By Zhang Molan, President of Northern Light Publishing House 5 October 2012
My blood boils, and that is what I feel every time I participate in the Gay Pride Parade.
In the beginning, there were only a few thousand people at the Gay Pride Parade, and then it became more and more powerful every year, and gradually many gay friends from neighboring Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and Malaysia came to participate in the Gay Pride Parade from thousands of miles away.
I still remember in 1997, there was an album of Taiwanese gay music compositions [Touch], in which the first line of the song "Seriously in Love" is sung like a sob: "Do not dare to easily push open the window, do I have the same sunshine .......".
When I once realized that my lover was actually of the same sex, I found it so frightening and humiliating that I didn't dare to hold hands with my lover on the street, let alone behave in any way that would make people suspect that we were a couple.
Can we hold our heads up high even if we're homosexuals? Can we walk in the sunshine?
Yes, the Gay Pride Parade is all about being able to take to the streets unapologetically and enjoy the blessings of everyone, just like all the lovers in the world.
In the beginning, I always went alone with my friends, shouting and waving flags with my buddies so the world could see us. However, I knew I wanted more than that.
I also want to have the same sunshine, I also want to be justified and lover hand in hand in front of the public, without hiding to let people know that we love each other.
Finally, in 2007, my lover and I joined the Gay Pride Parade for the first time, hand in hand.
The excitement of that day was unforgettable. Walking in the march with my lover, I felt deeply proud of myself for being gay and for being willing to take to the streets for this purpose, precisely because homosexuality often has to go through more obstacles, and so it is all the more important for us to gather once a year to defend and fight for our rights in a sensational way, and I felt deeply proud of myself for being willing to do whatever it takes to make love work for us!
Every year when we went to the Gay Pride Parade, the shock and emotion was beyond words. I always remember that as we walked along the street, people on the buses would look at us with endless curiosity, and people who were willing to support us in the restaurants we passed would wave in support of us.
And I love getting together with so many LGBT groups and watching people express themselves in beautiful outfits that show everyone that LGBT people are so beautiful and that we live so proudly.
We don't have to shrink back and hide in dark corners just because there is a lot of discrimination from the ignorant public and ignorant organizations. On the contrary, precisely because we will always be discriminated against, we have to hold our heads up high and live more openly and comfortably.
When I participated in the annual Gay Pride March, I was not only proud of myself and all the friends who were willing to walk together in the sunshine to fight for the rights and visibility of gays and lesbians, but I also felt immensely blessed that we were willing to work together in this way to make the event a success.
The happiest thing about being gay is not having a loving partner, but knowing that there are many, many people who are willing to fight for our rights, to work for each other, to take to the streets together, and to show the world what a proud community we are!
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