Stilettos, hula hoops and Drag Olympics: Myanmar’s pride festival goes public amid slow progress on LGBT rights
- It was the fifth time that the festival has been held, but only the second year it has happened in a public place
- But organisers say lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people continued to face harassment and that social and legislative change are still needed
Contestants ran a stiletto race and swirled hula hoops at a park in Myanmar’s biggest city on Sunday in the Drag Olympics as a highlight of the Yangon Pride festival.
The attendance of an estimated 2,000 people at the Thakin Mya Park was a sign of change in a predominantly Buddhist country where traditionalism is strong and homosexuality is a crime under a law inherited from British colonialists, organisers said.
It was the fifth time that the festival has been held, but only the second year it has happened in a public place.
“When we started this, people did not really dare to come to this kind of festival,” said Hla Mat Tun, a co-director of the festival from the &Proud group. “Now you see a lot of young people. Young people are more proud and out and encouraged and empowered.”
But he said lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people continued to face harassment and that social change was needed as well as changes to Myanmar’s laws.