• Situation:

Over 30% of Vietnamese believe being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) is a disease, despite medical and scientific evidence to the contrary. The stigmatisation and discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, particularly evidenced by “gender treatments" and “conversion therapy", has led to physical and mental trauma that can last a lifetime.

• Brief

iSEE believes that all forms of pathologization and discrimination based on sexual orientation violate human rights and have endangered many people’s lives. We have to take a stand against that.

• Objectives

To show how absurd this belief is, spurring people to petition local health authorities to release a definitive statement that LGBTQ+ is not a disease – a definitive step towards the discontinuation of conversion therapy and improper treatment of LGBTQ+ people.

To make people realise the absurdity of their belief and prevent further discrimination, we posed a reasonable question: IF LGBTQ+ IS A DISEASE, SHOULDN’T THE “AFFLICTED” BE ENTITLED TO SICK LEAVE?

We asked practising doctors to issue valid medical certificates, then enlisted LGBTQ+ volunteers to go undercover and ask their superiors for sick leave. Captured as a video and spread online as part of a social campaign, their encounters got millions reconsidering the veracity of their prejudiced beliefs.

In November, Pride Month in Vietnam, we started the campaign with a social experiment challenging bigots in the workplace and schools, arming volunteers in the LGBTQ+ community with sick leave, which they used to confront their superiors’ and teachers’ bigotry, secretly capturing their reactions to expose their homophobia and conflicting double standards. These reactions were then spread on social media to get online communities reacting. Many experts from the medical field and the academe weighed in to provide expert opinion and more importantly, education.

To make a tangible impact, the campaign led the community and its newly-found allies to petition local health authorities to release a definitive statement debunking this misguided belief. It was the beginning of giant step in discontinuing pathologization, conversion therapy and improper treatment of LGBTQ+ people.

Armed with this affirmation, iSEE will approach leaders of corporations and educational institutions to affect change on the ground.

Week 1 & 2, Nov 2021 (the start of Pride Month in Vietnam)

BUILD HYPE

We launched our social experiment video on social media: “Leave with Pride – What happens when being LGBTQ+ is a disease?”, in order to bring the issue to light. This triggered social users to discuss the stigma and discrimination caused by the prejudice of LGBTQ+ being a disease and led them to our petition page which encouraged local health authorities to voice up.

Week 3 & 4, Nov 2021

GO MASS

A fair number of local popular newspapers, local influencers and international associations joined the conversation. Many experts from the medical field and the academe weighed in. The petition was shared nationwide and got people from across different ages and cities to sign.

Week 5, Nov 2021 and onwards

AMPLIFY

We compiled people’s signatures from the petition and presented them to WHO in Vietnam.

The campaign was spread nationwide inspiring LGBTQ+ people to stand up and share their voice against the homophobic double standards.

84,000+ people signed our petition

68% higher than initial target. The petition was incredibly successful in a country where petitions were usually being ignored and restricted by the government.

28,000+ personal stories

shared through our petition page

7,900,000+ social impressions

4,150,000+ people impacted

3,000% increase in post engagement on iSEE’s digital and social pages (source: Facebook)

The campaign was covered by popular media outlets in Vietnam: SohaNews, Afamily, Lamchame, 24h, Eva etc.

In a landmark event for the Vietnamese LGBTQ+ community, the World Health Organization was compelled to release an official statement categorically affirming that LGBTQ+ is not a disease - a giant step to end discrimination towards a historically marginalised part of society.