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About Ulaanbaatar Pride
Ulaanbaatar Pride is the only recurring Pride event in Central Asia. It is run by LGBT Centre Mongolia, an organization that was only officially registered after several rejected applications. Authorities initially objected to its original name as being at odds with “Mongolian traditions.”
The Equality Walk forms the core of the event, alongside a concert, a film festival, theatre performances and art exhibitions. In past years, the gathering point and route were usually centered on Sükhbaatar Square in the city centre. For several years, authorities denied permission for the march altogether; only after legal disputes did it resume, this time in cooperation with the national human rights commission and the city administration.
Consensual same-sex relations have not been a criminal offence in Mongolia since the early nineties. A later legal amendment added sexual orientation and gender identity as aggravating factors in hate crime cases. Same-sex partnerships still have no legal recognition, and the constitution continues to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Trans people can update their documents, but only after a medical procedure.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee has called on Mongolia to explicitly guarantee freedom of assembly for queer people, including for the annual Equality Walk. Surveys and reports from queer youth continue to show high levels of everyday discrimination. Pride in Ulaanbaatar remains both a celebration and a political statement.
About Ulaanbaatar
Pride in Ulaanbaatar goes by the name Equality & Pride Days. The programme is run by the LGBT Centre, the first and for a long time the only human rights organisation for sexual and gender minorities in Mongolia. The days fall in late summer, usually from the end of August into early September, and stretch over roughly a week.
The programme includes community theatre, panel discussions and a queer film festival that has run under the title Beyond the Blue Sky. A Pride party draws one of the largest queer crowds of the year in the city. At the same time the Centre runs a visibility campaign with posters at bus stops, on billboards and on buildings. Those posters are often vandalised, reactions on social media tend to be hostile, and the mainstream press largely ignores the event.
The Equality March used to be the most visible part. The Centre organised the country's first Pride march together with the National Human Rights Commission. For several years afterwards no march took place, first because of the pandemic and then because the authorities refused permission. The Centre took the government to court twice and won one case. Whether a march happens, and where, is decided anew each year, so the Centre's own announcements are the best place to check.
On paper Mongolia's legal position is fairly strong. The criminal code bans hate crimes and discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. In practice these rules are rarely enforced, and social acceptance is limited. Visitors who come for Pride should follow the Centre's programme, be careful about photographing other participants and learn about meeting places through the organisers. The party and the film screenings are the easiest way to meet the local community.
Ulaanbaatar Pride – frequently asked questions
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