Xinyu Wen traveled to Thailand in June, planning a two-week vacation around Bangkok’s Pride parade. But the 28-year-old ended up staying a month and a half, soaking up the Thai capital’s thriving LBGTQ+ community.
Xinyu Wen traveled to Thailand in June, planning a two-week vacation around Bangkok’s Pride parade. But the 28-year-old ended up staying a month and a half, soaking up the Thai capital’s thriving LBGTQ+ community.
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At home, Wen said she regularly gets judgmental stares on the street for wearing her hair short like a man’s, and was once asked by her barber: “What happened to your life?”
More than that, she said she was also impressed by the protest element to the event, in which people carried signs written in traditional Chinese with slogans like “China has no LGBTQ” and “Freedom is what we deserve.”
“Although I initially had a critical attitude toward the parade in Bangkok because discrimination against LGBTQ individuals hasn’t disappeared, I still felt inspired because the neglected groups and the suppressed feelings matter here.”
Thailand Tourism Authority official Apichai Chatchalermkit said in an Aug. 9 article in The Nation newspaper that LGBTQ+ tourists are considered “high-potential” as they tend to spend more and travel more frequently than other visitors.
Being gay is not illegal in China, though other Asian countries have strict laws around homosexuality — such as Malaysia, which announced in August that anyone in possession of an LGBTQ±themed watch could be jailed for 3 years.
The 28-year-old, who works in the television industry, first visited Thailand four years ago and remembers being shocked to hear people talk casually about their same-sex partners.
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