Coming out in Hanoi

A gay man in Vietnam tells his story in diary form after 300 hours of interviews with local journalists. Nguyen Van Dung is 41 years old and came out three years ago. It's not a subject you hear discussed much in Vietnam. I can still remember going to a large party in Hanoi some ten years ago when the cops from the "social evils" department arrived. The few gay Vietnamese men who were in attendance were by far the quickest to scarper. I don't think Vietnamese cops take too kindly to homosexuals.

Very few gay people publicly come out in Vietnam. Homosexuality is still a largely taboo subject in the communist-governed, traditionally patriarchal society, long ruled by Confucian social mores and Buddhist beliefs.

The book had a modest first print run of 2,000 copies. But the fact that it was published at all is considered by many here a sign of changing attitudes and greater tolerance in this fast-changing country.

Many gay men, Dung says in the book, have struggled with deep shame for not meeting societal expectations -- marrying, building a family, taking over the house, caring for their ageing parents and producing male offspring.

"If you were born gay," he writes, "no matter whether you are a man or a woman, you were born at a bad time, on a bad day, in a bad month, in a bad year, under a very bad star." link

Comments

[Jonathan]

Thanks for writing about it this - it's a topic of interest to me for various reasons. Do you have any idea if this book will ever be in the US...or do you know if there is anywhere in Viet Nam that it can be ordered from (either in Vietnamese or English)?

[Thang Dao]

Hi,
thanks for writing about this. I am also interested in ordering the book. Could you suggest a way? Thank you.

[Tracey]

I also wonder what it's like being a gay woman in Vietnam... any observations?

[Graham]

I've only quickly looked through Amazon.com and Google, but I can't find any sellers. maybe it is just a local edition? You could try contacting Nguyen Van Dung through his Green Pine organisation to ask him yourself.

[Liem]

Gay themed novels seem to be a hit thing in Vietnam now, i'm sure there are 3-4 "autobiography" titles just hit the shelves this year, what was considered a taboo in recent past, some people just dig harder on the subject.

[Hai Phong Elite]

I think gays are just attention getters nowaday.

"Homosexuality is still a largely taboo subject in the communist-governed, traditionally patriarchal society, long ruled by Confucian social mores and Buddhist beliefs." This sentence is reeked with slanderous backlash from cowards - gay cowards. Communism does not say that gay must be eliminated. Traditional patriarchal society does not implied that gay has no saying (otherwise, we have nothing to speak of in this post now.) Confucian social morals and Buddhist beliefs are not excluding gay from butt fucking... it's grossed yeah... but it's your dick and if you want to stick it to any social collective consciousness where the norm is different... yeah, expect a hammer to come down.