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China

Chinese Parents Petition Congress For Same-Sex Marriage Legislation

CHINA DAILY, SOUTHERN METROPOLIS DAILY (China)

Worldcrunch

GUANGZHOU – An organization of parents of gay and lesbians in China has sent an open letter to China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), demanding the legalization of same-sex marriage, according to the Southern Metropolis Daily.

“Some of our children have been living with their partners for nearly 10 years. They love each other, but they cannot sign their names legally when their partners need an operation,” said the letter written by PFLAG China (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays of China), a Guangzhou-based organization that promotes LGBT rights and supports gay parents.

The letter underlines the problems that gay couples in China are facing, such as adoption, inheritance and purchasing properties. It also calls for an early amendment of the Marriage Law to include the right of gay marriage.

“We strongly request that National People's Congress delegates and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference committee members give their attention to this matter... so that China’s 60 million homosexual citizens can have an equal right to marry,” concludes the letter.

In China, one of the only ways to protest legally is to write a petition or a letter of complaint to the State Bureau for Letters and Calls and wait for a response. According to China Daily, between 2003 and 2007 over 10 million petitions were handled annually.

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Migrant Lives

What's Driving More Venezuelans To Migrate To The U.S.

With dimmed hopes of a transition from the economic crisis and repressive regime of Nicolas Maduro, many Venezuelans increasingly see the United States, rather than Latin America, as the place to rebuild a life..

Photo of a family of Migrants from Venezuela crossing the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum​

Migrants from Venezuela crossed the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum.

Julio Borges

-Analysis-

Migration has too many elements to count. Beyond the matter of leaving your homeland, the process creates a gaping emptiness inside the migrant — and outside, in their lives. If forced upon someone, it can cause psychological and anthropological harm, as it involves the destruction of roots. That's in fact the case of millions of Venezuelans who have left their country without plans for the future or pleasurable intentions.

Their experience is comparable to paddling desperately in shark-infested waters. As many Mexicans will concur, it is one thing to take a plane, and another to pay a coyote to smuggle you to some place 'safe.'

Venezuela's mass emigration of recent years has evolved in time. Initially, it was the middle and upper classes and especially their youth, migrating to escape the socialist regime's socio-political and economic policies. Evidently, they sought countries with better work, study and business opportunities like the United States, Panama or Spain. The process intensified after 2017 when the regime's erosion of democratic structures and unrelenting economic vandalism were harming all Venezuelans.

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