At least two recent arrests of LGBTI Myanmar citizens using the country’s anti-gay law has shaken the community. Police have reportedly charged a local restaurant owner and a make-up artist, who both reportedly identify as gay, in the last few months. LGBTI community members in Myanmar, formerly called Burma, told Gay Star News they were concerned as the law has not been recently enforced. Section 377 of Myanmar’s penal code criminalizes ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature’. The British introduced it in 1860 and those found guilty face up to 10 years in jail. ‘It is clearly a provision that could imprison the LGBT community at any time’ LGBTI advocate Yaya Aye Myat told Gay Star News. But, they said, authorities rarely enforced it.
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