A vibrant, growing, and highly visible set of female identities has emerged in Thailand known as tom and dee. A tom (from tomboy) refers to a masculine woman who is sexually involved with a feminine partner, or dee (from lady). The patterning of female same-sex relationships into masculine and feminine pairs, coupled with the use of English derived terms to refer to them, is found throughout East and Southeast Asia.

Have the forces of capitalism facilitated the dissemination of Western-style gay and lesbian identities throughout the developing world as some theories of...