To love, to be loved and also marriage are something that people always celebrate for. But when we put the word; gay, lesbian, and transvestite and so on into this sentence, some people are reluctant to celebrate for, and some totally show some resentment. But this not happens anymore in United Kingdom where all kind of love and marriages will be recognized legally soon.
Moreover, 2014 will be marked as the year of legalizing same-sex marriage in UK., this was called “historic moment” (Stonewall, 2014) – same-sex marriage will be legally recognized in both England, and Wales in this coming weekend, and in Scotland this will happened in the autumn of this year.
Back to my beloved motherland - Thailand where has been recognized as the country with a divergence of gender, LGBTs people have normal life, even though, in terms of legalizing gay-marriage, this has been overlooked for a period of time. Personally, legalizing gay-marriage seems to be the very long distant goal- how can people discuss about marriage equality during the time that Thai society still doubt about their equality – should all Thais has equal rights to vote? It also seems that the fundamental rights have not been established in this society yet. So, what is the “normal” life of LGBTs people, yes of course they are those who can work, play, and also love like straight people, however, there are some boundaries which separate and categorize things that only straight people can do and LGBTs are not allow to do, not to cross the lines.
The delayed legalization of same-sex marriage is one of examples of the boundaries. Public and private are significant and different boundaries that lead to the differences between LGBTs and straight people. Gay people are placed in private sphere, they can love and have sexual relationship in a non-orthodoxy way, but keep this privately – don't ask, don't tell mentality, and some gay also couples presume that their relationship is all about two people (for example, the ending plot of Yes or No 2).
However, when we think that it is all about love of two people, not a third party, this can lead to the crucial function of the boundaries, private and public sphere, in terms of public sphere, entering this sphere is the way that you can gain social awareness about something, and transform the issue into politics. Same-sex marriage campaign is politics and of course politics is the art of how to distribute a myriad of people’s interests. In legal term, marriage is about a couple's interest and commitment, especially in financial term and priority of who will make decision. For example, if your partner need to have an operation urgently which its paper's work requires family acceptance, even though you are twenty-year couple, you are not a member of family in the eye of legal term. This is how marriage matters.
Hopefully, one day, rainbow flag will flown over Thai parliament building. Let's keep our finger cross and conduct the campaign.
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Reference
Rainbow flag will fly over Whitehall to mark first same-sex marriages (2014, March 27). The Guardian Society. Retrieved March 27, 2014 from http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/mar/26/rainbow-flag-whitehall-same-sex-marriages
The passage of equal marriage. Stonewall. Retrieved March 27, 2014 from https://www.stonewall.org.uk/what_we_do/parliamentary/5714.asp
It is amazing how quickly things can change for the better in these modern days: I am old enough to remember when gays in the US, England and Australia were terrified of anyone discovering that they were gay.
ReplyDeleteThe great majority of people in the 1960s and 1970s were still strongly anti-gay, They thought it was evil. The culture was entirely anti-gay, from the Christian religion teaching it was a sin, as the pope still does to laws which were anti-gay, with prison sentences being imposed for "the foul and most unnatural crime" of two men expressing their love for each other even in private.
This seems to me an excellent example proving that moral and right and wrong are not what any culture might say. Western culture, Christian culture and almost all the people in those cultures were always totally wrong in their moral beliefs about homosexuality. Indeed, it was the small minority of courageous gay liberation activists and their very few heterosexual supporters who cared for reason, for justice and truth seeking strongly enough to go against the prevailing culture and manage to make great moral progress in a very short time.
And it is a short time. In previous ages, it tool centuries to escape the ugly hold of repressive religions and social conventions backed up by popular but immoral laws.
Check everything - just because some belief, custom or idea is a part of a culture does not and cannot make it rational, just, moral or in any way desirable. The Western worlds persecution of homosexuality for almost 2,000 years was always evil. Sadly, in some countries, mainly Africa and the Muslim world, where false and morally ugly religious beliefs are still strong, this same persecution of gays and lesbians continues.