by Lotty Clare
Last Friday was the beginning of Yangon Pride celebrations in a country where human rights abuses are rife, and homosexuality is criminalised. The rising profile of LGBTQ+ rights in Myanmar provides precious hope for queer people in the country. However, the road to equality is a long one.
Yangon’s 2020 Pride festival is organised by &PROUD and runs from January 18th to February 2nd. The opening day in Thakin Mya park attracted thousands of people. The city’s pride events include a boat parade, queer dance performances, drag shows, queer film screenings and panel discussions, and of course lots of rainbows. The films that will be shown include ‘A Simple Love Story’ a short documentary film that was given a distinction in the Wathann Film Festival but was not screened due to censorship, even though there was no nudity. The film centred around a trans couple and asked the question ‘does love have any gender?’.
The legacy of colonial era laws is still very strong in many Southeast Asian nations. In Myanmar, Malaysia and Singapore Article 377 makes same sex relations illegal. In Myanmar this law states:
Although this law isn’t really used, LGBTQ+ people are effectively criminalised, and it casts a shadow over their lives. There are numerous other laws that are used to target queer people such as: negligently spreading sexual disease, committing a public nuisance, the 1945 Police Act and Section 35c known as the ‘Shadow Law’. These laws have been used to punish queer people, particularly transgender and gender non-conforming people under the justification of wearing a ‘disguise’ or a covered face between sunset and sunrise (Shadow Law). Read more via Norwich Radical