Gay Marriage in Vietnam?

 

 

Same-sex wedding sparks support for gay marriage 

Last Updated: Friday, June 08, 2012 08:30:00

The wedding of a gay couple in the Mekong Delta has prompted the gay community and human rights activists to become more outspoken against anti-gay discrimination

Nguyen Hoang Bao Quoc and Truong Van Hen have more or less gone into hiding, refusing to answer any questions ever since the day that should have been the happiest in their lives.

Hen, 22, and his spouse Quoc – both men – had to leave their home in Kien Giang Province’s Ha Tien Town soon after their Mekong Delta wedding ceremony began.

Nearly a month later, the gay couple has remained mute as more and more supporters of their cause – the legitimization of gay marriage – come out to support them from all corners of society.

The two men have also received the support of their parents, which is more than many gay couples can say.

Though one of the two families had suggested organizing the wedding party unofficially, in the guise of a birthday party, to avoid attention from the public and local government, the couple decided, with family support, to hold a formal wedding ceremony just like a “straight” couple. Hen’s parents told neighbors that they were going to hold a wedding ceremony for their “daughter.”

About 100 guests were invited to the party. But over a thousand people showed up upon hearing rumors that the bride was going to be a man.

The peaceful atmosphere of the isolated Binh San Ward in the Mekong Delta was broken by noise and a traffic jam as local residents flocked to the wedding.

Several people protested the wedding, but other residents expressed support for the gay couple and their families. The local government sent police officials to the wedding to stop the wedding and disperse thousands of curious onlookers, whose motorbikes had created a traffic jam.

Lam Le Oanh, chairwoman of Binh San Ward’s People’s Committee, who ordered the couple to leave the locality after the wedding and issued a fine, said that she and local residents were surprised by the wedding ceremony.

“I didn’t know it was a wedding between two gay men. The couple did not come to the ward to register for marriage. Many thought that it was a normal wedding,” Oanh told Vietweek.

A picture of the couple in front of their house on the wedding day was removed and family members were summoned to the ward people’s committee to submit a report. Oanh said that the wedding celebration was illegal as the Marriage and Family Law prohibits same-sex message. However, as the couple was not officially registering for a government-recognized marriage, gay-rights advocates say the party was legal.

Le Quang Binh, head of the Institute for Studies of Society, Economy and Environment (iSEE), an independent, non-profit think-tank working exclusively on issues of human rights for minority groups in Vietnam, said the wedding celebration was a civil activity, which could not be regulated by the Marriage and Family Law.

The local government appeared embarrassed when it dealt with the “surprise wedding,” he said, adding that “we cannot offer a penalty for people who love each other. Forcing the couple not to return to the locality was unlawful.”

“Hen and Quoc are only guilty of wanting to be themselves,” Binh said.

Same sex partners often reluctantly choose to live with heterosexual husbands or wives, trying to stem the discrimination and often live repressed and trouble lives.

Allowing same sex marriage is a win-win solution, he said, arguing that the only alternative was forcing hundreds of thousands, probably millions, of gay people to live a lie with heterosexual partners, or pushing them into secret lives with the ones they really love.

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Vietnam ministry mulls legalizing same-sex marriage 

Last Updated: Friday, July 06, 2012

The Ministry of Justice is collecting opinions from agencies and organizations about the legalization of same-sex marriage as it drafts modifications to the current marriage laws, VnExpress reported Friday.

In its latest letters to social organizations and related agencies, the ministry said it is considering legalizing same-sex marriage because increasing numbers of homosexual, bisexual and transgender people were coming out and declaring their sexual orientations.

Their need to get married and live together is also increasing, while the Law on Marriage and Family issued in 2000 outlaws same-sex marriage, the ministry said.

“To guarantee personal freedom, the marriage between same sex people needs to be recognized.”

However, on the other hand, the ministry stressed that it is too early to legalize same-sex marriage in Vietnam, considering traditional customs. Moreover, the sensitive nature of the issue and its consequences have yet to be fully grasped, it said.

Meanwhile, a representative of the Information Connecting and Sharing (ICS), a non-governmental organization working for the benefits of homosexual, bisexual and transgender people in Vietnam, said they support the legalization of same-sex marriage.

Marriage needs to be considered as the right of every person whatever their sexuality, the representative was cited as saying.

With legalization, homosexual people’s personal rights, especially during the time of living together, like those regarding children’s custody and property inheritance, will be protected by laws.

Married homosexual people then would be bound by legal frames, which could help decrease social evils like male prostitution that carries high risks of HIV transmission, the ICS representative said.

According to ICS, a survey in June found that 71.1 percent of 5,000 homosexual respondents want to get married with their same-sex partners, while 24.7 percent want to register their living together arrangements with local authorities.

The rest accept living together without registration.

The association of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays in Vietnam recently also organized a seminar with the participation of experts to call for the legalization of same-sex marriage, VnExpress reported.

Currently no official statistics on homosexual people in Vietnam are available, it said.

In May, authorities in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang fined a family for organizing a public celebration of their son’s marriage to another man.

A few years ago, a lesbian couple in the southern province of Ca Mau was also fined for organizing a similar wedding ceremony.