From opponents to allies

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Cambodia is one of many Southeast Asian countries where sexual orientation and gender identity is still an issue. Being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) in Cambodia can be a depressing and frustrating experience because of persistent discrimination.

Kantar TNS Cambodia put together a report on people’s opinions of – and attitudes and behaviour towards – the LGBT population, and found that almost half of respondents ( 49%) were opposed to that community. They asserted that homosexual people are acting against their nature, and behave against Cambodian culture and traditions.

Rainbow Community Kampuchea (RoCK) – the only LGBT, non-profit organisation in Cambodia – has used the research findings for its strategic planning and programme implementations, to help change perceptions of LGBT people. RoCK has two main aims: to organise its members across Cambodia and empower the LGBT community to advocate for their rights, as well as support from local authorities and the public. 

To help achieve these objectives, RoCK offers training to the straight community on sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as LGBT human rights. It focuses on local authorities, with the aim of making the issues and people more visible and part of everyday life in Cambodia. 

Post-workshop research among 149 participants found that, after training, all of them agreed same-sex love is a human right; 97% agreed there should be laws or policies supporting LGBT couples to recognise their relationship; and 97% believed people are LGBT through nature, not choice.

Based on qualitative research with workshop participants, the training was found to be powerful enough to change straight participants’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour – so they were more likely to treat everyone equally, regardless of sexual orientation or identity. They also spread the lessons they learned from the workshop to other people in their community.

However, a follow up study by Kantar in 2017 – with 1,683 straight people who had not participated in the RoCK workshop – indicates that the environment for LGBT people in Cambodia has not improved, so further work is needed. Despite economic growth and more inclusive education, the problem cannot improve without intervention that affects the straight community. 

The number of Cambodians who reject LGBT people remains at around half of the total population after two years, though the proportion of extreme opponents has decreased slightly, from 35% in 2015 to 31% in 2017. 

Four in five straight people believe that being LGBT is a choice; in other words, it could be changed. Those who oppose such people, for example, would feel ashamed to have LGBT children, and seven out of 10 said they would pressurise their children to change their orientation.

The RoCK workshop to raise awareness of same-sex love and people’s painful experiences – as well as LGBT rights and the Declaration of Family Relationship (a formal contract for LGBT couples, developed by the non-profit, a human rights lawyer and local authorities) – has proved to be a powerful way to shift opponents, even extreme ones, to accept and treat LGBT people in the same way as they do straight people. The workshop not only transforms opponents into allies, but also gives LGBT people the confidence to come out.

It is evident that discrimination will not improve without a programme of intervention, given that sexual orientation, identity and LGBT rights are relatively new – or still non-existent – topics in public discourse. Being at an infant stage can offer advantages, however, as it is easier to raise awareness among those who have no knowledge than to teach them to ‘unlearn’ in order to ‘relearn’.