HR equal GR

I cannot imagine what life must be like for gay people who live in repressive societies.  Take the case, for example, of this South Korean boy, Kim Kyung Hwan, who was so afraid of how people would treat him once he started serving the Korean military that he had to hie off to Canada and claim asylum.  Or this Malaysian boy, Ariff Alfian Rosli, who won a scholarship to medical school in Ireland, and then had to disappear because he was going to get married to the man of his dreams.  In both cases, the cultural and religious proscriptions were so strong a disincentive to coming out that they ultimately decided to cut ties with not only their families, but also their native countries.

Apparently, homosexuality is so taboo in South Korea that a gay man can get beaten up if discovered. (Which really isn’t so far off from the United States military, come to think of it, which has only, courtesy of this current administration’s pro gay leader, Barack Obama, just repealed the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.)  Thus, Canadian authorities had to intervene and allow Hwan relief under asylum rules.

Over by Kuala Lumpur, homosexuality is illegal, so poor Ariff had to totally cut off all communication with his parents once he got to Ireland.  So of course his family had to report him missing and in two years, his parents made eight trips to Ireland as they hunted for him.  Is there a happy ending to this story?  Well, you make the call.  

Ariff’s wedding pictures surfaced on Facebook just recently, which means, yes, he’s alive!  But guess what, it shows him smooching a tux-wearing Irish lad named Jonathan.  So now, the institution that gave him a scholarship (Petronas) wants him to repay his tuition, which is the least of his worries, as concerned Malaysians have vowed to prosecute him if he ever trails his twinky toes on Malaysian shores.

These stories are dramatic examples of how, even now, to be gay isn’t a passport to a life of gaiety.  Fun isn’t waiting just around the corner of pink street for all who identify as gay.  Sometimes, it can mean a hellish existence of being forced to deny who you are, whether to yourself or your family or your close friends, and watching every little thing you do in the fear of discovery and being outed.

There was a wave of videos that surfaced on the web, especially after a slew of suicides from youths who had been bullied.  These videos had focused on the “(life) gets better” theme, and it was meant to show there was hope ahead for victims of bullying, and that despite the twin prisons of family and school, freedom and acceptance lay just ahead.  The videos became so popular that even Singapore’s gay denizens had their own version.  (And to my knowledge, and shame, there’s apparently none for the Philippines.  A sign our society is more accepting? I wish.) Maybe these videos could have come in handy in Korea and KL.  Or maybe not.  They might just as well have led to more death and violence.

In any case, these stories highlight the importance of Hillary Clinton’s recent speech at the United Nations (which, by the way didn’t even gather much noise in the local press).  But Hillary’s groundbreaking speech (which had not been revealed in advance just in case some troublesome nations decided to block her from speaking) were all about how gay rights are (surprise surprise, Catholic Church) human rights.

Hillary spoke forcefully on the issue, and said in no uncertain terms that “It is a violation of human rights when people are beaten or killed because of their sexual orientation, or because they do not conform to cultural norms about how men and women should look or behave. It is a violation of human rights when governments declare it illegal to be gay, or allow those who harm gay people to go unpunished. It is a violation of human rights when lesbian or transgendered women are subjected to so-called corrective rape, or forcibly subjected to hormone treatments, or when people are murdered after public calls for violence toward gays, or when they are forced to flee their nations and seek asylum in other lands to save their lives. And it is a violation of human rights when life-saving care is withheld from people because they are gay, or equal access to justice is denied to people because they are gay, or public spaces are out of bounds to people because they are gay. No matter what we look like, where we come from, or who we are, we are all equally entitled to our human rights and dignity.”

Hillary said that being gay “does not make you less human. And that is why gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.”

Of course that speech isn’t going to change the mind of Malaysia.  But hopefully, Hillary’s words can change just one more leader’s heart, or convince one more judge, or persuade even just one more ordinary citizen into accepting his fellow (gay) man.  And that might just be a good Christmas wish to have.