HONG KONG — The kingdom of Bhutan prides itself on maximizing “gross national happiness,” but it doesn’t always feel that way to members of the country’s L.G.B.T.
community. Stigma and discrimination are rife, activists say, and it’s common for gay people to be blackmailed. “These are the issues that don’t get talked about, but this is the reality,” said Tashi Tsheten, a founding member of the local advocacy group Rainbow Bhutan.
This week, however, lawmakers in the Himalayan country voted to amend a line from Bhutan’s penal code that criminalizes “sodomy or any other sexual conduct that is against the order of nature,” previously treated as a reference to gay sex.