LONGS The struggles and celebrations of Asean's LGBT community

Hello friends!

Here are my fave reads from this month. Very Philippines and Indonesia-centric again, so sorry about that. Very archipelago-focused with all these dang elections.

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It’s been a cracking big few days, so tomorrow we’ll take a peek at what the BRI second summit meant for Asean and yikes we’re starting to see some South China Sea action alongside it. I also have a really embarrassing story about Timor-Leste and myself but it’s so embarrassing it has to be paid for.

See you next month!Erin Cook

🇮🇩 In Indonesia, LGBT communities viewed as a moral threat - SCMPThis one from SCMP speaks with dozens of young LGBT Indonesians to show the broad spectrum of situations the community is in. From monogamous couples living together, to young men jailed after the Atlantis raid struggling to rebuild a life. It also looks at the religious angles and, super interestingly!, the religious leaders who are standing up.  

🇲🇲What It's Like to Be Illegally Gay in Myanmar - VICEI think it was last month we looked at Myanmar’s anti-queer sentiments. I’m so glad this month we have this great profile of David Morona. He is a young Burmese man who found his way to Yangon after butting heads with his dad repeatedly. Now he performs drag shows in honour of Lady Gaga. “To me she is perfect, all her imperfections shows it’s okay to be a little crazy." Yaaas, Gaga.

🇻🇳 On one island, a microcosm of Vietnam’s environmental challenges - MongabayFriend of the Letter Mike Tatarski headed to Vietnam’s Cat Ba Island for Mongabay. Apart from  the fact that it looks like a wicked trip (his photos!), it’s also a fascinating read. The island is not just a tourist attraction, but also home to the langur — the country’s most endangered primate. I was super interested in the part about how people care about the animal itself but not necessarily the habitat it needs, which I think we see over and over in the region.

🇵🇭Paring Bert's crusade - RapplerA big theme in this has always been Catholic priests taking up the good fight against Duterte. I love it. Obvious disclaimer I’m well aware of all the bullshit the church forces upon the country. BUT, there’s good work being done too. Paring Bert, better known to the Vatican as Father Albert Alejo, is a Jesuit priest who is under siege by Duterte supporters. It’s no joke, either. Priests have been showing up dead. (This one’s actually from March but I missed it soooo)

🇮🇩 Is Australia to Blame for Indonesia’s Plastic Waste Problem? - VICEAsean has been treated like the dump by the rest of the world. I’ve been following the Manila Bay-Canadian waste story since Duterte laid into Trudeau last year, but I had no idea I had a problem closer to home. Australia sends much of its paper waste to Indonesia, but activists suspect my people are sneaking in plastic waste alongside. Some of it — get this! — carrying the ‘Made in Australia’ branding. Now I don’t think it’s all my people, I’ve been around way too long for that!, but good Lord, it doesn’t help.

🇵🇭 I was denied a U.S. visa, and it's very personal - RapplerLian Buan calls herself a “failed immigrant.” Much of her family have become British citizens but she still holds her “very powerless Philippine passport.” She has been denied a US visa, told she doesn’t qualify to be an immigrant. But for a country whose people have spread further around the world than most Asean cousins, it’s particularly galling. I’m mad on Lian’s behalf that the country’s former occupier is being so tight with visas, but she sees it in a very different way. I love this read! I hope she gets there eventually.

🇮🇩 Indonesia’s Queer Panic - LRB BlogWho doesn’t love Krithika Varagur? For LRB she looks at Indonesia’s LGBT panic and what led us here. “The abbreviation LGBT is widely used in Bahasa Indonesia and, especially among homophobes, is more common than other quasi-loanwords such as gay, lesbi or homoseks. Many use it without knowing what exactly LGBT stands for, which in itself helps to isolate queerness as a foreign imposition,” she writes.

🇮🇩 Kartini and ‘Kartini’ - New MandalaKartini Day in Indonesia is a celebration of the iconic national hero. Kartini came from a well-off family in Java during the Dutch colonisation period. She dedicated her life to the empowerment of women and girls through education. This legacy has been a bit cloudy in recent years though, with the commemoration of her birthday becoming a more commercial affair. I really love this one from New Mandala which goes much deeper into who she was and what she did as well as the evolution of her legacy than anything else I’ve read. What a woman!

🇻🇳 Hanoi: A city of motorbikes and mopeds - BBCI love a photo essay and I really love a photo essay of motorbikes absolutely loaded down. This one of Hanoi’s hard-working drivers from BBC is great. Still, nothing will beat the bloke I saw cruising around Gambir with an exercise bike riding pacar.

🇲🇲 'The people's messengers': Myanmar's satirical poets target censorship - ReutersMyanmar has been performing thangyat for centuries. During new years, poets, comedians and other artists satirise the country’s leaders. It hasn’t been smooth-sailing this year. Performers were asked to submit their work to the government for censorship prior to events. “We founded the thangyat in order to serve as the people’s messengers to the government,” 20-year-old student Thant Zin told Reuters. But that isn’t going to stop anyone.

🇵🇭 What growing up in a Filipino matriarchy taught me about feminism - SBSI love this one from Fatima Measham — one of my fave writers in Australia and a brill supporter of those trying to crack in to the industry — on growing up in a Filipino matriarchy. It’s a total love letter to the brilliant women of the Philippines and makes a dang strong case for other countries, in this case Australia, to look to the archipelago for leadership in gender equality.