LGBT rights in Bhutan

Some members of the Parliament of Bhutan had publicly called for the laws to be repealed as early as 2013.[6]

On 29 May 2019, the Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 2019 (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་གི་ཞིས་འགེལ་ཁྲིམས་དེབ་༼འཕྲི་སྣོན༽ དཔྱད་ཡིག་ ༢༠༡༩) was introduced by the Chairperson of the Legislative Committee, MP Tshewang Lhamo (DNT), to the Parliament. At first, the removal of sections 213 and 214 was not proposed in the bill. However, the Minister of Finance, Namgay Tshering (DNT), suggested the change as a comment and said that section 213 should be changed "to keep up with the times". The Legislative Committee of the National Assembly was supportive. When the bill was referred to the Legislative Committee, it decided to take the Finance Minister's suggestion seriously, and asked him to give it in writing, which the Finance Minister agreed to do, and allowing the committee the ability to propose it as an amendment. Tshering said "My primary reason is that this section is there since 2004 but it has become so redundant and has never been enforced. It is also an eyesore for international human rights bodies.", and that the sections had become "a stain" on the country's reputation.[7][8]

On 7 June 2019, the National Assembly approved the bill in a first reading.[9][10][11] On 10 June 2019, the bill passed the second and final reading with 38 votes in favour and 1 vote against, with 5 absentations. The bill was sent to the National Council for the winter session 6 months later.[12][13][14] On 10 February 2020, the Council approved it with amendments by 19 votes in favour and 6 abstentions.[15] Having been amended, the bill was sent back to the lower house, which adopted it on 27 February by a vote of 34–1 with 7 abstentions, but rejected 32 of the 56 amendments proposed by the upper house. This meant that the legislation was sent to a joint committee for reviews and voted on by a joint sitting of both chambers.[16] The joint committee convened on 7 October 2020.[17] In December 2020, the Parliament passed the bill with 63 votes in favor and 6 abstentions in the joint sitting,[18] decriminalizing same-sex sexual activity. The bill was signed into law by King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck,[5] and came into force on 17 February 2021.[19][20]

In 2015, the Dzongkha Development Commission, which seeks to promote and protect the Dzongkha language and introduce new words, announced Dzongkha terms for lesbian (མོ་སྦྱོར།), gay (མཚུངས་སྦྱོར།), bisexual (ཟུང་སྦྱོར།), transgender (མཚན་སྒྱུར།), transvestite (སྤྱོད་སྒྱུར།), intersex (མ་ནིང།), homosexuality (འདྲ་སྦྱོར།), and homophobia (མཚུངས་སྦྱོར་ཞན་ལོག).[43][44]

The word "chakka" is an Indian slang term used as a slur for gay and effeminate men.[45] The word "phomenmomen", meaning not male and not female, is used to label a gay person, but a more correct translation might be "intersex". Gay Bhutanese do not like nor use this word.[46] Gay men themselves use English terms to describe themselves: "gay king" is an older top, "gay queen" is an older bottom, "freaking prince" is a young top, "freaking princess" is a young bottom, and "closet celebrity" refers to a closeted man that everyone knows is gay.[46]

LGBT activist Tashi Tsheten said that, previously, in 2009 and 2010, Bhutanese officials would state at international conferences that the country had no homosexuals at all.[29]

Dasho Neten Zangmo, the head of Bhutan's Anti-Corruption Commission described as "the most important woman in the country" and the "Iron Lady of Bhutan", was the first senior Bhutanese government official to make a comment about gay Bhutanese, when she said in a speech in August 2014 to high school students: "Romantic relationships, by the way, can be boy-boy or girl-girl."[31]

In 2016, two Bhutanese National Assembly members, Madan Kumar Chhetri and Ugyen Wangdi, attended the Salzburg Global LGBT Forum, hosted by the Salzburg Global Seminar and held in Chiang Rai, Thailand, alongside two Bhutanese LGBT rights activists.[32]

The Bhutan Kuen-Nyam Party (BKP) has expressed support for LGBT rights.[47] In 2018, the party included the rights of LGBT people in their manifesto for the 2018 Bhutanese National Assembly election.[21]

In June 2019, during the parliamentary debate on the decriminalisation of homosexuality, some MPs called for enacting legislation granting LGBT people some rights. MP Tshewang Lhamo (DNT), the chairperson of the Legislative Committee said, "A lot of people are affected in our society because of Sections 213 and 214. We must understand that laws need to be changed as per the changing times. Everyone should have the freedom of choice. We only consider male preferring female and vis-à-vis as natural, and anything beyond that as unnatural. People must know that everyone is equal before the law irrespective of who they are. This particular Section 213 discriminates against a section of people and this is the reason why our committee has come up with a proposal to remove this section."[48] MP Kinley Wangchuk (DNT) said, "Even if there is no harm, we must not look at the law based not only on the country-level, but globally. It's also not fine if it is kept as it is. On a global level, outsiders might think there is no law at all meant for LGBT community and that they are considered as an invisible section of society, which might create a suspicion. Rather than removing the section, it's also important that we make a clear legal rights for them first". MP Jurmi Wangchuk (DNT) echoed Kinley Wangchuk's statement.[49]

One of the first LGBT-related opinion polls in Bhutan carried out by an exchange student at the Royal Thimphu College on campus with 150 participants resulted in the following responses in 2013. 60% of the respondents believed that homosexuality is immoral and 40% believed that homosexuality should be accepted and homosexuals protected from discrimination and harm.[23]

According to 2018 estimates from the United Nations Development Programme, there were about 9,100 men who have sex with men in the capital Thimphu.[41]

In 2019, the government-supported newspaper Kuensel stated that there were 316 people registered as LGBT in the country. Of these, 3 were lesbian, 21 transgender women, 31 transgender men, 3 bisexual women, 16 bisexual men, and 62 gay. 10 were below the age of 19 years, 93 were between 20 and 30 years, and 33 above 30 years.[27] This number was 97 in 2017 and 118 in 2018.[50]

Lhak-Sam (BNP+) is the country's first association of HIV positive people. The association was formed in September 2009 and was registered as a civil society organization in November 2010[51] by executive director Wangda Dorji. Lhak-Sam has gained support from Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and other international organizations as well as Bhutan's Ministry of Health.[52]

Although gay and bisexual men are 19 times more vulnerable and transgender women are approximately 34-47 times more vulnerable to HIV infections, as of 2018 Bhutan has only one recorded case of HIV infection in the LGBT community.[26][50]

In 2017, the United States Department of State reported the following, concerning the status of LGBT rights in Bhutan:

• Acts of Violence, Discrimination, and Other Abuses Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
  "The constitution guarantees equal protection of the laws and application of rights but does not explicitly protect individuals from discrimination for sexual orientation or gender identity. Laws against "sodomy or any other sexual conduct that is against the order of nature" exist. The penal code imposes penalties of up to one year in prison for engaging in prohibited sexual conduct.
  Members of the LGBTI community reported instances of discrimination and social stigma based on sexual orientation.
  The law does not provide any distinct legal status to transgender individuals, nor does it provide explicit protections."[53]