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Meet a Grantee

Anjaree

Anjaree is a lesbian group working to support the rights of women and girls to claim their sexual rights and live without fear of discrimination from their families, communities, workplaces and the rest of civil society of Thailand.

In 1986, when four brave feminist activists formed Anjaree, it was a first for Thailand.  The women's movement was ignoring issues affecting lesbians.  There was barely any acknowledgement of same-sex female relationships as legitimate. And homosexuality was deemed a disease and abomination.

Since then, this lesbian group has almost single-handedly changed the landscape for Thai's estimated 6 million LGBTI citizens. Anjaree helped overturn a college policy prohibiting gays and trangendered students from enrolling in 36 campuses; in 1998 they overturned a government policy banning homosexuals from appearing on television. They continue to connect lesbians to one another through their website and newspaper.

And in January 2002, a historic moment in time: Anjaree successfully pressured the Thai Ministry of Health to state publicly that homosexuality is not a mental illness. The official statement is much like the change in American psychology and the DSM's stance on homosexuality in the 1970s. By all accounts, it's a milestone. But for Anjaree, it's not enough.

LGBTI people are still vilified, face harsh discrimination in schools and workplaces, and the pressure to be "cured" and get married is constant. Anjaree says the government must allocate funds to train mental health workers to be responsive-without prejudice-to its LGBTI citizens.  Currently, the group is helping the Ministry of Mental Health organize trainings for psychiatrists and professionals in the mental health field.

Anjaree is also inviting colleagues from other countries to report back on the status of homosexuality and their respective public policies. They hope to use such action oriented research as even greater leverage with the Thai government and medical groups. Since the current political climate of Thailand is open more than ever before to expanding human rights to include marginalized groups-Anjaree's odds look pretty good.

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