Gay community in magway, myanmar

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They met here — Nay Lin is the Chair of Myanmar MSM [Men who have Sex with Men] Network, and a font of knowledge about the festival we are here to attend. He points at a plate of fish and sticky rice left on a shrine. Nats are spirits which have existed alongside Burmese Buddhist culture since the 11th century. Worshipped across the country, there are 37 in total and they have a little more cheek — and more vices — than the Buddhas.

Political transition in Myanmar from a military to a civilian government holds the promise of opening up political spaces to previously marginalized groups. Talking to Heinrich Boell Foundation Myanmar, Yaya Aye Myat, the Permanent Secretary of the National Transgender People Alliance, regretted that the LGBTI community does not have any protection under the law. Official discrimination against the LGBTI community, particularly visible LGBTI people such as transgender women, is most visible in targeted police harassments, extortion, and arrests. In , the LGBT community in Myanmar was outraged by a case where a group of gay and transgender people were assaulted by police, arbitrarily arrested, and tortured while in police custody.

Only men are criminalised under this law. The law was inherited from the British during the colonial period, in which the English criminal law was imposed upon Myanmar. Myanmar retained the provision upon independence and continues to criminalise same-sex sexual activity today. There is some evidence of the law being enforced in recent years, particularly against transgender people who are regularly arrested by police, and the law is often also used to extort bribes from LGBT people.