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The word “phobia” in English, derived from the Greek word “phobos”, means fear or aversion. On the one hand, people dislike things they are afraid of. On the other hand, one could be afraid of something unknown and even feels strong dislike towards it. As American author H.P. Lovecraft puts it, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear. And the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”
Today in Mongolia there are those who accept and positively perceive the rights of sexual minorities or Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) community, whereas there are others who stigmatize and dislike them. These are the people who do not have adequate understandings and information about the LGBTI community members, while believing in word of mouth, incorrect interpretations and even propaganda concerning the community, thus blindly denying the sexual minorities. And all of this has to do with the above-mentioned fear of the unknown. This is called homophobia and transphobia, referring to fear or hatred towards homosexual and transgender people, respectively.
Because there was no information about sexual minorities and no platform to discuss these issues openly, transparently and reasonably, LGBTI activists and NGOs started carrying out activities since the second half of the 1990s and as a result situations got somewhat better. International human rights law, UN treaties and conventions, as well as basic principles prohibit discrimination, hatred and unequal treatment of individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.
LGBTI activists and NGOs started carrying out activities since the second half of the 1990s and as a result situations got somewhat better.
However, when being vernacularized on the ground these international human rights ideas face various rejection and resistance. Despite us, humankind, having black, white or yellow skin, having various religions such as Buddhism, Christianity, Muslim, etc., being developed, developing or poor, having a democratic society, communism regime, or authoritarian governance, or living in a nomadic civilization or urban culture, we have our inherent, natural human dignity and deserve to enjoy the rights we are born with, no matter what. All the people eat and drink, wear clothes, love each other and suffer and feel happy. But it is often the case that there are some issues that are not accepted at certain historical times at the national level due to these political, social, economic or cultural factors and differences.
When this happens, local cultures, customs and traditions are usually used as an excuse. This is the case in Mongolia as well and when we discuss LGBTI rights, some people react that this should not be happening in our country. In fact, it is not true if we say we Mongolians are the nation without its sexual minorities. In 2013, the Undestnii Toim magazine dedicated its whole edition No. 37 (188) of September 16 2013 for the first ever Pride Week of Mongolia (from 2014 it was called Equality and Pride Days) focusing on the rights of sexual minorities and its journalist wrote on the subject matter by doing research and from many different perspectives. One of them keenly observed the masterpiece “One Day in Mongolia” painted by B.Sharav in which two men are depicted having sex and the journalist concluded that “this could well be an answer to those who view that same-sex relations were imported from the West along with democracy.”
In line with the Mongolian saying “look into your own chest of drawers, instead of looking for something from other households”, it is clear that we need to study what kind of local practices and habits we had in terms of sexual minorities in our social and cultural frameworks. As the masterpiece “One Day in Mongolia” reflected the ordinary lives of Mongolians of that time, it aimed to describe life as it was. Besides painting and arts, our scholars should look into the human relations and characteristics from sexual minorities’ viewpoints in shamanism and religion as well.
On the other hand, from linguistic and cultural standpoints, it might be hard for some people to vernacularize the concepts and subjects and to get accustomed to saying foreign terminologies such as LGBTI, giving the impression that we are about to domesticate something that had not existed before. During a post-screening discussion of the LGBT film festival of the 2013 Pride Week, a cultural studies and linguistics professor said that “as long as the social phenomenon exists, there must be a word specifically for that phenomenon in that language” which I vividly remember. Therefore, one can say that the roles of linguistic scholars and researchers are also becoming important on the matter.
In many Asian countries, there is a rich history of sexual minorities in terms of their native cultures and traditions. For instance, since transgender communities such as hijras in India, kathoeys in Thailand and warias in Indonesia have long existed in their societies, establishing their social status and being organized into proper social groups and units, LGBTI people in those countries, especially the above-mentioned communities are most likely accepted without much trouble and the concept about their existence is in line with the social and cultural norms.
In case of Mongolia, LGBTI community did not just emerge thanks to the democracy since 1990, so we need to acknowledge that the sexual minorities existed during the socialist era and long before that. In order for this to happen, we need to study and do research in the fields I mentioned above, dig deep into our historical facts and resources and look into our ‘chests of drawers’. LGBT Centre of Mongolia who organizes Equality and Pride Days has been documenting the stories and narratives of LGBTI community members in the past and I hope that the circumstances and realities of those sexual minorities who had to ‘hide’ during socialism would become clearer through their oral histories and documentations.
The only way to overcome fear of the unknown is to charge oneself with knowledge and information. As I said before fear is an emotion, but one will be able to see things in a broader sense, if this subjectivity could be complemented with objective nature such as facts, evidences and scientific knowledge. Fear and hatred would not bring about any positive results, but by understanding each other, accepting diversity of one another and feeling the value of co-existence, I think that we could reignite the hope for joint development in the future.
By Otgonbaatar Tsedendemberel
The word “phobia” in English, derived from the Greek word “phobos”, means fear or aversion. On the one hand, people dislike things they are afraid of. On the other hand, one could be afraid of something unknown and even feels strong dislike towards it. As American author H.P. Lovecraft puts it, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear. And the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”
Today in Mongolia there are those who accept and positively perceive the rights of sexual minorities or Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) community, whereas there are others who stigmatize and dislike them. These are the people who do not have adequate understandings and information about the LGBTI community members, while believing in word of mouth, incorrect interpretations and even propaganda concerning the community, thus blindly denying the sexual minorities. And all of this has to do with the above-mentioned fear of the unknown. This is called homophobia and transphobia, referring to fear or hatred towards homosexual and transgender people, respectively.
Because there was no information about sexual minorities and no platform to discuss these issues openly, transparently and reasonably, LGBTI activists and NGOs started carrying out activities since the second half of the 1990s and as a result situations got somewhat better. International human rights law, UN treaties and conventions, as well as basic principles prohibit discrimination, hatred and unequal treatment of individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.
LGBTI activists and NGOs started carrying out activities since the second half of the 1990s and as a result situations got somewhat better.
However, when being vernacularized on the ground these international human rights ideas face various rejection and resistance. Despite us, humankind, having black, white or yellow skin, having various religions such as Buddhism, Christianity, Muslim, etc., being developed, developing or poor, having a democratic society, communism regime, or authoritarian governance, or living in a nomadic civilization or urban culture, we have our inherent, natural human dignity and deserve to enjoy the rights we are born with, no matter what. All the people eat and drink, wear clothes, love each other and suffer and feel happy. But it is often the case that there are some issues that are not accepted at certain historical times at the national level due to these political, social, economic or cultural factors and differences.
When this happens, local cultures, customs and traditions are usually used as an excuse. This is the case in Mongolia as well and when we discuss LGBTI rights, some people react that this should not be happening in our country. In fact, it is not true if we say we Mongolians are the nation without its sexual minorities. In 2013, the Undestnii Toim magazine dedicated its whole edition No. 37 (188) of September 16 2013 for the first ever Pride Week of Mongolia (from 2014 it was called Equality and Pride Days) focusing on the rights of sexual minorities and its journalist wrote on the subject matter by doing research and from many different perspectives. One of them keenly observed the masterpiece “One Day in Mongolia” painted by B.Sharav in which two men are depicted having sex and the journalist concluded that “this could well be an answer to those who view that same-sex relations were imported from the West along with democracy.”
In line with the Mongolian saying “look into your own chest of drawers, instead of looking for something from other households”, it is clear that we need to study what kind of local practices and habits we had in terms of sexual minorities in our social and cultural frameworks. As the masterpiece “One Day in Mongolia” reflected the ordinary lives of Mongolians of that time, it aimed to describe life as it was. Besides painting and arts, our scholars should look into the human relations and characteristics from sexual minorities’ viewpoints in shamanism and religion as well.
On the other hand, from linguistic and cultural standpoints, it might be hard for some people to vernacularize the concepts and subjects and to get accustomed to saying foreign terminologies such as LGBTI, giving the impression that we are about to domesticate something that had not existed before. During a post-screening discussion of the LGBT film festival of the 2013 Pride Week, a cultural studies and linguistics professor said that “as long as the social phenomenon exists, there must be a word specifically for that phenomenon in that language” which I vividly remember. Therefore, one can say that the roles of linguistic scholars and researchers are also becoming important on the matter.
In many Asian countries, there is a rich history of sexual minorities in terms of their native cultures and traditions. For instance, since transgender communities such as hijras in India, kathoeys in Thailand and warias in Indonesia have long existed in their societies, establishing their social status and being organized into proper social groups and units, LGBTI people in those countries, especially the above-mentioned communities are most likely accepted without much trouble and the concept about their existence is in line with the social and cultural norms.
In case of Mongolia, LGBTI community did not just emerge thanks to the democracy since 1990, so we need to acknowledge that the sexual minorities existed during the socialist era and long before that. In order for this to happen, we need to study and do research in the fields I mentioned above, dig deep into our historical facts and resources and look into our ‘chests of drawers’. LGBT Centre of Mongolia who organizes Equality and Pride Days has been documenting the stories and narratives of LGBTI community members in the past and I hope that the circumstances and realities of those sexual minorities who had to ‘hide’ during socialism would become clearer through their oral histories and documentations.
The only way to overcome fear of the unknown is to charge oneself with knowledge and information. As I said before fear is an emotion, but one will be able to see things in a broader sense, if this subjectivity could be complemented with objective nature such as facts, evidences and scientific knowledge. Fear and hatred would not bring about any positive results, but by understanding each other, accepting diversity of one another and feeling the value of co-existence, I think that we could reignite the hope for joint development in the future.
By Otgonbaatar Tsedendemberel