HANOI — Vietnam's first gay sitcom has become a YouTube sensation,
racking up millions of views as support for legalising same-sex marriage
strengthens within the communist government.
Homosexuality was
once seen as a social evil in Vietnam and the success of "My Best Gay
Friends", a low-budget series about three people sharing an apartment in
southern Ho Chi Minh City, has taken even its creator by surprise.
"I
thought it would only interest Vietnam's gay community -- but we're
hearing that parents, grandparents, whole families watch and love the
shows and long for new episodes," Huynh Nguyen Dang Khoa, who also stars
in the series, told AFP.
From moving out of home to work and
relationship trouble, the series details life as a typical
perpetually-broke twenty-something in Vietnam -- but the characters are
mostly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
Khoa decided to make
the show after hearing about the weird but often very amusing
situations faced by a close friend -- who also stars in the sitcom -- as
he came out and began living an openly gay life in Vietnam.
"We
didn't have much money so everyone chipped in -- we had a little cash to
cover equipment, and buying food for when we were shooting all day,"
said Khoa, who used his own digital SLR camera to shoot the whole
series.
Most of the characters are played by Khoa's friends --
both gay and straight -- but Cindy Thai Tai, a well-known transgender
singer who was one of the first Vietnamese celebrities to have
sex-change surgery, also makes an appearance.
"I wanted to show
people that homosexuals have ordinary lives, full of emotion, friends,
family -- very normal lives," said 22-year-old Khoa, who is himself gay.
While
it is not illegal, homosexuality has long been a taboo in Vietnam,
where Confucian social mores -- with their emphasis on tradition and
family -- still dominate.
But in a surprise move last year the
authoritarian government said it was considering legalising same-sex
marriage -- a proposal that recently won the support of the Ministry of
Health.
"People of the same sex have the right to live... love,
find happiness (and) get married," said Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen
Viet Tien.
The move would make Vietnam the second country in the Asia Pacific region to legalise such unions after New Zealand.
Some
symbolic but non-legally binding same-sex weddings have already been
held in Vietnam, with footage of one such event going viral in 2010.
Sociologist
Le Quang Binh told AFP that social attitudes towards the lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community were changing rapidly in
Vietnam at the moment but it was hard to know how much "My Best Gay
Friends" had helped.
"We are lobbying the government on (same-sex
weddings). I hope good change will come," said Binh, who has worked on
numerous research projects on Vietnam's LGBT community.
Even if
Vietnam stops short of allowing gay marriage, any legal change to
recognise same-sex unions would catapult the country to the forefront of
gay rights in Asia, where traditional values dominate many societies
and sodomy is illegal in some.
"My Best Gay Friends" tackles the
issue in episode nine -- the most recent episode which has already been
watched half a million times -- when a lesbian wedding ceremony runs
into problems.
"The couple is female! This wedding goes against
Vietnamese traditions and customs," the manager of a restaurant says as
she forces the wedding party to leave the establishment. "They are
violating the law."
When one flamboyant member of the party --
played by Cindy Thai Tai -- protests, asking "so you think that the
homosexuals have no rights to love and wed each other lawfully?" the
manager quickly explains the establishment has no choice.
"Please
madam, local authorities called us and forced us to cancel this wedding.
If we go against the order we'll get a serious fine!" the manager adds.
The
wedding is quickly moved to an alternative venue and goes ahead -- to
the delight of the couple's friends and family present.
The first
episode of the low-budget series recently passed the one million views
mark and the further eight completed episodes, out of a planned 15, are
swiftly accruing hits.
"I feel a lot of sympathy, and admiration,
towards the friendship and love they show for each other. I think they
live a more beautiful life than ordinary people," read one typical
comment from a viewer, posted on YouTube.
In 2011, curious
Vietnamese filmgoers streamed into cinemas to catch "Lost in Paradise",
which chronicled the doomed love affair between a gay prostitute and a
book seller, providing a rare glimpse into a usually hidden side of the
country.
Despite the online popularity of "My Best Gay Friends"
Khoa said there were no plans to broadcast the series on television as
it was "rather sensitive" and did not appeal to networks or their
advertisers.
