Anjaree ( th, อัญจารี) was an

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, ...

organization in Thailand. It formed as a

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

organization in 1986 and has focused on issues such as reforming the words used to refer to same sex desire and campaigning for

same sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

to be legally recognised. It became dormant around 2011.

History

Anjaree was formed originally in 1986 by a small group of

lesbian feminist Lesbian feminism is a cultural movement and critical perspective that encourages women to focus their efforts, attentions, relationships, and activities towards their fellow women rather than men, and often advocates lesbianism as the logic ...

activists, which included Anjana Suvarnananda and Chanthalak Raksayu. The organization articulated

issues in the

women's movement The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality between men and women. Such is ...

in Thailand and the society at large. Suvarnananda was inspired by her experiences studying in the Netherlands. Anjaree organizers were among the first to organize and host an Asian Lesbian Network in 1990, which gained international attention, especially throughout Asia. Successes included stopping the Rajabhat Institute's discriminatory rules on banning transgender people from enrollment at its institute during 1996 and publicizing the decision by the Ministry of Health not to class homosexuality as a pathological condition. The group then became dormant around 2011.Megan Sinnott. ''Queer Bangkok: twenty-first-century markets, media, and rights''. Aberdeen, Hong Kong: Hong Kong U Press, 2011. Print.

Same-sex marriage

Anjaree has long campaigned for recognition of

in Thailand as in other Asian countries such as Taiwan. In 2019, a legal challenge was made to the Civil and Commercial Code. Anjana Suvarnananda commented to the

Thomson Reuters Foundation Thomson Reuters Foundation is a London-based charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, a Canadian news conglomerate. The Foundation is registered as a charity in the United States and United Kingdom and is headquartered in Canary Wharf, London. Anton ...

that if it the challenge failed, there was a "risk that the outdated notion of marriage will persist for a while".

Semantic issues

Anjaree focused on the terminology used to describe same sex desire. Thai psychologists had put people into groups named "rak-tang-pet" (heterosexual) and "rak-ruam-pet" (homosexual). The " katoey" (transgender) is an ancient Thai word, which is also employed to describe camp gay men as well as transgender people and thus is being used in a derogatory way, since it suggests gay men are not real men. To go beyond the traditional categorisation of women as either "tom" (butch) or "dee" (femme), Anjaree activists promoted a new identity category known as "ying rak ying", which translates as simply "women who love women". One of the notable advantages of "ying rak ying" was that it dovetailed with transnational

LGBTIQ Intersex people are born with sex characteristics (such as genitals, gonads, and chromosome patterns) that "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies". They are substantially more likely to identify as lesbian, gay, bisex ...

movements and helped Anjaree to contest local anti-LGBTIQ discourses.

Awards

Anjaree received the Felipa de Souza Award in 1995 from the

International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission OutRight Action International (OutRight) is a LGBTIQ human rights non-governmental organization that addresses human rights violations and abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. OutRight Action International docu ...

(now OutRight Action International).

References

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External links