Inclusion of LGBT in Post-Coup Myanmar

“I'm trying to build a community that is safe for LGBT people, because I don't want anyone in the next generation to suffer what I've suffered. So I want [Myanmar] society to see us as equal. We're not weak, and we're not wicked. We deserve respect.”

These were tremendously powerful words spoken by Pyae Phyo Kyaw, a gay doctor from Mandalay who went deep into the Karenni jungle to set up a mobile medical clinic with his boyfriend following the military coup. Speaking vulnerably and openly, he described his early struggles growing up gay in what he came to see as a highly homophobic society, including the attempted suicide attempts and the subsequent discrimination he faced once he came out.

The early days of the protest movement against the coup welcomed Burmese's LGBT community as never before, with members marching side by side in the street with other activists to protest the military takeover. This inspired Pyae Phyo Kyaw greatly, and motivated him and his partner to consider how they could best serve the revolution, ultimately going deep into the jungles of Karenni state, where the military was relentlessly launching assaults on the local population.

Although they had no prior experience operating a medical tent in conflict zones, they quickly found they needed to learn on the fly, and had to treat a variety of urgent medical emergencies, from landmine injuries to gunshot wounds to COVID symptoms.

Pyae Phyo Kyaw admits that a driving force of his activism is the hope that he and his boyfriend may serve as models for the larger LGBT community in Myanmar. He hopes that his courageous work may finally put to bed the slander that gays are inherently weak and cowardly, and that the straight community can see the contribution that they, too, may make to creating an equitable and fair society for all.