Embracing Tradition for LGBTI Progress — Anaraa Nyamdorj, Mongolia
As an open and proud trans man, Anaraa Nyamdorj has led a life seemingly at odds with the prevailing cultural understanding of sexual orientation and gender identity in Mongolia. But Anaraa’s life experiences and understanding of the country’s traditional nomadic cultures and pre-Soviet Buddhist shamanic traditions brings clarity and confidence to his activism in support of LGBTI human rights.
“I knew when I was 10 years old that I was different but didn’t have the words to articulate the troubling feelings about my identity and body,” he said. “I was very lucky in a sense that when Mongolia became independent after the fall of the Soviet Union I was able to get a scholarship to attend the National Law School of India University. There I became part of a progressive feminist, queer student group and was embraced for the first time. At that time I began to identify as a lesbian. We engaged on the stories we shared as queer people in repressive societies.” Over time Anaraa’s personal realization grew to embrace his true trans identity.
Today Anaraa is the Executive Director of the LGBT Centre in Ulaanbaatar. The small nonprofit’s staff of four, with very little funding, works hard to increase awareness of, and support for, LGBTI people across the country. Focusing on legal advocacy, health education and youth education the Centre is creating significant generational change.
Their legal advocacy work reaches a milestone this September when a new law targeting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) goes into effect. “We will monitor how police apply the new law. In the past LGBTI complaints were laughed off. We will be able to measure the prevalence of anti-LGBTI bias and be taken seriously. We think the new standalone SOGI law will help with ending the silencing and institutionalization of discrimination. When kids are going to school and not learning about the diversity of people [they] have very narrow ideas and internalized phobias — that LGBTI people don’t exist or matter. This law should provide the opportunity to promote our natural diversity along all lines.”
The social context of this great stride is complex. Since the fall of socialism and its guarantees of education, healthcare and housing, class and economic divisions have grown along with a significant population shift from rural to urban areas. These new divisions have given rise to a neo-Nazi inspired ultranationalist movement which demands conformity to heteronormative, gender binary identities. As religion was legalized an influx of western Christian evangelicals and Sun Myung Moon’s World Peace Organization have moved into impoverished communities with their message of anti-LGBTI intolerance. “On the one hand Mongolia has a functioning democracy with many freedoms. On the other hand we may lose generations to religious hate,” notes Anaraa.
But the religious traditions of Mongolian Buddhism celebrated a two-spirit shamanic culture where gender fluidity was venerated. “The shamans were trained from ages 10 to 12 for rituals and initiations. From what I hear shamans were not living in the gender they were born in. We did have a spiritual dimension to non-binary sexuality and gender identification. During the Soviet period religion was outlawed and there was a huge repression of Buddhist monasteries along with monk purges. As a nomadic civilization we didn’t maintain much written tradition and this created a knowledge gap.”
Anaraa is personally filling in this knowledge gap through activism and advocacy he hopes will inspire others. “My activism was very personal in the early years with the realization of being different and deserving of rights that I didn’t receive. I don’t think I would have ever had the guts to do it without the support and encouragement of those I met at university in India. A lot of us don’t ever choose to become activists, but some of us take up the challenge when we meet those who support and inspire.”
Issues and Countries: Human Rights, Discrimination and Equality, Society Culture and Religion, Mongolia, Transgender and Intersex Issues
