Mayor Ed Murray and husband Michael Shiosaki (Photo by George Liu/NWAW)
By Assunta Ng
Mayor Ed Murray and his husband Michael Shiosaki got married immediately after the same-sex marriage law was legalized in Washington state in 2012. The couple has been together for over two decades.
What works in our state doesn’t work well in other parts of the world. Homosexuality is taboo in China, even though it was legalized in 1997. It was only in 2001 that homosexuality was removed from the official list of mental illnesses in China.
While in China, Murray made references to his husband, and some Chinese in the audience rolled their eyes.
Murray said he should have brought his husband along for the trip. Shiosaki told the Northwest Asian Weekly he stayed behind in Seattle to care for his sick mother. And that it would have been an eyeful for the Chinese had he accompanied Murray.
Some believed that what Murray shared was not appropriate.
Last week, a male Chinese immigrant came to our office and asked me, “Do you agree with homosexuality?”
“I am not myself, but I wouldn’t want to impose my belief on others,” I replied. “I respect people’s differences.”
He looked at me with disbelief and anger, and stormed out of our office.
Why did you feel the need to first label your own sexual orientation?
If somebody asks you if you support gender equality, would you say, “I am not a woman, but I respect people’s differences?”
I appreciate your intentions. But a great myth is that others are given the choice of agreeing or disagreeing with an innate and immutable part of a person’s genetic makeup. As a white person, I don’t go around wondering if I agree with the existence of Asian people. It simply is.
Just like queer folks.
I frankly find the level of bigotry and hatred in this article astounding. If this Asian immigrant you reference doesn’t want to live in a free and open society why didn’t he stay in China? He doesn’t have the right to bring the repression the hatred and repression of China to Seattle.