In contrast to the sombre tone of most religious teaching, Phramaha Paivan Warawanno giggles through the shows as he reads comments from viewers mocking his robes as an “orange dress” and addressing him with a term used to refer to transgender women. “At first I couldn’t understand the meaning (of these LGBTQ+ slang terms), but I thought they were funny and was curious to see if people would laugh if I used them,” said Phramaha Paivan, 29, who has more than 2 million Facebook followers. “So I tried (using the words) and it has worked well,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from his temple in the capital, Bangkok.