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Myanmar's LGBTQ activists join protests against military coup

WION Web Team
Yangon, MyanmarUpdated: Feb 19, 2021, 06:47 PM IST
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Photograph:(AFP)

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The nation has seen daily demonstrations for the past two weeks, with hundreds of thousands of protesters calling for the release of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was deposed in the coup.

Yangon's LGBTQ activists are stepping up to be part of a "revolution" against the military coup that rattled Myanmar on February 1.

The nation has seen daily demonstrations for the past two weeks, with hundreds of thousands of protesters calling for the release of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was deposed in the coup.

Their vibrant presence adds to the wide cross-section of Myanmar society -- from railway workers wearing hardhats to teachers dressed in their green-and-white uniforms -- who marched through the country's largest city Yangon Friday to demand the army give up power.

Shin Thant, a well-known transgender activist, also joined the protests.

Hundreds of supporters marched carrying rainbow-coloured placards with prints of the three-finger salute -- a symbol of resistance borrowed from the Hunger Games film trilogy.

Shin Thant is a former beauty queen and won Miss Trans Grand International Myanmar in 2018, but has reportedly faced harassment from authorities in the past.

The community still faces widespread discrimination in Myanmar, a conservative, mostly Buddhist country, with same-sex relationships criminalised under the penal code and trans people often harassed by authorities.

Shin Thant urged protesters to try and stick to peaceful forms of civil disobedience. 

(with inputs)