Winton Dong

    dht620@sina.com

    ON June 12, a 29-year-old gunman named Omar Mateen carried an assault rifle and a pistol and shot dead 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, committing the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

    While the violence could have hit any American community, “this is an especially heartbreaking day for our friends who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT),” U.S. President Barack Obama said in an address to the nation.

    The Orlando massacre has also aroused great public concern and put the situation of LGBT people worldwide into the spotlight.

    As a visiting scholar in the University of Chicago last year, I paid a visit to the city’s Boystown. It is an area in the north of the city within the Lakeview East Community, known for its concentration of LGBT residents. It is also the first officially recognized gay village in the United States. In the 1930s and 1940s, Chicago LGBT people mainly called the River North their home. As the River North developed into rich neighborhoods and downtown areas, rent price rose to the point that many LGBT residents had to move to the north of Lincoln Park. What is now called Boystown started to become the new heart of Chicago’s LGBT community.

    In the Lakeview East Community, one can see rainbow flags here and there. Rainbow flags are a symbol of the LGBT community and were designed by American Gilbert Baker in 1968. A rainbow has seven colors. However, a rainbow flag has only six colors, namely red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. It is said that the six colors represent life, healing, sunlight, nature, harmony and spirit. Why is one color absent? There are many explanations to the absence, and the commonly accepted version is that LGBT people think that straight people with prejudice against them will lose one color from their lives.

    As a developed nation, the United States is more tolerant of people’s sexual identities. On June 25, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is a legal right across the country. With the implementation of the verdict, the 14 states (such as Ohio, Georgia and others) that banned same-sex marriage could no longer enforce the ban.

    Even in tolerant countries like the United States, an extreme terrorist attack targeting an LGBT community still happened. So what is the present situation of LGBT people in China?

    China has never released the official figures about the LGBT community in the country. But it is a conservative guess that around 3 to 5 percent of the total population fall into this category. Based on China’s population of more than 1.3 billion, it is estimated that the number of LGBT people is between 40 and 70 million.

    So far, China has not stipulated any law or regulation to acknowledge same-sex marriage, not to mention protecting their rights. According to deep-rooted Chinese traditions, even if LGBT people get married and live together secretly in China, it is virtually impossible for them to get blessings from their family and acceptance from the public.

    I am happy to see that China, especially in first-tier cities, is making progress in this aspect. Last month, a job fair for LGBT people was held in Shanghai. Besides Chinese companies, multinationals such as Starbucks, L’Oreal, PwC, Ford and Morgan Stanley took part in the job fair. All the employers pledged their support for inclusive policies for LGBT employees, including prohibiting LGBT workplace discrimination and creating a welcoming environment that allows LGBT employees a voice in the organization.

    As we all know, justice requires sacrifice, suffering and even struggle. Beside support from society, I think that LGBT people all over the world still have a long way to go pursuing equal rights.

    (The author is the editor-in-chief of the Shenzhen Daily with a Ph.D. from the Journalism and Communication School of Wuhan University.)