Meet The Khmer Muscle Boys Challenging Perceptions Of What It Means To Be Young And Gay In Cambodia

In a small, unassuming bar in the center of Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, a new generation of young Khmer men are starting a revolution.

It’s not a political uprising, a protest at alleged government corruption, nor an initiative to reduce widespread poverty in the country; it’s goes far deeper than that.

This is a project to challenge young, gay Cambodians’ perceptions of themselves.

By day, Space Hair Salon and Bar is an unassuming place to fashion yourself a new ‘do’. By night, it’s a rip-roaring, pec-pumping, drinking den hotbed of handsome young Khmer men only too willing to serve you your favorite sin-drink with a smile, a tricep-flex and a flirt.

Situated a short hop, skip and a jump from the Tonle Sap river which flows through the city, Space is the brainchild of entrepreneur Chuk Sopheap.

Sopheap (pictured above outside Space) arrived in Phnom Penh with a vision. Hailing from the city of Battambang in northwestern Cambodia, he experienced anti-gay discrimination and bullying in his teenage years. Like many gay men growing up in rural areas, he knew he had to relocate to the big city to find other gay men and start living openly, as himself.

Torsten Højer

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