A leading university in Thailand has turned down an appeal from an embattled transgender lecturer, who was denied a lecturer position for her prominent role as an LGBT activist.

Kath Khangpiboon, 28, a transgender lecturer of the Faculty of Social Administration of Thammasat University, the second oldest university in Thailand, posted on her facebook profile that the university has upheld the decision not to accept her as a lecturer despite her faculty’s approval.

The university committee responsible for screening university personnel reasoned that Kath behaved inappropriately, saying that she has not followed the ethical principles of the university by allegedly posting inappropriate pictures and content on social media, such as Facebook.

The official document of the committee’s decision issued on 15 May says “according to the Act on Hiring Civil Servants in Tertiary Educational Institutions and a Thammasat University announcement, teachers must possess ethical behaviour as educators in order to be role models for students.”

The document added that the university did not base the decision not to hire Kath on her gender as an LGBT.

Kath holds a letter questioning Thammasat University administration about her employment which she submitted on 6 March 2015 at the Tha Prachan Campus of the university in Bangkok (file photo)

In April, Kath posted on her Facebook profile that the university decided not to hire her after she had been teaching for about 10 months and passed all the teaching criteria of the Faculty of Social Administration of the university.

The university did not clarify as to why they turned her down, but only stated that she behaved inappropriately on social media.

Later Kath submitted an appeal and demanded that the university clarify the decision.   

“We never know who likes or dislikes us, but the decision-making process [to hire lecturers] must have standards and be fair to me. I think that it is possible that [the university] used gender issues as part of the [employment] criteria,” Kath said.

She pointed out that the university never before used personal behaviour or expression as criteria to employ lecturers.

The LGBT activist added that she only posted Facebook pictures and content to educate people about LGBT issues and that the university committee should have read the content of her post, not just look at the pictures.

Last year, Thammasat University’s decision to hire Kath caused a stir in many social media outlets, with many questioning the appropriateness of employing transgender persons to work in the field of education.

Kath graduated with both bachelor's and master's degrees in Social Administration from Thammasat University. She is one of the most active voices in the LGBT community in Thailand and is engaged in work to promote LGBT rights and gender issues with several civil society organisations.

She applied for a lecturer position at the Faculty of Social Administration of Thammasat University’s campus in Lampang, in northern Thailand, in February 2014.