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发帖数: 2153 | 1 http://www.rainbowrumpus.org/kids/golden-orchid-society
Hundreds of years ago, in southern China, villages celebrated the marriages
of two women. These same couples often welcomed young orphaned girls into
their homes and raised them as their children.
History shows us that in Guangdong, China, same-sex families were once a
thriving part of the community. The Golden Orchid Society was a group of
women who promised not to have sexual relations with men. Women chose to
join the society for lots of different reasons, one of which was a desire to
marry a woman. Though the society gained a large following during the late
Qing dynasty, which lasted from 1644 until 1911, it may have started much
earlier.
The courtship and marriage of two women in the Golden Orchid Society was
similar to other couples in China at the time. If a woman wanted to marry
another woman, she would offer the woman and her family gifts, such as tea
and wedding cakes. If the woman accepted the presents, then the couple was
engaged. For the wedding ceremony, the women probably wore traditional red
Chinese wedding veils and changed their hairstyle from long braids, which
were worn by single women, to buns, which were worn by married women. During
the actual ceremony, the couple not only promised to be faithful to each
other, but also honored their ancestors and parents.
Once married, the women lived together and cared for each other and their
families. In a journal written in 1937, a traveler describes “two women [
who] dwell together, always existing as if they were one woman. They are as
close as a stalk of grain coming through a stone.”
Custom also allowed the couple to adopt and raise orphaned and abandoned
girls. These girls were loved by their mothers, as well as by their
grandparents, aunts, and uncles.
In most cases, everyone lived happily. But sometimes, things did not work
out for the couple. Perhaps they would fall out of love. Or the parents of
one woman would try to get her to marry the man they had chosen to be her
husband when she was a little girl, according to the tradition of arranged
marriage.
If a woman in the Golden Orchid Society were to leave her wife or be
unfaithful, then the society members would publicly shame her. The public
humiliation not only hurt the woman, but also her family. The fear of this
humiliation was so strong, that even extended families, which may not have
originally supported same-sex marriage, would often encourage the women to
live happily together.
In ancient China, same-sex marriage was also understood by one of the major
religions. The Buddhist religion believes in reincarnation, which is the
idea that when someone dies, his or her spirit returns to the world in a new
body, as another person or animal. Buddhists also believe that once a
couple is married, they are destined to love and marry each other again in
each of their lives. Therefore, if a man and woman are married in one life,
and then come back in their next life as two women, they are destined to
marry again as two women. Since Buddhism, offered a reasonable explanation
for same-sex marriages, many people accepted them.
Clearly, in parts of ancient China, love between women and their ability to
affectionately raise children was understood and acknowledged. Same-sex
families thrived then, as they do today.
Do you want to change the laws so that same sex couples can get married in
the United States today?
Write a letter to the editor of your paper or to your Congresspersons. Tell
them about the Golden Orchid Society and why legalizing same- sex marriage
is important to you.
For more ideas and more information about same-sex marriage in the United
States, see Marina Gatto’s article “What Does Marriage Mean to My Family?”
Author
Rene Ohana |
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