Ang Lee: Asians More Accepting Of Gays Than Americans

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/01/012106lee.htm

Director Ang Lee says Asian audiences are generally more accepting of gay subject matter than Americans.

"I think there's pressure to condemn (homosexuality) in their (Americans') religion which causes their homophobia," Lee said Saturday at an event to promote his new film, the gay cowboy romance "Brokeback Mountain."

Lee noted one of his previous movies about a gay couple, "The Wedding Banquet," received a less restrictive rating in his native Taiwan than in the United States.

A great description of the methods of discipline that the Right-wing uses on their followers. Very well said.

Let us take as our tactic: "the pressure to uplift."

that says it all.

Technically Israelis are Asian. Does he mean them too?

He's painting with a rather broad brush IMHO.

I've never heard that before.

are Asian.

The worst offenders. (And they happen to be the most Christian too.)

Most of the Filipinos I know have no problem with homosexuality. To the contrary, they're almost offensively pro-gay. (For instance, my mom and aunts think that every gay guy is adorable and perfect.)

As a transgender woman with a male teenage experience, I nevertheless tried to get away with a feminine presentation as much as I could. I went to a high school with a very diverse mix of Asian nationalities - and the worst crap came from the Koreans and the Filipinos. Others were very cool to me.

I know transgender women of Filipino background, and one of them, who's well traveled throughout Asia, does describe the Philippines as the worst.

But then, exceptions always exist even in the most hostile cultures. I've had a few Koreans who were cool with me (and South Korea's trans culture is starting to take off, I hear).

One thing though - Asians tend to treat me as a hyperfeminine gay man, never as a woman. That didn't sit with me well.

I'm not transgendered myself, but during my teenage years I looked and acted very effeminate. I have a biracial ethnic heritage; my mother is Filipino and my father is Irish. I look more hispanic, and grew up in Southern California.

Most of the Filipinos I knew were somewhat accepting but seemed to be less so if they were more recently immigrated. I did observe that the more out gay men and women who were less Americanized were also more stereotypically gay with speech and mannerisms. I'm not sure why. I thought it was because some made a choice and went completely in the opposite end of the spectrum and were either very closeted or very exaggerated in mannerisms. It did seem just from seeing others at gatherings or when I visited the Phillipines that there was less tolerance and therefore more of an attempt to try to fit in with the society view of how to act publicly.

There were lots of portrayals of gays and lesbians in films and media of the Phillipines, but they were so stereotyped as to be offensive.

All of my father's family was in New York and we weren't close, so I didn't see how things were there, but I had a pretty good idea, knowing that my father grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and a traditional Irish-Catholic family.

And Buddhism never developed the virulent homophobia found in Christianity. Objections to homosexuality in Buddhist countries are almost always along the lines of, "You will fulfil your obligations to family and you will get married and you will have as many children as you can" and not the Talibangelical argument of "If you ever have sex with anyone other than your first lawfully wedded spouse, you will not only burn in Hell for ever and ever, you will drag your entire family, community and country along with you."

Two months ago, I was in South Korea, finding out that in that country, homophobic-as-hell Christianity is considered the "progressive" religion. Buddhism is practiced in the conservative rural regions, and is WORSE than Christianity on gay matters.

I wouldn't want to be gay (or even worse, tranny) in that society.

I know this is a fairly old post, and probably out of most peoples minds. But I feel its important to point out that there were a lot of generalizations being made that don't do justice scope of Asian nationalities, religions, and cultures.

First off, Ang himself fell into the trap of making generalizations by remarking about 'Asians' but its fairly obvious he's referring to Chinese people in his comment, specifically ones from Taiwan. Now whether or not his statement is true can be debated but that was the scope of his comment.

However, it does bring into question what exactly is an Asian. Technically, its anyone from the Asian continent. This includes China, Japan, SE Asian countries like India, Philippines, and Middle Eastern countries. This spans an enormously diverse population of people, so really its impossible to generalize anything in terms of being "Asian".

Already many of you have come up with examples and counter-examples, most of which are generalizations in themselves based on singular incidences. This is where I felt the most 'triggered', in that these statements are basically stereotypes, lumping groups of people under umbrella ideas and behaviors. This is specifically the kind of thinking we want to challenge because as queer people we face the same stereotyping at home. Now think of the kind of challenges we queer people of color must face everyday.

Last week we had the MLK holiday, this week is 'Stop the Hate'. We can defeat the institutions of discrimination and hate by acknowledging stereotypes exist and actively fighting to dismantle them. It doesn't matter if they target LGBT, people of color, people with disabilities, young, old..all kinds of discrimination are related. And breaking down one, weakens the credibility of the others.

Thank you.. soapbox done. Sorry, I just had to let it out.

"There are gays all over the world... but not in Korea!"
Sometimes there is an acceptance of gays in general, but not within your own culture.

Somehow the neocons that make up the Korean-American community proudly claim Margaret Cho as one of their own - but refuse to talk about her sexuality and politics.