This is what LGBT life is like around the world

Jenni Chang: When I told my parents
I was gay,

the first thing they said to me was,

"We're bringing 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 never 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 had 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 was 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 terms of LGBT rights.

We bought 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 now 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

to protect 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 same 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 throughout 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)

So anytime I would enter a restroom,

I would thrust out my chest
to show my women-ly parts,

and try to be as non-threatening
as possible.

Putting out my hands and saying, "Hello"

just so that people could hear
my feminine voice.

This all gets pretty exhausting,

but, it's just who I am.

I can't be anything else.

JC: After Nepal, we traveled to India.

On one hand, India is a Hindu society,

without a tradition of homophobia.

On the other hand, it is also
a society

with a deeply patriarchal system,

which rejects anything that threatens
the male-female order.

When we spoke to activists,

they told us that empowerment begins

with ensuring proper gender equality,

where the women's status is
established in society.

And in that way, the status of LGBT people
can be affirmed as well.

LD: There we met Prince Manvendra,

he's the world's first openly gay prince.

Prince Manvendra came out
on the Oprah Winfrey Show,

very internationally,

His parents disowned him

and accused him of bringing great shame
to the royal family.

We sat down with Prince Manvendra

and talked to him about why he decided
to come out so very publically.

Here he is:

Prince Manvendra: "I felt that
there was a lot of need

to break this stigma and discrimination

which is existing in our society.

And instigated me to come out openly
and talk about myself.

Whether we are gay,
we are lesbian,

we are transgender, bisexual,

or whatever sexual minority we come from,

we have to all unite
and fight for our rights.

Gay rights cannot be won
in the court rooms,

but in the hearts and the minds
of the people."

JC: While getting my haircut,

the woman cutting my hair asked me,

"Do you have a husband?"

Now, this was a dreaded question

that I got asked a lot by locals
while traveling.

When I explained to her that
I was with a woman instead of a man,

she was incredulous,

and she asked me a lot of questions
about my parents' reactions

and whether I was sad that I'd
never be able to have children.

I told her that there are
no limitations to my life

and that Lisa and I do plan
to have a family some day.

Now, this woman was ready
to write me off

as yet another crazy Westerner.

She couldn't imagine that
such a phenemonon

could happen in her own country.

That is, until I showed her photos
of the Super Gays

that we interviewed in India.

She recognized Prince Manvendra
from television

and soon I had an audience
of other hairdressers

interested in meeting me.

(Laughter)

And in that ordinary afternoon,

I had the chance to introduce
an entire beauty salon

to the social changes that were happening
in their own country.

LD: From India, we traveled
to East Africa,

a region known for intolerance
towards LGBT people.

In Kenya, 89 percent of people

who come out to their families
are disowned.

Homosexual acts are a crime
and can lead to incarceration.

In Kenya, we met the soft-spoken
David Kuria.

David had a huge mission
of wanting to work for the poor

and improve his own government.

So he decided to run for Senate,

he became Kenya's first openly-gay
political candidate.

David wanted to run his campaign

without denying the reality of who he was.

But we were worried for his safety

because he started
to receive death threats.

David Kuria: "At that point,
I was really, really scared

because they were actually asking
for me to be killed.

And, yeah,

there are some people out there who do it

and feel that they are doing
a religious obligation."

JC: David wasn't ashamed of who he was.

Even in the face of threats,

he stayed authentic.

LD: At the opposite end
of the spectrum is Argentina.

Argentina's a place where 92 percent
of the population identifies as Catholic.

Yet, Argentina has LGBT laws
that are even more progressive

than here in the US.

In 2010, Argentina became the first
country in Latin America,

and the 10th in the world
to adopt marriage equality.

There, we met María Rachid.

María was a driving force
behind that movement.

María Rachid [spanish]:
I always say that, in reality,

the effects of marriage equality

are not only for those couples
that get married.

They are for a lot of people that,

even though they may never get married,

will be perceived differently
by their coworkers,

their families and neighbors,

from the National State's
message of equality.

I feel very proud of Argentina

because Argentina today
is a model of equality.

And hopefully soon,

the whole world will have
the same rights."

JC: When we made the visit
to my ancestral lands,

I wish I could have shown
my parents what we found there,

because here is who we met:

[Video]: "Welcome gays to Shanghai!"

(Laughter)

A whole community of young, beautiful
Chinese LGBT people.

Sure, they had their struggles.

But they were fighting it out.

In Shanghai, I had the chance to speak
to a local lesbian group.

and tell them my story
in my broken Mandarin Chinese.

In Taipei, each time
we got onto the metro,

we saw yet another lesbian couple
holding hands.

And we learned that Asia's largest
LGBT pride event

happens just blocks away
from where my grandparents live.

If only my parents knew.

LD: By the time we finished our
not-so-striaght journey around the world,

not-so-straight journey around the world,

(Laughter)

we had traveled 50,000 miles

and logged 120 hours of video footage.

We traveled to 15 countries

and interviewed 50 Super Gays.

Turns out, it wasn't hard
to find them at all.

JC: Yes, there are still tragedies
that happen

on the bumpy road to equality.

And let's not forget that 75 countries
still criminalize homosexuality today.

But there are also stories
of hope and courage

in every corner of the world.

What we ultimately took away
from our journey is,

equality is not a Western invention.

LD: One of the key factors
in this equality movement is momentum.

Momentum is more and more people
embracing their true selves

and use whatever opportunities they have

to change their part of the world.

And momentum is more and more countries

find models of equality in one another.

When Nepal protected against
LGBT discrimination,

India pushed harder.

When Argentina embraced marriage equality,

Uruguay and Brazil followed.

When Ireland said yes to equality,

(Applause)

the world stopped to notice.

When the US Supreme Court makes
makes a statement to the world

that we can all be proud of.

(Applause)

JC: As we reviewed our footage,

what we realized is that
we were watching a love story.

It wasn't a love story
that was expected of me,

but it is one filled with more freedom,
adventure and love

than I could have ever possibly imagined.

One year after returning home
from our trip,

marriage equality came to California.

And in the end, we believe,
love will win out.

[Video]: "By the power vested in me,

by the state of California,

by God almighty,

I now pronounce you spouses for life.

You may kiss."

(Applause)