Vietnamese LGBT Portrait - Road trip of untold stories
"LET THE LAST CLOSETS be OPENED"
WHO ARE WE?
Huy Luong
Nam Pham
Huy Luong, 26.
I am an LGBT activist and experienced in the LGBT movement in Vietnam since 2008. I wrote many booklets and documents about LGBT which are used widely now in Viet Nam.
I am working as Technical Officer on LGBT rights at the Institute for Studies of Society, Economy and Environment (iSEE) in Hanoi. I am also the author of the "6SAC" blog and many Facebook Pages. In 2014, I am honored to be awarded "Person of the Year" by ICS, an LGBT rights exclusively organization in Viet Nam.
I initiative this project as a way to find more inspiration from the LGBT community ourselves.
Email: huylt88@gmail.com
Facebook: Lương Thế Huy
Nam Pham, 26.
I am a practician of the Buddhism, where all beings are considered equal. Perhaps because of a certain charm that my best friends are in the LGBT community. They are always with me when I found most difficult, so I want to be able to support for their rights.
My works have been always related to education and working with the community. I hope this trip can help me further understand and believe in the beauty of the portraits and the power of the stories.
I am an LGBT ally, a trekker, a way-finder and I hope my experience would make the project successful.
Email: nampham88@gmail.com
Facebook: Nam Pham
HOW IS THE PROJECT DONE?
Through widespread promotional activities for our road trip, we want to call for the participation of volunteer “connectors” in every city and province of Viet Nam. Our trip would start from Ha Noi capital city . The trip will continue from there and rely totally on connectors in which they arrange home-stays for us, and let us heard about their stories.
This is enough to spark some hope in people that they are not alone, and that they can share their stories once forgotten or untold. We will give materials and information about sexuality, coming out and legal issues.
It is also connectors’ work to help us move to and meet connector at the next destination. The road trip goes on like that. This can be an opportunity for potential leaders of local communities to develop and exercise leadership capacity for their people in the local.
We call this a trip of mutual trust. And it is tentatively scheduled for 4th of April 2015 to 17th of May 2015, in celebration of International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia ("IDAHOT").
We plan to launch a documentary movie and a book when this journey is done in August 2015.
"What is the portrait of Vietnamese LGBT community, not only in big cities? What untold stories are they trying to tell us? And how to prove the statement that we usually say "LGBT are everywhere and can be anyone?"
The "rainbowed" cities/provinces is places where there were volunteer(s) to participate in the project. The map is updated on March 8th.
how do i SUPPORT?
If you are LGBT who is living in any province/city in Viet Nam and want to become a connector, please sign up here.
You can support us by donating for the project. If you have a Vietnamese bank account, we recommend to use bank transfer to our account.
All donations will be updated regularly and publicly. Any unspent money after the project ends will be donated for the activities of Vietnamese community in 2015.
* If you have any question, please do not hesitate to ask us via our emails above.