Video / Family Matters

Come out come out wherever you are!
Hide-and-seek has always been a favourite game of the queer community. For centuries, the majority of the gay population played it according to the societal rules; you needed to make sure that nobody could find out about your queer self, so you hid your gayness away in the most comfortable closet you could find: toilets, parks, sauna’s, bars, the internet…
Nowadays, the game has been reversed. For millions of queer people around the world it’s not about finding the best closet anymore, it’s about finding the best way to come out of it. They realize that the real game is not about obeying the societal rules: it’s about changing them.
In China, just like everywhere else in the world, parents are often seen as a big hurdle you have to overcome when you want to lead your queer life in the open. How do you explain to them that your idea of happiness doesn’t involve marrying a person of the other sex? How do you let them know that even though you’re queer you’re still the same kid that they have raised for all these years? How do you keep their loving support in a world which doesn’t always approve of homosexuality?
In this episode of Queer Comrades, you’ll get some tips from two members of the Beijing LGBT Centre who courageously took up the discussion with their parents. At the same time, we’ll introduce you to two parents who turned from obstacles into allies: both Sun Baba from Dalian and Wu Mama from Guangzhou took up the rainbow flag after they heard their sons were gay and are helping parents and kids from all over the world to gain queer harmony.
In the end, love comes out comes out whoever you are – enjoy it, feel it, trust it!