Throwing a dart at a board.
That’s one way to decide where you’ll go on vacation. You could also call a travel agent, hop in a car, or head to the backyard. No matter what you do with those precious weeks of vacay, you’ll definitely use them.
So how about a whirlwind tour of the Far East and its bedrooms, hotels and furtive parks? Sounds good? Well, before you book that trip, you might want to read Gaysia by Benjamin Law first.
It stands to reason: if most of the planet’s population lives in Asia, then the Far East is the gayest place in the world. Benjamin Law suspected that and, as an ethnically Asian gay Australian, he was geographically in a good location to prove it. He decided he’d find his “fellow Gaysians: the Homolaysians, Bi-Mese, Laosbians and Shangdykes.” But first, he’d go to Bali.
There, he found a “relaxing island getaway” that happily embraced gay men; where clothing was optional, even discouraged, at many resorts; and “moneyboys” were willing to do anything for a fee. Sessions of “jiggy-jiggy,” says Law, were a “creative” way out of poverty for (sometimes straight) boys and young men but since the rate of condom use was low, the rate of HIV was high.
In Thailand, which has a “long history of transexualism,” Law attended a beauty pageant for “ladyboys.” Acceptance for these beautiful girls was evident nearly everywhere – but with no legal recognition, they had few rights as women.
Gay Chinese men are pressured by their families to marry, and many of them enter mutually-beneficial agreements with lesbians under the same pressure, Law discovered. Others marry straight women, but keep mum.
In Japan, “drag queens and camp gays” are accepted, but lesbians are all but hidden. Harmful myths about contracting (or not contracting) HIV are common in Myanmar; so common that “roughly 240,000 people” live with it, and four out of five “die waiting for medication.” And in India, Law found an antiquated anti-gay law; a counselor who fought against it; the world’s only openly gay royal; and a (rumored-to-be-closeted) yoga instructor who claimed to cure homosexuality…
I was somewhat taken aback when I first started this book: with a brief introduction and little-to-no fanfare otherwise, author Benjamin Law jumps feet-first into his travelogue, profanely and bluntly.
Fortunately for readers, his humor and sense of the absurd smooth the abruptness of what he finds. That helps a lot and before long, you’ll be well immersed in Gaysia and the open (and closed) atmospheres that Law uncovers.
That’s not to say, though, that this is a completely rompish book. Yes, Law has unusual adventures here, but in between the funny asides and sharp perceptions, he offers serious observations to show that Asia may be halfway around the world, but it’s closer than we think.
This book is explicit and profanity-laden, but it’s also funny and charming and worthy of being tucked in your carry-on. Take Gaysia with you on your next trip, and you certainly won’t be bored.
BOOK REVIEW
Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East by Benjamin Law, foreword by Aaron Allbright
© 2014 Cleis Press
$16.95 / $20.95 Canada
283 pages
