LGBTQ activists in Myanmar join protests against military coup

LGBTQ activists in Myanmar join protests against military coup

LGBTQ activists in Myanmar have joined the growing protest movement against the Feb. 1 coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi and her democratically elected government.

Min Khant
Zin, a drag queen who works at a gay bar in Yangon, the country’s largest city,
told the Washington Blade that he and his friends received a lot of media
attention after they decided to participate in the protests while in drag.
Khant Zin, who identifies as queer, added this decision was deliberate.

“Most
of the openly gay people in Myanmar are makeup artists and cross-dressers. They
do not stand out in the crowds when they wear female costumes, but someone with
drag costumes will,” said Khant Zin. “This is my intention.”

“We want
people around the world to know about the LGBT community’s contributions for
the fight for democracy,” added Khant Zin.

Saw Zin
Maung Soe is an LGBTQ activist who founded CAN Myanmar, a civil rights
organization that is based in Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city.

Maung Soe told the Blade that around 100 members — gay men and lesbians from different socio-economic backgrounds, gender queer people, straight allies, doctors and engineers — participated in a protest that took place in Mandalay on Feb. 8. Maung Soe said some of them were part of a group of protesters against whom the police used water canons and rubber bullets.

“We
have to be cautious because we look different and are easily noticeable,”
Maung Soe told the Blade. “We are worried we might be targeted by the
police forces and counter protesters.”

“We are all coming to the protests to support the greater cause,” added Maung Soe.

Khant
Sithu, a Burmese college student in New York who identifies themselves as
LGBTQ, is among those who have gathered in front of the U.N. to protest the
coup.

“Regardless if you are gay or straight, we all vote for the political parties we like,” Sithu told the Blade. “People in Myanmar have overwhelmingly voted for Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD party. Now, the military dislikes the situation and detain the civilian leaders.”

The coup toppled Suu Kyi and her government less than three months after her National League for Democracy party trounced the military’s Union Solidarity and Development Party in Parliamentary elections. 

Suu Kyi, who
won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, was under house arrest for nearly 15 years
until her release in 2010. Suu Kyi in 2016 became Myanmar’s state counselor,
which is roughly equivalent to prime minister.

Suu Kyi,
who has faced global criticism over her response to the plight of the Rohingya,
has been charged with illegally possessing walkie-talkies. The U.S. is among
the countries that have imposed sanctions against the Burmese military over the
coup.

Consensual
same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in Myanmar under Section 377 of
the country’s Criminal Code.

Activists
said Suu Kyi’s government made an unofficial pledge to amend or repeal Article
377 and other anti-LGBTQ laws during its second term in office that would have
ended in 2025.

Maung Sue
told the Blade there was not “much progress for LGBT rights under Aung San
Suu Kyi’s NLD government’s administration in the last five years.”

“We
LGBT activists got invited to observe the parliamentary sessions and we were
asked to participate in policy dialogue,” said Maung Soe. “The issue
of LGBT rights was never a priority, even for the civilian government.”

A group of
activists have nevertheless released a statement that criticizes the coup and
demands the release of Suu Kyi and other civilian leaders who have been
detained.

“We
LGBTI people in Myanmar demand the release of elected civilian leaders in
detention, the cancellation of the new Administration Council formed with military
officials and pro-military persons, the lifting of the military’s intervention
against convening of the new Parliament with elected members of
Parliament,” reads the statement.

“Since
we, LGBTI people, have a history of active participation in past political
activism, we want to announce that in this military coup, we will stand with
the people and the government employees who are starting the civil disobedience
campaigns,” it adds.

Yuya, a transgender activist who spearheaded the letter, described it as a “statement by the LGBT people in Myanmar.”

“We are human beings and we are citizens,” Yuya told the Blade. “We have not been recognized because of the system, but we have tried to correct it. We do understand that we should not expect things to change 100 percent overnight, but we for sure do not want things to go back to ground zero and start again from scratch.”

“So, like others, we participate in civil disobedience movements and others … we have many things to contribute to it, because we are all concerned,” added Yuya. “Our leaders (referring to Suu Kyi) have fought for us. They were imprisoned for years in order for us to be here today. This is the time for us to contribute what we could for all of us again, so that generations may not suffer human rights abuses and this coup shall be the last one we experience.”

Published at Sat, 13 Feb 2021 14:00:00 +0000

Source: LGBTQ activists in Myanmar join protests against military coup