Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people (LGBT) are stilldiscriminated against in Vietnam and are often exposed to violence fromtheir parents and family members, sociologists warned at a recentconference.
Hoang Tu Anh, founder of the Hanoi-basedCentre for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population (CCIHP), saidthat prejudice relating to gender and sexuality constituted a graveviolation of human rights.
Reports of physical violenceincluded beating, binding, and starving, while mental tortures rangedfrom private groundings to public insults. Many gay and lesbian youngpeople are still forced to marry members of the opposite sex.
One 21-year-old gay man from Hanoi responded to the CCIHP survey: "Iwas hurt most when my father told me that if he had known his son wouldbe gay, he would have asked my mother to abort the baby."
At the conference, Anh lamented that many parents still thoughthomosexuality was unnatural, blaming it on mental illness or theinfluence of "bad" friends.
In certain cases, Anh added,LGBT individuals were forbidden to communicate with their partners andfriends and were hospitalised for medical treatment.
LeQuang Binh, head of the Institute for Studies of Society, Economy andEnvironment, said that while the World Hospital Organisation andnumerous countries, including the United States and China, have removedhomosexuality from the list of mental illness, and nations such as theNetherlands, Belgium, South Africa and Canada have legally recognisedsame-sex marriage, the issue was "new" to Vietnam.
Binhexplained how difficult the coming-out process was for LGBT teenagers,noting that 77 percent of parents polled expressed disappointment whenthey were told by their children.
Binh's instituteconducted a survey in 2009 that included over 3,200 LGBT residents Hanoiand HCM City, which found that over 66 percent of gay male respondentskept their sexual orientation a secret, while only 2.5 percent publiclyembraced it.
About 47 percent said they did not come outbecause they were afraid of discrimination, and nearly 40 percent saidthey kept their sexual orientation a secret because they did not thinktheir families would accept the truth.
Binh said thatparents normally reacted to the news in four sequential stages: firstthey were shocked, then they sought a "solution", they learned moreabout homosexuality, and finally they accepted the idea.
"Parents traditionally expect children to maintain the continuity of afamily line, and they do not want their kids to be exposed to socialdiscrimination or high risk of disease," he said.
However, Binh said that as parents learned more about the issue, they would begin to understand their children better.
Tu Anh from CCIHP said violence against LGBT individuals was eitherconsidered domestic violence or gender-related violence, since LGBTpeople have not been identified as eligible group by Vietnam's DomesticViolence Prevention and Control.
Same-sex marriage is not recognised in the Law on Marriage and Family.
If the parents of a gay man, for example, forced him to marry a woman,other people could see it as the family's business and consider legalintervention unnecessary, when in fact the marriage would be tragic forboth parties, Anh said.
Nguyen Van Anh, chairwoman of theCentre for Studies and Applied Sciences in Gender - Family, Women andAdolescents ( CSAGA) said that discrimination against LGBT people wascaused by a lack of understanding, but the support structure ofconsulting and education to create that understanding had not yet beendeveloped in Vietnam. No educational institutions in the nationcurrently offer training courses for LGBT consultants or researchers.
Hoa Huu Van, deputy head of the Department for Family within theMinistry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said that in the last fiveyears, the media had reported stories about homosexual people in Vietnamthat were previously taboo.
However, the idea thathomosexuality was "unnatural" still must be reversed, LGBT advocacy wasneeded, and rights for same-sex marriages must be secured, he said.
"It will take time to develop clear and detailed policies for homosexuality in Vietnam," he said./.
Hoang Tu Anh, founder of the Hanoi-basedCentre for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population (CCIHP), saidthat prejudice relating to gender and sexuality constituted a graveviolation of human rights.
Reports of physical violenceincluded beating, binding, and starving, while mental tortures rangedfrom private groundings to public insults. Many gay and lesbian youngpeople are still forced to marry members of the opposite sex.
One 21-year-old gay man from Hanoi responded to the CCIHP survey: "Iwas hurt most when my father told me that if he had known his son wouldbe gay, he would have asked my mother to abort the baby."
At the conference, Anh lamented that many parents still thoughthomosexuality was unnatural, blaming it on mental illness or theinfluence of "bad" friends.
In certain cases, Anh added,LGBT individuals were forbidden to communicate with their partners andfriends and were hospitalised for medical treatment.
LeQuang Binh, head of the Institute for Studies of Society, Economy andEnvironment, said that while the World Hospital Organisation andnumerous countries, including the United States and China, have removedhomosexuality from the list of mental illness, and nations such as theNetherlands, Belgium, South Africa and Canada have legally recognisedsame-sex marriage, the issue was "new" to Vietnam.
Binhexplained how difficult the coming-out process was for LGBT teenagers,noting that 77 percent of parents polled expressed disappointment whenthey were told by their children.
Binh's instituteconducted a survey in 2009 that included over 3,200 LGBT residents Hanoiand HCM City, which found that over 66 percent of gay male respondentskept their sexual orientation a secret, while only 2.5 percent publiclyembraced it.
About 47 percent said they did not come outbecause they were afraid of discrimination, and nearly 40 percent saidthey kept their sexual orientation a secret because they did not thinktheir families would accept the truth.
Binh said thatparents normally reacted to the news in four sequential stages: firstthey were shocked, then they sought a "solution", they learned moreabout homosexuality, and finally they accepted the idea.
"Parents traditionally expect children to maintain the continuity of afamily line, and they do not want their kids to be exposed to socialdiscrimination or high risk of disease," he said.
However, Binh said that as parents learned more about the issue, they would begin to understand their children better.
Tu Anh from CCIHP said violence against LGBT individuals was eitherconsidered domestic violence or gender-related violence, since LGBTpeople have not been identified as eligible group by Vietnam's DomesticViolence Prevention and Control.
Same-sex marriage is not recognised in the Law on Marriage and Family.
If the parents of a gay man, for example, forced him to marry a woman,other people could see it as the family's business and consider legalintervention unnecessary, when in fact the marriage would be tragic forboth parties, Anh said.
Nguyen Van Anh, chairwoman of theCentre for Studies and Applied Sciences in Gender - Family, Women andAdolescents ( CSAGA) said that discrimination against LGBT people wascaused by a lack of understanding, but the support structure ofconsulting and education to create that understanding had not yet beendeveloped in Vietnam. No educational institutions in the nationcurrently offer training courses for LGBT consultants or researchers.
Hoa Huu Van, deputy head of the Department for Family within theMinistry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said that in the last fiveyears, the media had reported stories about homosexual people in Vietnamthat were previously taboo.
However, the idea thathomosexuality was "unnatural" still must be reversed, LGBT advocacy wasneeded, and rights for same-sex marriages must be secured, he said.
"It will take time to develop clear and detailed policies for homosexuality in Vietnam," he said./.
