By Beh Lih Yi<\/p>\n
KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 (Openly) \u2013 A Myanmar university said on Wednesday it had suspended three staff while it investigates the suicide of a gay employee who said he was bullied at work in social media posts widely shared in the conservative Asian country.<\/p>\n
Kyaw Zin Win, a librarian in his 20s, took his own life on Sunday after sharing accounts on Facebook about colleagues mocking his sexuality and forcing him to publicly admit that he was gay.<\/p>\n
Gay sex is punishable by up to 10 years in jail in the Southeast Asian country, under British colonial era legislation.<\/p>\n
The Myanmar Imperial University, a private university where Kyaw Zin Win worked, said in emailed comments that the death was a \u201chuge tragedy\u201d and that it had a zero tolerance policy towards discrimination in the workplace.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have suspended three people,\u201d Nandar Phyoe from the university\u2019s human resources department told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Myanmar\u2019s capital Yangon.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been doing all of the necessary investigations and all the things that we can to support his family.\u201d<\/p>\n
While 2,000 people in January\u00a0attended<\/a>\u00a0the country\u2019s second publicly-celebrated Pride festival in Yangon, signalling growing acceptance of LGBT+ people, gay rights campaigners said they still faces discrimination in Myanmar and across Asia.<\/p>\n \u201cLGBT discrimination in the workplace is unfortunately a common practice in Myanmar,\u201d said Juan Miguel Sanchez Marin, deputy director from the Myanmar\u2019s LGBT+ rights group, Equality Myanmar.<\/p>\n \u201cYoung Myanmar LGBT (people) are specially vulnerable and often left to the tough decision of leading a life of secrecy or face discrimination and violence,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Although rarely enforced, the gay sex ban \u2013 known as Section 377 \u2013 can stigmatise LGBT+ people who are often denied jobs or fired if their identity becomes known, gay rights groups said.<\/p>\n Malaysia and Singapore also have laws banning sexual relationships between men but a similar law in India was struck down in a landmark court ruling in 2018.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to get rid of this law. Having Section 377 allows people to discriminate the LGBT community,\u201d said Hla Myat Tun, deputy director of Yangon-based campaign group Colors Rainbow.<\/p>\n \u201cAny kind of discrimination is not acceptable at any workplace or schools,\u201d he said, calling for anti-discrimination law to be enacted in Myanmar.<\/p>\n (Reporting by Beh Lih Yi @behlihyi; Editing by Tom Finn and Katy Migiro. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women\u2019s and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visithttp:\/\/news.trust.org<\/a>)<\/p>\n Openly is an initiative of the Thomson Reuters Foundation dedicated to impartial coverage of LGBT+ issues from around the world.<\/p>\n