Pride Month is a secret celebration in Bangladesh

DHAKA, BANGLADESH — Pride Month, the monthlong celebration of LGBTQ+ culture and rights, is not publicly celebrated in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country where same-sex relationships are illegal under a colonial-era law dealing with “unnatural offences,” and conservative religious values are rising, despite the nation's self-imposed secular label.

A teenage high school student from an affluent Dhaka family who identifies as a lesbian and asked that her name not be used told VOA she limited her celebration to a virtual party on an exclusive private online forum.

“My devout Muslim father would be shattered,’’ she told VOA. ‘’My grandparents would think they're being punished for their sins, and my mom wouldn't be able to come to terms with it.” 

With the constant risk of social rejection and disappointment from her family, the student remains closeted, a situation that mirrors the country’s pervasive and deeply ingrained cultural and religious attitudes.

Despite public constraints, private LGBTQ gatherings still take place in secret locations, embassies, and safe spaces organized by civil society groups, as well as online. Organizers and participants say these events connect to the global LGBTQ community, fostering discussions on diversity and acceptance in a confidential, supportive setting.

“The Bangladeshi LGBTQ community has been organizing its own private events for years,” Tushar Baidya, a Dhaka LGBTQ and human rights activist, told VOA. ‘’The positive side of these gatherings is that attendees find a sense of connectivity, build new networks, and enjoy knowing they have a common, safe space to share.’’

However, such events have limitations, Baidya said, typically attracting an urban, educated and wealthier audience and often regularly draw the same attendees.

As the COVID-19 pandemic forced global shifts in work and activism, the LGBTQ community in Bangladesh adapted. In 2021, they organized the country’s first "Virtual Pride Event" to continue their advocacy during the pandemic and try to connect with a broader audience.

“These virtual Pride events have not only put Bangladesh back on the world Pride map but also sparked conversations about the human rights of LGBTQ people within Bangladeshi society,” said Baidya, an organizer of the virtual “Dhaka Pride” event on YouTube, which includes online discussions and recorded musical and dance performances. “For decades, the human rights of this marginalized group have been intentionally kept taboo, allowing misconceptions to spread and narratives to shrink their rights. 

Progress in hijira legal status

Over the past decade, transgender women, commonly referred to as "hijra" – a term derived from the old Hindi language that originally meant "impotent" – in South Asia, have gained increased legal recognition in Bangladesh, where they are officially acknowledged as a third gender.

Bangladesh's hijras, previously excluded from prayer services, can now worship at a new mosque near Mymensingh, north of the capital Dhaka, that does not discriminate against them. 

The Third Gender Community and Dakshin Char Kalibari Ashrayan Mosque was built on land donated by the government after hijras were expelled by locals from an established traditional congregation. Afterward, with local government assistance, they obtained the land and built the new mosque themselves, mainly with hijra donations.

There has been opposition to similar efforts, though, including opposition that stopped a similar project in another part of Mymensingh.

Anwara Islam Rani, a transgender candidate for a parliamentary seat, attracted considerable attention in the country’s January general election, which political activists and analysts have described as one-sided. Although unsuccessful, her campaign garnered significant public support.

Bangladesh’s most recent census in 2022 reported 12,629 transgender individuals, yet the exact number of LGBTQ people in the country remains unclear because of the criminalization of same-sex relationships and the related social stigma.

'One Step Forward, Three Steps Back'

While the government has made progress in promoting social acceptance for hijras, it has made limited efforts to advance the rights of other LGBTQ Bangladeshis and has not offered legal recognition. 

The anti-LGBTQ stigma in Bangladesh is deeply ingrained and consistently reinforced by the legal system, societal norms, and religious beliefs. Religious hardliners increasingly use such social media platforms as YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok to disseminate homophobic content, reaching broad audiences to encourage discrimination.

“My father is a massive follower of some so-called religious scholars on YouTube, and he often listens to them spreading all sorts of rubbish, hateful misinformation about queer people,” the high school student said.

“Even a couple of years ago, he wasn’t this stupid and intolerant of gay people, but I can sense the videos changed him for the worse, and that frustrates me,” she added. 

“I feel society is sometimes taking one step forward by recognizing the identities of trans people, but three steps back when it comes to the rest of us.”

Mosques

The issue is discussed beyond the digital realm and in such places as mosques, where some imams deliver speeches that include homophobic rhetoric during the Friday sermons.

The speeches reinforce negative stereotypes and hostility towards LGBTQ individuals, deepening prejudices.

This rhetoric, both online and offline, apparently poses real danger to members of the LGBTQ community.

Shahanur Alam, founder and president of the human rights organization JusticeMakers Bangladesh in France, told VOA via WhatsApp, “Throughout the year 2023, there were 56 reported incidents affecting 219 individuals within the LGBTQI+ community” in Bangladesh. 

Shahanur – who, like many Bangladeshis, prefers using his first name on second reference – operates in France because of past attacks, death threats, and fabricated legal cases against him in Bangladesh, stemming from his LGBTQ rights activism.

Incidents, he said, included killings, assaults, suicides, kidnappings, detainments, harassment, and extortion.

In March 2023, Imtiaz Mohammad Bhuiyan, a gay architect, was killed in Dhaka by a smartphone app-based blackmailing racket of persons using the app Grindr, which targets gays. His body was later discovered, and police investigations indicated that the crime was facilitated through connections made on the app.

In April 2016, Xulhaz Mannan, co-founder of Roopbaan, Bangladesh’s first LGBTQ-focused magazine and a U.S. Embassy employee, and fellow activist Mahbub Rabbi Tanoy, were murdered in a Dhaka apartment by attackers armed with machetes and guns. The assault was claimed by Ansar Al Islam, the regional affiliate of al-Qaida. 

Shahanur added that religious fundamentalist homophobic and transphobic rhetoric in Bangladesh “greatly intensifies the challenges faced by the LGBTQ community, resulting in legal persecution, social ostracism, violence, and significant mental health issues.”