ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author provides an overview of five central themes. First, he provides historical perspectives on Vietnamese same-sex sexuality and gender crossing. Second, the author examines the socialist Vietnamese State’s treatment of homosexuality and transgenderism more contemporaneously. Third, he looks at homophobia in contemporary Vietnamese society across social, cultural, and medical institutions. Fourth, briefly overview gay and les responses to homophobia in terms of subjectivity and identity formation and community organising. Finally, the author contextualise Vietnamese non-governmental organisations’ work around LGBT human rights in the last few years. Contemporary Vietnamese vernacular terms for homosexuality may have first emerged during French colonialism. Vietnamese laws and State media campaigns aside, the everyday lives of gay, les, bi, and trans-gender people are perhaps more affected by the environments of homophobia and heterosexism across institutions such as the family, the ‘science’ of sexuality in medicine and psychology, and nationalism and racialised identity formation.
