Four years, two ntents: a gay Che uple's journey for a surrogate son | Parents and parentg | The Guardian

Contents:

• FOUR YEARS, TWO NTENTS: A GAY CHE UPLE'S JOURNEY FOR A SURROGATE SON
• GAY CHA
• BEG GAY CHA HAS GOTTEN HARR UNR XI JPG

FOUR YEARS, TWO NTENTS: A GAY CHE UPLE'S JOURNEY FOR A SURROGATE SON

Durg this year’s Pri Month, soccer star Li Yg ma history as Cha’s first female athlete to e out publicly as gay, a ndid seri of celebratory photos posted on social media, showg her posg happily alongsi her partner. And while much of the reactn was posive, wh people sendg their ngratulatns, Li’s acunt was also undated wh a wave of homophobic abe. In years past, June was filled wh LGBTQ (lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer) events major ci such as Shanghai and Beijg, durg which Cha’s sexual mori uld semi-openly celebrate their inty.

Cha crimalized homosexualy 1997 and removed om s official list of mental disorrs 2001.

GAY CHA

Some LGBTQ people have blamed the crackdown on the rrect imprsn that homosexualy is a Wtern import to Cha, and groups supportg gay rights are liable to filtratn by foreign forc.

Some also spect a more direct lk between the crackdown on LGBTQ rights and top officials’ worldviews, which for many were shaped durg the Cultural Revolutn the 1960s and ’70s, when thori attempted to purge any “non-socialist” elements — cludg homosexualy — om Che society. Andrew Ahn’s father once told him that there were “no gay people Korea. In a culturally nservative muny, where gog to church and buildg a fay were heavily emphasized, Ahn felt his gay inty kept him “om beg able to participate Korean culture.

” Then, he started equentg GAMeBoi, a weekly Asian Amerin gay party at Wt Hollywood’s Rage Nightclub. He learned to embrace beg both Korean and gay, so much so that he directed “Fire Island, ” a groundbreakg queer Asian Amerin rom- released last year. Beg Asian Amerin and LGBTQ+ n feel lonely, wh stutns such as ethnic church often disavowg non-heterosexual relatnships while tradnal LGBTQ+ spac such as gay bars n be unwelg to people of lor.

BEG GAY CHA HAS GOTTEN HARR UNR XI JPG

“Fdg plac like GAMeBoi, where beg queer and Asian do -exist … It’s not like a 1, 000-year-old Korean cultural rual, but I uld create a new rual, ” said Ahn, a recent Friday, hundreds packed QT Nightlife’s monthly K-Pop Night at Micky’s, a Wt Hollywood gay club a block or so east om the old GAMeBoi posed for selfi a pk Barbie box wh dis balls hangg overhead. ” (Michael Owen Baker / For The Tim) Even historilly gay neighborhoods like Wt Hollywood or San Francis’s Castro district, Asian Amerins have long been ignored or fetishized, seen as feme and weak.

In 2019, then-Wt Hollywood Mayor John Duran argued that he did not appropriately touch a member of the Gay Men’s Chos of Los Angel bee “he’s a skny Korean kid wh pimpl on his cheek. ” Asian Amerin advocy groups cricized Duran’s remark, wh API Equaly-LA potg to the long history of discrimatn agast Asian men gay muni such as Wt Hollywood, whose clubs “ed to require three forms of photo intifitn om anyone they perceived as Asian.