PLFAG China video for Chinese New Year goes viral

A NEW video by the Chinese branch of Parents, Families, Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) urging families to welcome home their gay children for Chinese New Year has gone viral.

The video, Coming Home (scroll down to watch), tells the story of a man who, after constantly evading questions about girlfriends and marriage, finally come out as gay to his mum — only to be ostracised and excommunicated from his family.

However, after a period of estrangement the mother eventually accepts her son and urges him to come back home.

At the conclusion of the video, real mothers offer words of encouragement and advice to young people facing the journey, especially during Chinese New Year festivities.

Thanks to its message of encouraging parents to accept their LGBT children and to welcome them home for one of the most important cultural festivities in China, while simultaneously the children to not give up, the video has reportedly been watched 100 million times already.

China decriminalised homosexuality in 1997 and its Ministry of Health removed it from the list of mental illnesses in 2001. However, according to a 2014 report by the UN Development Program, stigma and discrimination still exists in the workplace and at home.

Watch Coming Home:

H/T Time magazine