When Meas Sophanuth started to transition in high school, his mother
-- afraid that her child would bring shame to the family -- tried to
stop what she saw as his “unnatural” behavior.
She took away his phone, kept him at home, and forbade him from seeing his friends. She finally
took her son to a traditional healer, known in Cambodia as a Kru Khmer, in the hope that the shaman would be able to “cure” him.
It was a traumatic experience, Sophanuth, who identifies as
transgender, told the Phnom Penh Post last year. “After that, I did not
feel warm to my parents anymore. They frightened me,” he said.
Such attempts at “curing” are not uncommon in Cambodia, where LGBT
people are often seen as being mentally ill or as being possessed with
“bad spirits.”
“Usually
the Kru Khmer will chant something [at the LGBT person], sometimes they
burn the head, back or palm,” Srun Srorn, an LGBT activist, says of a
typical “curing” ritual. “When they burn they believe the bad spirits
will fly away. Sometimes they use the bamboo to hit the person.”
Homosexuality is not criminalized in Cambodia, which is a
predominantly Buddhist country, but marginalization of the LGBT
community is widespread.
In Cambodia, Some Families Still Try To 'Cure' LGBT Sons And Daughters
