While not quite an overnight phenomenon, today’s young gay Vietnamese are coming out earlier, facing far fewer social stigmas, and are finding an increasing number of social support networks according to a poll released by ISC, reports Voice of America. The survey, while hindered somewhat by its online methodology, shows that, among its many findings,…
Around 300 activists led a colorful parade through Hanoi on Sunday in the nation’s largest ever Gay Pride event, as communist Vietnam shows signs of increasing tolerance of sexual difference, reports Agence France Presse. The city streets were awash with rainbow flags, as a mainly young crowd cycled and danced through the capital urging an…
President Barack Obama has nominated Ted Osius as the next ambassador to Vietnam, the White House has announced. If confirmed, Osius, who is openly gay and married to Clayton Bond, an officer with the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, would replace David Shear, who has held the position since 2011. Ted Osius, a career…
While not quite on par with Boystown, the Castro District or KeyWest, the news coming out of Vietnam these days resembles less and less the stuff of third-world homophobia and more and more the growing sense of pride and community that these famed American enclaves have come to represent. In 2011, director Vũ Ngọc Đãng…
Following on the heels of April’s historic announcement by Vietnam’s Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Justice’s Ha Hung Cuong has called for the end of marriage discrimination against same-sex couples. In a statement released Monday, the Justice issued a road map for the eventual legalization of same-sex marriage including the recognition of property between two…
http://youtu.be/CdPHPBAEBQ4 VIETNAM — What started as a low-budget effort on YouTube about the travails of three perpetually broke 20-something friends living in Ho Chi Minh City, My Best Gay Friends has quickly evolved into one of the most popular shows in Vietnam. Shot on a shoestring budget with three unknown actors – all friends in…
VIETNAM — In what some are arguably calling the latest (and most controversial) salvo in the same-sex marriage debate, Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Viet Tien will deliver a speech today in Hanoi that calls for the immediate repeal on the ban on same-sex marriage. “[A]s human beings, homosexuals have the same rights as everyone else…
The Vietnamese Ministry of Health has announced that beginning in May, three hospitals will be permitted to perform gender reassignment surgery, announced Nguyen Huy Quang, director of the Department of Legal Affairs for the Ministry. According to an internal document, in 2,000 newborn babies, one has genitals not fit to the chromosome. And 1 in…
Many of us Catholics feel that our church has left us. We have not left the church. The last two popes, especially, have used very hurtful and ugly words when talking about homosexuality, divorce, adoption, women’s rights, etc., etc. I truly believe if Jesus came down to Earth he would weep when he would see…
(CNN) — He forged his views of war and the military as a young man in mine-plagued fields of Vietnam. Now Chuck Hagel may become the first Vietnam veteran and first enlisted soldier to serve as U.S. defense secretary. In nominating him to succeed Leon Panetta, President Barack Obama urged the Senate to confirm a…
