Cyclists decorated with balloons and rainbow flags take part in Vietnam’s first ever gay pride parade on a road in Hanoi on August 5, 2012.

When Nguyen Viet Anh told his parents he was gay, he was 25 years old. They retaliated by forcing him to visit doctors in the hopes of “curing” him.

The District 5 resident says he’ll never forget the day he came out to his family three years ago.

“My father became enraged, and my mother sobbed. They assumed I was suffering from mental illness.”

They also forbade him from speaking to his younger brother for fear of him “transmitting the gay disease to him.”

He moved out and decided to keep away from his family, who had repeatedly rejected him.

Despite the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) removed homosexuality from the International Statistical Classification of Diseases in 1990, many LGBTQ people in Vietnam continue to be rejected, ostracized, and discriminated against, including by their own families.

According to a 2015 research by the Institute for Studies of Society, Economy, and Environment (iSEE), an NGO dedicated to minority rights, more than 60% of them reported their relatives chastised or verbally assaulted them.

Many of them were exposed to strong pressure from their families to seek therapy or spiritual counseling from doctors or so-called reparative therapists, believing that these “treatments” would change their children’s sexual orientation back to straight.

Nguyen Thanh Minh of Hanoi, who came out to his mother when he was 22, said she made him see a telepathist to “dispel” all homosexual notions from his mind.

“The telepathist told her about a long-lost family relative who died when he was young and cursed me,” Minh adds.

Despite the fact that his mother did not trust the man’s allegation, she still thought homosexuality was “abnormal” and wanted him checked out at a hospital.

“I informed them that my health is fine and that there is nothing that can be done about it.” However, despite the relentless pressure, I went to the doctor to please my mother.”

He eventually had one of his friends from Bach Mai Hospital come to his parents and explain that being gay is not a disease, and they have gradually accepted him for who he is.

After cutting her long hair, Nguyen Quynh Nghi, a lesbian in HCMC, received opposition from her parents and family, same like Minh.

“My father believed I was suffering from a mental illness. On my father’s side, relatives refuse to speak to me or even approach me for fear of bringing shame and dishonor to the family.

“It’s as if I’m invisible to them and don’t exist.”

Source : VnExpress