A split in the Vietnamese American community over the ban on gay groups marching in Little Saigon’s Tet Parade brings to a boil a cultural divide that’s had been simmering for years.
A report by Ahn Do in the LA Times says the controversy threatens to spill outside the Vietnamese American community and leave permanent scars. Long held cultural norms are now colliding with the softening position on gay rights in the rest of the country.
“It sounds so basic, but it’s that idea of how families are created, a continuation of culture. Even as people step out and go to college or immerse in the world, adopting a more liberal view of politics, or in this case, sexuality, and they want to show their identity — what they forget is there are still segments of the older generation who grew up with these ideals,” said Caroline Kieu Linh Valverde, assistant professor of Asian American studies at UC Davis.
“They cannot let them go,” she said.
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But the Vietnamese American LGBT community has found a way to bypass their elders to assert their rights. The LA Times looks at how this controversy is likely to play out.
