New galleries opened, foreign art collectors took an interest in this relatively unknown country and, although censorship by a watchful regime did not disappear, Vietnamese artists gained some freedoms.
In the 1990s, the contemporary art scene was booming in Hanoi. Since 2012, the country has celebrated gay pride (Viet Pride) annually, and, in 2016, it saw the launch of the first local gay social network, Blued, which sends about 2 million daily messages among users, according to the company.īut even if LGBT rights are still a work in progress in the country, Vietnamese contemporary art has been a pioneer in this realm for decades. Homosexuality was only removed from the official list of mental illnesses in 2001, and it is still largely frowned upon. The May 26 verdict raised the hopes of many LGBT activists throughout the region, especially in China and Vietnam.Īs is all too common worldwide, homophobia causes suffering in Vietnam, where until 2000 it was illegal for gay couples to live together. In an historical decision, Taiwan’s top court has ruled in favour of gay marriage.
