Thailand's defense ministry has coined new terms to describe transgender men normally exempt from army conscription to avoid causing them offence.
The law has stated transgender people are exempt from signing up to the military because of a "psychological abnormality", but after being amended, men will be divided into three types - "Type 1" will refer to men "whose appearances are typical of men", "Type 2" will refer to men who have undergone breast implants and "Type 3" will describe those who have had a full sex change, the Bangkok Post newspaper said.
"Normally only Type 1 are required to draw a conscription ballot," Thaksin Chiamthong, an officer of the Army Reserve Command, told the paper. "But if the number of Type 1 is insufficient, Type 2 will be conscripted as well, despite their female-like breasts."
The army reportedly proposed replacing the current classification in the Conscription Act of 1954 with "gender identity disorder", but faced ire from rights groups. Thailand's annual conscription begins in April and the Thai armed forces need to conscript 97,280 men aged 21 this year - up by 9,828 from 2010.