Op-Ed: Cambodian LGBTIQ in Global Influence vs. Local Traditions

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Diverse practices in sexual orientation and gender have existed in Cambodia for a long time. These practices were an integral part of Cambodian history, including the colonial period and globalization of LGBTIQ identities, establishing complex and unique socio-cultural dynamics within the Cambodian LGBTIQ community.

For example, during the Angkor Era, a Chinese observer who visited Cambodia between 1296 and 1297 noted that there were many pubescent boys involved in sexual relationships with older men. The boys would hang around every day in the market, trying to engage Chinese men in return for gifts (Daguan 2007).

This shows that practices of sexual orientations and genders are not a foreign import.

During the French colonial period, however, a strict gender binary was imposed. Edwards (2007) notes that in the earlier 19th century, the hairstyles and clothing of Cambodian women and men were almost identical.

Yet, such practices were subsequently gendered by the colonial efforts to define a national style. By the 1940s, a clear binary in male/female clothing and hairstyle emerged under the French Colonial Rule as the authentic Khmer Style.

Current Era of LGBTIQ

The globalization of LGBTIQ identities through the advancement of communication technologies and pop culture has driven individuals to increasingly identify with and embrace LGBTIQ identities. The internet, social media, and smartphone technology have changed the landscape of the LGBTIQ community.

There are increasing numbers of Cambodian youth networking on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, with one LGBTIQ group containing over 31,600 members, and other sites offering rights-based information (Hoefinger and Srun, 2017). Social media networking can help to end some of the social isolation young LGBTIQ people often experience.

Pop culture also contributes to this process, such as social campaigns, music, TV shows, books, fashions, and so on. Pride Week, for instance, has been celebrated in Cambodia since 2003 and started to explicitly champion equality, rights, and freedom of LGBTIQ people (RoCK, 2021).

However, the globalization of LGBTIQ identities has not resulted in a straightforward replacement of the ‘local’ by the ‘global’.

In rural areas where LGBTIQ people have had little or no exposure to globalized LGBTIQ discourse, they retain their unique way of articulating their gender, by just referring to each other using masculine/feminine familial terms such as bong/p’oun pros/p’oun srey (older/younger brother/sister), pou (uncle), ming (aunt), and taa (grandfather), or yeay (grandmother) (de Brun, 2019, p. 30).

Similarly, one LGBTIQ activist noted during her Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) training in rural areas that “the older generation just says, ‘I am a man’, not a ‘trans man’, except for a couple of activists who have been around SOGI training for years” (p. 32).

"Local" vs. "Global"

In this postcolonial context, the unequal power relations between foreign development workers and educated, urban Cambodian activists on one hand, and rural Cambodians who have had little or no exposure to LGBTIQ discourse are witnessed.

LGBTIQ people living in rural areas experience different lives and thus have different needs from people in urban areas. From a young age, those who are seen to rebel against gender norms pay a high price for discrimination, bullying, and harassment in school (CCHR, 2015, p.22).

In both urban and rural areas, accessible mental health services for LGBTIQ-identified individuals are extremely limited and usually cost-prohibitive. Beyond health-related needs, there is also a lack of attention to housing and homelessness, unemployment, and other social, economic, and emotional needs, such as hunger, poverty, family conflict, and mental health issues (UNDP, 2014).

Additionally, the immediate family members of people in the LGBTIQ community are often those who cause the most difficulties such as forcing them to enter into heterosexual marriage; some decide to give in, conform and marry, or rebel and risk being cast out by family (CCHR, 2010, p.5) because they have been treated as “ill” or “other”.

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This article is modified from my Policy Brief on Marraige Equality in Cambodia, found here.