CHINA’S REAL COMING OUT PARTY!

Many have said that the 2008 Olympics in Beijing were China’s coming out party to the world.  I wanted to let you know about China’s real coming out party. This posting about China’s June gay pride parade in Shanghai is not meant to insult the Chinese nation or anyone else, it is actually meant to praise China for the advancement of social liberty and freedom seen this year in Shanghai. Although many out there can argue whether or not the existence of a LBGT (Lesbian Bisexual Gay Transgender) community in China is advancement, no one can argue with the fact that a community such as this receiving greater freedom and tolerance is a sign of the Chinese government loosening control over individual rights.

I would like to put aside the issue of homosexuality itself for the moment and focus on the fight for homosexual rights as one among many fights for individual rights, which can be seen as a clear indicator of a nation’s progressiveness. This couldn’t be truer than in Shanghai this year, where they had a successful gay pride parade without even having an actual parade. Organizers are hoping to have a successful gay pride non-parade in Beijing in 2010. For those who think this is an underground event the government doesn’t really know about, they can find details of this year’s gay pride event in China’s state run media outlets. We can see here that the stories on Shanghai’s gay pride event in China’s controlled media are a show of pride by China itself.

In the United States there is passionate debate about this subject as well as other issues and it’s this debate that has become the foundation of our strength as a nation, just as it will be for China. This all began about 12 years ago when the Chinese government decriminalized sodomy, in effect legalizing homosexuality. All available sources I could find agree that there has been a lack of violence towards homosexuals in China since this law was passed (this is obviously in comparison to Western norms; please comment with links to any contrary evidence). This tells us something interesting about the prevalence of hate crimes towards the LBGT community in the West and especially the US.

Mainly, that the violence towards homosexuals in America is cultural and endemic to the West, not humanity. Can we clearly link this dangerous fear based reaction to a specific part of western history or culture? Can we find this linkage by looking at the differences between western and Eastern culture? The answer seems simple at first, violence itself. The way that these different cultures react to violence and how they hold it dear to their manhood isn’t exactly the same, but both cultures are extremely violent, right? Well, let’s take a look at that closely. In China, violence successfully brought about unity and conformity, but in Japan there was no conclusive victory to end hostilities as in China. A lack of conclusive victory by any European nation brought about the intense competition that made Europe the most bloodthirsty, greediest group of tribes to ever walk the earth.

Japan continued the intra-tribal violence for centuries past Chinese unification, but this didn’t continue as long and as viciously as in Europe.  While fighting amongst each other over the centuries the Japanese developed a unique warrior ethic not seen anywhere else. This Bushido code shows another difference between western and eastern culture worth pointing out. The banning of firearms in Japan to maintain the Samurai warrior class highlights a certain respect and honor not as prominent in European society. Put simply, the Europeans practiced all kinds of behavior necessary within a warrior ethic (i.e. honor, chivalry, dueling, etc), but I don’t believe any European nation ever seriously considered banning firearms, not with neighbors like theirs. In fact, the development of cross-bow bolts and the training of peasants to shoot them helped end the age of knighthood. We can clearly see what the Samurai were avoiding by preventing firearms proliferation and smartly so. We can see a clear example of a greater respect and honor towards violence in China within the phenomenon of Martial Arts.

China is unparalleled in the development of unarmed combat techniques and this alone speaks volumes about the nations culture. So, what point can we take away? Generally, the evidence points to a greater warrior ethic and a higher value of honor in Asian cultures. Some of us don’t need to be told such a thing, but the evidence is above and please refute if you can.

In Europe, we have no holds barred, literally. Greater armies and greater weapons competing against each other in a bubbling cauldron of nations fighting for dominance made for some very nasty people. Well, nasty to everyone not on their side that is. These people spread around the earth and subjugated millions, but does the West’s ultra-violence account for such off the charts hatred of homosexuality? Not by itself, no. So, what else could it be?

At this point we are easily confused because of myriad examples of homosexual behavior existing in ancient texts regarding the Greeks, Romans and all kinds of folks in the middle ages. China’s historians are coming to realize the same examples exist in their history as well. So, were stuck. Why do white guys feel the need to beat up on gays, while Chinese guys don’t? Can we blame religion on this? Wait, yes, we can blame religion? Thank God!

Just kidding, but seriously, let’s take a look at this. Do western religions bring the fire and brimstone necessary to justify this kind psychotic behavior against harmless people that mean no harm and are just trying to be allowed to be themselves? Yes, it does. When we look at Christianity and Islam, we find that the majority of all violence against homosexuals, and against everyone else in the name of God for that matter, comes from these two religions.

In fact, look around the world and you’ll see a majority of our problems being caused by the followers of Muhammad and Christ (sorry if that offends anyone, but please refute and I will discuss). So, if you want a shortcut to finding all the evil being done against homosexuals or anybody else for that matter, just limit your search to Christianity and Islam and you’ll not have a hard time finding the data you want.

Now, let’s take the two pieces of the puzzle and put them together. A pinch of violent and conquering history mixed with a smidge of violent and conquering religion, bake for two thousand years and you get world class gay bashing by the best in the business. They’re still more biblical about this in Islamic cultures, where they simply topple a wall onto the homosexual and if they live … they live! Christians are more advanced and have taken God’s will out of the equation when it comes to hate crimes. These people are actually positive that God wants retribution and have the confidence to make sure and kill the hated one themselves. God’s will isn’t necessary, it’s assumed here. In the West, you’ll find homosexuals shot, hung ,beaten, dragged by automobile or any other number of horrible ways to die, but usually they are beaten to death because the assailant is having an emotional reaction to feelings they don’t understand. It’s the inherent connection between God and violence in the western mind that brings confused young men to the breaking point where they would rather take a human life that has nothing to do with them then face up to their own demons. I’m not exaggerating here! You know there are many western men out there that would rather commit murder and risk a lifetime of incarceration than allow their peers or family to think they’re gay. We all know they’re out there.

So this is what they’re lacking in Asia and specifically in China; a strong psychotic connection between an irrational thirst for violence to prove manhood and a desperate need for acceptance from a vengeful and merciless God.

One should take a step back from this embroiling tapestry of arguments, for a moment, and avoid getting involved in the various positions being taken out there or even to contemplate the insanity of some of those positions (gay doesn’t exist or it’s a mental illness that can be cured with psychiatry or Jesus). Just step back a second and witness the glory of the latest fight for freedom. In essence, the fact that there is a vigorous debate on an issue is good news, although the progress must be in the right direction. Every year, the homosexual community in China will gain more freedom and I believe this because the state run media in China is already trumpeting the Shanghai gay pride non-parade as a demonstration of China’s advancement of freedom.