What it's like to be gay ... in Taiwan
-Taiwan is one of the most gay friendly places. Homosexuality is legal.
Surprising! They even have a group for parents to help other parents come out (and accept
their gay children). I’m surprised because the vibe that I get when I visit
Taiwan is that the older adult population are either oblivious to gay culture
or gay people, or are too traditional to accept it (so they just choose not to
acknowledge it). I visit Taiwan about once a year, and each time I go back, I
see more and more young people that are comfortable being out and about in
public. They are at popular hangout spots like Ximending, various night markets
throughout Taipei, around Universities, and everyday public spaces that you would
normally expect to see young people.
I understand that Taiwanese culture, unlike American culture,
does not have the “personal bubble” concept that Americans are accustomed to.
School children are often seen holding hands or linking arms in both genders.
This type of friendly schoolmate behavior continues throughout adolescence and
is seen as a sign of closeness, not relationship/dating type of intimacy. I
remember when I visited Taiwan as a child, I asked my mother,
“Why
does everybody hold hands here? How come the girls hold hands and the boys are
very huggy and affectionate towards each other?”
My mother simply replied, “They’re just close. That’s what
school kids do here. You link arms with your best friend. You share bike seats
with your buddy. That’s the culture. It doesn’t mean they like each other like
boyfriend/girlfriend.”
Oh. Is that all. BUT, how do you know that??? What if they
DO like each other like boyfriend/girlfriend? ….Wow….I kind of wish I grew up
here. I’d get to be close to a girl classmate I like, and nobody would know I
had feelings for her. Huh!
Besides the different social aspect in growing up with
different acceptable schoolchildren behavior… It has become more clear to me
that the traditional Chinese parent, and perhaps Taiwanese parents
specifically, are more accepting of seeing a new generation of young, gay
children. On my next upcoming visit to the beautiful Formosa island, I will try
to investigate first-hand what parents actually think about growing up gay.
Seeing gay students in public, facing the circumstance if their child came out
to them as a gay son or lesbian daughter, or bisexual, or …etc etc… I am
curious how this parent group came to be, how the first accepting mom of a gay child,
or father of a gay child, came to convince others and step out of the closet
themselves and not just accept their child for who they are, but HOW they found
the courage to stand up to others and the public and why everybody should be
just as accepting as them. That would be a great conversation to have, and I’ll
definitely share with you the findings of my research.
How different. What a completely different world this is.
Maybe there are some aspects of Taiwan that are more progressive than the
U.S.? And I always thought USA was #1 in everything……
….perhaps this time it’s USA that should learn from this small island called TAIWAN.
