. Jackson Introduction Bangkok's gay and kathoey (transvestite/transsexual) subcultures are among the largest and most vibrant homoerotic subcultures in Asia. While lacking the community focus of many Western gay subcul- tures, Bangkok's one hundred gay bars, pubs, discos, restaurants and saunas, and nearly twenty monthly gay magazines attest to the size and complexity of the social networks of homosexual and transgender men in Thailand's capital. It is perhaps easy for Western gay visitors to Thailand to see images of themselves reflected among the younger generation of openly gay men in Bangkok. There are parallels around the globe to the increasing numbers of gym-toned Thai gay men, decorated in the distinctive styles of local gay fashion labels, whose weekend social promenade circuits between gay restaurants and pubs, saunas and late night gay discos. But while pride in masculine homo- sexual identity is common to Western and Thai formulations of gay- ness, there is much about being gay in Thailand that Australian gay men would find foreign and unexpected. For example, one of the most distinctive features of Thailand's contemporary homoerotic subcultures is that they have emerged and achieved social tolerance in the absence of a political gay movement. While pride in gay and kathoey identity lies at the core of a dynamic and expanding cultural movement which is having increasing 110