A school in the northeastern province of Chaiyaphum has held its second annual beauty pageant for cross gender schoolboys, with management and teachers hailing it as a success.
A video clip of the pageant has become a huge social media hit with about 1.8 million views by Wednesday, 21 hours after being posted on Facebook by user Peerasak Thaksawirekhaphant.
It shows almost two dozen students from Chaiyaphumphukdeechumphon Scool in Chaiyaphum province parading on stage in school uniform but with heavily made-up faces and hair.
Daily News Online quoted Prasanphan Pholthayan, a Thai-language teacher and administrator at the secondary school, as saying the "Miss Beauty Queen 2016" pageant was among students' activities at the 117th anniversary of the school. It was actually the second year the pageant had been held.
The school management had agreed with the students who proposed the pageant that schoolboys with a "third gender" orientation should have room for expression. The teachers felt that students should have opportunities to show off their capabilities, she said.
The pageants were approved on the condition that contestants must behave well and dress properly, the teacher said.
Since the pageants began the earlier negative attitudes of other students towards the participants had ended, Mrs Prasanphan was quoted as saying.
Video by Facebook user Peerasak Thaksawirekhaphant