Gay Couple Forced To The Back of the Bus

OK I know this is a transgender blog but this is just too offensive not to raise a fuss over. A Portland couple, Ron McCoy and Chris Bowers flew into Albuquerque New Mexico during pride week and boarded the airport shuttle holding hands.

The driver noticed this and told them that if they were going to hold hands they had to ride in the back of the bus. Not wanting trouble they complied.

Gay couple forced to back of bus

Watch Live the 2nd VietPride - Hanoi của sống Telecast!

VietPride - Hanoi's Live Telecast! According to the website the live broadcast will begin at 5pm Hanoi. click here to see the time differential worldwide, for instance it's minus 12 hours where I live in Dallas. So in Dallas I will need to get up at 5am Sunday to watch.

Local Time in Hanoi:

While its wonderful to see our LGB community making such advancements in Viet Nam it's heartbreaking to know its only gotten worse for transgender people in country.

While the government is seeking the international community to recognize its human rights record it remains “Oppressive.” “Brutal.” “Terrible and worsening.” According to Time  these were some of the fierce editorial lightning bolts to scorch Vietnam’s human-rights reputation last week, hurled in the wake of a surprise 75-minute White House audience for the country’s President Truong Tan Sang. But in Hanoi, capital of the single-party communist state, a silver lining could come from an unlikely source: gay pride. Rainbows will be out in full force for the nation’s second ever Viet Pride festival on Sunday, when a 200-strong bicycle parade will cruise down streets still decorated with hammer-and-sickle billboards, passing landmarks like the resting place of national hero Ho Chi Minh and a statue of Lenin.

Radio ABC Australia paints a even bleak portrait of trans rights pointing out transgender people are being left behind as gay rights surge forward. According to ABC Vietnamese trans people who dare to live authentically are regulated to the most menial low paying jobs and constant harassment. Some left with no options dance at weddings where they are subject to the most demeaning, dehumanizing treatment.

A step backwards....

Two years ago amongst much fanfare Pham Le Quynh Tram joyously became the first Vietnamese transsexual to allowed to change her official documents only to have that revoked January 2013

inching forward...

There is a glimmer of hope on the horizon for transgender Vietnamese citizens with the publishing of the first ever in country biography of a trans person: