Married with kids: US ambassador and husband are Vietnam’s ‘role model’ gay power couple

Since their December arrival in Vietnam, US Ambassador Ted Osius and his husband have become the most prominent gay couple in the Southeast Asian country.

Osius and Clayton Bond landed with their toddler son shortly before the government abolished its ban on same-sex marriage. Now the couple, who recently adopted an infant girl, find themselves ambassadors of the nascent LGBT rights movement spreading across the country.

"A lot of young people have reached out to me on Facebook, to say: ’We are happy to see somebody who is gay and is happy in his personal life but also has had professional success’," Osius said. "I don’t think of it as advocating as much as supporting Vietnamese civil society in doing what it is already doing."

The Communist government’s revised marriage law, while not officially recognising same-sex marriage, and its tolerance of pride events has made Vietnam a leader in gay rights in Southeast Asia, potentially opening up opportunities to attract the tourist "pink dollar" and business executives seeking a more tolerant environment.

Yet young gay Vietnamese say they can be ostracised in a patriarchal society in which heterosexual marriage and parenthood are seen as the path to happiness. The legal changes also sit oddly in a country that more broadly curbs political dissent, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said.