Valentine’s Day Gay Marriage Ceremony

Valentine’s Day Gay Marriage Ceremony
Feb 18, 2009 By eChinacities.com

It is midday on Valentine’s Day and two smartly dressed gay and lesbian couples are having their ‘wedding’ photos taken on Beijing’s famous Qianmen pedestrian boulevard, as well as joining in with dozens of gay and lesbian friends in handing out roses to passers by, calling for the public to support gay love and support changes to China’s homosexual marriage law.

The public gay and lesbian ‘wedding’ photo event was staged in order to promote greater compassion and understanding for homosexual couples among the general public.

The event certainly drew a large crowd and the mood remained upbeat, with a large media attendance. For many of the onlookers they admitted that this was the first time they had ever seen gay people in real life, but that they could understand the love they had for one another.

At the scene was A Qiang, a local Beijing gay blogger who interviewed Lu Ke, the editor of homosexual magazine Dian.

A Qiang: This time the event was held outside on the streets of Beijing, what was the atmosphere like?

Lu Ke: The scene was electric, especially the first photo shoot at the Arrow Tower with the lesbian couple. They were soon surrounded by a big group and a load of security guards nearby who only realized they were lesbians when they actually kissed, but luckily they didn’t try to break them up.

A Qiang: From the photos you can see some pretty big crowds, but everyone looks quite happy. How did you find people reacted?

Lu Ke: Most people expressed their best wishes and understanding, with only a few, mostly older people openly showing their dislike.

A Qiang: Can you tell me a bit more about the two couples you used for the event?

Lu Ke: They volunteered to take part, I can’t tell you anymore about them than that.

A Qiang: Did the event fulfill your expectations?

 

Lu Ke: We weren’t given any trouble at all and in fact many people showed their support and even praised the bravery of the couples, with many people saying they had never seen openly gay behavior before. Quite a few people said they never imagined that they would ever see such an open act of homosexual behavior in public in China, let alone people daring to stand up for their rights like that.

A Qiang: Gays and lesbians do not have the right to marry under Chinese law, can you tell me how this influences their lives?

Lu Ke: Homosexual couples are couples in love like anyone else and they deserve the right to marry, it shouldn’t be a struggle. Not being able to get married prevents gay and lesbian couples from living stable lives. Harmony is all the rage nowadays and you just imagine how many homosexual couples there are, how much more harmonious would society be if they could follow their heterosexual friends in getting married?

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