Thailand is known for its tolerance for transvestites and transsexuals, known locally as "katoeys" or "ladyboys." An annual transsexual beauty pageant is broadcast nationally, and Thai doctors’ well-honed skills at the surgeries needed to switch genders -- not to mention bargain prices -- have made Bangkok a sex-change capital.
Four Thai transsexuals -- known within the culture as "ladyboys" -- have been recruited as flight attendants for a start-up charter airline that says it will be Thailand’s first to include transsexuals among its cabin crew.