Along the train tracks in one of Phnom Penh’s ubiquitous slums, the noise never stops and everything is changing. Longtime residents are fearful that they’ll soon have to move. This place isn’t safe anymore, they say. It isn’t moral anymore.
Along these same tracks, roughly 100 new residents, in search of asylum and community, have trickled in over the last several years and now lead lives of shocking desperation. Most of them only sleep during the day. Some perform acts of prostitution. Others dress as women. Almost all of them are homosexual men. And this place, Beoung Kak 2, has become a home: Cambodia’s first gay town.
But this isn’t Boystown in Chicago, nor the Castro in San Francisco. This isn’t a place where homosexuals can celebrate sexuality, individuality, love. Make no mistake: It’s a place for survival.
Every month more newcomers arrive, and as this community expands and supplants longtime residents, it represents both a burgeoning confidence among Cambodia’s gay population, as well as the difficulties that lie ahead for homosexuals here struggling for acceptance and equality.
As two worlds converge and clash in Beoung Kak 2, each seems allegoric, as though re-enacting a bigger national issue. The young, radically sexual newcomers stand juxtaposed against a traditional set of neighbors that are baffled, and sometimes frightened, by the swelling number of openly gay Khmer down the road.
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Reader's Comments
Mytraiya (my Khmer name)
My strength stay with these people.
In many countries, it is this nameless fear within the straight community, born out of ignorance, superstitions, conditioning and mindless dogma, that makes it hate gay people without even understanding them.
If social activists can use this opportunity to work with these straight neighbours and educate them on the meaning of sexuality and what being gay implies (and what it does not imply), thereby eliminating this baseless fear, it can lead to better acceptance of the gay community. At the same time, the activists can also educate these gay people on how to conduct themselves so as to not appear threatening to the straight community.
Of course, one may jump in and demand to know why the converse doesn’t apply: why the straight community shouldn’t be educated so as to not appear threatening to gay people. It’s a simple matter of numbers. Statistically, gays are outnumbered hugely by straight people, and, on top of that, if the two communities collided head-on, many (most?) gays wouldn’t even join the fight, preferring to remain closeted. (We are aware of many closeted gays who actually sided with the straight ones in such situations before they got outed.) Guess who’ll win that fight then. Let’s accept that life’s not fair. We just have to work with the cards we’ve been dealt. What we CAN do with our cards is try to turn as many of the "against gays due to ignorance" to at least "neutral or sympathetic towards gays". Then we'll have only the much smaller number of "rabidly anti-gay under all conditions" to contend with.
This place could be a place where these gays can call their own , a place where they can get accepted or a place where they are a majority. It could be a herd mentality amongst the PLU there.
I do not have the answer but I am sure people do not just turn gay / homosexuals to survive. If you are one you are one. Nothing can change that. It's written in your DNA I supposed.
I knew I was different when I was in the kindergarten. It has nothing to do with my environment. It's nature not nurture.
Lots of poor gays ...before many so called lady boys but now its
not fashionable to dress in that fashion..gays are not looking for drag.
make more money in casual mens clothes..
Have traveled to many countries in Asia and find the same..only in shopping malls.
My prayers are with these guys in Cambodia, gay or not, that they at least find some happiness and receive respect from those of us who can never truly understand their predicament.
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