In any other country it would be a dime-a-dozen piece of YouTube content. Laos is different. In Bouapha’s performance one sees the small, perfectionist craftings borne of a decade of experience. It is not by accident Bouapha has become Laos’ most prominent advocate for people of diverse sexual and gender identities—the most public face of a community that has long suffered from discrimination.
Ten years ago, Bouapha was a twenty-something revelling in the Vientiane night scene, meeting new and exciting people, exploring his sexual identity. He was out to his parents as gay but unsure of his place in the world.
Over the next decade, Bouapha found it. He founded the country’s first LGBTIQ (see note) advocacy movement, Proud To Be Us Laos. He became the booked-every-day-and-weekends-too maestro behind a manic calendar of sexuality- and gender-awareness events. Perhaps most remarkably, he also built a network of alliances within the Lao government—in effect, a license to operate. Now he takes photos with ambassadors. He studies at foreign universities. He’s on Lao TV a lot.
Yet there’s a loneliness in Bouapha. He hears whispering criticisms, even from his own community.
“A lot of people misunderstand my approach,” he told me. “They think that I’m more about myself. Oh, it’s him again. He appears on TV again. It’s all about him. And I want to say, it’s not about me. Because I know how to do it with peace. A lot of people, they like conflict and confrontation. That’s not the way that you solve the problem.”
He still thinks this is how Laos’ LGBTIQ community gets ahead: by working within the Lao system, not against it. By doing it the Lao way, not the falang way or anyone else’s.
Log in to Travelfish
Please sign in to read the rest of this page. The full text is around 2,500 words.
Log in nowBecome a Travelfish member
Choose from a free two-day pass right through to a lifetime membership.
Find out moreAbout the author
Saqib Rahim
Saqib Rahim is a writer in Laos. He writes about the environment, renewable energy, Lao culture and sometimes poetry. His awkward efforts at speaking Lao continue. Follow him on Twitter @SaqibSansU and see his other work at https://saqibrahim.journoportfolio.com/.
6 other Travelfish long reads
As Bali attempts to forge a new era, we need to stop spinning fables about it and listen to Balinese
When Mount Agung—Bali’s tallest and most spiritually significant volcano—erupted in 2017, local and foreign media flocked to Amed on the island’s northeast coast. During the first few weeks of eruptions reporters and camera crews gathered at Sunset Point, a dusty expanse carved into the side of a cliff overlooking Jemeluk Bay, for the best view of the volcano beyond the danger zone. ... read more
Ko Pha Ngan: Thailand’s tropical refuge, then and now
Ko Pha Ngan is infamous for its long–running Full Moon Party, but there is a lot more to this idyllic, palm–fringed island than sound systems and teenagers imbibing cheap alcohol. Just 125 square kilometres in size, nestled between larger Ko Samui and smaller Ko Tao in the Gulf of Thailand, Ko Pha Ngan’s mountainous interior is drenched in evergreen rainforest, while its sandy beaches and coastal communities have been spawning subcultures from around the world for centuries. ... read more
A Malaysian quagmire
Lenggong in Perak State, Malaysia was gazetted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012. Created by a meteorite, the valley’s archaeological discoveries span close to two million years and it is the location of one of the oldest human settlements outside of Africa. Almost a decade later, Covid19 is the icing on a cake of neglect which some locals are refusing to swallow. ... read more
The changing face of Mandalay
Early each morning Yin Yin Lwin walks the short distance from her Mandalay home to the moat surrounding the walls of the city’s Royal Palace, the grand structure that was built in the middle of the 19th century, and which remains the dominant edifice in Myanmar’s second biggest city. ... read more
Vietnam: Beyond the stereotype
As discerning visitors to Vietnam, we should look beyond the country’s outdated stereotypes and embrace its contemporary flair. ... read more