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The Call for Gay and Human Rights of Vietnamese Gay and Lesbians.

Lam Tran

September 30, 1999

In the last few years, state owned Vietnamese communist newspapers allows the publications of numerous articles regarding gay men and lesbians. These articles makes negative statements and describes the gay life style is undesirable and against the social moral. This essay points out these articles and call upon the world wide Vietnamese gay and lesbian community to speak up for their sexual orientation rights and their human rights.

The newspaper "Cong An", which means "Police", on March 9, 1999 in an article titled "The world of gay and its end" used the phrase "The woman are not as affected, not as diseased. We can find medicine to cure them" and "� when I visit the house, the gay plague has taken over it."

The newspaper "Cong An" on September 18 1998 published an article putting down gay and lesbians as false priests trying to gain people's acceptance from superstitious means. They used the phrase "The monstrosity of the false priests" and equating deceitfulness to being gay and lesbians. This kind of accusation is most degrading in Vietnamese culture. It literally categorizes the gay and lesbians are at the bottom of society, not to be trusted, sick, psychological ill, and socially unacceptable - being gay and lesbian is being a freak. In Vietnam freaks are destined to a life of condemnations and persecutions.

The newspaper "Tuoi Tre", which means "Young People" on June 15 1997 describes the male escort services as socially wrong. They used the phrases "the lot of diseased boys" and describe these men as "no jobs and siting on the streets all day." In obvious negative languages, this newspaper only tries to put down the gay and lesbian community describing the community as if this is all there is to the community.

The newspaper "Cong An" on November 1 1997 makes the statement: "We have to end this diseased and socially unacceptable activities between people of the same sex." The government considers gay men and lesbians are the cancerous and problematic elements of communist society that needs to be controlled and eliminated.

The gays and lesbians in Vietnam are far from being accepted. They are condemned. They don't have the freedom of expression in a country with poor human rights records. The state-own newspapers are writing articles asking the government to quickly put into law practices to eliminate "the gay world". Gay people are questioned by the police, beaten, and jailed. Not too long ago, in Vinh Long, two lesbian women were forced by the police to sign papers to not seeing each other. This is a clear violation of human right and the right of sexual orientation. Even though there are no laws to make illegal gay sex, in a society where honor is the highest issues, such violation is worse then death.

The condemnation of gay rights in Vietnam is reflected in the human rights problems. Human rights in Vietnam have not improved. The 1999 Human Right Watch report (http://www.hrw.org/hrw/worldreport99/asia/vietnam.html) states:

" The unexpected release of some of the country's best-known political prisoners was a highlight of the year. Arbitrary detention in substandard prison camps continued, however; press freedoms remained strictly curtailed; independent associations and trade unions were not allowed to operate; and little progress was made in legal reform. Rural unrest that had erupted in 1997 continued, with peasant protests against high prices, corruption, land confiscation, and excessive taxation� The government continued to require that all religious activity be approved by the state and to apply restrictions on travel by religious leaders and on the contents of their sermons and speeches� In a stern reminder to journalists not to exceed state-imposed limits, Nguyen Hoang Linh, editor of Doanh Nghiep (Enterprise) newspaper and a Communist Party member, was brought to trial on October 21 after his arrest a year earlier. He was found guilty for "taking advantage of democracy to damage the state" and sentenced to time served (one year and thirteen days). In 1997 Nguyen had reported on high-level corruption.

More information can be found at the following web site: http://www.hrw.org/hrw/pubweb/Webcat-109.htm

At this website the 15-page report, "Rural Unrest in Vietnam," can be found. This report " documents the causes and implications of continuing protests against corruption, land disputes, and compulsory labor in Thai Binh province beginning last May, as well as violent unrest in the largely Catholic district of Thong Nhat in Dong Nai province last month, initially sparked by expropriation of church land by corrupt local authorities. Despite statements by Communist Party Secretary Do Muoi and other officials that to maintain stability, citizens should be allowed to "exercise their democratic rights through the mass media," the government has clamped down on domestic and foreign media coverage of these disputes and put in place new state tools for social and political control. No new laws have been adopted since the Eighth Party Congress in 1996 strengthening the rights of Vietnamese citizens in line with the government's international obligations and its own Constitution. "

Some of the people who has been arrested for speaking up against the communist party for freedom of expression include professor Tran Viet Thoat, Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, buddhist monk Thich Quang Do, professor Nguyen Thanh Giang. These are joined by thousands of other political prisoners.

Today the Vietnamese gay and lesbian youths in the US or in Vietnam face a complex problem, which is how to stand up for their gay rights and human rights in the Vietnamese context. Whether in Vietnam or in the US, gay and lesbian youths need to speak up and organize themselves for charitable events and events that create the understanding between the personal choices.


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