Full of Pride

Apologies for the lack of posts as of late; October hasn’t slowed down for a second with work and the Smith boys were in Shanghai off and on the last two weeks. Family time is great, but coupled with 9-10 hour workdays (and leaving even though there’s more work to do), but it’s nice to have some me time again.

For those of you who aren’t facebook friends with me and didn’t see my shameless self-promotion, I’m going to post my article here, too. It’s really exciting to see your byline in the newspaper (and I realize this gives up my attempts of anonymity on the site so know “big brother” has figured me out).

I was really, really excited to cover this year’s ShanghaiPRIDE festival for the paper. It’s only the second time that a LGBT event has been hosted in China and acceptance of this community has a long way to go, but the reasons are much, much different in the US.

I don’t think I’m going to go out on a limb when I say this, but much of the “debate” over gay marriage and DADT in the US stems from religious reasons. There really is no religion here influencing the attitudes of the Chinese. I think the main issue here is that parents have narrow ideas of what their children are supposed to do in life. Children are supposed to get married (preferably before 25), get good jobs, make babies and then support the parents. Being gay doesn’t fit so well in this picture.

It was really neat talking to some of the people in the gay community, and it’s really exciting seeing an event (rather series of events) in a country that lacks a bit with human rights. And it was even more exciting to be able to cover it for the country’s largest English language newspaper. They’re not covering it in the Chinese media (or so far they haven’t), but as one person I talked to said “as the younger generations who would want to cover this gain positions that can make decisions there will probably be more coverage.”

Whatever your opinions on gay rights/marriage/military service may be, there’s no denying that ShanghaiPRIDE is a step in the right direction for China.