- Title: CHINA-GAY MARRIAGE Prominent Chinese LGBT rights activist holds gay wedding
- Date: 2nd July 2015
- Summary: BEIJING, CHINA (JULY 2, 2015) (REUTERS) CHINESE WOMENS' AND LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER (LGBT) ACTIVIST, LI TINGTING KISSING HER PARTNER TERESA PHOTOGRAPHERS TAKING PICTURES LI AND TERESA WALKING OUT LI AND TERESA STANDING IN ENTRANCE TO BEAUTY PARLOUR HAVING THEIR PHOTO TAKEN LI AND TERESA SHOWING THEIR RINGS (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) PARTNER OF LI TING TING, TER
- Embargoed: 17th July 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: China
- Country: China
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA4HENCMQBBN4HLTBSEJA4LWY1B
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A prominent Chinese women's and LGBT rights activist held a wedding on Thursday (July 2), to push for gay marriage to be recognised in China, following the U.S. Supreme Court decision that same-sex marriage is constitutional.
Twenty-five-year-old Li Tingting, who gained international attention after she and four fellow activists were detained by the Chinese authorities in March, got dressed up in a traditional white dress with her girlfriend Teresa and posed for photographs near their home in the Beijing suburbs.
The couple were planning to go to the Ministry of Civil Affairs to try and register their marriage, as is the procedure for straight couples, but they said they were warned off by the police.
Although in the end the women only got to wear their dresses inside a local beauty parlour, they still hoped their wedding would send a positive signal to the Chinese gay community.
"Because recently the Supreme Court in the U.S. determined that gay marriage is in line with the constitution, but gay people in China don't have this right to marriage yet, so we want to do this not just for us but so that the gay community in China can get a boost," said Teresa, Li's "wife".
While Chinese society is in many ways relatively tolerant of homosexuality, many people have to face strong family opposition should they try to come out, said Li.
"The majority of people don't approve (of gay relationships) especially my parent's generation, especially if it's your own child, they'll be concerned that their bloodline will be cut, that they'll make the family lose face. Actually I don't care at all about things like family honour. I think things like family honour and face are all of male (concepts of) power, very paternalistic, so (we) need to destroy them. I've never cared whether my people support or opposes me, actually the thing I care about the most is my mother's opinion. However, yesterday she completely supported my father, and as my father didn't allow her to come, she can't come," Li said, fighting back tears.
Li was previously taken into custody after planning to hand out flyers and stickers against sexual harassment on public transportation in Beijing, Guangzhou and other cities. If her case had gone to trial on charges of disrupting social order, a charge often made against activists carrying out public protests, she would have faced a potential five years in jail.
She was released following an international outcry, but she says she has been warned against further campaigning.
"This is just the current situation. In the past we could carry out activities on the streets often, but now we can't. But I hope that in the future the political environment can relax and not be like it is now. The way it is now makes people (feel) suppressed, the mental pressure is really great which makes it easy to feel depressed and nervous," she said.
Li says she and many other activists are victims of the Chinese government's desire to maintain social stability regardless of the cost to civil society.
President Xi Jinping's administration has detained hundreds of activists in the past two years, in what some rights groups say is the worst clampdown on dissent in two decades. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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