GAY TIGERS

PHOTOGRAPH: PinkDot Singapore
The world watches as gay rights in South East Asia come under scrutiny this week as 29 LGBTIQ groups from 8 Southeast Asian nations take a stand to stop LGBTs being treated as criminals and second class citizens. 40 brave activists from eight countries, some of which from nations where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by law, have gathered in Jakarta to show that the recognition, promotion and protection of LGBT rights are long overdue. The Indonesian capital hosts the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) Civil Society Conference and ASEAN People's Forum this week.

Indonesian and Vietnamese groups Arus Pelangi and iSEE led the meeting, to raise awareness for the challenges faced by LGBT communities in South East Asia. They called upon civil society and governments to protect the rights of sexual minorities in the region. Currently, there are laws in some countries that criminalises sexual orientation and gender identity and have yet to recognise LGBT rights as human rights. Laws and policies also vary from country to country and forward thinking nations of the association are not doing enough to harmonize LGBT rights in the region, by applying pressure on those countries who criminalise it. In addition, LGBTs are not protected by any association-wide based mechanisms or human rights instruments.

In addition, the groups are calling to depathlogise sexual and gender orientation and promote the well-being of all people, to ensure equal and unhindered access to health and social services.

Sounds crazy right? Especially to those of us lucky enough to live in countries where such basic rights have become part of the social fabric. As someone whose heritage links to one of these countries, it upsets me that this is still happening in these supposedly developed 'Tiger' economies.

Our Asian brothers and sisters in Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, and Burma are still being dehumanised. Authorities arrest, detain and persecute individuals because of colonial laws that criminalize their sexual orientation or gender identity. In other ASEAN countries, certain laws are abused with impunity to harass or persecute individuals whose sexuality or gender is deemed unacceptable, immoral, or unnatural: anti-prostitution, anti-trafficking, or anti-pornography laws in Indonesia and the Philippines are applied to conduct illegal raids in gay establishments or to nab transgenders, oftentimes subjecting them to humiliation and extortion. The anti-kidnapping law in the Philippines is likewise used to forcibly break apart lesbian couples living under consensual and legitimate relationships.

Instead of representing the interests of all citizens, many governments and state institutions become instruments of religious and sectarian prejudice. In Surabaya, Indonesia, the police was complicit in an attack by an intolerant religious group against the participants of an international LGBTIQ conference.

A climate of stigma and discrimination prevails in most, if not all, ASEAN countries. From Vietnam to Brunei Darussalam, social stigma persists. Sexual orientations and gender identities outside heterosexuality and patriarchal gender norms are considered as a sickness that can be corrected through rape, reparative camps like in Besut, Malaysia, only one of several camps in the country, and other damaging psycho-social measures.

I'm proud of my kinsmen and women who refuse to be silenced by prejudice and fully support and applaud these brave individuals who are part of the grassroots fight to make the South East Asian spirit of peace, tolerance and understanding apply equally to all its people.