Transmongolian. The Secret History Of The Mongols
© Alvaro LaizThe Secret History of the Mongols, considered to be the oldest Mongolian language literary work, is the single significant native account of Mongolia’s rise to power around the 12th century AD. Providing a clear narration of the vicissitudes that brought a disperse land of nomads to become the greatest domination in Asia, the work paints a clear portrait of the journey taken by a young Temuiin before transforming into, the great ruler of Asia, Genghis Khan.
Blended with fictional and historical accounts, the epic poetry and narrative, recounts how the warrior was able to organize more than thirty tribes battling for control, and how once in power, with the objective to augment his population and face the Chinese army commanded by Song dynasty, declared homosexuality illegal under death penalty. It is curious to recall that transsexuality has a certain root inside the Mongol tradition. The Shaman had a special status inside the nomad population. They would connect the spiritual world to the human world.
Today, more than eight hundred years later, Mongolia is a sovereign country with the lowest population rate in the world, lower than two inhabitants per square kilometer and being a homosexual, continues to be taboo. The weight of tradition and the years under Soviet control, a time in which homosexuals were sent to gulag, surmise a ballast for gays, lesbians, and transsexuals, who continue to be repressed, rejected, and victimized. Condemned to a life of secrecy, many of them find themselves turning to prostitution, others lead a life of solitude. The younger wrestle to flee the Mongolian borders, to countries such as the Philippines or Japan, where their condition is much more tolerable and dreams of a sex change are attainable, but above all, to an identity which in their native land, has been denied way too long.
The situation of the homosexual group has been gathered in several reports made by International Amnesty and Human Rights Watch and emphasize that “ in spite of that the homosexual conduct is not specifically gathered as crime, International Amnesty and the Association of Gays and Lesbians criticize the part of the Penal Code in which one makes reference to the obtaining of sexual pleasure as an immoral practices, arguing that can be used against persons who show a homo- sexual conduct as well as a vigilance continued by the police “.
The Human Rights’s annual report on Mongolia affirms that “there have been denunciations by people who have been public attacked, that has refused them to entry in shops and in night bars and who have been discriminated due to his sexual condition in his working place, as well as denunciations made by people retained in centres of detention based only and exclusively in his sexual condition”.
Gays, lesbians and transsexuals are socially suppressed, rejected and underprivileged people. Forced to look for help between those of the same condition, some of them become male prostitutes o prostitutes, others get a life of loneliness and concealment. The youngest fight to go out out from Mongolia, to countries as The Philippines or Japan, where theirs condition are much more easier and in even they might compete for a change of sex. And the most important, a social re- cognition impossible to achieve in theirs own country.
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