Navigating Homophobia in Bangladesh 2.0

The incredibly consequential July 2024 uprising in Bangladesh that culminated in the ouster of Sheikh Hasina as the Prime Minister, and the escape of her and her mafia acolytes to India and elsewhere, began with a yearning by university students for a discrimination free system in the country, in relation to job quotas for children and grandchildren of the Freedom Fighters of 1971.

This quota system seemed discriminatory especially in the way that it was administered. Later on, this anti-discrimination movement broadened its scope in terms of all kinds of discrimination, be they economic, social, gender based, religious, ethnic, linguistic, etc.

Left out of consciousness was a group of people who possibly constitute up to 5-10% of the country’s population according to global snapshots and anecdotal evidence within the country. This group is none other than the LGBTQIA+ people who have always been part of the society, but lived clandestine lives of lies until only a decade or so ago (many still do).

Some young members of this community were active participants in the uprising and contributed immensely through their own capabilities.

Yet, the newest political party in the country called the National Citizen Party (NCP), formed by the students who successfully freed Bangladesh from Sheikh Hasina’s tyranny, is very vocal about any form of discrimination in Bangladesh 2.0, except for the country’s gays, lesbians, transgenders, etc against whom they have come out openly in support of discrimination on various pretexts.

Your author, a cisgender gay male, has been active in an X group called Bangladesh 2.0 (the name chiming with the concept of a new country after the uprising). Much to the credit of the moderators of that group, there is a wide spectrum of political, social, religious and philosophical views expressed in that group.

Contributors represent all age groups and all educational backgrounds, are resident in Bangladesh and abroad, and hold all viewpoints prevalent within Bangladesh and the diaspora community (except those that are staunchly for the ousted Awami League).

Needless to say, yours truly has had “discussions” with Jamaatis, Hefazatis, other conservative Muslims, liberal Muslims, some atheists, and some people belonging to the non-Muslim faiths on various topics. What unites all participants is a desire for a Bangladesh 2.0 and to shape its destiny.

While not the one to instigate a discussion on gay rights in Bangladesh every moment, I have had to frequently intervene when hatred against Bangladesh’s LGBT community had been expressed in one form or another, usually by ultra-religious and other conservative Muslims.

While many such exchanges consisted of fighting off crude insults and death threats with equal vigour, others were of a nature that I would call productive while at the same time excruciatingly painful. Those discussions, held both in Bangla and English (often interchangeably), opened a window into the world of ignorance on their part as far as people like me were concerned.

I have come to understand that the strength of their hatred and fear of us gays, transgenders, etc stemmed not just from the historically unsubstantiated story of Lut in the Quran (and references of throwing us off from the top of cliffs in the Hadith), but also from what appears to be considerable ignorance about us.The more conversations I had, the more shell-shocked I became by their preconceived notions.

Never mind that we had existed on Earth as long as mankind itself, and that homosexuality had widely been observed in the animal kingdom which we all belonged to as a family of species; according to my interlocutors, there seemed to be present a western “ideology” labelled as “the LGBT agenda” -- a conspiracy to undermine traditional families and infect non-Western cultures with the “ultimate” degeneration of morals and values.

According to this viewpoint, until “gay liberation” took place in the West, there were no LGBT people in Bangladesh, and now some people in the country dared to be fashionably sinful. Thanks to transgenders, the world was now full of a hundred and one different genders.

There was apparently nothing innate about this group of people. Their behaviour and “choices” were down to the influence of Western popular culture, social media, and funnily enough, pornography. This group of people were grooming others to join a club, thus corrupting Bangladeshi society.

What your author found most absurd (and darkly humorous) was the imaginary link between the US government funding of American LGBT groups and the number of gays, lesbians, transgenders, etc in that country and by extension, in others.

Many conservative Bangladeshi Muslims in the X group were delighted that President Trump had choked off such funding and believed that we would now see a “reduction” of LGBT people in the world. After all, no propaganda, no gays!

This brings me to another pervasive belief among those who don’t know us -- that homosexuality could be promoted. By spreading the word and tempting young people with “disgusting” gestures, it was possible to “turn” them gay. It was possible to “encourage” such deviant behaviour and get them sexually “addicted” to people of the same gender for life.

Apparently, most gay men have been sexually abused by an uncle, a brother, a cousin, or a Hujur during their youth, which is complete nonsense, except for in some coincidental cases.

Furthermore, by normalizing a “transgender ideology,” it was now possible to make it appear “cool” for a boy to chop off his manhood and dress like a girl.

Such commentaries were endless and were cloaked with an all-encompassing narrative of “mental illness.” Same-sex attraction and activities were either the result of a mental or physical illness, or a disgusting habit picked up, resulting in some sort of addiction.

A common phrase bandied about in the X group stated that the July 2024 sacrifices were not made in order to make room for the neo-colonial, Western LGBT culture and agenda -- that this did not go with the local culture, religion, etc -- and that such travesty would not be tolerated.

While the bit about not going with the local religion is certainly true, since when are the religious right and conservative people in Bangladesh gate-keepers of the fluid thing called culture?

Never mind that tolerance towards sexual diversity was a prominent feature of pre-British India that we too were part of. Never mind that Victorian norms brought in by the British colonizers gelled together with Islamic teachings to create the culture of intolerance towards gays that we find ourselves in today in Bangladesh.

Where does this leave LGBT Muslims, Hindus, etc in the country (and possibly in the diaspora)?

Some become atheists as did yours truly. Others engage in a lifelong battle of a psychological conflict between their faith and sexuality. They accept that they are being sinful, but also accept that they were created by their Creator and thus matters of the afterlife were best left to Him. Some commit suicide.

Many succumb to family and social pressures to get married to a member of the opposite gender and live lives of lies and profound unhappiness.

It is the notion of leaving matters of the afterlife of people to the Creator that Bangladeshi society, with Muslims in particular, needs to adopt across the board.

At the same time, any political or social advance to have a Shariah-based country should be fought tooth and nail by those who don’t want it. Political space in Bangladesh must not be yielded to the likes of Jamaat and Hefazat with any sense of resignation.

Riaz Osmani is a political and social analyst.