An intersex woman in Vietnam who successfully lobbied authorities to change her legally recognized gender from male to female in 2009, is ‘deeply shocked’ over an announcement last week that the decision will be revoked.

‘I was deeply shocked. I could not sleep. Four years since I changed my name and re-defined my sex, I have done nothing wrong nor lost the virtue of a Vietnamese woman,’ said Pham Le Quynh Tram, Tuoitrenews.vn reports.

Tram plans to appeal the decision made by provincial authorities in her home of Binh Phuoc in southern Vietnam in 2009.

‘I cannot describe my happiness of living with my true sex,’ said Tram, a secondary school teacher, at the time.

Tram’s passport, ID card, land and house ownership certificates and driving license all define her as female.

‘I don’t know why they want to revoke the decision that recognized me as female,’ Tram said.

‘I’m intersex so I am allowed to redefine my sex in accordance with the government’s Decree No 88.’

Tuoitrenews.vn report that to have a different gender on official documents in Vietnam people must be examined by a medical council and undergo realignment surgery at an authorized hospital.

Tram had gender realignment surgery in a hospital in Thailand so it wasn’t officially recognized by the authorities in Vietnam.

Around a hundred people have taken part in Vietnam’s first pride march on Sunday morning, taking the form of a convoy of brightly decorated bicycles and motorbikes in the capital city of Hanoi.

The convoy set off from the city’s National Stadium and finished 6 miles later at a downtown park.

The parade route was changed at the last minute to avoid it clashing with anti-China demonstrations in the city that were protesting over disputed territories claimed by both countries in the South China Sea.

The pride parade went smoothly despite not having official permission to go ahead – unlike the anti-China demonstrators who were dispersed by police, with around 20 people taken to a detention center.

Protestors used the march to call for an end to discrimination against LGBTs and for the legalization of same-sex marriage following comments by the country’s Justice Minister Ha Hung Cuong in July that it might be time to consider the issue.

‘This problem must be considered carefully, thoroughly in many aspects: cultural, legal, custom and ethical practices,’ said Ha Hung Cuong in an online forum.

‘The recognition or non-recognition of same sex marriage should be based on very basic research - the credible assessment of impact on many social and legal aspects such as personal freedom, compatibility with cultural and social practices of Vietnamese families, sensitivity, social consequences of the law.

‘The State should also have legal mechanisms to protect the legitimate rights such as legal personality, property ownership or children … of same sex couple living together.’

Not all the participants in the parade were LGBT with 19 year old marcher Kyle Tran telling AFP that he was there to support a family member.

‘It’s time to eliminate discrimination against people of different sexuality. I am straight, but my cousin is a lesbian,’ Tran said.

Viet Pride organizer Tam Nguyen told GSN on Wednesday that the event had been held to raise the profile of the LGBT community in Vietnam.

‘The most important thing about Pride is that you send out the message to the public that the gay community exists, because in many countries including Vietnam people still deny the existence of this community,’ Nguyen said.

‘Pride also shows those who are still in the closet that they can find the community and that they do not stand alone in this world.’

Vietnam will hold its first ever gay pride event in the capital Hanoi next week, as the country discusses legalizing same-sex marriage.

Viet Pride will run from 3 to 5 August and feature film screenings, presentations and live music, culminating with a cycle parade through the city center on the Sunday.

Although not illegal, being gay in Vietnam is still taboo and openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are widely discriminated against.

According to pride organizers, gay men and women are commonly referred to asPê đê, meaning pedophile, with homosexuality considered a mental illness by many.

In some cases conversion therapies are used, including corrective rape, and the stigma can lead to suicide.

On why Viet Pride is important and needed, organizers wrote on its website: ‘The untold miseries must be told. The invisible faces must be made visible. The silenced voice must be heard. Equal rights must be given.

‘All these goals cannot be accomplished overnight but require an undivided commitment, concerted effort and collective action to make human rights and dignity for LGBT people a reality.

‘For this reason, pride has been celebrated annually since 1969 in all continents of the world to remind each and every one of us that we are born free and equal and it is not a crime or a sin to love the person we love.’

The Ministry of Justice announced last month (June 2012) that it is carrying out a consultation into same-sex marriage and would bring the issue to the one-party state’s National Assembly congress in spring 2013.

If gay marriage is legalized, the communist country will be the first Asian nation to do so.

Last Tuesday (24 July) Minister Ha Hung Cuong spoke out against homophobia, saying prejudice against gay people is ‘unacceptable’.

However, he stopped short of supporting gay marriage.

Viet Pride will be held at the Goethe Institute in Nguyen Thai Hoc, Hanoi.

Most LGBT street children and adolescents in Vietnam are engaged in the sex trade and are alone in protecting themselves from get infected with sexually transmitted diseases, according to a research.

The Institute for Studies of Society, Economy and Environment (iSee) and Save the Chldren International (SCI) released a joint study on LGBT street children and adolescents in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday (31 May), revealing their poor everyday lives.

The research shows that parental objection regarding gender and sexual identity is the main factor pushing children to leave home.

They then lead lives full of hazards including irregular meals and sleeping places, threats of violence and harassment, and for many potential dangers of HIV and other STDs, according to Dr Nguyen Thu Nam of iSee.

Respondents have at one time or another experienced discrimination from neighbours and passers-by and have no chance of proper employment. Some report instances of psychological abuse, which has led to suicide attempts, drug abuse and self mutilation.

Bisexual adolescent Tran Lan Anh (pseudonym) told Viet Nam News that she has to move from one place to another with five lesbians on a daily basis with no money for a permanent residence and they find it difficult just to get enough food.

‘When I applied for manual jobs, the employers refused to hire me and used impolite words, reasoning that because I am not a normal person, I will steal their money,’ said Lan Anh, who now works as a sex worker.

Lan Anh says she was beaten and verbally abused by her parents every day when they learnt of her lesbian relationship. She left home at the age of 13.

In response, government authorities have highlighted the need to conduct research on a larger scale to devise comprehensive support policies to minimize the risks facing these LGBT children.

Non-governmental organization Centre for Studies and Applied Science for Gender, Family, Women and Adolescents, meanwhile, plans to provide training and jobs for LGBT street children and adolescents in beauty services and fashion.

While many of the LGBT kids are forced to live on the street, the difficulty for seeking partners have driven others to become prostitutes just to satisfy their sexual desire or seek suitable partners.

There are so-called ‘love markets’ in some cities for gays to seek partners, but some are reported to have been robbed, beaten or even killed there, according to VietNamNet.

In a survey of 831 gays last year by the STDs/HIV/AIDS Prevention Center (SHAPC), up to 37 percent of respondents prostituted themselves and one third were clients at ‘love markets’ for gays. They had sex with four partners a month on average.

Two men publicly tying the knot nearly two weeks ago in the southern province of Kien Giang in Vietnam have remained a hot topic among local townspeople.

At noon of May 16, Truong Van Hen and Nguyen Hoang Bao Quoc held a large-scale wedding in Ha Tien with hundreds of guests, reported VietNamNet.

Thousands of curious people were said to have surrounded the wedding, jamming the traffic. Some tried to stop or protest the wedding, but were dismissed by the local authorities.

The Vietnam Law on Marriage and Family bans marriage between people of same same sex but the union is supported by the two families.

Many websites have circulated pictures of how parents, relatives, friends and guests witnessed ‘Groom’ Bao Quoc, dressed in a white suit, clink glasses of champagne with his ‘bride’ Van Hen, who wore red.

The first public gay marriage in the country was reported in 2007. The couple, Dinh Cong Khanh and Nguyen Thai Nguyen, now lives in Canada, where gay marriage is recognized.

According to an earlier survey by the STDs/HIV/AIDS Prevention Center (SHAPC), the Vietnamese saw homosexuality in a broadly negative light. Up to 36 percent of interviewees saw homosexuality as social evil, and 68 percent as a disease. Nearly half saw it as unhealthy relations, 27 percent corrupted and 56 percent unnatural.

The Australian government is funding a project to raise awareness about LGBT rights in Vietnam.

Gay News Network reports that the government will contribute $100,000 (Australian dollars, $104,843, €80,349) to a project at Institute for Studies of Society, Economy and Environment (iSEE), a research organisation in Hanoi which aims to improve human rights in the single-party state.

The money will be used to fund plays and exhibitions expressing the experience of Vietnamese LGBT people, for legal assistance in LGBT discrimination cases and to train government officials in awareness of LGBT rights.

‘This project is expected to make a significant contribution to fighting discrimination against lesbians and gay, bisexual and transgender people,’ said Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Allaster Cox.

Homosexuality has never been criminalised in Vietnam, but in 2002 state-run media declared it to be a ‘social evil’ similar to prostitution and gambling.