Chinese Parents Demand Same-sex Marriage Legislation

[Guest thaiworthy]

The battle for gay marriage in China is heating up, as scores of parents of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) residents have penned an open letter to National People's Congress delegates demanding marriage equality.

 

The South China Morning Post reports that the parents expressed anxieties for their LGBT children, who are excluded from numerous rights enjoyed by their heterosexual counterparts under current Chinese legislation.

 

More than a hundred gay parents sent the letter which I translated from the Chinese text with Google Translate, which worked pretty well:

 

  The NPC deputies Dear Hello!
   
    We come from all corners of the country, our children are gay, we are known as "Comrade parents, our children because homosexual tendencies reason, can not love the person legally constituted family, became" Fufu, or in women, to life and medical treatment and many other aspects of the inconvenience.
 
    In accordance with the sociology of knowledge, homosexuals account for about 3-5% of the total population, the same projections, China about 60 million homosexuals, they combined because the existing Marriage Law provides that only a man and a woman, be excluded from marriage outside. Some of our children have been living with the same-sex partner of nearly 10 years, and they take care of each other, love each other, but not in another with ill need surgery legitimate signature. As the parents of homosexuals, we often feel anxiety, can not legally married in adoption to the next generation, our children, illness, surgery signature, inheritance partner property, or even buy a house so are subject to varying degrees of impact.
 
    Incredible that our gay children do not love the opposite sex, but has the right to legitimate marriage with the opposite sex. As we all know, the gay and heterosexual marriage, causing serious social problems "with the wife, with the husband" life is not happy, but also let more people. Do our laws to encourage gay marriage with the opposite sex?
 
    Homosexuality does not violate any existing Chinese laws, homosexuals have all the rights of citizens of the People's Republic of China, the homosexuals the right to marry can not be deprived of for a long time.
 
    We urge the NPC deputies and CPPCC members have to pay attention, to listen to the voice of the 120 million "Comrade parents" compassionate 60 million homosexuals on the equality and dignity of eager, called for an early amendments to the Marriage Law, China 60 million gay citizens have equal the right to marry.
 
    Thank you for your attention to this matter in his busy schedule, and wish a happy and healthy work!
 
    Yours
 
    Salute!
 
    Gay parents of friends and relatives will group some parents
    February 25, 2013

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/china-parents-gays-lesbians-marriage-letter-_n_2775374.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

 

The East is Wed? China could fix its oversupply of men by letting gays marry!

 

From Hong Kong Pride

[Guest fountainhall]

This is now being widely reported, as here (without the need for TW's efforts at translation of the key paragraph) - 
 

 

“Some of our children have been living with their partners for nearly 10 years. They love each other, but they cannot sign their names legally when their partners need an operation,” said the letter written by PFLAG China (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays of China), a Guangzhou-based organization that promotes LGBT rights and supports gay parents.

The letter underlines the problems that gay couples in China are facing, such as adoption, inheritance and purchasing properties. It also calls for an early amendment of the Marriage Law to include the right of gay marriage.

“We strongly request that National People's Congress delegates and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference committee members give their attention to this matter... so that China’s 60 million homosexual citizens can have an equal right to marry,” concludes the letter.

http://www.worldcrunch.com/culture-society/chinese-parents-petition-congress-for-same-sex-marriage-legislation/china-gay-rights-petition-letter-lgbt/c3s11050/#.UTGEUY4ihIJ

 

Despite China's massive and growing population imbalance due to the one-child policy with young men now far outnumbering young women, don't hold out much hope from the conservative leadership in Beijing. Not only is stability within the country their overriding objective - and, as in most deeply conservative Asian societies, gay marriage would offend huge swathes of the population, they receive so many petitions each year. This one will stay near the bottom of the heap!
 

 

In China, one of the only ways to protest legally is to write a petition or a letter of complaint to the State Bureau for Letters and Calls and wait for a response. According to China Daily, between 2003 and 2007 over 10 million petitions were handled annually.

[Guest thaiworthy]

Yes, I saw that too. One has to start somewhere. The US petitions were once at the bottom of the heap, they are now on the doorstep of the Supreme Court.

[Guest]

With a male to female imbalance, the government ought to be promoting gay rights, as that can only help social stability, rather than hinder it. 

Gay marriage needs to be approved. Gay bars should operate without harassment.  Next time there's a gay pride march, the city leaders should march at the front, in the same way Boris Johnson has done in London.