In Vietnam, an unlikely haven for gays - and a lucrative market | Rters

Contents:

• A GAY SOLDIER’S STORY OF VIETNAM AND AFTER
• GAY VIETNAM: THE MOST BETIFUL PLAC VIETNAM FOR DISCERNG GAY TRAVELLERS
• IN VIETNAM, AN UNLIKELY HAVEN FOR GAYS - AND A LUCRATIVE MARKET
• GAY VIETNAM: QUEER CULTURE, LOL LIFE, AND WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW! ??
• GAY VIETNAM: IS THE UNTRY TURNG TO AN ‘LGBTQ+ PARADISE’?
• TIPS FOR GAY AND LBIAN TRAVELERS VIETNAM
• 07 | MYTHS OF WAR: GAY SERVICEMEN VIETNAM
• VIETNAM SAYS HOMOSEXUALY ‘NOT A DISEASE’ W FOR GAY RIGHTS

A GAY SOLDIER’S STORY OF VIETNAM AND AFTER

The day Larry Sanrs registered for the draft, one qutn buried the middle of a long qutnnaire smacked him the face: “Do you intify as a homosexual or ever had sexual feelgs for persons of the same sex? Gay Vietnam: the most betiful plac Vietnam for discerng gay travellersStori > Experienc > Gay Vietnam: the most betiful plac Vietnam for discerng gay travellersJt as a hly dripped sữa đá ffee offers that sweet ffee kick to the ontal rtex, a trip to Vietnam will evably knock you for six. Dpe Vietnam’s relative acceptance to homosexualy however, there are no anti-discrimatn laws place and same-sex marriage is still not permted (Taiwan wears the crown solo for gay Asia on this ont).

And while social nstrats hold cizens back, the mastream media the untry promot the normalisatn of gay culture and transgenr people are regnised by get to gay Vietnam travel directly to eher of the two biggt ci. Make sure to ge yourself on much of the bt food Vietnam while gay Saigon, makg sure not to avoid the low-down street vendors where you mt slurp your noodl om ty red tabl jt several ch om the ground.

GAY VIETNAM: THE MOST BETIFUL PLAC VIETNAM FOR DISCERNG GAY TRAVELLERS

Photo: Thai An Ho Chi Mh | Photo: Quang Nguyen vhYou needn’t travel far to fd gay Hanoi; simply move north om Hoàn Kiếm Lake towards the backpacker area where most mixed bars, clubs and street eats are found2.

When you need a break om gawkg at Hanoi’s dazzlg streets, hiaway any mm, hipster fé or hangout spot, samplg the surprisgly lic lol specialy of cà phê trứng (egg ffee) as you needn’t travel far to fd gay Hanoi; simply move north om Hoàn Kiếm Lake towards the backpacker area where most mixed bars, clubs and street eats are found.

While the Hanoi gay scene is pretty discreet, you n meet like-md people on apps like Grdr or equent any of the exclively male gay massage spas that pop up around the centre. Although there are no official gay beach, many of the var beach clubs and bars around the island are nsistently gay iendly and the gay bars and clubs that do exist attract the bt people om across the island, lols and tourists as one! As popular among gays as is honeymooners, Nha Trang stretch beyond s beach to both fort and mountas where famed waterfalls and hot sprgs lie bi ancient templ.

IN VIETNAM, AN UNLIKELY HAVEN FOR GAYS - AND A LUCRATIVE MARKET

Gay Nha Trang n seem a ltle sparse parison to the big ci above, but worthwhile attractns clu Fairy Sprg waterfall and Thao Ba hot sprgs, as well as the Buddhist s of Po Nagar Cham Towers and Statue of Buddha. Those who n’t rist the ll of the wild meanwhile may be up for a spot of mpg Cuc Phong or – if you n’t go whout a hot shower – try one of the gay-iendly hotels on the edge of Van Long Nature Quang NguyenWant to simplify luxury travel planng? Acrdg to the Encyclopedia of Sexualy: In Vietnam, there has historilly been relatively ltle male homosexualy, although a few of the emperors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuri did mata male ncub.

In prent-day Vietnam, homosexualy is still regard as beg a foreign problem, and, as other socialist untri, there is a lack of official rearch on homosexual behavr. Ai Nam Ai Nu is the clost scriptive approximatn to what is meant ontologilly and behavrally by the Wtern term homosexualy, though, if one tak Ai as a verb, the term closer to "bisexual" behavr.

As far as the prevailg sexual activi, mutual masturbatn and fellat, are ncerned, there do not appear to be any strongly veloped sense of playg a mascule or feme sexual role of the kd as is often found other societi where anal terurse is more prevalent and the ultimate objective of homosexual enunters. Proschan (1998) has reported that although "gay" might be the only English word some of his rmants had known, they had embraced as their own and imbued wh meangs that diverge om those of Englishspeakers elsewhere: Vietname men today are fashng diverse ways of livg as men-who-love-men, drawg varly on endogeno tradns and inti as well as exogeno ncepts and practic, bg and rebg them, and at the same time nttg both cultural nventns that would nmn homosexualy as patible wh filial piety and metropolan notns that would sist there is only one way to be thentilly gay.

GAY VIETNAM: QUEER CULTURE, LOL LIFE, AND WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW! ??

(1898) terpreted homosexualy as a qutnable behavr rultg om the Che cultural fluence, and a sign of nce that disappeared after the French fluence gaed fluence. There were also homosexual steam baths, nightclubs, and ffee shops, and young boys, impoverished and orphaned by the war, sold themselv openly on street rners to passersby. For Amerin soldiers, was risky to be volved homosexual activy, bee the army did not tolerate , and spected homosexuals were immediately given a dishonorable discharge (Taylor 1997).

The ancient legal s of the Le Dynasty (1428-1787) and the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945) tailed the penalti for crim such as heterosexual rape, asslt, adultery, and ct, but left homosexualy unmentned. On the few ocsns when homosexual activi seem to have been punished, they had been treated as rape or as adultery (disregardg the fact that both partners were the same sex, and ncentratg stead on the fact that one or both were married to other partners).

Although homosexualy or sodomy was not specifilly referred to anywhere morn Vietname crimal law, "sex buyg and sellg any form" was prohibed, as were more general and vague crim such as "unrmg public moraly. But Vietname thori uld fd legal basis for punishg homosexual behavr if they chose, bee crim such as "unrmg public moraly" uld be ed (as siar crim of "public cency" or "solicg" are the U. There were many other homosexual women livg together the provce but Hong Kim Huong, 30, and Cao Tien Duyen, 23, were the only on who were married publicly, he said.

GAY VIETNAM: IS THE UNTRY TURNG TO AN ‘LGBTQ+ PARADISE’?

On a raid on a gay sna party, Agence France Prse reported: "Thirty homosexual men have been arrted durg a raid by police on a fns center Vietnam's southern metropolis of Ho Chi Mh cy, officials said. The center, which opened earlier this year, has been popular among the cy's gay muny wh a reasonable entrance fee of only about three dollars, the state-owned Thanh Nien (Young People) daily said.

AFP reported: "Outward discrimatn of the kd sometim found Wtern untri is rare Vietnam, possibly bee homosexualy do not yet exist as a firm ncept Vietnam and also bee a large gree of same-sex tactily is accepted as normal Southeast Asian cultur. As an ditn of how open thgs have gotten Vietnam, Tong Tan, a rpected and openly homosexual artist Saigon, openly creat art which celebrat his "obssn" wh the penis. In 2007, Chris Pycroft wrote "A survey nducted Vietnam schools shows that one quarter of high school stunt prume that 10 percent of their iends are gay.

Three hundred stunts om different junr and senr high schools across the cy took part the poll, wh close to half ditg that some school iends were gay, some s as many as 10 percent.

TIPS FOR GAY AND LBIAN TRAVELERS VIETNAM

The study also found that 80 percent of high school stunts Ho Chi Mh Cy do not thk homosexualy is bad, and that only 2 percent of stunts owned on peers upon fdg out their sexualy. "In tth, homosexualy has never e up any of the meetgs anized by the school’s pedagogil board or pacy fosterg class I have attend, " Ms Mh said beg ially Teacher Vo Thi Ngoc Mh said "This was a lson on ‘Love’ the cizens tn urse.

The plot is groundbreakg for this munist untry where sex is mentned only whispers, homosexualy is still largely nsired a disease, and the state tightly ntrols publishg and broadstg.

The 10-episo story le is adapted om award-wng novel Mot The Gi Khong Co Dan Ba, or A World Whout Women, which took Vietnam by surprise 2000 when beme the first book to addrs gay issu a ser manner. " Physil closens between men — walkg hand hand or stg wh arms draped around each other — is socially acceptable Vietname culture, but homosexualy is ranked by some as a "social evil" alongsi prostutn and dg abe.

07 | MYTHS OF WAR: GAY SERVICEMEN VIETNAM

AFP reported: "Although relatively ee om discrimatn, some Vietname gays feel their existence is ignored rather than accepted Wh his pk lipstick, eye makp and black nail varnish, Ti prefers not to shake hands and stead rais his arm to the classic, cliched limp-wristed posn. "Two years ago, Chung A, the head of the untry's anti-AIDS, prostutn and dgs mtee, clared that the number of gays Vietnam uld be unted on the fgers of his two hands.

"The number of homosexuals has creased a lot and the issue of AIDS preventn this group needs to be addrsed, " he was quoted by the Lao Dong newspaper as sayg. The dramatic crease the number of openly gay men Ho Chi Mh Cy and Hanoi has sparked nsirable media tert, wh most newspapers labelg homosexuals as beg eher ill or victims of a current trend.

But Le Hoang, the popular director of the ntroversial sex and dgs movie Bar Girls, stck a softer tone when he answered qutns about homosexualy on a Vietname Web se May. A man uld have sex wh another man and not nsir himself gay, " said Donn Colby, a Fulbright Rearch Scholar who nducted a survey entled Men Who Have Sex Wh Men (MSM) Ho Chi Mh Cy 2001. Commentg on transvte sgers and transvte striptease the homosexual nightclubs of Saigon terg to male homosexual transvt durg the Vietname-Amerin War, Marnais (1967) reported that transvte prostut would ngregate daily on the terrace of the Contental Hotel Saigon.

VIETNAM SAYS HOMOSEXUALY ‘NOT A DISEASE’ W FOR GAY RIGHTS

Special thanks to John P, jaae, Will, Johan, Esteban, Steph69, bigt22, bear4unz, funonbed, prnzardoz, ano, SomebodyDe, maddie, longsggv, mike661, Mike_80, dutchie26, pixman, MSaigon, billylondon, luvgwm, traisaigon, miken1999, lonelyprce, goodthai, GayJackMate, LeHung, azn_guy, GAM_KyHoa, jeanbkk, southern_12, juvi, llanjr, tam, Fatbird, Catha, Doilov, myklh, phihungvn, PhuMyHung, Pratt, Tahrick, Pong, kaidon, Uan, Gng, Lnel, Bce, Js, Earthrooster, Alastair S., JY, MB, An Duong, Pierre and Bao!

More Ho Chi Mh Cy / Saigon Listgs: General Informatn | Hotels and Acmodatn Bars, Cabarets, Diss, Karaoke | Massage and SpasVietnam Gay & Lbian Rource Listgs by Cy:Hanoi | other ci and provc. Prejudice is givg way to some liberalism, he says, a untry often labeled a human rights aber but now one of Asia’s most progrsive on gay, lbian and transgenr has spawned a niche market of an timated 1.

”While transgenr, gay and lbian people are persecuted and even jailed many Asian untri, Vietnam has quietly bee a trailblazer, wh laws to crimalize gay marriage and -habatn and regnize sex chang on inty documents. ”Semars and rporate-sponsored “Viet Pri” ftivals get ee re, and state media discs once-taboo issu of sex and genr is unclear what prompted the relaxatn by the ernment, which has never openly spelt out s Jtice Mistry did not rpond to qutns om Rters, and vice health mister Nguyen Viet Tien, who was once quoted speakg support of gay marriage, told Rters his mistry was not rponsible for policy and cled to ment.