Royal Arms of Cambodia
Cambodia may be the latest battleground regarding same-sex marriage.
According to some LGBT rights activists in that nation, some local
authorities are already recognizing gay couples as married despite the
fact that the nation’s laws define marriage as being between a man and a
woman.
According to Srorn Srun, the facilitator for Rainbow Community
Kampuchea or RoCK “Some local authorities give marriage certificates to
lesbian couples.”
Some local government leaders plan on sharing their experiences at an
International Day Against Homphobia being organized by RoCK as part of
Cambodia Pride Week. Specifically, the day will be held on 17 May.
Srorn knows of some fifteen lesbian couples who have already been
issued marriage certificates in Kandal, Takeo, Prey Veng and Kampong
Chhnang provinces. Srorn stated
“After Pride Week my job is to visit more provinces and interview gay
couples who been given family books from the local authorities, because
when they give you a family book it means that they are officially,
legally family.”
Srorn also stated “In practice they are married. They have lived
together for many years and the chief says “they live together for a
long time already so we don’t mind, we accept them”.’
Srorn believes that the lesbian couples are more accepted due to
living quiet lives in their hometowns. Srorn also noted that “Some of
them said they have lived together since before the Khmer Rouge! It was
really inspiring for the young people.”
RoCK, though, is not campaigning to legalize same-sex marriage as of
this point and time. Srorn noted that “We actually don’t really want to
advocate for legal marriage rights because our main problem is family
acceptance. This is the most important thing, because we have lots of
rules and laws that are controlled by our parents in our culture. For
now we want to encourage people to come out and for families to
understand us.”
Srorn recently completed research into the social exclusion of LGBT
people in Cambodia and noted that “We found strong evidence that most of
our friends are rejected by their families. And when we cannot live
within the family we lose out on education and then if we have little
education we face unemployment or low paid jobs. And then we are
vulnerable to becoming sex workers or drug users.”
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