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Irish gay rights activist Rory O'Neil (aka drag queen Panti Bliss) in Hong Kong. “The power of the personal story and coming out is what changes societies,” he says. Photo: Tory Ho

Same-sex marriage in Asia inevitable, says gay rights activist – ‘Ireland was so conservative ... yet Ireland changed its views’

  • Rory O’Neill, also known as drag queen Panti Bliss, was instrumental in the campaign in Ireland for marriage equality in 2015
  • He says the Asian LGBTIQ community must become more visible and show they are ‘just as boring and ordinary as everyone else’
LGBTQ

It’s only a matter of time before other parts of Asia start following in Taiwan’s footsteps to legalise same-sex marriage, says the face of Ireland’s successful marriage equality campaign.

Gay rights activist Rory O’Neill, also known as Irish drag queen Panti Bliss, was instrumental in Ireland’s fight for marriage equality in 2015. Panti became the poster queen for the yes campaign early on in the debate to amend the staunchly Catholic country’s constitution to enable same-sex marriage.

“Every country’s journey to marriage equality is different but in general the arc is moving towards equality, and what Taiwan will do for this part of the world is to show the rest of Asia that the sky doesn’t fall down, that kids still go to school and the sun still comes up in the morning when you allow gays to get married,” says the 50-year-old, during a visit to Hong Kong and China to speak with LGBTIQ groups about changing attitudes towards homosexuality.

Taiwan made history last week by holding Asia’s first legal gay weddings after lawmakers made a landmark decision in May to legalise same-sex marriage. Despite a referendum last year rejecting the legalisation in Taiwan, lawmakers pushed forward with the change, making the self-ruled island the first administration in Asia to recognise homosexual civil unions.

“Doing it legislatively does not change hearts and minds,” O’Neill admits, “but legislation can lead the way – it can open a door and a space for gay people to get married, and for the rest of Taiwan to see that their neighbours got married and six months later everything is fine and they are still good neighbours, [for example].”

Many credit O’Neill with igniting the conversation around homosexuality that led to Ireland becoming the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage by popular vote. O’Neill, who describes himself as an accidental activist, rose to fame when, in the guise of Panti, he gave an impassioned speech at Abbey Theatre in Dublin about homophobic attitudes in Ireland that went viral. About a year later, after the country had aired its laundry around homophobia and homosexuality, the referendum took place.

“When people say to me is that Asia is a special case because it is very conservative and family- orientated, well the country I grew up in is exactly the same. Ireland was so conservative, was deeply Catholic and family-oriented, yet Ireland changed its views,” he says.

And it’s a change that took place in a “relatively short period of time”, with Ireland only decriminalising same-sex intercourse in 1993.

“I hope Ireland’s story to the rest of the world is that remarkable change is possible, dramatic change is possible,” says O’Neill, who is tying the knot in July to his Brazilian partner.

 
Marriage equality is still a distant dream for many in Asia, with LGBTIQ rights facing growing challenges from local governments in recent years that are cracking down on the gay community. There are still some strong pockets of opposition in Asia, such as Brunei, where sex between men was recently made punishable by death. Widely condemned, the country later said the law would not be enforced.

Despite the growing obstacles from governments in Asia, O’Neill is adamant that marriage equality is inevitable, but says it can only happen if the LGBTIQ community becomes more “visible”, like it did in Ireland before the referendum.

“Very little will change on the ground until straight people know more queer people. The more you get to know queer people [the more you realise we] are just as boring and ordinary as everyone else. Not everyone is as fabulous as me,” he says with his trademark quick wit.

Panti Bliss became the poster queen for Ireland’s marriage equality yes campaign in 2015. Photo: Courtesy of Rory O’Neill

“The power of the personal story and coming out is what changes societies. What it takes is every gay person to come out or as many as possible. I understand it is difficult but it was also difficult 30 to 40 years ago when I started coming out. It gets easier.”

Following Taiwan’s law change there has been little response from other parts of Asia; however Chinese state media did react by issuing a tweet that said “love is love”. Homosexuality is not illegal in China or Hong Kong, but marriage equality doesn’t seem to be on the horizon, either.

In recent years the city has had a fraught and wavering relationship with gay rights. While Hong Kong is set to host the 2022 Gay Games, just this month a Cathay Pacific Airways advertisement showing two men holding hands was banned from the city’s railway and airport operators.
Panti Bliss, poster queen for Ireland’s marriage equality yes campaign.

Sixteen pro-family and anti-gay groups issued a joint statement expressing concern about the “controversial” poster, however the ad was eventually used after widespread public criticism.

“If you are a queer teenager and you hear this debate [about the poster] it can be depressing and really unpleasant,” he says. “The idea that a young person seeing an ad of two gay men holding hands is somehow going to make anybody else gay is just so beyond nuts, so divorced from reality. I grew up in the straightest country in the world, Ireland in the 1970s … and I still turned out gay.

O’Neill as Panti Bliss on the red carpet after the Australian premiere of The Queen of Ireland at Event Cinemas, George Street, Sydney. Photo: Alamy

“The choice is not between being gay or straight because they have seen something or heard something – people are what they are. The choice is about whether those gay people lead secret, hidden, awful, miserable lives … or do you let people be who they are and let them find their own way to be happy.”

O’Neill believes the next places in Asia to follow Taiwan’s lead could be Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Same-sex marriage in Asia ‘inevitable’
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