Acting Vietnamese Health Minister Dao Hong Lan. (Photo by Tran Minh/Vietnamese government)
The Vietnamese Health Ministry earlier this month announced it no longer considers LGBTQ people to be sick.
A directive the ministry issued on Aug. 3 directs health care providers “not to consider homosexual, bisexual and transgender (people) an illness.” The directive also contains the additional four provisions:
-Enhance information propagation and dissemination so that the medical doctors, staff and patients at the medical examination and treatment establishments have a correct understanding about homosexual, bisexual and transgender persons.
-While administrating medical examination or treatment for the homosexual, bisexual and transgender patients, gender equality and respect must be ensured to avoid discrimination and prejudices against these groups.
-Not to interfere nor force treatment upon these groups (of patients) — if any, it must be in the form of psychological assistance and performed only by those who have the knowledge of sexual identity.
-To enhance the works of internal review and inspection towards the medical examination and treatment establishments and practitioners to ensure compliance with the professional codes in medical services according to the law.
The directive also notes homosexuality cannot be “cured.”
“The Vietnamese Health Ministry’s recognition that sexual orientation and gender identity are not illnesses will bring relief to LGBT people and their families across Vietnam,” said Kyle Knight, senior LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, in a press release his organization released on Aug. 18. “LGBT people in Vietnam deserve access to health information and services without discrimination, and the Health Ministry’s new directive is a major step in the right direction.”
Human Rights Watch in its press release notes Vietnam over the last decade “has made some progress on LGBT rights.”
The government in 2013 announced same-sex relationships are no longer “forbidden,” but LGBTQ and intersex couples still lack legal recognition.
Vice President Kamala Harris during a meeting with LGBTQ and intersex activists in Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, last August noted the Health Ministry “helped craft the draft — and draft — the transgender rights law” that took effect in 2017. The State Department’s 2021 human rights report people “who have undergone reassignment surgery the right to register their new status,” but a bill “to implement this was pending as of year’s end.”
Jessica Stern, the special U.S. envoy for the promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad, visited Vietnam in May.
