Jenni Change: When I told my parents I was gay,
the first thing they said to me was,
"We're bring you back to Taiwan."
(Laughter)
In their minds, my sexual orientation was America's fault.
The West had corrupted me with divergent ideas,
and if only my parents had not left Taiwan,
this would not have happened to their only daughter.
In truth, I wondered if they were right.
Of course, there are gay people in Asia,
just as there are gay people in every part of the world.
But is the idea of living an "out" life,
in the "I'm gay, this is my spouse, and we're proud of our lives together"
kind of way just a Western idea?
If I had grown up in Taiwan, or any place outside of the West,
would I have found models of happy, thriving, LGBT people?
Liza Dazols: I had similar notions.
As an HIV social worker in San Francisco,
I met many gay immigrants.
They told me their stories of persecution in their home countries,
just for being gay,
and the reasons why they escaped the US.
I saw how this had beaten them down.
After 10 years of doing this kind of work,
I needed better stories for myself.
I knew the world was far from perfect,
but surely not every gay story was tragic.
JG: So as a couple, we both had a need to find stories of hope.
So we set off on a mission to travel the world
and look for the people we finally termed as "The Super Gays".
(Laughter)
These would be the LGBT invidiuals
who are doing something extraordinary in the world.
They would be courageous, resilient,
and most of all, proud of who they were.
They would be the kind of person that I aspired to be.
Our plan was to share their stories to the world through film.
LD: There's just one problem,
we had zero reporting and zero filmmaking experience.
(Laughter)
We didn't even know where to find the Super Gays,
so we just had to trust that we'd figure it all out along the way.
So we picked 15 countries in Asia, Africa and South America,
countries outside the West that varied in LGBT rights.
We ordered a camcorder,
ordered a book on how to make a documentary,
(Laughter)
you can learn a lot these days,
and set off on an around-the-world trip.
JC: One of the first countries that we traveled to was Nepal.
Despite widespread poverty, a decade-long civil war,
and more recently,
a devastating earthquake,
Nepal has made significant strides in the fight for equality.
One of the key figures in the movement is Bhumika Shrestha.
A beautiful, vibrant transgendered woman,
Bhumika has had to overcome being expelled from school
and getting incarcerated because of her gender presentation.
But, in 2007, Bhumika and Nepal's LGBT rights organization
successfully petitioned the Nepali Supreme Court
against LGBT discrimination.
Here's Bhumika:
BS: What I'm most proud,
I'm a transgendered person.
I'm so proud of my life.
On December 21, 2007,
the Supreme Court gave the decision
for the Nepal government
to give transgender identity cards
and sam sex marriage.
LD: I could appreciate Bhumika's confidence on a daily basis.
Something as simple as using a public restroom
can be huge challenge when you don't fit in
to people's strict gender expectations.
Traveling around Asia,
I tended to freak out women in public restrooms.
They weren't used to seeing someone like me.
I had to come up with a strategy
so that I could just pee in peace.
(Laughter)