British Minister David Cameron, already a god among Sherlock fans on Weibo who flooded his account in January to thank him for the return of Benedict Cumberbatch (the PM humbly denies having anything to do with this), is now reaching out to followers on his microblog to inspire once again by promoting tolerance of same-sex marriages.
Members of China’s LGBT community said they were touched by Cameron’s message calling for equality following Britain’s first same-sex marriage on Saturday.
“This weekend is an important moment for our country. For the first time, the couples getting married won’t just include men and women – but men and men; and women and women.” he wrote in the message, translated from an article penned by the PM for Pink News. “When people’s love is divided by law, it is the law that needs to change.”
Cameron has over 780,000 followers on his official Weibo account, which he opened in November to help boost ties between China and the UK.
While most of his posts’ topics are related to China and most of his followers’ responses are related to Benedict Cumberbatch, this particular post saw an outpouring of discussion among Weibo’s LGBT community.
“As a Chinese gay man, I am deeply warmed by Cameron’s words,” A Qaing, a Guangzhou-based gay rights activist was quoted as saying in an SCMP article. “This will definitely inspire the Chinese to fight for equal marriage rights.”
“Most lawmakers we’ve talked to either never thought gay rights was an issue or didn’t believe it’s an urgent topic,” he said.
“We need to come together and take action to make ourselves heard,” he added.
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
© 2005-2018 Shanghaiist - China in bite-sized portions!