Perspectives of Vietnamese Facebook Users Towards the LGBT Parade Expressed Under Posts About the Hanoi Pride Parade

LGBT people are usually framed as a social or clinical disease, abnormality, or, in Asian contexts, an anti-traditional negative trend imported from the West. Such perceptions seriously affect LGBT people’s equal access to employment, housing, medical services, and well-being. This study explores Vietnamese Facebook users’ perspectives on LGBT Pride Parade when publicly discussed on the Facebook platform. Qualitative data analysis was applied to 915 comments under two posts about Hanoi Pride Parade on Hóng Chuyện Hollywood and LGBT Việt Nam. While more than half of the comments support this LGBT social movement, prejudices are found in the other comments. Ideas in opposing remarks appeal to normativity and heteronormativity to trivialize self-pride and LGBT rights, justify hatred and discrimination, and demand assimilation. Supporters explain the underlying message of the Hanoi Pride parade and reveal the prejudices that LGBT people still face in contemporary society. Paradoxically, while expressing supportive attitudes toward the Pride Parade, the commenters otherize protestors, attribute differences in attitudes to backwardness, and appeal to and reinforce regional prejudices. This has produced a circle of prejudices between supporters and objectors, creating a polarization of viewpoints, which may become obstacles in fighting for equality for the LGBTQ+ in Vietnam.