PIC and SafeSpaceBtB are jointly celebrating Pride Month to give courage to the LGBT+ community, so they can live their lives the way they want to. The celebrations also highlight the important role the rainbow community plays in developing society. SAFESPACEBTB
Plan International Cambodia (PIC) and SafeSpaceBtB has called on the public to join the Pride Month celebrations to end discrimination, offer support and opportunities to the LGBTQ+ community, and create a warm society for all.
Yi Kimthan, deputy country director of Plan International, told The Post that June is the month of celebration and awareness of the rights of the LGBTQ + community.
He said that every year, members and allies around the world raise rainbow flags to celebrate their achievements and stand up together against sex and gender diversity, while drawing people’s attention to the social and political discrimination that members of the community have faced.
Kimthan added that this year, PIC and SafeSpaceBtB are jointly celebrating Pride Month to give courage to the LGBT+ community, so they can live their lives the way they want to. The celebrations also highlight the important role the rainbow community plays in developing society.
“Pride Month is a celebration of people with difference genders and identities, and an excellent opportunity to reduce discrimination,” he explained.
“It is our observation that many members of Cambodian society, as well as parents and communities, still discriminate against children and youth who identify as a member of the LGBT+ community, and that they are often excluded from society. We celebrate Pride Month in the hope that we can convey a message to the community and their families that they should be valued and empowered to take part in development work according to their interests,” he said.
LGBTQ+ Pride Month is celebrated each June to honour the 1969 Stonewall riots that took place in Greenich Village, New York City, and works to achieve equal justice and equal opportunity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, questioning and all the other members of the diverse LGBTQ+ community all over the world, according to a social media release by SafeSpaceBtB.
“This year SafeSpaceBtB marked the first official Pride Month, in collaboration with Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and every province. Each team organised pride related activities in their communities. This year saw the largest celebrations in the history of Cambodia,” the organisation said.
Through personal experience, Chhuon Thida, the founder of SafeSpaceBtB organisation, said that she spent 20 years to find out who she is while also trying to follow the determination of the society that was not who she thought she was.
She believed that through Pride Month events, many individuals will discover themselves, and society will change its mindset and end discrimination and restrictions.
“Society defines that you are a man so must be a man and if you are a woman you must be a woman. The level of awareness of LGBT+ rights remains limited. How does a person whose mind, heart and body do not fit with the way wider society believes they should feel learn to love themselves if society makes them feel like they are mentally unwell? What I want the most is the participation of LGBT+ community so they can be themselves and raise people’s awareness about LGBT rights in their local communities, and society in general,” she said.
According to Kimthan, in the whole month of June, the team will be active on social media by creating content and activities every day.
The WHO removed LGBT+ people from the category of mental illness in 1990. The world designated May 17 as International Day for the elimination of discrimination against LGBT, transgender and bisexual people. Many networks around the world have been celebrating the occasion since 2004 to draw people’s attention to violence and discrimination against LGBT people.
