Gay Mongolia: A Remote Path

Contents:

• INSI MONGOLIA’S ONLY GAY BAR
• NOMADIC BOYS: FDG MONGOLIA’S ONLY GAY BAR
• GAY MONGOLIA TRAVEL GUI
• GAY MONGOLIANS SEE FLICKERS OF PROGRS AMID FEAR AND OSTRACISM
• MONGOLIA GAY CULTURAL VISTAS TOUR
• GAY MONGOLIA: A REMOTE PATH
• MONGOLIA GAY TRAVEL
• GAY BARS OR HANGOUTS MONGOLIA - LGBTQIA+ TRAVEL FOM

INSI MONGOLIA’S ONLY GAY BAR

At the only gay bar the most sparsely populated pennt untry the world, Zorig Alima tells me he’s a “penis shaman. “It’s like gay life Mongolia, ” he says. ”In Mongolia, isn’t easy for a gay bar to fly unr the radar, even the center of Ulaanbaatar, the untry’s biggt cy, home to more than a third of Mongolia’s total populatn of 2.

NOMADIC BOYS: FDG MONGOLIA’S ONLY GAY BAR

Until 1989, homosexualy was illegal and punishable by imprisonment. Gay life Mongolia is still far om easy. For many Mongolians, gay visibily is seen as an vasn, a foreign fluence rptg tradnal life.

GAY MONGOLIA TRAVEL GUI

Several Mongolian gay bars predate d.

Photo: Lila SeidmanFewer than 18% of Mongolia rints have ter accs, and until recently, rmatn about anythg related to gay life was nearly impossible to e by.

GAY MONGOLIANS SEE FLICKERS OF PROGRS AMID FEAR AND OSTRACISM

In the ‘90s, a famo and grisly cint disturbed the ty untry, when a Mongolian pop sger who was mored to be gay was found behead his apartment. ”Zorig “heard stori” about the existence of gay people growg up, but didn’t meet another gay man until he moved to Japan at 19.

There, Zorig worked as an vtment banker for 15 years “havg a nice time enjoyg my gay life” before movg back to Mongolia 2012. ” Gay men uld meet at “secret parti, ” but Zorig said he was tired of hidg.

MONGOLIA GAY CULTURAL VISTAS TOUR

Jt last year, police terpted Ulaanbaatar’s Equaly Walk and harassed prev November, one of the most proment trans men Mongolia, Anaraa Nyamdorj, opened the now-funct gay bar, 100%. The roadblocks seemed numerable, begng wh the Mongolian Mistry of Jtice and Home Affairs nyg official registratn to the NGO and requirg that the LGBT Centre to obta “a lguistic fn” of the words “lbian, ” “gay, ” “bisexual” and “transgenr” om the Lguistics Instute of the Mongolian Amy of Scienc. We mt have spent around 25 mut walkg up and down those ugly Soviet blocks lookg for Hanzo, Mongolia’s only gay bar.

GAY MONGOLIA: A REMOTE PATH

Mongolia Gay Travel Rourc. ” It was as if gay, lbian, bisexual and trans people were gnom livg v unrground, g out only to feed at night, then scurryg back aga to safety of the damp, dark earth. We me to know our first ntact, Anaraa through, tertgly, Maggie’s dad Florida (who is not gay as one person asked but had happened to attend a nference for profsors along wh an LGBT activist, who had recently met Anaraa at another nference).

MONGOLIA GAY TRAVEL

[Update 2016: The first gay bar opened 2004 lled Cy Life but only lasted a few months due to lack of attendance om the LGBT muny. A bar lled 100% then opened after 7 years November 2011 but only lasted for half a year bee the homophobic landlords termated the lease. The newt and current only gay bar is lled ‘d.

Z ‘ which is featured a June 2016 report by Lila Seidman entled ‘Insi Mongolia’s Only Gay Bar’ on the Gawker webse.

Our send ntact was a gay man (also his 30′s) named Otgoo, who is the current executive director of the LGBT Centre.

GAY BARS OR HANGOUTS MONGOLIA - LGBTQIA+ TRAVEL FOM

Otgoo told that homosexualy was fally crimalized 2002, but that many people are, unfortunately, still very homophobic. He explaed that relign don’t seem to play a part homophobia here (the ma relign, Buddhism, is relatively acceptg of different sexual orientatns). However some people feel that homosexualy and transgenrism have been brought om “the Wt” pecially the recent ti of foreign vtors and travelers (and although we know this isn’t te, Katie and I don’t md takg some of the cred for such a wonrful importatn).

Otgoo (left, wh Young) mentned that thgs have changed substantially after socialism end–LGBT folks who had been forced to keep their sexualy on the down-low (homosexualy was a crime Soviet tim) were now able to beg to ch their way out of the closet. She mentned her terview that most people who know her, know that she is gay, and add that she’s enuntered few problems om others bee of her sexualy.

Also see the stori about gay Mongolia:. (Dec 2015) ‘Disver Mongolia’s Only Gay Bar‘. (June 2016) Insi Mongolia’s Only Gay Bar’.

Text 'GAYTRAVEL' to 1-800-GAY-TRAVEL (1-800-429-8728). — Travel Guis wh a Gay Perspective.

Gay Mongolia. While there is no gay scene to speak of, Mongolia offers a brilliant pe for gay upl and groups.