Thailand's LGBTQ+ community draws tourists from China looking to be themselves

abcnews.go.com:

Xinyu Wen traveled to Thailand in June, planning a two-week vacation around Bangkok’s Pride parade

BANGKOK — Xinyu Wen traveled to Thailand in June, planning a two-week vacation around Bangkok's Pride parade.

Instead, the 28-year-old stayed a month and a half, as her experience at the parade gave rise to discussions and discoveries in the Thai capital's thriving LBGTQ+ community.

LGBTQ+ people from China, frequently scorned and ostracized at home, are coming to Thailand in droves, drawn by the freedom to be themselves. When Wen walked along the parade on the streets in Bangkok, “I felt like I was in a big party or a huge amusement park. We could forget all upsetting things and feel fun-filled,” she said.

Bangkok is only a 5-hour flight from Beijing, and Thailand’s tourism authorities actively promote its status as among the most open to LGBTQ+ people in the region.

Wen got interested in Thailand when her friend sent her a photo of rainbow-colored, Pride-themed ice cream being sold on the streets.

“I wanted to go to Thailand to take a look,” she said.

Wen describes herself as queer, which she says means that her partners can be any gender and she can be any gender. At home, Wen said she regularly gets judgmental stares on the street for wearing her hair short like a man’s, and was once asked by her barber: “What happened to your life?”

But at the Bangkok Pride parade in June, Wen noticed people confidently wore what they wanted. She was excited to be able to express herself publicly and finally drop her guard. More than that, she said she was also impressed by the protest element to the event, in which people carried signs written in traditional Chinese with slogans like “China has no LGBTQ” and “Freedom is what we