Christian vandalizes giant Pride month mural in Bangkok.
It does warn the LGBT in Thailand what a menace Christians can be. It verifies what Thai already think about Christians.
Subscriptions are free.
Buddhist Thailand is fairly solid on supporting the LGBT.
It is roughly 94% Buddhist, 5% Muslim and 1% Christian. The Muslims have been here for centuries and are part of the multicultural tolerant society.
Besides a huge Pride parade on a major downtown street June 1, 2024, there are pride walks and displays everywhere.
Thailand is one of the leading producers of a genera called BL, short for the Japanese Boyzu Lovu, which are romances written by women for women, about two men falling in love and some type of same sex activity. Women like them since they can have their wild fantasies, but feel safe since they are projected onto men. They are known as fujoshi, (rotten girls).
This article is out of date to some extent. There are now Korean BLs, Chinese BLs, Vietnamese BLs, and Philippine BLs as well as Thai BLs, but it will give you the basic idea. Also, current fans have a somewhat a more realistic views of same sex love and sex, but not all that much. It isn’t just anime either. They are long novels and they get made into TV series that are real actors.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-japanese-women-who-love-gay-anime
It has a huge global following in the tens of millions. More critically for Thailand it is recognized as a form of soft power for Thailand, earning the nation a tremendous amount of good will.
From Thai English language media.
https://www.nationthailand.com/lifestyle/entertainment/40032087
https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thailands-bl-series-have-increased-thailands-soft-power/
Academic Media
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-09374-6_7
I won’t go into this rising global phenomenon too much, but to point out that it is seen as a media that supports Thailand’s national interests globally in multiple ways.
It is not accidental that the Thailand Parliament passed laws for Gay marriage by a margin of 400 for it, 10 against it, 5 abstaining.
https://thediplomat.com/2024/03/thailands-parliament-passes-landmark-marriage-equality-bill
So anti-Gay actions are against the Thai national interest.
Some BL online.
The writers and viewers are straight women. However, these are a few places you can go to see BL for free. Every BL fan will be a serious opponent of homophobia, so let people know.
GMMTV
https://www.youtube.com/@gmmtv
You will have to scroll down to the BL section. Some of them are intolerable for a Gay man to watch, som are okay. They do have georestrictions.
Scroll down to BL.
https://www.viki.com/categories
“Addicted” is free and is the classic BL from mainland China.
https://www.viki.com/tv/30705c-addicted
The vandalism
This art project was at the Samyan Mitrtown shopping center. This shopping center is next to one of the major universities, Chulalongkorn. By the way. The students wear outfits just like in the BL series.
They had all sorts of rainbow pride walks, arches, and other things. One of the thinks was the art wall.
This is a picture of it outside. Individuals got to participate. The inflatable you see down the way which is roughly 30 feet tall is part of another large Pride display. This is only one of many things I saw in Bangkok for Pride.
A Christian didn’t like it and added this to the art wall.
He wrote lots of remarks along the wall. Note the handwriting is the same.
The above is most of it. The Christian put a lot of effort into it. I don’t know if they caught the perpetrator.
East Asia provides a preview of what Christianity will develop into without constraints of Western values. I think we are beginning to see this already.
Impact
Thais won’t be that surprised by this. There is an ongoing issue with Korean Christians attacking Buddhist temples in South Korea. The Buddhist world in Asia is well aware of this. (The American media has not breathed a word about this issue.) The following are some articles. Notice that some are outside Korea.
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2024/05/113_78223.html
https://buddhistcouncil.org.au/index.php/news/vandalism-and-arson-of-buddhist-temples-in-korea
https://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=89,11172,0,0,1,0
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/3495/pdf
https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20201106000635
https://porchlight.ca/~blackdog/siege.htm
This is a report in Sir Lanka. Buddhists are aware of what is happening in South Korea.
This vandalism will promote a negative reaction against Christianity.
I think that the LGBT in Thailand will see this vandalism as a warning of how Christians endanger their security.
For Buddhists it is a warning that the type of Christians that would burn a temple in South Korea exist in Thailand.
For Thai it is a warning that there are some Christian opposed to the national interest.
Muslims
They have existed for generations in Bangkok and are part of this multicultural society. They aren’t a force against the LGBT. Down by Malaysia on the pennisular south there are conflicts more of a national type. I am not fully informed on Muslims in Bangkok, but it doesn’t seem to be an issue for Gays. I saw women with hijabs at the Pride parade. When I visited some of the famous Buddhist temples four tourist, quite a few Muslim tourists were there having fun viewing the Buddhist temple and the Hindu Gods.
Other thoughts
We tend to think of the United States and Europe as the center of the LGBT world. There is an emerging Gay world in East and Southeast Asia which will be a major Gay world with its own history and developments. We should be observant to see what we might learn. We should also recognize that there might be social forces which are powerful and could be allies.
I am going to write about BL since it has continued to emerge globally as a cultural phenomenon, including Africa, and it is growing in the United States. On its own it looks like it will steam roll homophobic Christianity.
