From: Felix of Southeast Asia
Sent: Thu, November 19, 2009 7:07:20 AM
Subject: Homosexuality in Ancient China (By Rose Wu)

PART 1
Homosexuality in Ancient China
By Rose Wu, then director of Hong Kong Christian Institute (circa 2000)

In terms of homosexual and transsexual culture, many people think that Chinese society is more
repressive than Western society. Some Chinese people even claim that homosexuality was
imported from the West. They believe it was never an issue in Chinese culture previously.

However, ancient Chinese literature point to a different reality. According to the most
representational study, The History of Homosexuality in China by Xiaomingxiong,7
homo-, bi-, and transsexual practices were very common phenomena. Many Chinese emperors
were fond of male companionship and openly practiced pederasty. Women in the palace also
formed couples known as dui shi, literally meaning “paired eating.”8
Other popular examples in Chinese history include male homosexuals in Fujian Province9 and
tzu-shu nü and chin-lan hui in Shunde in Guangdong Province.10

Many classical Chinese novels, operas, songs, and poems were full of male-male, female-female
romances, like the stories of Pao Yu, Chin Zhong, Zheng Yuxian, and Xie Bao in Hong Lou Meng
(The Dream of the Red Chamber)11 and the first gay novel, Pin Hua Bao Jing (Precious Mirror
for Gazing at Flowers)12 in the Qing Dynasty.

According to Chau Wah-san, the English word homosexual does not have the same meaning in
the Chinese language because in Chinese culture sex can only be used to identify an act, a
relationship, or a sex role. It is not used to denote certain categories of people as the Western
meanings of homosexual and heterosexual do. Transvestitism and transsexuality were commonly
practiced and accepted in Chinese society, such as the roles of eunuchs as homosexual lovers
or comforters for the emperors13 and the cross-dressing male actresses.14

Most transvestites were male actors portraying female characters in Chinese operas. Although
they were adored for their feminine roles, in real life, they were marginalized like male prostitutes.
While traditional Chinese culture was tolerant towards sexual minorities, this open attitude
towards homosexuality and a transsexual culture was based on the hierarchy of gender and
class. Only male elites in society had the privilege to exercise their sexual freedom. Many women
and people of lower classes lived under the triple oppression of patriarchalism, heterosexism,
and feudalism.

According to Xiaomingxiong, homosexuality was tolerated and accepted only when it was not
threatening to the basic heterosexual family structure. Men were allowed to have sex with other
men; but they were also expected to fulfill the duty of husbands and fathers. Thus, in Chinese
tradition, oppression towards sexual minorities was not based on their sexual behavior as non-
heterosexuals. Homosexuals, bisexuals, and transsexuals were not treated as abnormal or sinful.
Rather, discrimination was based on gender and class hierarchy of society. Compared with the
explicit homophobic culture of the West, Xiaomingxiong described the Chinese homophobic
culture as an implicit homophobia.

Tolerant attitude towards homo-, bi-, and transsexuality continued until the Song (960-1279 C.E.)
and Ming (1368-1644 C.E.) dynasties as the emperors at that time wanted to use Confucianism
as the only authoritative ideology to rule the country. As a result, Neo-Confucianism became a
rigid, moralistic, and oppressive religious philosophy imposed on society. It stressed familial duty
and moral asceticism. However, homosexuality maintained a high profile in sources from the
Song and subsequent dynasties, despite the strict moral codes on sexuality by Neo-Confucians
and the enactment of laws discouraging male prostitution.

Legislation to Eliminate Discrimination

Shifts in Chinese attitudes towards sexuality began in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries when China was threatened by European powers. At this time, some intellectuals
began the May Fourth Movement (1919)16 to push for the modernization of China, a movement
that favored many Western ideologies, systems, and values. Science and democracy were the
two major themes of the movement. They believed that by adopting aspects of Western
civilization China would be transformed from a backward society to a modern and scientific
country. Consequently, the Western Christian view of sex and homosexuality gradually influenced
Chinese societies, particularly Hong Kong after British colonization.

As history shows, the importation of Christianity into China accompanied European
imperialism, which created a golden opportunity for Christian missionaries to set up
churches, schools, and hospitals in many parts of China. As a result, Western Christian culture
was introduced and slowly influenced the local Christian community in China.

However, this cross-cultural process was under the colonial construction of the East-West binary
relationship through which the West defined itself as the norm against the East – the “other” - a
justification for Western imperial domination.

One major criticism that Christian missionaries made about Chinese traditions involved issues of
marriage and sexuality. Judging Chinese practices of polygamy and homo-, bi-, and transsexual
behavior as deviant, missionaries tried to impose Christian norms of sex and marriage, setting a
moral standard in which sex is only permitted in a heterosexual marriage relationship. Thus,
polygamous, homo-, bi-, and transsexual behaviors were all condemned as sinful and immoral
acts.

Notes:

7 Xiaomingxiong, The History of Homosexuality in China (Hong Kong: Siuming and Rosa Winkel
Press, 1997), 4-21.

8 Bret Hinsch, “Lesbianism in Imperial China,” in Passions of The Cut Sleeve: The Male
Homosexual Tradition in China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990), 174.

9 Xiaomingxiong, 170. According to Xiaomingxiong, male homosexual practices were very popular
in Fujian during the Ming period. One of the reasons was that Fujian was a province from which
many fishermen and seamen lived and worked overseas. Therefore, male homosexuality was an
openly accepted practice.

10 Ibid, 302. The tzu-shu nü in Shunde was a well-known tradition in Qing and contemporary
times. Those women who decided to join the community house were called “old maids” because
they had to leave their own family and vowed not to marry as a lifelong covenant. Most of them
earned their living through silk production. Their ceremony of receiving new members was like
receiving a bride. The woman would be taken to the temple. Her hair would be tied up as a
symbol of her special status in society. A cock would be killed, and the woman would drink the
blood as a sign of her covenant with the community. For some women, they would find another
woman with whom they wanted to live, and they would form a couple called chin-lan hui. After
making their vows to each other in the official ceremony, the women were supposed to live
together like a married couple and not live apart.

11 Hong Lou Meng is one of the world’s most well-known Chinese novels written by Tso Jin in the
eighteenth century. The story presents a very clear picture about the corruption of Chinese
feudal families and society in the Qing period.

12 Xiaomingxiong, 377. Pin Hua Bao Jing was the first Chinese novel with stories primarily about
male homosexuals among the male actors in Beijing who played the roles of women. The author
Chan Shum spent 12 years (1838-1850) writing this book.

13 Ibid, 348-60. The culture of Chinese eunuchs was not the only exception. Eunuchs were also
popular in
Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Turkish histories. In China, they were found as early as the Chou
Dynasty (1122-500 B.C.E.) until 1900 C.E.

14 Ibid, 323-25. According to Chinese tradition, only males were allowed to be trained as opera
actors and actresses. Therefore, many men joined the opera school to be trained and later to act
as actresses. Very often they were expected to play their female roles even offstage. Many of
these male actresses also provided sexual services to the male elites of society.

16 During the Opium War, China was attacked by many large Western European powers. Since
then, many Chinese intellectuals have realized that China would remain a very backward country
compared with the Western world unless it transformed itself. The rise of the May Fourth
Movement was a response begun by intellectuals that advocated the need to learn from the West
and to change China into a modern country. As a result, many Western cultural values were
adopted by these intellectuals, including the norm of heterosexual
marriage.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Felix of Southeast Asia
Sent: Sat, November 21, 2009 6:04:34 AM
Subject: The Homosexual Struggle in Hong Kong's Legislation

PART 2
The Homosexual Struggle in Hong Kong’s Legislation
By Rose Wu

How did the colonial discourse on sexuality manifest itself in Hong Kong’s legislation? Since the
beginning of British colonization, Hong Kong inherited the British common law system which was
deeply influenced by the nineteenth-century Victorian prejudice against male homosexuality. As a
result, sodomy was criminalized, and death penalty for homosexuality was instituted. This was
abolished when Britain’s Offenses against the Persons Act was extended to Hong Kong in 1865
and the highest penalty for criminalization of homosexual acts between two male adults (over the
age of 2l) in any public and private place was changed to a life sentence. This criminal law was
not overturned until 1991, after almost 10 years of struggle and resistance. It should be noted
that in 1969 Hong Kong government tried to introduce decriminalization of male homosexual acts
in Hong Kong after Britain’s amendment of its own criminal law in 1967, but this attempt was
rejected by the majority of Chinese elites and organizations.

As the issue of decriminalizing male homosexual acts became debated publicly, majority of Hong
Kong people took a conservative position against homosexuality and assumed that this was a
bad cultural practice introduced from the West. The church was one of the major voices fighting
against decriminalization because of its desire to protect the Christian value of marriage and the
Chinese family structure. There were a few Christian groups, including the Hong Kong Women
Christian Council (HKWCC) and the Student Christian Movement (SCM) that took a prophetic
stance with other feminist and human rights groups to support the decriminalization of male
homosexual acts in Hong Kong. The debate continued until 1991 when Hong Kong’s Legislative
Council finally abolished the Law that made male homosexual acts a criminal offense.

In late 1993, Legislative Councilor Anna Wu urged the Hong Kong government to introduce an
Equal Opportunities Bill which would cover many types of discrimination such as based on
gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, race, political and religious beliefs, union membership,
and previous criminal record. The government delayed the process for a year until the end of
1994 when, under tremendous public pressure, it finally introduced two bills.

One was the Sex Discrimination Ordinance enacted on June 28, 1995 which prohibits
discrimination based on gender, marital status, and pregnancy as well as sexual harassment.

One month later the Disability Discrimination Ordinance was passed, prohibiting
discrimination, harassment, and slander on the grounds of disability. In addition, the
legislation created an Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) in 1996 to oversee
enforcement of these new anti-discrimination laws. However, the church was exempted from
these ordinances based on the principle of religious freedom.

Unfortunately, the government was successful in lobbying the legislature in 1995 to defeat
additional legislative proposals that would have prohibited discrimination on other grounds – e.g.
sexual orientation, age, and race. The major forces opposed to protecting people with different
sexual orientations were business, religious and pro-Chinese government groups.

Their argument was that society has different opinions and levels of acceptance towards
homosexuals and that most people have very limited knowledge about homosexuality; therefore,
public education must be strengthened before introducing any legislation. Instead of introducing
equal opportunity legislation, the government established a special fund to promote equal
opportunities for people with different sexual orientations.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Felix of Southeast Asia
Sent: Tue, November 24, 2009 4:13:25 AM
Subject: Struggle for representation and resistance by LGBT groups in Hong Kong

Part 3
Struggle for Representation and Resistance in Hong Kong
By Rose Wu

In a study done by Chau Wah-san, there was no particular term to identify sexual minorities in
Hong Kong before the 1970s. News media generally associated homosexuality with certain sexual
behaviors between male homosexuals, and which were related to criminal offenses.

Female homosexuals were not visible because only male homosexuals were bound by the law
and its penalties. Therefore, many people wrongly believed that homosexuality only occurred
among males. In fact, one characteristic of sexual minority communities from the 1960s to the
1970s was that they were dominated by either white males or Chinese male elites who were once
educated in the West. The existence of lesbians and bi- and transsexual people was not at all
recognized by the public and mass media.18

Since the mid-1980s, the social and political atmosphere has been much more open in Hong
Kong. More feminist and human rights groups have been formed, which has affected the public
debate on the issue of homosexuality. Moreover, after the decriminalization of male homosexual
acts in 1991, many local gay and lesbian groups were registered as non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), such as the 10 Percent Club and Horizons.

Although these changes have opened up more public space for homosexuals in Hong Kong,
lesbians have still been treated as second-class members of the homosexual movement. This
phenomenon is illustrated by the use of language. For instance, the Chinese word kei, the same
pronunciation as gay, became popular to identify all homosexuals. However, according to Anson
Mak and Mary Ann King, the founding members of Zimei-Tongzhi (Queer Sisters),19 very few
female homosexuals would call themselves kei because it delegates women to a subordinate role
as it is normally associated with male homosexuals. Female homosexuals would usually call
themselves tzu kei yau, meaning buddies from the same community, or ngaw hai, meaning I am,
because they refuse to use any label that restricts them to a specific social identity.

The word tongzhi first appeared as a word to identify gays and lesbians in the bulletin of a local
Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in 1988. After that, the word was well-received by all sexual
minorities in Hong Kong and was commonly used by many gay and lesbian organizations as well
as the media. The word tongzhi has spread beyond the borders of Hong Kong to China, Taiwan,
and other overseas Chinese gay and lesbian communities.

Why was the word tongzhi so attractive to the Chinese? According to Mak and King, tongzhi is a
word of multiple meanings and possible interpretations.20

The literal meaning of tongzhi means “common goals and aspirations” in Chinese.
Chau explains that there are many good reasons for using tongzhi as a word to name the
translesbigay identity. First, tongzhi is not limited to any fixed identities, like homosexual,
heterosexual, or bisexual. Thus, it has the potential to be an inclusive word which embraces all
sexual identities of people. Second, tongzhi has meaning beyond any sexual identities; it points
to a respectful ideal of people who share the same goals and aspirations. Third, it breaks the
dualistic dichotomy of “homosexual” vs. “heterosexual,” “East” vs. “West,” “body” vs. “spirit” and
allows flexibility, fluidity, and freedom for movement and change.

While challenging the existing male homocentric tongzhi communities that often overshadow
women and people of different sexualities, Queer Sisters has taken the lead to move beyond
sexual rights concerns and has played an active role in different kinds of social and political
movements in Hong Kong. They have criticized the apolitical stance of many tongzhi groups. By
avoiding involvement in any political issues, some groups in the tongzhi movement have become
merely engaged in social activities within tongzhi circles.24

Instead of choosing to come out as individuals, Queer Sisters has chosen to stand in solidarity
with all other marginal people in Hong Kong and to come out as political activists to seek
liberation for all people as its strategy of resistance and survival. We should not take “coming
out” as a rigid norm for all sexual minorities universally. “Coming out” has a deep spiritual
meaning. It is a lifelong challenge for all to pass from one well-defined state of being to another.
As Elizabeth Stuart explains, “It implies leaving something behind, ‘the closet’ of self-hatred, the
conspiracy of silence and invisibility, the tomb of self-denial.”27

It is also important to be reminded that “coming out” is not an individual act; rather, it involves
communal participation because we need the support and love of others to help us through the
process of moving from the old into the new, just like the rite of baptism. Many people describe
their experience of coming out as new birth, a resurrection.

The third strategy of the tongzhi movement is to return to the Chinese heritage and traditions.
Since the handover of Hong Kong, the local tongzhi movement has chosen to emphasize the
prevalence of homosexuality in Chinese history and the pluralistic sexual culture in ancient
China. One example is the decision by local gay activists in June 1999 to hold the first Tongzhi
Day in Hong Kong during the traditional Chinese Dragon Boat Festival. The festival
commemorates Qu Yuan, who has been honored and remembered in Chinese history as a
patriot and poet and who was allegedly a lover of his emperor in the Chu Dynasty28. This
strategy was quite successful in drawing the attention of the media and public to the existence of
homosexuality in Chinese history as well as in contemporary society. However, many lesbians
and bisexual people criticized the ideological assumption behind the Tongzhi Day because it
unwittingly represented only male homosexuals and excluded other sexual minorities.

Another development is the creation by Chinese translesbigay communities all over the world of
a network organized through the Global Chinese Tongzhi Annual Conference that has been held
every year since 1997.29

The fourth strategy of Hong Kong’s tongzhi movement is its willingness to embrace more
diversified and marginalized groups in forming coalitions to fight against oppression. One of the
incidents that sparked this broad-based coalition was the criticism of the Red Cross guidelines
for blood donors which mentioned that all people are welcome to donate their blood except gays,
lesbians, sex workers, and AIDS patients. Because of this prohibition, the coalition was
successful in bringing together many translesbigay communities, concern groups for sex workers,
and AIDS patients to fight against the social stigmatization and discrimination of sexual minorities,
sex workers, and AIDS patients.

Notes:
19 Zimei-Tongzhi (Queer Sisters) was founded in early 1995 as one of the first feminist queer
organizations in Hong Kong as well as in Asia.
28 On June 18, 1999, 22 tongzhi organizations and other support groups organized the first
Tongzhi Day in Hong Kong. The objective was to educate the public that homosexuality and
bisexuality are not only found in the Western world but are also evident in ancient Chinese
traditions.
29 The most recent Global Chinese Tongzhi Annual Conference was held in Hong Kong from
August 19 to 22, 1999, with more than 140 participants representing 10 countries. The theme of
the conference was “Celebrating Diversity.” The topics of discussion included differences in
gender, region, culture, age, body, desire, and activism.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Felix of Southeast Asia
Sent: Tue, December 1, 2009 7:03:56 AM
Subject: An Exodus Community and its Path of Healing and Liberation in Hong Kong (4)

Part 4
An Exodus Community and its Path of Healing and Liberation in Hong Kong
By Rose Wu, then-director of HK Christian Institute

Since the passing of a legislation that decriminalizes male homosexual acts in 1991,
institutional churches in Hong Kong have not been actively involved in any public debate related
to homosexual issues. However, one new phenomenon that I have observed recently is the
beginning of an anti-sex and anti-homosexual Christian movement in Hong Kong through the
formation of the Ming Kwong (meaning “Bright Light”) Association in 1996.

Part of their agenda is to monitor the government and the media on issues of sexuality,
including homosexuality, based on the Christian moral values of family and fidelity. They opposed
the government’s legislation to prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation as well
as the government’s special fund for public education to promote equal opportunities for sexual
minorities.

There were a few Christian groups who dared to take a prophetic stance to support the
decriminalization of male homosexual acts in the 1980s and the legislation for an equal
opportunities bill to protect the equal rights of sexual minorities in the 1990s. These prophetic
Christian groups have been playing active roles in different sectors of the people’s movement in
Hong Kong since the 1970s and 1980s, including student, women’s, and labor movements, and
engaging in advocacy for human rights and democracy.35 Among these groups, HKWCC was a
major bridge linking the tongzhi Christian community to the wider Christian movement and
coalitions of NGOs.

Owing to the conservative view of homosexuality held by many people in Hong Kong and the
oppressive and heterosexist culture of the Chinese church, many gay and lesbian Christians find
no other alternative but to turn away from the church or to keep silent and figuratively hide
themselves in closets. There are incidents in which some gay and lesbian Christians, including
seminarians, were immediately forced to leave their church or seminary or advised to go for
counseling and medical help when their sexual identities were exposed so that their homosexual
behavior could be purportedly “corrected.”

However, we witnessed a glimpse of hope when three gay Christians decided in July 1992 to
move from being in exile to forming an Exodus community36 – a Christian fellowship under the
umbrella of the 10 Percent Club. During the first stage of its development, the fellowship
maintained itself as a private gathering at members’ homes.

A year later, as the membership grew from three to more than 30, the fellowship began to meet in
St. John’s Cathedral once a month. Their activities included prayers, hymn singing, and Bible
studies. During this period, the fellowship also began a joint project with HKWCC to organize
theology courses for their members as well as other Christians. These courses which are
ongoing, aim to provide an alternative interpretation of Christian theology and biblical reflection
on homosexuality. Five years later the fellowship registered with the Hong Kong government as
an independent organization named the Hong Kong Blessed Minority Christian Fellowship
(HKBMCF). As its name indicates, their aim is to witness to the love and blessing of God among
sexual minorities. In October 1997, the fellowship was able to rent an apartment for their office
and functions. In the past two years, membership grew to more than 100. Like a regular church,
they meet every Sunday afternoon for worship. They have Sunday school, Bible study, and a
choir. Like other churches in Hong Kong, they elect their board members once a year.

The only difference is that they are not attached to any denomination and have no ordained
minister. Each Sunday they invite a minister to preach, and once a month they ask an ordained
minister to conduct the Eucharist. What I see as a major success of HKBMCF is their ability to
raise a new breed of young leaders among their members, two of whom are now seminary
students.

Since they became an independent organization, HKBMCF has come out as a visible
Christian witness in Hong Kong. Their constitution lists three objectives: (1) to promote the
Christian community’s understanding and respect for sexual minorities; (2) to offer support and
mutual care for gay and lesbian Christians to worship, pray, and empower each other; and (3) to
seek equal rights and dignity in the church and society for all, regardless of one’s gender and
sexual orientation.

HKBMCF and HKWCC have organized occasional public worship services and public seminars
and talks on Christian homosexual issues. They have also accepted invitations to speak and give
witness to their faith in local churches, universities, and high schools. Some of their leaders have
also done interviews with the local media.

In the summer of 1999, three current leaders of HKBMCF - Nelson, Lennon, and Michael -
shared with me the needs and goals of the organization. The first and most urgent need is for a
relevant and alternative model of ministry which reflects their vision of an inclusive and prophetic
Christian community. Second is that their mission must enable Hong Kong churches to respect
the dignity of sexual minorities, treat them as brothers and sisters in Christ. Third is for the
women of HKBMCF to be motivated and empowered to take up more leadership roles. Fourth is
to educate and enable more members to be involved in the wider tongzhi and people’s movement.

Notes:

35 These prophetic Christian groups include the Hong Kong Women Christian Council, Hong
Kong Student Christian Movement, Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee, and Hong Kong
Christian Institute.

36 This poetic image was used by Rosemary R. Ruether in her book Women-Church: Theology
and Practice of Feminist Liturgical Communities to describe how Women-Church as an excluded
community within the patriarchal Church is still determined to seek liberation and thus become an
Exodus community. I find this theological image as reflecting the journey of HKBMCF.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Felix of Southeast Asia
Sent: Tue, December 8, 2009 1:20:47 AM
Subject: Towards a Liberation Theology of "Right Relation" (Part 5)

Part 5
Towards a Liberation Theology of ‘Right Relation’
By Rose Wu

Without community there is no liberation. - Audre Lorde

In order to bring liberation to sexual minorities, we must first liberate the church from
homophobia and heterosexism and construct a liberation theology which truly reflects the justice
and love of God among all of God’s people, especially those who are marginalized and excluded
because of their different sexual preferences. To do this, I propose two alternative interpretations
of theology of the triune God and human sexuality which touch upon both the doctrine of God
and Christian anthropology.

To me, the triune God enables us to rediscover the profoundly relational character of the
mystery which reaffirms our unity in diversity, our connectedness as a community, and/or erotic
power that is sexual, spiritual, and just. Brazilian liberation theologian Leonardo Boff points out
that because the Trinity is a mystery of relationships existing among divine co- equals, a society
that is to be a sign and sacrament of the Trinity will be a society that is based on relationships of
equality, participation, inclusion, and communion.37

Feminist theologian Carter Heyward criticizes the notion of God as controlling power, which has
become the cancerous seed for the growth of sexism and heterosexism in the church and
society. To transform this misogynist (woman-hating) and erotophobic (sex-fearing) religion,
Heyward chooses Christa - a bronze crucifix of a naked female Christ - as a transitional Christian
symbol of sacred power. She argues that the power of Christa is in the connection she makes
between our erotic power and the sacred power in our most profoundly human, most deeply
embodied belief of who we are - a relational body of incarnate love. 38

Heyward says that God is justice, and justice is right relation, and right relation is mutual relation.
39 She criticizes the church’s efforts to keep God and sex separate and to imagine God as a
male master of the world, a deity who rules nations, families, and women as well as their sexual
behavior. These are the root causes of sexism, hierarchicalism, colonialism, neo-colonialism,
heterosexism, and patriarchalism. The mystery of the Trinity reveals to us that God is not a
solitary divine being but a God of communion and solidarity.

Another proposal is for us to reject the dualistic, hierarchical view of West vs. East, spirit vs.
body, masculinity vs. femininity, heterosexuality vs. homosexuality, and instead recognize that
spirit and body are one totality of human experience. Through incarnation, God does not only
participate in human sexual experiences, but God is intrinsically sexual. The doing of God cannot
be separated from the being of God; the sexuality of God is the expression of God’s spirituality.

Another proposal, in view of the pervasive fear of sex and homosexuality within the church, is for
the church to construct a sexual theology which connects sexual relations with justice-making. To
do this, we must transform our ethic of control to an ethic of solidarity. We must transform the
binary logic of either/or to a Trinitarian logic of relationship based on freedom, love, and justice.
In her newest book, Saving Jesus from Those Who Are Right: Rethinking What It Means to Be
Christian, Heyward distinguishes between self-righteousness and right relation. Self-righteous
Christians are those who claim that they have all of the right answers and the right to rule and
control others. Their ethical theology is based on fear and control.

Creating right relation, by contrast, means to seek justice through a dynamic relational
commitment with others and God. The ethics of theology is based on Christians’ conviction of
love, faith, and solidarity in mutuality.40

In proposing the ethic of solidarity, I do not mean adopting the assumption that there are no right
answers. From a critical feminist perspective, the use of “difference” is unlike what
deconstructionists mean by the play of “difference,” which focuses on dissolving the tendency to
absolutize dimensions of specificity or particularity in reality. To solve this problem, both Beverly
Harrison and Sharon D. Welch provide some good insights for us.

Harrison proposes that what we need for building a community of solidarity is a critical history that
enables us to take the standpoint of “concrete others” who bear stories of human struggle
against domination. In regard to sexual minorities, their knowledge is particularly crucial since
heterosexual people are the dominant power.41

However, Welch warns that the logic of standpoint epistemologies entails greater attention to the
knowledge of other oppressed voices in order to avoid the tendency to posit a particular
standpoint as the only standpoint for our moral discernment. As Welch explains, “The goal of
communicative ethics [or ethics of solidarity] is not merely consensus but mutual critique leading
to more adequate understandings of what is just and how particular forms of justice may be
achieved.”42

What is a spirituality of solidarity? Put in practical terms, it is a construction of a new kind of
“coalitional politics.” As Henry Louis Gates writes, “The challenge is to move from a politics of
identity to a politics of identification… A politics of identification doesn’t enjoin us to ignore or
devalue our collective identities. For it’s only by exploring the multiplicity of human life in culture
that we can come to terms with the commonalities that cement communities.”43

As a Christian community, we are constantly called to participate in the
ministry of loving our neighbors as ourselves. This is a ministry that moves us towards the
healing of divisions, overcoming brokenness, and ultimately towards achieving wholeness.

We as individuals cannot become whole without helping others to become whole. To
embrace sexual minorities as equal members of our Christian family is a hospitable act in which
our ethics of morality is measured by the whole, the community, the Body of Christ, instead of by
individuals. For the church in Hong Kong to become an inclusive Christian community requires us
to have faith in “the other who is larger than the self.” Only through our sense of connecting with
“the other” - the larger community, nature, and God - can we grasp a glimpse of hope for life.

Notes:
37 Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society (New York: Orbis Books 1988), 3.

38 Carter Heyward, Touching Our Strength: The Erotic as Power and the Love of God (New
York: University Press of America, 1982), 114-8. Christa is a bronze crucifix of a female Christ
made by British sculptor Edwina Sandys. It was displayed in New York’s Cathedral of St. John the
Divine during the Lenten season of 1984. According to Heyward, this display generated a stir
among the Christian community.

39 Ibid., 22-3.

40 Carter Heyward, Saving Jesus from Those Who Are Right: Rethinking What It Means to Be
Christian
(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999) 1-30.

41 Beverly W. Harrison , quoted in Sharon D. Welch, A Feminist Ethic of Risk ( Minneapolis :
Fortress Press, 1990), 128.

42 Welch, Ibid., 129.

43 Henry Louis Gates, “A Liberalism of Heart and Spine,” in New York Times, March 27, 1994, 17.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

Rose Wu is the director of the Hong Kong Christian Institute and a member of AWRC. She
received her D.Min. degree from the Episcopal Divinity School in 2000. Her interests include
feminist and queer theologies and social ministry. She recently published A Dissenting Church, a
collection of her articles and speeches.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

End of Article------Hope you have enjoyed reading and found it helpful! (Seasons greetings from
Felix)
Dear Steve

It's OK [to publish this], just want to
point out that this is part one of
Rose Wu's long article. I break it up
into 5 parts. And I have selected
the footnotes here, so it's not all
complete.

However, you can go to this link to
get the full article with all the
footnotes.

Felix of Southeast Asia
Becoming an Inclusive Community:
Challenges from Hong Kong's Tongzhi Movement
By Rose Wu
See the note at right on editing of the
artilce.  See link to the complete article
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Photo by
Steve Parelli
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This is an Other Sheep website