Myanmar

Demographics

Estimated Total Population:

53.7 million

World Bank, 2018

Estimated SGM Population:

N/A

N/A

Estimated Total SGM Adult Population:

N/A

N/A

Estimated % of SGM Adults (18+):

N/A

N/A

SGM populations in Myanmar are subject to official persecution, discrimination, social and legal challenges. Homosexuality remains illegal “with the British colonial-era penal code banning ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature’”(Baker, 2017) Despite their criminalization, LGBT people have become more visible in Burma, especially after increasingly political reforms with couples freely cohabiting major cities. Though the ban of same sexual relations is seldom enforced, it still “enshrines the LGBTQ population as second-class citizens in the eyes of the law”(Baker, 2017).

Myanmar's Laws and Policies from ILGA World Report (2019)

RECOGNITION
Marriage for Same-Sex Couples
No
Civil Unions
No
Joint Adoption
No
Second Parent Adoption
No
PROTECTION
Employment Nondiscrimination Laws
No
Broad Protections
No
Criminalization of Violence
No
Ban of Conversion Therapy
No
CRIMINALIZATION
Consensual Same-Sex Acts are Legal?
No
Gender
Any Gender
Max Penalty (Yrs in Prison)
10

Selected Published Studies, Reports, and Other Documents

Chua, L. J. (2018). The Politics of Love in Myanmar: LGBT Mobilization and Human Rights as a Way of Life. Stanford University Press.

Coleman, E., Allen, M. P., & Ford, J. V. (2018). Gender Variance and Sexual Orientation Among Male Spirit Mediums in Myanmar. Archives of sexual behavior, 47(4), 987-998. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-018-1172-0

Draper, B. L., Oo, Z. M., Thein, Z. W., Aung, P. P., Veronese, V., Ryan, C., ... & Stoové, M. (2017). Willingness to use HIV pre‐exposure prophylaxis among gay men, other men who have sex with men and transgender women in Myanmar. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 20(1), 21885. https://doi.org/10.7448/IAS.20.1.21885

Ho, T. C. (2009). Transgender, transgression, and translation: A cartography of Nat Kadaws: Notes on gender and sexuality within the Spirit Cult of Burma. Discourse, 31(3), 273-317 https://muse.jhu.edu/article/402310/pdf

Lin, K. S., & Van der Putten, M. (2012). Identities in motion: cyberspace and Myanmar men having sex with men. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences, 2(4), 36-48.

Moodie, R., Borthwick, C., Phongphit, S., Galbally, R., & Hsu-Hage, B. H. H. (2000). Health promotion in South-East Asia: Indonesia, DPR Korea, Thailand, the Maldives and Myanmar. Health Promotion International, 15(3), 249-257. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/15.3.249

Pham, M. D., Aung, P. P., Paing, A. K., Pasricha, N., Agius, P. A., Tun, W., ... & Luchters, S. (2017). Factors associated with HIV testing among young men who have sex with men in Myanmar: a cross‐sectional study. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 20(3), e25026. https://doi.org/10.1002/jia2.25026

Veronese, V., Oo, Z. M., Thein, Z. W., Aung, P. P., Draper, B. L., Hughes, C., ... & Stoové, M. (2018). Acceptability of peer-delivered HIV testing and counselling among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TW) in Myanmar. AIDS and Behavior, 22(8), 2426-2434.

Veronese, V., Clouse, E., Wirtz, A. L., Thu, K. H., Naing, S., Baral, S. D., ... & Beyrer, C. (2019). “We are not gays... don’t tell me those things”: engaging ‘hidden’ men who have sex with men and transgender women in HIV prevention in Myanmar. BMC public health, 19(1), 1-12.

Wirtz, A. L., Naing, S., Clouse, E., Thu, K. H., Mon, S. H. H., Tun, Z. M., ... & Beyrer, C. (2017). The parasol protocol: an implementation science study of HIV continuum of care interventions for gay men and transgender women in Burma/Myanmar. JMIR research protocols, 6(5), e90.

Wirtz, A. L., Clouse, E., Veronese, V., Thu, K. H., Naing, S., Baral, S. D., & Beyrer, C. (2017). New HIV testing technologies in the context of a concentrated epidemic and evolving HIV prevention: qualitative research on HIV self‐testing among men who have sex with men and transgender women in Yangon, Myanmar. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 20(1), 21796. https://doi.org/10.7448/IAS.20.01.21796