Ban the Bang! Is Mongolia ready to socially accept sexuality education on LGBTQ?

Given the outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Mongolia started schools’ lockdown back in late January 2020. Ever since the lockdown, television and e-learning replaced school-based teaching with curriculums available in all subjects for K12-ers via many TV channels and social media platforms.

On March 16th, a Facebook post posted by a self-called “motivational speaker” /Mongolian male/ drew attention to many on social networks creating a battlefield for those who do and do not support the existence/social acceptance of LBGT in Mongolia.

The snapshot photos of 8th-grade Health subject curriculum included:

1. “Homosexuality is not a mental disorder”

1973- American Psychiatric Association made history by issuing a resolution stating that homosexuality was not a mental illness

1990- WHO announces that sexual orientation is not regarded as a disorder

2004- The International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia is celebrated on May 17th.

2. “Sexuality, Sex Vs Gender, Transgender”

3. “What does LGBT Stand for”?

4. “Defining Sexuality”: Beyond the Binary definition of Male and Female

These four snapshots indicate a very typical “information” about how sexuality has evolved to be celebrated, honored and embraced in western societies as a protective factor against potential discrimination and harassment. However, the capturing text shifted the entire concept of this curriculum imposing his own homophobic belief as:

“What is the Ministry of Education teaching our children???? Reproductive education should be limited to the male and female reproductive system, not about normalizing homosexuality. It is a disorder”

With almost a thousand mixed comments with some arguing, he should not impose his own belief against the state-supported curriculum, some in support of such information as vital information in this era, and some of course promoting the hatred towards what they call a “disorder” and disgrace to our society.

When I saw this post, I was quite intrigued to read all the comments and the tone and the vibes coming from individuals who are the cells of the society I call home. As an individual in training to become an anthropologist someday with a focus on gender, marriage, and contemporary Mongolia, this is an interesting case to observe with a hot cup of coffee to keep me hyped. I even had a little argument with a good friend of mine over this on social media.

So, I wanted to shed some light on the content of Gender and Mongolia. What do we know? What do we not know? What are the cases out there I can write on?

When I was pursuing my Advanced Graduate Degree certificate in Women’s Studies while my master’s degree in the States, I basically re-invented my brain to kill my own biases I had in me growing up in a society where we must “ban the bang”!

There is a reason, me as a woman, and as a mother of two, speaking openly about sexuality is often a disrespect to the face of my entire family. That’s why writing in English might do the job for me to stay away from internal harassment for now while quarantined at home. So, what do we know about Gender and Mongolia in a simple four “P”s?

1. Policy: Mongolia was introduced to the term ‘Gender’ Equality in 2017 as the National Law on Promotion of Gender Equality was amended by the Government of Mongolia. This is the state-approved legal term to use Gender as a national goal. There are yes few lines and statements about LGBT rights in the law. However, implementing the agency’s ideology is still binary on the definition of “gender”. Domestic Violence has been more gendered than ever with a new law finally having the teeth to bite perpetrators on gender-based violence. But still, the term “gender”-based violence is still binary limited to cases between intimate partners.
2. Practice: The LGBT Center has been active in promoting queerness rooted in human rights and a roadmap to a non-discriminating inclusive society. Their recent works have been mainly on normalizing the long-banned “disorder”-ed belief towards human sexuality through media, podcasts, and coming out stories. The openness and the financial supports from international donor organizations are contributing the speeding the center’s power amongst the youth’s understanding and openness about gender, love, dating, and sexuality. Which these topics are often the topics generation including me and my previous feel uncomfortable putting on public discourse.
3. Power: Sexuality as the desire to be “normalized”- Homosexuality, bisexuality, transgender always existed. We were just taught to BAN it. — A researcher Terbish (2013) briefly studied the history of sexuality in the pre and post-socialist regime of Mongolia. According to Terbish (2013), the monastic understanding of homosexuality was nonclassificatory based. There was never a separate identity neither a social order for those who acted upon homosexuality. The exercise of power in these two regimes simultaneously sexualized the population and this shows the shifting power relations between different political regimes and sexuality. The state’s power is slowly shifting and becoming open in time with the example of the above-mentioned sexuality education.
4. Prediction: What can we predict from the above case on public discourse about sexuality education (not sex education) that includes LGBT on the national TV broadcast? It’s not the question of whether we are having approvals of same-sex-marriage anytime soon, but about whether the society is ready to be open about information and decide individually to create a knowledge out of it. I predict that supportive policies upon sexuality will no longer be “banned” and the new generations will be more prone to having the knowledge to respect someone’s identity. However, there may be an increase in a social network-based harassment bullying and hate speech as more and more “un-banned” information are publicly promoted. This is where the power/state can jump in to be the protectors of the content they supported to be a part of the education curriculum.