Boys’ Love: The Gay Romance TV Genre Takg Over Southeast Asia

THAILAND’S GAY-ROMANCE TV DRAMAS HELP REVIVE FLAGGG TOURISM DTRY

The populary of gay-romance seri sends fans om home and abroad flockg to filmg lotns across the untry * gay thailand love story *

The prence of Boys Love seri, a unique drama genre that picts homoerotic relatnships between male characters, has creased signifintly recent years.

It was probably the first time Thai entertament history that two boys wh homosexual clatns were featured the lead.

THAILAND GAY ROMANCE

* gay thailand love story *

Thai Boys Love is a lol appropriatn of yaoi, the Japan-origatg form of homoerotic fictn that revolv around the romantic narrativ between a mascule boy (lled “e”) and a more feme boy (lled “seme”). Uta Boonorana, a medil doctor who’s also an LGBTQ fictn thor known by his psdonyms, Patrick Rangsimant and Mor Tood (“Homo Doctor” Thai). He’s also the md behd GMMTV’s LGBTQ productns, many of which have been praised for their plex and thought-provokg narrativ, cludg Gay OK Bangkok.

I Told Sunset About You is part of a recent wave of Thai dramas known as “boys’ love” (BL) – also lled the “Y” seri Thailand– whose portrayal of gay romance has attracted a large followg across Asia. BL offers a happier, more posive portrayal of same-sex relatnships than elsewhere Thai media, where gay love tends to end tragedy, said Kangwan Fongkaew, a lecturer at Burapha Universy Chonburi provce, who has studied the reprentatn of LGBT muni Thai while this is some ways rehg, BL dramas do not offer te reprentatns of society. They are generally foced on “puppy love” and om the reali faced by gay men Thailand, which still do not have basic rights such as equal marriage, said Kangwan.

Viewers, add Kangwan, “might misunrstand that Thailand is a gay paradise, which is totally not te” leadg characters are also predomantly light-skned, middle class and ted, he said: “The boys’ love seri don’t reflect the real diversy of the LGBT muny Thai society, and that’s why the stigma and discrimatn agast LGBT are still gog on right now. ”Soontaree, who is gay, said she supports the BL seri, addg that the dramas are a powerful tool for Thailand: “I n see clearly. BL, short for Boys Love, has bee an umbrella term for any Asian drama centerg on a gay love story.