Box Turtle Bulletin

Our Faggoty Queers

Articles about gay bars and gay life in the least-expected places, most out-of-the-way places surely must constitutes some lesser, c-list kind of click-bait (I know I’m always going to click) and Gawker is, well Gawker (and so I clicked). Which is why I’m surprised to be glad I clicked. This article has everything you expect from one titled “Inside Mongolia’s Only Gay Bar” — a brave owner, pervasive harassment, furtive customers, a penis shaman — and a very unusual twist in how the gay community in Ulaanbaatar found acceptance (and, more importantly, protection). And it came from the last place you might expect such a thing.

Since 2008, Mongolia has experienced a massive mining boom fueled by foreign investment, mostly Chinese, which generated local outrage over exploitive business and mining practices and terrible environmental destruction. This drove a rise in Mongolian nationalism, embodied by the neo-Nazi group Dayar Mongol. The dangers for LGBT people were as you might expect. In 2009, members of Dayar Mongol kidnapped three transwomen in broad daylight, took them to a cemetery, and beat and sexually assaulted them. Later that year, the LGBT Centre produced a film, “Lies of Liberty,” featuring an interview with one of the three attackers. The film apparently helped increase awareness of anti-LGBT violence. It also drove home a message: “What the ultra-nationalists did was shameful because they were targeting their own flesh and blood.”

What happened next really hit home to me, because it’s very similar to what I’ve witnessed while growing up in Appalachia, where, as in Mongolia, there is a deep distrust and often dislike for outsiders. In Appalachia, those outsiders can be anyone, even if it’s just someone from the next hollow over or as simple as someone outside of a family. The definition of insider vs outsider constantly shifts, based on a rough hierarchy of descending importance: family, church, religion (which is broader than a particular church) and community. (Occupying a different, transcendent place, of course, is race, although how that plays out can depend on the categories I just listed.) And when given a choice about who to hate more, they’ll pick outsiders every time. They may be faggoty queers, the reasoning will go, but they’re our faggoty queers.

And so something similar seems to have happened in Mongolia recently:

Recently, the ultra-nationalists have focused their ire on foreigners, in particular, the Chinese, who they believe are exploiting their economy and natural resources. Some groups, including Tsagaan Khass (White Swastika), have rebranded themselves as environmental groups fighting pollution generated by foreign-owned mines.

About a year after the attack, Dayar Mongol issued a formal apology to the victims. Anaraa says he hasn’t heard a single report of violence carried out by the ultra-nationalists against the LGBT community since the public apology.

…Not long ago, Zorig says he spoke with the leader of umbrella ultra-nationalist group Khukh Mongol (Blue Mongolia), which includes Dayar Mongol, who told him the group no longer sees the LGBT community and proprietors like Zorig as their enemies. The leader’s friend, an older trans woman, came out to him last year. The leader and other members of Blue Mongolia even visited Hanzo a few times themselves.

The leader told Zorig, “If anyone comes into your place and threatens you, just call me.”

Appealing to clannish loyalties doesn’t sound to me like a very sound strategy to address anti-LGBT violence. I’d never espouse it, whether we’re talking about Ulaanbaatar, Moscow, or Pomeroy. But this example provides yet more evidence of how important being out of the closet can be, since it does allow LGBT people to take their rightful place in that hierarchy I mentioned.