At least 200 gay couples from China have been able to officially tie the knot, even though same-sex marriages are not legal in the country — thanks to technology, a legal loophole, and the state of Utah.
Utah County, the second-most populous county in the conservative state, began encouraging online weddings after city and state buildings were forced to temporarily shut down their offices due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The heavily Republican state — which has the highest concentration of the country’s Mormon churches, with over 68% of its population identifying as part of the church — doesn’t have any citizenship requirements for marriage licenses.
Since Utah County allows virtual international marriages, unions via the video conferencing platform Zoom have gained popularity among couples who are eager to formalize their bond, but who are not allowed to do so.
Rest of World, an international, tech-focused nonprofit journalism organization, spoke with Xu Yanzhou and Zhu Xiaoming about their tear-inducing and non-conventional wedding ceremony.
The two grooms stood in their living room in Guangzhou, China, while their officiant, Ben Frei, made it official — appearing on Zoom from Utah.
Xu and Zhu said that they have always wanted to get married, but didn’t want to travel overseas to do it. They heard about the Utah option through a friend, who had already gotten married, and decided to go for it.
“It sounded very cheap and convenient,” Xu, a tech product manager, told the outlet.
“My first challenge to you is to choose each other each day and choose to be happy,” their officiant said, as some of the happy couple’s guests sent them words of love and support through a Zoom chat box.
Another Utah-based officiant, Michael Foley, said that he charges about $100 for his services, which often happen around 3 a.m. for him due to the time difference.
But he’s always happy to do it, he told The Guardian.
“It shines through, that sense of ‘this is finally happening …That this is a long time coming, that they’ve finally found a way to do it,” he said.
In 2019, just months after Taiwan became the first place in Asia to legalize same-sex marriages, a spokesperson for the legal affairs commission of the Chinese Parliament put an end to any speculation regarding the official position of the world’s most-populated country on the legal meaning of marriage.
“This rule suits our country’s national condition and historical and cultural traditions,” Zang Tiewei said. “As far as I know, the vast majority of countries in the world do not recognize the legalization of same-sex marriage.”
Earlier this year, China deleted several LGBTQ-themed scenes from NBC’s hit sitcom “Friends” when the show began streaming on some of China’s largest providers — including iQiyi, Tencent Video, Youku and Bilibili.
The sterilization of the must-see-TV show came as the Chinese government tightened censorship over what it considers “vulgar, immoral and unhealthy content,” according to guidelines issued in 2015, which expressly bans television content displaying “abnormal sexual relations or sexual behavior, such as homosexuality.”
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