Fun Fast Facts:
- Homosexuality was decriminalised in Mongolia in 2002.
- There is no legal recognition of same-sex marriages, civil unions, or domestic partnerships.
- Mongolia is implementing measures in response to recommendations from various UN bodies. These include Constitutional amendments to include “sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as health status and disability” as grounds of non-discrimination, and legislation on a broad based anti-discrimination law.
- Mongolia was a Shamanistic country before the advent of Buddhism in the 17th century. The practitioners of Shamanism, the Shamans themselves, were very often known to get married to the people of their own gender. They used to live as cross gendered people. Men would live as women, and women as men, and take husbands or wives from the same sex.
- LGBTI-people lack visibility in Mongolia. While the country does not have much homophobia, there is little public acknowledgement of homosexuality either.
- Trans and intersex people, if able to medically prove their identity, are able to have ID cards changed to reflect their gender identity.
LGBT-friendly organisation: LGBT Advocacy Centre
- The country’s first Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender [LGBT] rights organisation.
- Provides advocacy support, legal, youth and health services, rural outreach, parents and friends group, transgender support and research programs.
- Situated within a private university.
- In 2010 the Centre produced a campaign video on LGBTI rights which screened in Mongolia on three television stations for four months. The campaign resulted in a flood of letters, emails and phone calls from people saying they now had some understanding of the plight of LGBTI people.
W3JOY interviewed: Otgonbaatar Tsedendemberel of LGBT Advocacy Centre
“The state agency which is mandated to register NGO’s basically denied registering us because the name of the NGO includes LGBT and they said it was not recognised so we had to ask our international organisations to help us to push the government and finally after three years it happened. Basically the letter said that the name Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender is against Mongolian customs and traditions and it has some potential risk to set the wrong example to youth and adolescence”
“We are accepted but the general public is still struggling to recognise and accept LGBT individuals in this country because of basically 70 years of socialism”
“There is only a handful of out and proud LGBT people in this town and the rest basically are closeted and still under the pressure from family or from their surroundings so mostly people are quite hidden”
“Last year in September we organised our first Pride Week, which was a success, but at the same time because of having very hidden and scared committee members we could not organise it outdoors like Pride parades of other countries… During the queer film festival for example, when we turned off the lights there were more people coming in and once we turned on the lights and started the discussion half of them disappeared”
“More and more parents…mothers usually and close friends are taking interest in basically how to advocate these issues to the general public. But again since our LGBT rights movement is in its early stage, we are still dealing with how the parents reacted to the coming out experience of their children.”Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:54 — 29.2MB)