Media Campaign Launched to Bring LGBT Issues Out of the Shadows

[geovalin]

Khmer Time / Jonathan Cox

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has launched a project to raise awareness about issues faced by lesbian, gay and transgender (LGBT) people in Cambodia. The project, called “We Are the Same,” will use radio, television and social media to educate people about issues faced by the gay and transgender community.

As part of the campaign, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights’ (CCHR) radio channel will feature programs on issues relevant to LGBT people, as well as a radio play dramatizing issues faced by LGBT people in Cambodia. The campaign will also include TV spots and social media discussion groups. The project will last two years and has a budget of almost $300,000. Chak Sopheap, the executive director of CCHR, said she hopes the campaign will help educate people about different sexual identities, starting at the family level.

“The research has...shown that much of this discrimination and exclusion comes from family circles and those closest to an LGBT individual,” she said. Though Ms. Sopheap said Cambodia has made strides toward becoming more inclusive of LGBT people, discrimination continues. “There is a serious lack of understanding of LGBT issues at the local level in many areas,” she said, “with many LGBT people facing discrimination from police and local authorities.”

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