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Aung Myo Min: A Burmese gay with a human rights cause

Than Win Htut
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)

February 20, 2005

In the Karen State jungle along the Thai-Burma border, Aung Myo Min was a student-turned-insurgent fighting against the Burmese military. Along with thousands of other Burmese students of the time, he left for Burma's insurgent-held border areas after the military's country-wide cracked down on marching demonstrators in 1988. He became a member of the All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF), willing to attack from the frontline. He looked energetic, enthusiastic and held a strong belief in the democracy movement. However, he kept one secret hidden behind his soldier's garb. Only he knew he was gay.

Aung Myo Min knew that to openly tell his comrades he was gay would pose huge challenges not only to himself, but also the other democratic fighters struggling in the jungle and others in the Burmese opposition movement. Thus he forced himself to pretend to be 'straight' and hid his true sexuality identity. Over time, however, some close friends in the ABSDF's 204 force did gradually realise his secret. 

Misunderstandings about, and phobia of, gay life and homosexuality are very common in Burma. Usually, people think gay men think like women and want to have women's bodies. Therefore, gay men were not regarded as capable of being reliable in armed struggle. "I worried that I would be assigned lighter duties in my army base rather than being allowed to fight Burmese government forces in the frontline if they knew my sexual orientation," explained Aung Myo Min. 

Aung Myo Min found it was impossible to hide something so deep about himself for so long without experiencing serious stress. Finally, he decided to open up about his true identity to those in his community. It was not a sweet dream. He had already lost his like-minded community from Rangoon University when he moved to the strange atmosphere in the borderlands that forced him, under pressures of revolutionary duty, to hide his true nature. 

"It was a difficult decision to open up. I asked myself, 'why I should be so scared to reveal my real identity?'" he said, releasing a short breath as if reliving the hardest times of his life. 

Although many suffer greatly when they 'come out' to their parents, Aung Myo Min said he was lucky. His mother was accepting of him when he told her over the phone after he had left for exile. At that time, his father had already passed away and others in the family responded well.

"My mother told me that she already knew," Aung Myo Min said with a brighter smile on his face. "But, as I said, if my father had known, it would have been a serious problem," he said shaking his full, rounded, right shoulder. His father had been a high official in the Burma Army and held strong feelings against gays. 

After Aung Myo Min declared his sexual orientation, everybody in the liberate area came to know there was only one gay in the thousands of Burmese democracy activists along the Thai-Burma border. "This was my difficult time," he said. Some comrades said they didn't dare sleep in the same hut with him. Some, 'just kidding', joked that, "we are more afraid of something behind us than shooting in the frontline." This kind of talk caused Aung Myo Min much suffering. 

It was only after time had passed and he had nothing left to hide that he began to feel lighter and enjoy his freedom from pretending. This in turn gave him more confidence which drove him to struggle increasingly harder in his work. 

He actually had an image of being a bit of a 'rocker' with his passionate voice, pretty, long, dyed hair down to his strong shoulders and a plump face with small, round glasses. He recalled struggling against the stereotypes and misunderstandings about homosexuality held in place by ignorance and traditional culture amongst Burmese democratic activists in exile fifteen years ago. 

Today, Aung Myo Min is the founding director of the Human Rights Education Institute of Burma (HREIB) and the Campaign for Lesbigay Rights in Burma (CLRB). He has been awarded seven international awards for human rights and lesbigay rights since 1999 for his research on human rights violation in Burma and trainings to spread human rights awareness among people in and outside Burma. 

However, sixteen years ago, Aung Myo Min recalls being a nave English major student in Rangoon University who enjoyed several of the University's social activities. He knew nothing about politics before the 1988 uprising. After becoming involving in students demonstrations his dream of a routine life working as a university tutor disappeared. Everything changed at the peak of the general strikes around the country. He paused, recalling the time long past with the repeated phrase, "As I said" 

"As I said, I came to learn about politics and focused particularly on how humans should have their rights respected and be treated in humane ways Later, I realized that human rights advocacy is a more difficult task than politics," added Aung Myo Min shaking his head. 

Deciding to return again to the democracy movement in Burma's borderlands after completing a Masters degree in human right in the United States, Aung Myo Min played an active role in human rights education and the gay rights movement. There were still many challenges as a gay activist to lead human right documentation and training along the Burma's borders with Thailand, China, India and Bangladesh. 

Wherever he travels for his education training program, everybody is initially surprised by the handsome appearance of this thirty-nine year-old, tall strongly-built man and his openness about his gay life. Aung Myo Min said that most gay men from Burma also hope when they meet him that he might be a cross-dresser and not the masculine, perspiration-covered face they see. 

"One thing I hate most is stereotypes among the Burmese community - that they think a gay man might be dressed in women's clothes," he said. 

In addition to issues concerning dress, Aung Myo Min also pointed out that in Burmese society, and also in Thailand, almost all comedians perform derogatory jokes about gays which people enjoy laughing at. Even though he also used to laugh at such jokes he said that he suffered at the same time as he experienced them as a strong form of discrimination. "Gays are not funny creatures," he argued, "As I was getting older I realized the meaning and negative impact of the humour in such jokes - not only their text, but also the broader context," he said. "Audiences laughing at such jokes are also supporters of discrimination against gays." 

Aung Myo Min claims that traditions that are discriminatory and damaging to gay people should be eliminated and all traditions should be gay-sensitive. They should enjoy equality and human rights the same as everyone in accordance with international norms. Although public awareness is not yet wide enough, Aung Myo Min has confidence in his gay and activist life. 

"In relation to Buddhism and reincarnation, if I were to be born gay in my next life, I would happily accept this life again," he said. 

While some gay men want to marry their partners, Aung Myo Min doesn't believe in marriage on paper. Instead, living together and understanding each other is more important than to be recognized as legally married in order to have legal rights to property, social welfare and other benefits.

Many people question the origin of homosexuality; what makes someone gay or lesbian? Many neuroscientists believe that being gay is not a choice but genetic. Some parts of the brain, such as the hypothalamus, are known to control sex hormone release and types of sexual behaviour. However, most Burmese believe being gay is a result of reincarnation and due to sexual misconduct with a woman or man in a previous life. Moreover, it is sin and a serious taboo to talk openly in public about being gay, though there is no legal restriction on being gay. 

Some Burmese parents try to change their children's sexual orientation through medical treatment. However Aung Myo Min doesn't believe that being gay can ever be treated medically as a disease. "Homosexuality is just difference, not deficiency," he said. Aung Myo Min knew he was gay since he was a teenager. 

While his activism includes encouragement and support for gay people 'coming out', he denies this will in any way elevate the number of gays or lesbians in the community. "Being gay is not so easy," he explains, "If you are not gay, you can't pretend to be." 

Htoo Myat, a close friend of Aung Myo Min's since their struggles in the ABSDF in 1989 and who is also the HREIB office manager, said gender and gay rights issues are still serious problems among the Burmese community. "I think most people accept and understand him as a gay person not because of rights awareness, but because he is Aung Myo Min and his work speaks for itself." 

As a leader of the Burmese human rights movements and gay rights campaigner for over a decade, Aung Myo Min is still subjected to stress through some misunderstandings and verbal insults. "I view myself as a person who has mixed feelings in my reactions to the criticisms of other people, trying to accept and to understand it." 

Though the majority of the national and international community are still far from understanding homosexuality, cross-dressing, transsexual changes and gay marriage, Aung Myo Min retains his strong belief in the naturalness of being gay. 

"As I said, I don't want to have a wife and I don't want to have a woman's body. I want to be a man and I want to have a boy friend who loves me as a gay man," he insisted. 

"Nobody made me gay, so nobody can change that about me."