The very special art exhibition 'Gender and Sexuality' opened on 10th May and continued until 10th June at the New Art Gallery next to Psah Kapkoh. It shows beautiful images of men and women - some paintings, some photos, some drawings and some mixed materials. It was a wonderful opening night with many people attending to enjoy seeing and discussing which pieces they liked and why, which bodies they liked and why!

Meta House hosted the second Queer Film Festival where we enjoyed films, documentaries, performances and talks from the international and local queer community. The films included feel-good romantic comedies which gave us faith the in the gay fairytale ending. Reminding us that there is still a long way to go we watched hard-hitting documentaries about the lives of LGBT in Asia and across the world.

Cambodia PRIDE 2010 also saw a greater number of workshops addressing important issues for the LGBT community. The topics of the workshops were:

NGO Stakeholder workshop
Family Acceptance and Understanding of LGBT sons and daughters
Lesbian Sexual Health
LGBT rights in cooperation with Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR)

All four workshops provided opportunities for sharing experiences, asking questions and learning new information.

The NGO Stakeholder workshop, organised by BC, brought together many MSM and some lesbians to share and present on their lives. The focus of the workshop was the health of LGBT in Cambodia and was a very important topic. Some key government ministries attended the workshop and this encouraged everyone present.

A highlight of the ‘Family Acceptance’ workshop was the parents sharing that for them their child will always be their child and as long as they live a good life they will love and accept them. This was also the message of the monk who participated in this workshop- that Buddhism does not say anything against same sex love and LGBT people. Buddhism simply asks that we live a good life, no matter who we love.

A highlight of the Lesbian Sexual Health workshop was the many questions the lesbians asked of the great Health Peer Support Worker who helped with this workshop. There was lots of laughter and fun as participants learned about how to maintain good personal health and enjoy good sex too!

A highlight of the LGBT Rights workshop was learning that international human rights laws protect the right of LGBT people to love same sex partners. The right to freedom of expression (free of discrimination), the right to security (to be safe to be and show who you are) and the right to free assembly (free to meet others who are like you) all combine to be the right to love. The Cambodian Constitution enshrines international law as a guide for its constitution and its domestic laws. This provides a strong legal foundation on which to begin to advocate for LGBT rights protection in Cambodia.