On 1 February 2021 Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, seized power through an orchestrated coup, asserting voter fraud in the 2020 elections that proclaimed the National League for Democracy (NLD) the winner. The Tatmadaw declared a state of emergency and have begun arbitrarily detaining civilian government leaders, including President Win Myint and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Many political figures and state officials who criticised the coup have been arrested and charged under Article 505(b) of the Penal Code for “public disturbance”. Responding to the illicit coup, thousands of civilians are protesting countrywide in a Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, or queer (LGBTIQ) people, who are still subject to official state persecution and discrimination, have joined the CDM, marching openly with rainbow anti-coup signs. The coup has resulted in unprecedented visibility for the LGBTIQ community, and with it, growing national support from fellow CDM members and persecution from the military junta.
LGBTIQ RIGHTS IN MYANMAR
Section 377 of Myanmar's Penal Code, which has been in place since the colonial era, subjects same-sex sexual acts to a term of imprisonment from ten years to life. No formal protection or accommodation exists for LGBTIQ people, and they face routine human rights abuses and violence on multiple fronts for not conforming to culturally entrenched ideologies of gender norms and behaviours. LGBITQ individuals frequently experience sexual, emotional, and physical abuse from family members, and others in their communities such as law enforcement officers, teachers and classmates. Transgender people are often particularly subject to assault, extortion, and harassment from police. Such cases of human rights abuses against the LGBTIQ community are rarely taken seriously by Myanmar's authorities. This reality was made starkly clear following the suicide of a twenty-six-year-old librarian, Kyaw Zin Win, who took his life in June 2019 after being forcibly outed and harassed by his colleagues. The National Human Rights Council of Myanmar dismissed any wrongdoing in his suicide and attributed Kyaw Zin Win’s death to his own “mental weakness”. Such archaic views are inevitably the fruits of extant colonially introduced Section 377 which criminalises same-sex acts and institutes heteronormative gender ideals into Myanmar’s socio-political system.
Despite the LGBTIQ communities criminalised status, results from a 2020 nationwide survey enacted by Yangon-based NGOs Colors Rainbow and &PROUD illuminate that Myanmar’s general public supports greater equality for the nations LGBTIQ community, and a strong majority of people support the decriminalisation of LGBTIQ identities. Respondents were representative of the population across demographics such as education, gender, and age. Results illuminated that 74% of respondents did not agree with the criminalisation of LGBTIQ identities—indicating that if handled sensitively, abolishing Section 377 and the relevant Police Acts would not be a publicly disadvantageous action for the government. Furthermore, 81% of people agreed with the statement: “I believe LGBT people deserve equality and equal treatment just like anyone else in Myanmar”. While it is evident the LGBTIQ community in Myanmar still faces state-sanctioned oppression and experience discrimination within society, support for equality and equal treatment of all people is growing. What is made clear from this research is that the fight for LGBTIQ equality in Myanmar will require attention and reform to both the social and legal realms. Nevertheless, with this documented public support for decriminalisation and the 2020 election around the corner, which featured the nation’s first openly gay candidate, human rights activists in Myanmar were hopeful a new set of elected policymakers would dismantle colonial-era anti-sodomy laws that justify the discrimination and marginalisation of LGBTIQ people.
A BURGEONING HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
When the military junta occurred, all hopes of LGBTIQ legislative reform dissipated along with the nation's fledgling quasi-democracy. The military has barbarously repressed protests. Army trucks, police trucks, stun grenades, water-cannons, security forces in riot gear deploying tear gas, rubber bullets, and live ammunition have been used against peaceful protests. To date, more than 4,609 people, including some journalists, artists, students, monks, medical workers, and civil society activists have been arrested in violent crackdowns by security forces, and at least 3,555 are still detained. At least 765 people have been killed. Since LGBTIQ activists joined the CDM to demand a return to democracy, they have also been targeted by security forces. On 1 March, police broke into a safe house and arrested two LGBTIQ activist leaders living there. The activists were active within the CDM, marching daily on the streets of Yangon. They were transported the same day with 10 other protesters to the notorious Insein Prison in old Yangon. OutRight, a leading international LGBTIQ human rights organization has elucidated that they have been charged under Section 505 of the Penal Code for “defamation of the military,” and if convicted face up to two years in prison.
The coup has inadvertently called attention to the voices and plight for equality of Myanmar’s LGBTIQ community, with many people surprised to see LGBTIQ people on the streets openly and proudly participating in the CDM. Furthermore, LGBTIQ people are receiving positive feedback in Yangon and across the nation from fellow CDM participants. Indeed, the coup has offered the rare opportunity for the LGBTIQ community to ally themselves with other pro-democracy movements, which offers them the chance not only to assist in the reformation and stabilisation of their nation's democracy but also abolish the laws which have oppressed them for decades. In the short term, the public is acknowledging LGBTIQ participation in the CDM movement, however in the long-term stereotypes and discrimination against LGBTIQ people will most certainly persist, thus in the long run LGBTIQ activists must continue to fight in order to eliminate stereotypes and discrimination. LGBTIQ human rights advocates and their non-LGBTIQ counterparts must hear and see unequivocal solidarity and support from the international community. Softly worded diplomatic speeches and vacuous words of support from the international community are not enough.
A PRECARIOUS FUTURE
On 18 June 2021 the United Nations General Assembly voted to formally condemn the February coup and called for an end to arms dealing with Myanmar. The UN approved the resolution by a vote of 119 to 1, with 36 countries abstaining. The resolution, which is nonbinding, is unlikely to make any immediate difference in the crisis. Expectedly, Myanmar’s military government has unequivocally rejected the resolution and accuses the UN of infringing on Myanmar’s sovereignty. In a statement released shortly after the resolution, deputy head of the European Union delegation Ambassador Silvio Gonzato, asserted that “the international community does not accept the coup, and it does not recognize any legitimacy to the regime that emerged from it”. Indeed, “the risk of a large-scale civil war is real,” Christine Schraner Burgener, the UN special envoy on Myanmar, said after the vote. “Time is of the essence. The opportunity to reverse the military takeover is narrowing”. It is essential we keep the attention of the international community on Myanmar and support LGBTIQ rights advocates to continue working with democratically elected leaders and supporters in the CDM. This is a pivotal moment in Myanmar’s history and must be dealt with in the seriousness and urgency it necessitates.