Watch: Critics Call out TikTok Trend Gauging Global Marriage Equality
A TikTok trend in which users comment on the status of LGBTQ rights in different nations by zeroing in on marriage rights has drawn criticism - including from people living in countries where marriage equality is denied them.
"The videos showcase queer people, moving to the beat of Yakko's 'Nations of the World,' standing under two banners," Insider reports. "One that reads 'countries where gay marriage is legal' and another that reads 'countries where gay marriage is illegal.' "
However, Insider notes, the status of marriage equality does not "accurately gauge the daily lives of LGBTQ people" in different countries, according to experts on the subject.
"For example in the US, gay marriage is legal but there are anti-LGBTQ bills being voted on across the country" right now, including legislative attacks in 28 states against trans Americans, including bills that target transgender youth.
"Anyone who uses same-sex marriage as the only metric is missing the full picture of LGBTQ people's lives," Insider quoted the Human Rights Campaign's Jean Freedberg as saying.
Insider noted that "Countries like India, Peru, and Botswana have legacies of homophobia and transphobia tied to their colonization history," prior to which same-sex commitment and openly transgender individuals may not have been unusual or seen as somehow morally lacking.
One example, Insider noted, was India. "Before full-fledged colonization began, with Queen Victoria taking over the rule of India in 1857, same-sex sexuality was openly practiced and openly written about by many people, including rulers, courtiers, poets, courtesans, and ordinary people," the University of Montana's Prof. Ruth Vanita told the site.
"Apart from India, Nepal, and Thailand, very few countries in Asia and Africa have gotten rid of this law," added Vanita. "In fact, most of their leaders and people mistakenly believe that the law springs from their indigenous cultures."
That historical perspective was echoed in user comments at the social media platform, Insider noted. "These countries were not always like this, they had their own culture, traditions, and ideas on gender and sexuality but the west came into them, stole their resources, destabilized them, forced Christianity onto them, and left," posted Tickles2900.
A Kenyan TikTok user posted: "The 'I'm illegal in 72 countries' jokes come off as insensitive when it's an actual lived experience that we're having to fight against every single day."
Indian TikTok user Discothem expressed similar sentiments, posting: "As somebody that's from a country that only recently decriminalized homosexuality and in which same-sex marriage is still not legal, I feel really frustrated when I see these videos by white gay Americans because they don't get it."
Watch one such post below.
@cropttopboi ##fyp ##gay ##lgbt ##homophopia ##gayrights ? Yakkos The Nations Of The World - Numbers