Where are the Happy Homosexuals?

Hong Kong?s attitude towards homosexuality hasn?t developed as fast as its infrastructure. Photo by bernard_in_va via Flickr.

In the nineteen years I have lived in Hong Kong, every gay character I have seen on local television has been at least one of the following: (a) evil (b) a corpse (and not the fun, reanimated kind) (c)rebuffed by their object of affection, who turns out to be straight d)?the stereotypically gay male, more caricature than character, whose effeminate mannerisms are exaggerated for comic effect.

The lack of positive visibility on local television is hardly surprising in this socially conservative city, where laws against discrimination on grounds of sexuality do not exist in the private sector and have been missing from the legislative agenda since the early 1990s. As the Hong Kong public tends to be rather vocal about what it wants, public opinion does have an effect on the activities of the Legislative Council. The lack of anti-discrimination legislation, then, is telling of the general attitude towards homosexuality in Hong Kong.

The sexuality of gay characters is almost invariably introduced as a plot-twist.? In crime procedurals, the twist may be that the victim-of-the-week, the macho gangster, was killed by his jilted, male lover (see: Armed Reaction).? In the prime-time dramas that revolve around some banal premise or other, the producers might flirt with controversy by having a character declare his or her love for another character of ? gasp! ? the same sex; before the audience can come to terms with the prospect of a same-sex relationship appearing on their screens, however, the recipient of the declaration quickly rebuffs the homosexual?s advances.? To further preserve the status quo, the rejector enters into a heterosexual relationship if he or she is not already in one (see: Let it be Love); the rejected may fly off to a different country, never to be seen again (see: Pages of Treasures).? (A quick caveat: when the characters involved are both female, expect the rejecting and fleeing to happen only after they have kissed.)

The way the local media treats openly gay celebrities is hardly more reassuring.? Anthony Wong, a local singer, raised eyebrows earlier this year when he came out onstage at the end of a concert.? Any hopes of Wong?s coming-out story sending a message about the normalcy of homosexuality were dashed when a local magazine, Ming Pao Weekly, published an interview with him.? Their cover featured a photo of Wong staring listlessly into the distance, accompanied by the caption: ?The Complications of Coming Out: Anthony Wong Fears Dragging Others Down with Him?.

That said, our local gossip rags have shown on occasion that they do possess the capacity not to run headlines solely at the expense of celebrities rumoured to be gay.? This seemed to be the case last month when an actor, Wilfred Lau, announced to the press that he was dating actress/singer Joey Yung, and a series of dramatic events unfolded: another celebrity, Denise Ho (who, at various points in time, had been rumoured to have been dating one or the other) unfollowed Lau on Weibo (a Chinese internet service similar to Twitter), wrote a post about betrayal, and flew off to Taiwan, allegedly to deal with the heartbreak.? The media has been surprisingly blas? about the homosexual aspect of all this, and has treated the Ho/Yung corner of this alleged love triangle like they would a heterosexual relationship: many news outlets have assumed that such a relationship in fact existed despite the lack of express confirmation from either party, and have bestowed upon them the traditional portmanteau relationship moniker.? Even more interestingly, the sense of schadenfreude that inevitably laces celebrity news items has been at the expense of Lau, not Ho: Lau has been accused of capitalising on Yung?s greater fame and success, and media reports of furious fans flooding his Weibo page with angry comments abound.

It is undeniable that Western culture has affected the way Hongkongers think about homosexuality: for example, the expressions ?coming out of the closet? and ?Brokeback? (from Brokeback Mountain) have been incorporated into the everyday lexicon.? However, returning to the topic of television, it would perhaps be too optimistic to expect broadcasts of programmes from more socially liberal countries to ameliorate the damage local television has wreaked on gay visibility.? To start with, the average American (or British) television show is hardly teeming with gay characters, let alone well-developed ones; as it happens, not one of the shows in this season?s local free-to-view line-ups features a recurring gay character.? Glee, widely (if sometimes undeservedly) hailed as a trailblazer in improving visibility for minorities, is not currently available on free-to-view channels; instead, it airs on Star World, a pay-to-view channel.

Even those who pay extra to watch Glee on their televisions here do not watch the same version of the show that airs in the US; instead every scene involving overt homosexual affection has been cut.? The most Blaine and Kurt, and Brittany and Santana, ever do is hold hands in the background, hug, and have deep, meaningful, semi-truncated conversations.? Two decisions not to edit scenes stand in stark, worrying contrast to this.? In one, Star World has left intact kisses between ? to name but three of the heterosexual relationships that have appeared on this show ? Finn and Rachel, Will and Emma, and Mike and Tina, clearly suggesting that it is the sexuality of the characters involved, and not the physical display of affection, that motivates the decision to censor.? For another, the scene where a gay teen attempts to commit suicide was also left unedited.

Some might argue that the systematic removal of the handful of scenes where teenagers are shown kissing other teenagers of the same sex is unproblematic; after all, Hong Kong viewers still get to know Hiram and Leroy, the delightful gay dads of Rachel Berry; we still hear Santana refer to Brittany as her girlfriend; we still see Quinn firmly defending homosexuality to the God Squad.? However, that would be completely missing the point: the very fact that the scenes depicting the simplest, clearest act of affection between homosexual couples are removed suggests that there?s something wrong with them.? Add to this the idea that it is somehow fine for viewers to see homosexual teens be bullied and outed, but not to see them kiss the ones they love, and these editing choices become indefensible.

Source: http://toglobalist.org/2012/07/where-are-the-happy-homosexuals/

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