To improve the life of LGBT in Cambodia, so that LGBT people feel confident to be who they are; LGBT people have a secure livelihood and LGBT people have rights in society and society understands and accepts them.
The LGBT individuals face discrimination and abuse from not only their families, communities, and employers, but also from state institutions such as local authorities and police.
LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender people. LGBT people are people who love the same sex, both sexes or people who wish to act differently to their sex identity at birth. Lesbians are women who love women. Gay men are men who love men. Bi-sexual love both men and women. Transgender are people born as men who wish to live and behave as women, or people born as women who wish to live and behave as men.
The RainbOw Community Kampuchea (RoCK) comprises LGBT volunteers:
- To strengthen the LGBT community in Cambodia and make it possible for LGBT people to talk more openly about their lives as LGBT people and the challenges they face (beyond the realm of health).
- To find ways together, to begin responding to these challenges.
- To connect LGBT people from different provinces together, especially lesbians.
- To create more awareness-raising tools for increasing the visibility and understanding of LGBT lives.
- To organize Cambodia Pride week in May each year and to ensure that it responds to the needs and wishes of Cambodia’s LGBT Community.
Although bigotry and harassment are commonplace, individual incidents are not usually documented due to the stigma associated with LGBT identities, which results in a lack of acknowledgment and support provided in response to such discrimination. Accordingly, LGBT individuals will often not report incidents of discrimination and abuse and therefore go without redress. Those that do report incidents of abuse may be ignored or worse yet, face further abuse. As a result, LGBT individuals in Cambodia often do not know where to turn when victimized.
Love who you are!
សហគមន៍ឥន្ទធនូកម្ពុជា(RoCK) 