APCOM and the Australian Embassy kicks off Pride Month Highlighting LGBTQI Inclusion and Covid-19
Voices from Thai LGBTQI: Launch of Khormoon Report
“I want to highlight a couple of key themes from each of the panels that I found particularly striking. From the first panel I took the importance of intersectionality and Khun Matcha spoke very passionately about the plight facing LGBTI women and girls in indigenous, ethnic minority and conflict affected communities…Khun Thissadee spoke about the disadvantaged communities in Pattaya and Khun Surang gave some very stark figures about Covid’s economic impact and the lack of social support, in some cases, any support at all for sex workers.
So to me that is a striking reminder that any attempt to address these challenges need to recognise these differences, sources and dynamics of vulnerability and how they can complicate and compound the challenges many LGBTI people are facing here in Thailand.”
H.E. Mr Allan McKinnon, Australian Ambassador to Thailand
Panel 1:
Voices from Thai LGBTQI: Launch of Khormoon Report
Moderated by Midnight, APCOM Executive Director
APCOM and Thai LGBTQI community presented data from the Khormoon report – a community-led research on the effects of Covid-19 on LGBTQI community in Thailand.
Kasintorn Honglawan, APCOM officer presented a brief overview and key findings from the Khormoon project which gathered 1,430 respondents all over Thailand. The project presents 4 thematic areas, including access to HIV services, socioeconomic, mental health, and human rights issues. The project presents some alarming issues that arise from the community, with 93.08% of the respondents having their income affected, 66.26% were worried about accessing HIV medication, 23% needing medication, 13% needing healthcare. There were 41 reported cases of domestic violence, 183 cases of violation of human dignity, and 83 people don’t know about hotline service for mental health.
Matcha Phorn-In
Founder and Executive Director, Sangsan Anakot Yaowachon
Sangsan Anakot Yaowachon and has been on the ground in conflict areas between Thai and Myanmar border for years, and the situation has been made worse because of the political situation in Myanmar. The organisation has focused on empowering young indigenous LGBTQI women and children and advocating and raising awareness on rights violations, especially in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the existing problems of indigenous people having no rights to their land to live and cultivate. Stateless people could not access social welfare programs, some families had to let their children quit school because of no income. And all of this compounded into domestic violence, and making their livelihood even worse. Matcha has prompted the viewers to help advocate for equal protection for all people including stateless people, equal access to healthcare and especially COVID-19 vaccine.
Thissadee Sawangying
Founder and Director,
Health & Opportunity Network
HON, based in Thailand’s famous tourist city, Pattaya, have helped the community by providing emergency packages including PPEs. Pattaya was hit hard by Covid-19 as the community there worked in the entertainment businesses and the tourism sector, however, these are the forgotten people and their needs are not being met. What is needed is to set up a funding mechanism for the community in case of other emergencies and to collect data to ensure we are reaching the most vulnerable more timely.
Surang Janyam
Executive Director, SWING
SWING has conducted a survey on sex workers community and have found that 73.6% are unemployed, 46.2% did not received enough support and 91.6% does not have enough money to support themselves. This prompted SWING to take care of the community by setting up a Food Bank project. Also, they handed out care packages which have essential items and dry food to support them in the short term. Surang pleaded that no one should be excluded from humanitarian help.
