Tuesday 14 August 2012

Buddhist Same Sex Wedding

The recent Buddhist wedding of two women in Taiwan is the latest sign of obstacles to
same-sex unions quietly being dismantled in Asia, especially in predominantly Buddhist countries.

Huang Mei-yu and her partner Yu Ya-ting, both 30, received their blessings from Shih Chao-hui, a female Buddhist master, at a monastery in north Taiwan's Taoyuan county over the weekend -- and no one seemed to raise an eyebrow.

"I think this is their human right. They can choose freely to get married and we should respect them," said Chih Chun, a Buddhist nun who attended the ceremony.

"It makes no difference if couples are heterosexual or homosexual, as long as they are in love and they are happy."

The wedding -- a first for Taiwanese Buddhism -- comes as evidence is mounting that Asians and their governments are quietly revising their views on same-sex marriage even as the subject remains a highly charged issue in the United States this election year.

Communist Vietnam is considering making the practice legal and in Nepal hundreds marched in support of enshrining it in the new constitution. Tokyo Disneyland has allowed gay couples to informally tie the knot on its grounds.

Myanmar and Laos also recently held their first gay pride events.

According to Shih, the cleric who presided over the ceremony in Taiwan, this is a trend facilitated regionwide by a lack of religious and philosophical dogma against homosexuality.

"Buddhism does not dismiss homosexuality from an ideological point of view, and in Confucianism it's a grey area, so eastern societies tend to be more open-minded towards homosexuality," she said.

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