Next Generation Myanmar > 23 Figure 5: Acceptance of friends from specific groups People with physical disabilities People of different ethnicities People from other religions than your own People with mental disabilities HIV-positive people LGBT people People who take drugs 0 20 Would like to have in group of friends FIGURE 6 Preference for friends The Next Generation Myanmar survey asked youth if they would like to have certain groups of people as a personal friend (see Figure 5). These questions revealed areas where survey respondents might participate in discrimination, even if they may not realise it themselves. Four out of five youth (82.3 per cent) said they would not like to have people who take drugs as friends, resonating with the widely held concern about Myanmar’s drug problem. One youth shared that this was not always the young person’s choice, and it is often difficult: 40 60 80 100 Would not like to have in group of friends ‘In the ward I live, there are some spoiled young people as their guardians are divorced and there is no one to take care of them. Sometimes, they drink and even use drugs. As some parents force their children not to continue to be friends with them, some children dare not call them though they still want to continue their friendship as they had been friends for a long time.’ Male, Phyu, age 20 Following drug users, LGBT youth were least accepted as potential friends among youth surveyed: 58.2 per cent of respondents said they would not like to have LGBT people in a group of friends. ‘If somebody changed their orientation, I would not be as friendly with that person, I think,’ said one 18-year-old woman when asked about her LGBT peers. Youth with mental disabilities were also seen as less desirable friends. About half (47.1 per cent) of respondents said they would not like to have a mentally disabled person in a group of friends. Conversely, physical disabilities were far less of a problem to surveyed youth, with 81.9 per cent of respondents saying they would like to have a disabled person in their group of friends. The experience of disabled youth, however, suggests otherwise. ‘Often, when I go out with friends, I am seen as an alien,’ shared one disabled youth interviewed in this study.