YANGON -- In seventh grade, at school in a small town five hours’ drive north of Yangon, Jel Li developed a crush on another girl. Confused, she wrote her feelings down, but then burned the paper. “I felt I was abnormal. … I didn’t know what was happening to me,” said Jel Li, who has now adopted a transgender male identity. “Every day, I hoped I would change.”

Jel Li’s life changed in 2012, when he was 19 and the internet became widely available after years of suppression by the military regime. “I searched on Google and I saw people like me,” he said. "Since then, I have accepted myself for who I am.”

In addition to identifying as a trans man, Jel Li is part of a growing number of people in Myanmar who identify as “tomboys.” Biologically female, tomboys wear short hair and dress in a masculine style. Most prefer to go by masculine pronouns; some also identify as transgender men or lesbians. The term “tomboy” relates to gender identity rather than sexual orientation; however, tomboys interviewed by the Nikkei Asian Review said most are attracted to women.

A Burmese-language online chat group for tomboys and trans men attracted 1,400 members in just six weeks since it was established in early August, but the number of people identifying themselves in this way is likely much higher, according to Htar Htar Thet, a trainer and activist on gender issues.

Hla Myat Tun, deputy director of the LGBT organization Colors Rainbow, said the environment for LGBT people in Myanmar is “getting better as far as public awareness and social acceptance.” Even so, he added, the Burmese-language LGBT lexicon remains limited primarily to derogatory terms. Read more via Nikkei Asian Review