REUTERS
Alisa Tang
Original Article: reut.rs/1FXN2JI
BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Some of those most guilty of violence and discrimination against gays, lesbians and transgender people in Asia are their families, which must instead play a key role in improving LGBTI rights, activists from the region said.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people (LGBTI) in Asia face the threat of violence and widespread discrimination – denied education and jobs, and disowned by their families in societies that are often patriarchal and religious, the activists said ahead of a three-day meeting on LGBT health and human rights in Asia.
"The family is one of the main perpetrators of violence and discrimination. (According to) Asian values, you control your family’s sexuality, and it’s a shame – a family shame – when one of your family members does not fit into… what society says is normal," said Ging Cristobal of the Philippines-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC).
If LGBT people suffer violence at the hands of family members, there are few places they can turn to in countries where traumatic conversion and religious therapies are common, Cristobal said.
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