China Blog Blotter: Too Soon for Equal Rights?

“Gays Dare to Love” was the slogan for the Equal Rights for Gays Parade that took place in Hong Kong recently. Much like America’s own Pride Parades, Equal Rights for Gays Parade is public, loud, and flamboyant. Although parades like these have happened in the past in Hong Kong, this one was especially high in attendance numbers. The homosexuality community stated that this event encouraged people to “bravely come out of the closet” and helped people understand that “gay people are ordinary people.”

This is clearly a progressive move that shakes China’s patriarchal traditionalists. China has undergone years of secularization, and its conservative ideals against homosexuality are still very much intact. Netizens, a younger crowd of China, provide a good representation of the current perspective on legalizing gay marriage.

Unfortunately, unlike American youths, Netizens did not respond with overwhelming support for legalizing gay marriage. Out of all the responses that express disgust, shame, and disbelief, many Netizens are not against homosexuality, but believe that gay marriage should not be legalized in order to keep traditional sexuality as the norm.

They feel that by legalizing gay marriage, people would be encouraged to become gay. A NetEase user commented, “We accept the existence of this phenomenon, but don’t encourage people to emulate it.”

Go to:
http://www.chinasmack.com/2012/pictures/hong-kong-gay-pride-parade-chinese-netizen-reactions.html

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