Vietnam hosts third gay pride parade as attitudes soften

Hanoi hosts Vietnam's third ever gay pride parade with around 300 cycling and marching through the streets in a sign of growing tolerance in the communist led country

South China Morning Post Asia - AFP, 03 August, 2014

Hundreds take part in gay pride event in Hanoi. Photo: EPA

Around 300 activists led a colourful parade through Hanoi on Sunday in Vietnam’s largest ever gay pride event, as the communist country shows signs of increasing tolerance over differences in sexual orientation.

The city streets were awash with rainbow flags, as a mainly young crowd cycled and danced through the capital urging an end to discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

Homosexuality remains taboo in Vietnam, but a series of gradual advances, including the removal of fines for same-sex wedding parties, have been welcomed by the LGBT community in recent years.

In 2012 lawmakers even briefly considered legalising gay marriage – a move which would have thrust the authoritarian country to the forefront of gay rights in Asia – but stopped short.

Sunday’s event was the third gay pride parade in Vietnam and attracted a wide range of people including local activists, foreigners and curious by-standers.

“I’m here for the rights of homosexuals. I want them to be treated fairly like everyone else,” Le Kieu Oanh, a 20-year-old art student told journalists.

Another activist praised the government’s move to end curbs on same-sex wedding ceremonies – which are symbolic but non-legally binding.

But “public opinion is not ready for same-sex marriage,” the sociologist added on condition of anonymity.

 

Dancers under a large rainbow flag during the third gay pride
parade in Vietnam. Photo: AFP

  

Hanoi faces frequent criticism by international watchdogs for human rights abuses, making it an unlikely champion for the region’s LGBT community.

One of the parade organisers, Nguyen Trong Dung, said homosexuals need to be “accepted by their families” before wider society ends its prejudice.

“If they are recognised by their own families, they have a high chance of integrating into society,” he added.

Demonstrations of any kind are tightly controlled in Vietnam, especially following riots in May in protest at China’s placement of an oil rig in the South China Sea, known in Vietnam as the East Sea.

Police, however, did not intervene in Sunday’s parade.

One of the firsts at this year's boat parade was a Moroccan
boat. Photo: Novum

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"The Akashic Circle" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, The Humanization of God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.)  - (Text version)

“… Gender Switching

Old souls, let me tell you something. If you are old enough, and many of you are, you have been everything. Do you hear me? All of you. You have been both genders. All of you have been what I will call between genders, and that means that all of you have had gender switches. Do you know what happens when it's time for you to switch a gender? We have discussed it before. You'll have dozens of lifetimes as the same gender. You're used to it. It's comfortable. You cannot conceive of being anything else, yet now it's time to change. It takes approximately three lifetimes for you to get used to it, and in those three lifetimes, you will have what I call "gender confusion."

It isn't confusion at all. It's absolutely normal, yet society often will see it as abnormal. I'm sitting here telling you you've all been through it. All of you. That's what old souls do. It's part of the system. …”

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… New Tolerance

Look for a softening of finger pointing and an awakening of new tolerance. There will remain many systems for different cultures, as traditions and history are important to sustaining the integrity of culture. So there are many in the Middle East who would follow the prophet and they will continue, but with an increase of awareness. It will be the increase of awareness of what the prophet really wanted all along - unity and tolerance. The angel in the cave instructed him to "unify the tribes and give them the God of Israel." You're going to start seeing a softening of intolerance and the beginning of a new way of being.

Eventually, this will create an acknowledgement that says, "You may not believe the way we believe, but we honor you and your God. We honor our prophet and we will love you according to his teachings. We don't have to agree in order to love." How would you like that? The earth is not going to turn into one belief system. It never will, for Humans don't do that. There must be variety, and there must be the beauty of cultural differences. But the systems will slowly update themselves with increased awareness of the truth of a new kind of balance. So that's the first thing. Watch for these changes, dear ones.  …”