Miss Universe Contestant from Myanmar Hopes Coming Out as a Lesbian: ‘Will Have a Big Impact on the LGBTQ Community Back in Burma’

Days before the Miss Universe preliminary competition on Saturday, Miss Myanmar, Swe Zin Htet, came out as lesbian. The pageant queen told People magazine that she timed her coming out to coincide with the pageant to help bring a spotlight to LGBTQ rights in her home country. A place where homosexuality is still a crime.

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I have that platform that, if I say that I’m a lesbian, it will have a big impact on the LGBTQ community back in Burma,” she told the publication through a translator.

The Myanmar newspaper Frontier reported, “Discrimination against members of the LGBT – lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender – community is deeply ingrained in Myanmar. It is commonly believed that their sexual orientation is the result of moral transgressions in a previous life. The decision to come out as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender can therefore be traumatic, and can sometimes result in rejection by friends and family. Popular culture contributes to the negative stereotyping of LGBT people in Myanmar, and the portrayal of gay characters in films is particularly harmful. The characters tend to exhibit clownish behaviour, in which their gender nonconformity is made comically grotesque. It is common at the end of the movie for them to change their mind and become straight, reinforcing the notion that being LGBT is ultimately a choice.”

This also makes Htet the first openly gay competitor at the Miss Universe competition.

“The difficult thing is that in Burma, LGBTQ people are not accepted,” Htet said, “they are looked down on by other people and are being discriminated against.”

Htet came out in an interview on Nov. 29 with the popular pageant blog Missosology.

“It’s like I just started a new chapter in life,” she said.

The Miss Universe finale will take place at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta on Sunday.

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