VANG NGAT – Following their first major rally this afternoon, the LGBT movement in Kuehong took a turn when Kuehong officials arrested Therna Sharee, co-founder of the LGBT-rights advocate group Queerhong.

The Queerhong rally was reported to have gone smoothly, despite heavy police presence and a counter-protest just across the street. The arrest took place after the rally, when the local police approached Sharee and ‘dragged him off to a van’, according to some bystanders. The local authorities have just released a statement accusing Sharee for ‘plotting against the government’ and ‘the overthrow of the military regime’.

The authorities claimed that a search of his language revealed documents plotting the removal of the Kuehongese government to bring about ‘liberation’ for the people, through the ‘guise’ of the ‘so-called LGBT movement’. The authorities stressed that the arrest is lawful and is not against the LGBT movement.

Nevertheless, Sharee’s partner and Secretary General of Queerhong Biện Quốc Khánh has said this is a conspiracy ‘completely cooked up’ by the local authorities, and that he believes his partner and any of his colleagues have no part in a plot to overthrow the government.

“The goal of our movement is not to overthrow the current military regime, which I have to say, have kept the peace in my beloved country for long. It is to bring liberation only to the oppressed masses, to have their identity known. We are not for the complete removal of the government to bring forward our objectives,” he said, speaking to reporters from his hotel at Chung Nguoi.

“We also have nothing to fear, as we have done nothing wrong and what we have done is completely legal. I hope for the early release of my partner and fellow colleague Shareen, whom I love dearly.”

Sharee is a Gobrassian whom Bien met in Gobrassanya while studying there in 1993. Both eventually got into a relationship and got married in Gobrassanya in 2013, being one of the first same-sex couples to be officially recognised by Gobrassanya. Both have founded the Queerhong movement, the LGBT movement for Kuehong in exile, and have travelled and attended LGBT ralluies around the world, also advocating their cause.