Vietnam Declares Being LGBTQ+ Is “Not An Illness”

Being LGBTQ+ should not be considered an illness and is not something to be treated, the Vietnam government has announced in “a huge paradigm shift” for rights in the country.

According to the Guardian, the Ministry of Health said medical professionals should treat LGBTQ+ people with respect and ensure they are not discriminated against.

An announcement sent to provincial and municipal health departments earlier this month, and posted on the government website, said being LGBTQ+ “is entirely not an illness” so it “cannot be ‘cured’ nor need[s] to be ‘cured’ and cannot be converted in any way.”

Medics should not “interfere nor force treatment” on LGBTQ+ patients. If any support is needed, “it must be in the form of psychological assistance and performed only by those who have the knowledge of sexual identity,” said the ministry.

This comes after years of campaigning by LGBTQ+ rights groups. In November, Leave with Pride, a campaign from the Institute for Studies of Society, Economy, and Environment (iSEE), petitioned the World Health Organization in Vietnam to affirm that being gay is not a disease. In a video, the iSEE posed the question: if queerness is a disease, shouldn’t LGBTQ+ Vietnamese be able to get sick leave?

WHO’s representative in Vietnam, Kidong Park, issued a statement in April confirming that any attempt to change the sexual orientation of LGBTQ+ people “lacks medical basis and is unacceptable.”

“We cannot overstate how big a fix this announcement is,” said Kyle Knight, a senior researcher of health and LGBTQ+ rights at Human Rights Watch. “While attitudes won’t change overnight, this marks a huge paradigm shift. As the most trusted source of medical authority in Vietnam, the impact on social perceptions of queerness will be enormous. […] The myth that homosexuality is diagnosable has been allowed to permeate and percolate Vietnamese society. It is an underpinning factor in medical malpractice against LGBTQ+ youth.”

Now, iSEE and LGBTQ+ rights group ICS Center are calling for same-sex marriage to be legalized.

Read related myGwork articles here:

Vietnam Adopts World Health Standards for LGBTQ+ People

In China These Activists Are Fighting to Exist As Non-Binary

Politician In Malaysia Refuses To Consider LGBT+ Part Of Human Rights Report

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