Violence against LGBTQI+ Persons: Members of LGBTQI+ communities received threatening messages via telephone, text, and social media, and some were harassed by police. They stressed the need for online and physical security due to continued threats of physical violence. The government took few official actions to investigate, prosecute, and punish those complicit in violence and abuses against LGBTQI+ persons. LGBTQI+ advocacy organizations reported police used the law as a pretext to harass LGBTQI+ individuals and individuals that were perceived to be LGBTQI+ regardless of their sexual orientation, as well as to limit registration of LGBTQI+ civil society organizations. Some groups also reported harassment under a suspicious-behavior provision of the police code. LGBTQI+ individuals experienced continued high levels of fear, harassment, and law enforcement actions taken in the wake of violent extremist attacks in the past decade. Police investigation and prosecution of those complicit in violence or crimes against LGBTQI+ individuals remained rare. Discrimination: The law does not prohibit discrimination by state and nonstate actors based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or sex characteristics. LGBTQI+ groups reported official discrimination in employment and occupation, housing, and access to government services including health care and access to justice. Mental health care was a top concern, and according to these groups, mental health-care providers tended to use moralistic terms to shame LGBTQI+ persons. PrEP and PEP, preexposure and postexposure medications that prevent transmittal of HIV during sex, were available via a pilot project in Dhaka but not in the rest of the country. The government made HIV testing free, but stigma regarding testing and seeking treatment remained strong. While some transgender women in the country identified as hijra (a cultural South Asian term for some transgender women as well as some intersex and gender nonconforming individuals) due to an affinity for the hijra subculture or a desire for increased social protection, not all chose to do so. Many transgender women asserted their transgender identities and corrected those that identified them as hijra. Meanwhile, transgender men received little support or tolerance, particularly in poor and rural communities. Some conservative clerics decried the transgender community and sharply distinguished it from the hijra identity, saying the latter Page 47